Tip #1: Flag a Video for Future Viewing
Here’s a familiar situation. You’re browsing the YouTube site and find a video that looks interesting, but you don’t have the time or inclination to watch it right then. Fortunately, YouTube lets you save this video in a temporary QuickList, without having to open the video page and start playback. Then, when you’re ready, you can go back to this video and watch it at your leisure.
To add a video to your QuickList, all you have to do is click the little + button at the lower-left corner of any video thumbnail. Videos stay in your QuickList for just a single web browsing session; as soon as you close your browser window, the QuickList is flushed.
To see all the videos stored in your QuickList, go to any video viewing page and look for the Unsaved Playlist panel on the right side of the page. View a single video by clicking the thumbnail, or you can play all the videos in your QuickList one after another by clicking the Play All link. To clear your QuickList, click the Clear link.
Tip #2: Save Your Favorite Videos
Videos stay in your QuickList until you close your web browser; the next time you visit YouTube, those QuickList videos aren’t there anymore.
When you view a video you like and want to keep longer than a single session, you can save it to your YouTube Favorites list. This list is kind of like the Favorites or Bookmarks list you have in your web browser. Any videos saved in YouTube Favorites can be easily accessed for future viewing.
To save a video to your Favorites list, open that video’s viewing page and click the Save link beneath the YouTube video player. This adds the video to the Favorites list. When you want to revisit any of the entries in this list, go to the YouTube home page and click the My Favorites link in the My box. This displays a list of your favorites. Click any video to watch it again.
Tip #3: Create a Video Playlist
One of the challenges of enjoying YouTube is the sheer volume of videos available. Saving videos to your Favorites list is one way to handle this volume, but even the Favorites list can get too large to be easily manageable.
For that reason, you may want to create playlists separate from (or in addition to) your Favorites list. A YouTube playlist is simply a collection of videos, organized by whatever criteria you deem appropriate. You can play the videos from a playlist individually or as a group, just as you would the songs in a music playlist on your iPod. And, of course, YouTube lets you create multiple playlists; you can have as many as you want.
There are several ways to create a playlist and to add a video to that playlist. The most common method is to open the page for a video and click the Add to Favorites link. When the Add Video to Your Playlists pane appears, pull down the Select a Playlist list, select the playlist you want, and then click OK.
If you haven’t yet created a playlist, select New Playlist from the Add Video to Your Playlists list and then click OK. This displays the Create/Edit Playlist page; from here, you enter some specific information about the new playlist:
Playlist Name: The name you assign to the playlist.
Video Log: Check this option if you want this playlist used as the video log in your Channel Profile page.
Description: A short description of the contents of this playlist.
Tags: Optional keywords you can use to describe this playlist.
Privacy: Choose whether this playlist should be public (for all YouTube users to view) or private (for your viewing only).
After you’ve filled in all the blanks and options, click the Save Playlist Info button. Your playlist is now saved.
To view the playlists you’ve created, go to the YouTube home page and click the My Playlists link in the My box. This displays the Playlists page. All your playlists are listed at the left of the page; click a playlist name to see which videos are in that list.
To play an individual video in a playlist, click that video. To play all the videos in a playlist one after another, click the Play All Videos link. Or you can click the big Play button next to the playlist name.
Tip #4: Share a Video via Email
If you like a particular YouTube video, chances are you have a friend or two who might like it, too. That’s why YouTube lets you share the videos you like—in fact, this type of video sharing is a defining feature of the whole YouTube experience.
You share YouTube videos via email. That is, YouTube lets you send your friends an email that contains a link to the video you like. When a friend receives this email, he or she can click the link in the message to go to YouTube and play the video.
When you want to share a video, go to that video’s page and click the Share link underneath the YouTube video player. This opens the Share Video pane; click the Friends link. When the next window appears, enter the email addresses of the intended recipients, separating multiple addresses with commas. Enter your name and a personal message if you want. Click the Send button, and in a few minutes your recipients will receive the message.
