YouTube 2018

Hey!

So... Both FCPX and Compressor are still making .mov files in it's YouTube settings that YouTube complains about saying it prefers MP4-files. Why? And does it matter?
What's the current best practices to export from FCPX to YouTube? Settings, formats, etc?

.mov is a wrapper, that can be one of a wide variety of codecs in the QuickTime library. Yes, the extension may be .mov and it will still be an MP4 codec.

Personally, I upload ProRes 422 files. Takes longer but I get excellent quality, never any issues.

What "complaint" are you referring to with YouTube? I've never seen their upload process warn about .mov files before.

Made a 16 second ProRes file with .mov extension. YouTube didn't complain.
Took same file and changed extension to MP4 and no YouTube complaints about mismatched extension. I don't understand why you're getting the warnings. If you prefer the quality MOV offers, change the extension like I did and see what happens.

I never export to YT directly from either FCP or Compressor but first make the file then send it over. If something goes wonky who knows where with the direct export it has to be started all over again and you'll never know what made it choke.

H.264 .mov to desktop and upload in any browser with Safari, Firefox or Chrome and YouTube throws a warnning that it prefers .mp4. I don't remember the exact wording but I think the warning mentions it'll process faster as an .mp4.

At one time it did make a big difference because there was a time when .mov files had the moov atom at the end of the file rather than the front and this certainly made for slower processing and the encode couldn't happen until it saw the moov atom.

That's no longer the case with H.264 .mov files from FCPX or Compressor. The moov atom should be in the front as it is with .mp4 but YouTube still complains.

I use .mov files almost daily, and never saw such a warning. I'm making them both ProRes 422 and H.264.

Uploading today for a client. H.264 .mov at 50mbits using Google Chrome.
I always see this with .mov and never with .mp4

It's a suggestion, meh....

We have been getting that message (shown above in cseeman's post) for about 2 years. We generally encode thru Squeeze Desktop Pro (now discontinued) but using all YouTube's specifications, ( i.e 2 consecutive B frames, mp4 container, etc.). But even with Compressor this message appears. Processing still seems reasonably quick though (other than 90 mninute documentaries and such). Some folks are using third party apps to relocate the MOOV atom but I think even doing this YouTube will show that message. I'd ignore it.

cseeman wrote: Uploading today for a client. H.264 .mov at 50mbits using Google Chrome.
I always see this with .mov and never with .mp4

That's the one I'm referring too!

Thanks all!

Was mostly curious to see if anything had changed! I'll go on in the usual way then!

BOTH .mov and .mp4 are container formats. It's probably just your encoder settings not set to "compressed header" or "fast start" or whatever, I forget. But it only affects processing time. it might take 36 seconds to process instead of 31. It won't affect the quality of your video.

Why don't you just use the export to Youtube function builtin the FCPX?

Because it is really, really slow, and really buggy.

audionstudio wrote: Why don't you just use the export to Youtube function builtin the FCPX?

As far as I know, this is done using a program.

Joshuash wrote:

audionstudio wrote: Why don't you just use the export to Youtube function builtin the FCPX?

As far as I know, this is done using a program.

You are correct as of recently, but it was an option back when this thread was started in 2018.