Heres the process and tools l use for preparing HD content for uploading to youtube.
I copy the video file from my HD Canon camcorder’s internal 8Gb in-built flash memory to a folder on my PC as shown below – using standard usb connection as supported by the camcorder. The source file we are using for the example below is 00037.MTS – the original 1920×1080 1.6Gb AVCHD video file.
AVCHD (Advanced Video Coding High Definition)[1] is a format for the recording and playback of high definition video. Jointly developed by Sony and Panasonic, the format was announced in 2006 primarily for use in high definition consumer camcorders.[2] A wide range of file-based recording media choices is allowed, including DVD discs, hard disk drives and removable flash media such as SD/SDHC memory cards and “Memory Stick” cards.[3] Sony and Panasonic released the first AVCHD camcorders in autumn of 2006. Canon and JVC followed with their consumer models. Favorable comparisons of AVCHD against HDV and XDCAM EX[4][5] solidified perception of AVCHD as a format acceptable for professional usage. As the standard matured, Panasonic released the first professional AVCHD camcorder in autumn of 2008, followed by Sony in the first quarter of 2010. AVCHD has been designed to be compatible with Blu-ray Disc format[2] and can be used for authoring and distributing of high definition video on DVD media, though not all Blu-ray Disc players are compatible with AVCHD discs. AVCHD and its logo are trademarks of Panasonic corporation and Sony corporation.[6] – Source Wikipedia

I start Adobe Premiere Pro CS4, and create a simple sequence, and drag the file from the media browser to the sequence track as shown below. I keep the time to max 15mins as mandated by youtube. You can trim, delete, add/remove video transition effects and all that as you need – just keep the video time to say 14mins 30seconds at best.


To start the export, go to file/export/media. The goal is a 1080×720 HD file in h.264 format, with a maximum duration of 15 mins. You can also use the lead in/out small triangles at the bottom left of picture below to do some time re-sizing. I’ll rather not do a percentage reduction since this will involve video quality reduction.

Once you select Ok, Adobe Media Encoder starts and this CS4 component software does the encoding. Remember to click on ‘start queue’ or nothing will happen. Converting the source 1.6Gb file to the resulting 411Mb 720p file took 23mins on my Quad-core/8Gb/64bit Win7 workstation. This is cpu intensive – as shown below, its best not to be running other very cpu intensive task at the same time.


All thats left is uploading the file to youtube and we are done!

Heres the link to the uploaded content