By the way, you can also share videos from your Favorites list. Just click the Share Video button beneath the video you want to share; then proceed to send the email as usual.
Tip #5: Watch YouTube Videos on Your Mobile Phone
If you have a web-enabled mobile phone, you can now watch YouTube videos from wherever you are. That’s right—YouTube has gone mobile, with the new Mobile YouTube service. The Mobile YouTube interface lets you search for, download, and view videos on your web-enabled mobile phone. (Make sure you have a fast mobile Internet service—and a fully charged battery!)
To try it out, point your phone to m.youtube.com and get ready to watch.
And if you have one of Apple’s new iPhones, you can access YouTube videos directly from the main screen. Just make sure you’re connected to the Internet, press the YouTube button—and enjoy!
Tip #6: Post a Video Comment
On most video pages, the bottom-left of the page is taken up by a series of viewer comments. Users can post their comments about any video. These remarks can be serious or considered, or just exclamatory (“Cool video!”), depending on the person doing the posting.
Most users add text comments, which is easy enough to do. Just open the video viewing page, scroll to the Comments & Responses section, and click the Post a Text Comment link. When the Text Comment box appears, enter your comments and then click the Post Comment button.
But here’s something you might not know: In addition to entering text comments, you can also post a video comment—that is, you upload your own video as a response to the video you just watched.
To reply with your own video comment, scroll to the Comments & Responses section and click the Post a Video Response link. This displays a new Video Response page. From here you can choose to record a video response (using a webcam and microphone), or choose another video you’ve already uploaded to YouTube as your response, or upload a new video as your response. Follow the onscreen instructions to record/choose/upload the video you want to respond with.
Tip #7: Post YouTube Videos to Your Own Blog
If you have your own personal blog, YouTube makes it easy to send any public YouTube video to your blog as a new blog posting. First, however, you have to tell YouTube about your blog so that it knows where to send the post.
Start by clicking the My Account link at the top of any YouTube page. On the My Account page, scroll down to the Account Settings section and click the Video Posting Settings link. When the next page appears, click the Add a Blog/Site button.
YouTube now displays the Add a Blog/Site page. Pull down the Blog Service list and select your blog host. (YouTube supports automatic posting to Blogger, Friendster, LiveJournal, Piczo, WordPress.com, and WordPress self-hosted blogs.) Now enter your blog username and password, click the Add Blog button, and you’re finished with this preliminary setup.
Once configured, it’s a snap to send any public YouTube video to your blog. Just open the video’s viewing page and click the Share link. When the Share Video panel opens, pull down the Choose a Blog list and select your blog. Enter a title for this post, and then enter any text you want to accompany the video. Click the Post to Blog button, and YouTube posts the video (and accompanying text) to your blog as a new post.
Tip #8: Upload “Live” Video from a Webcam
When it comes to uploading videos to the YouTube site, many users upload video files they’ve recorded from a digital camcorder. But that’s not the only type of video you can upload. Did you know that you can upload videos recorded directly from a computer webcam?
This trick is performed with YouTube’s QuickCapture feature, which lets you record “live” video from your webcam. Just sit in front of your webcam and start recording; whatever you record is uploaded directly to the YouTube site. Here’s how it works.
With your webcam connected and running, click the Upload Videos link on any YouTube page. When the Video Upload page appears, enter the title, description, and other information for your upload. Then click the Use Quick Capture button.
This displays the Quick Capture page. Pull down the list boxes above the video window to select your options for webcam video and audio. You’ll then see the picture from your webcam in the video window; click the Record button to start recording.
When you’re finished with the recording, click the Finish & Exit button. YouTube automatically uploads the video to the site and displays the Quick Capture Complete page. Your video will be available for viewing shortly.
Tip #9: Upload Videos from Your Mobile Phone
Here’s another cool and convenient way to post videos to YouTube: Use your mobile phone.
If your cell phone has a built-in video camera, you can upload videos directly from that phone without first copying them to your PC. All you have to do is set up YouTube’s mobile upload options and then email your videos to the YouTube site.
To configure YouTube for your mobile phone, click the My Account link at the top of any YouTube page. When your My Account page appears, scroll down to the Account Settings section and click the Mobile Upload Profiles link. On the next page, click the Create Mobile Profile button.
Next you’ll see the Create Mobile Upload Profile page. Supply the necessary information—the profile name, video title, whether you want the filename or date appended to the video title, a short description of the profile, whether your mobile videos should be public or private, tags for your mobile videos, a category for your videos, people you want to share them with, and how you want to be notified when the upload is complete. Click the Create Profile button, and your profile is created.
The profile you create includes the email address to which you should send your mobile videos. Typically it’s a series of numbers followed by @mms.youtube.com. Make a note of this address and enter it into your mobile phone’s address book.
To upload a video from your mobile phone, start by recording the video on your phone; then email the video to the @mms.youtube.com address. You’ll be notified via email or text message when YouTube has received the email and begun processing the video. You can then go to YouTube’s website and edit specific information about the newly uploaded video.
Tip #10: Edit Your Videos with YouTube Remixer
If you’re like me, not all your videos are perfect on first recording. Most can do with a little editing—rearranging some of the scenes, adding titles, applying special effects, and the like. Previously, you had to do this editing in a separate program, which cost you money. Now, however, you can edit your videos after you’ve uploaded them to YouTube, using the new YouTube Remixer online editing program.
YouTube Remixer is a proprietary version of Adobe’s Premier Express program. Though not quite as versatile as Microsoft’s Windows Movie Maker or Apple’s iMovie, the Remixer is still quite handy and easy to use.
To edit a video with YouTube Remixer, click the My Videos link in the My box on YouTube’s home page. When your list of uploaded videos appears, click the Remix Video button next to the video you want to edit.
You can combine multiple videos into a larger video; add graphics, captions, and borders; add transitions and effects between video clips; and add background music from YouTube’s library of licensed music tracks. Remixer uses a drag-and-drop interface that’s fairly intuitive, so you should be able to figure it out without a steep learning curve.
Tip #11. When uploading your video to Youtube, make sure it is in HD.
I’m sure I’m not alone in this, but when I search for anything, I always include ", HD" after everything in the search string. That will only pull up videos in 720p or 1080p, and those are the only videos worth watching in my opinion. This goes for music, as well as video. Nothing is more irritating that finding a cool song to listen to on Youtube, only to hear it crackle, fizzle, and be ruined by low quality audio. Tip #12 . Adjust your settings to always play in high quality
Watching videos in high quality is the only way to go. Youtube allows you to set your playback settings to always play the highest quality setting available. You can make that change by logging into your account and going here:
http://www.youtube.com/account#playback/quality
Another great tip to know about is &hd=1. When you’re sharing a link to a video with a friend, family, neighbor, a dead relative, or anyone else, send them the link and add &hd=1 at the end of the link. This will automatically play the video in HD when they click on the link. I use this often, especially when I’m posting links to my videos in blogs or facebook.Tip #13. Have the proper rendering settings.
I know through experience that getting this just right can sometimes be difficult. Once you have found a video editing software that works for you, I would recommend checking Youtube for tutorials on the best rendering settings, and then uploading test videos to a proxy channel to make it look the way you want. Also, find videos you like and politely ask that user for advice. I found that most people are willing to help in that regard.
Youtube has outlined what video formats they prefer for their videos:
• WebM files - Vp8 video codec and Vorbis Audio codecs
• .MPEG4, 3GPP and MOV files - Typically supporting h264, mpeg4 video codecs, and AAC audio codec
• .AVI - Many cameras output this format - typically the video codec is MJPEG and audio is PCM
• .MPEGPS - Typically supporting MPEG2 video codec and MP2 audio
• .WMV
• .FLV - Adobe-FLV1 video codec, MP3 audioTip #14. Crop the image to fit the screen.
Nothing sucks more than having a large T.V., then having to watch something that only fills up half of your uber-epic-awesome screen. Make sure the aspect ratio for your video is 16:9. The size you will want for HD is 1280 X 720. This will allow you to fill the screen and avoid any of the black bars. Depending on the video you’re editing, you may need to crop the image to fill the screen, as well. Tip #15. Enable your player to watch a blocked video.
Copyright is a good thing. However, there are many great videos online, which harbor no ill will to the copyright holder, that have been blocked in certain countries. I have a video uploaded that is blocked in Germany because a certain small portion of the video contains music composed by Hans Zimmer. Here is a link to view the video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RsANNlRl4Ak&hd=1
And here is how to bypass the block if you can’t view it properly: Simply paste the video's URL into this proxy website:
http://proxy.maxproxy.net/
Another thing that may work is by using google translate. You can paste the video URL into the translate section and it can work, depending on your location.Tip #16. Getting a video to auto-replay
When it comes to good music, sometimes it is nice to have it on auto-replay during a good gaming session, cleaning the house, or just sitting back and enjoying all the wonderful imaginations that come to your head while its playing. Something that nice should be available, right? Check out TubeReplay and let it help you out. It will even keep a running total of how many times it repeated the epicness for you.
http://www.tubereplay.com/Tip #17. How to Download A Youtube Video
There are many ways to do this. A lot of people ask me where I get my cinematics from. The majority come from Youtube, buddies. I use a site called keepvid.
http://keepvid.com/
One thing I really like about this site is it makes it easy to see what quality you're downloading, as well as the format you want it in. I use MP4 for downloading, editing, and uploading. Keeping all of these things the same is crucial to making sure your video turns out great in the end. Tip #18. Playlists
Playlists are a must-have for any Youtuber. It allows you to sort videos into a group, one which you can click play-all. If you use Youtube primarily for music like I do, having a good playlist can make it very easy to enjoys hours and hours of epicness during a good gaming session without having to tab out and reload a new song. I'm currently replaying through Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2 to get ready for the new release of Mass Effect 3 (woot, woot). Having epic music constantly going in the background makes it much more enjoyable. I especially found this true when I used to play World of Warcraft. Creating a playlist is easy. Next to the "Like" button on any video, you will see a button that says "add to". Click on that and make your playlist. Easy as it gets. Here are links to view playlists for my music mixes:
Epic Music Mix Of Legend
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL553EB59EFBD7930B&feature=view_all
Epic Music Mix Of Majesty
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0D491920B696D127&feature=view_all
Epic Music Mix Of Sadness
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDF8706C22633ADFA&feature=view_all
Epic Music Mix Of Darkness
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLD5A2787EC26BB68A&feature=view_allTip #19. When creating a video, make sure you yourself really enjoy it
This is a key ingredient to any successful video. Don't ever settle for something mediocre, especially when you know you could have done much better with the video. My first account, Revennaras, has some videos with decent moments, but as I learned more and more, got better at editing, and saw how to truly make a good video, I grew to despise some of my earlier videos I had created. I couldn't even enjoy the mixes I spent hours and hours creating. So, I decided to create my new channel Sindrannaras.
http://www.youtube.com/sindrannaras
I revised a lot of my older content with higher quality audio, video, and creativity. It will have taken me almost a year to revise everything I want to, but I'm very happy with what I've done. Another great example of not settling for mediocre is DragonstarDT. His new video Epic Music Mix XVII - Retribution has a cinematic beginning, which is amazing. The first draft he did was amazing compared to many other similar videos out there, but he didn't think it was as good as it could have been. Thus the end result is truly great, mainly because he didn't settle for anything less than DragonstarDT-worthy-awesomeness. I salute you, good buddy!Tip #20 . Practice Makes Perfect
Although I received good praise for m very first epic music mix, it was terrible. I'm very happy I kept at it, though. One great way to practice is to upload parts of your video to a private Youtube channel and watch it over and over, see what you do and don't like about it, then adjust accordingly. My videos nowadays go through several drafts before I upload them to my channel.
Youtube will only get better with time. The more users who decide to upload, the greater it will be.
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