Advanced YouTube Tips – .MP4 Amor

You have probably heard the saying “You only use about 10% of your brain.” Well, the same rings true for YouTube. YouTube has some incredibly powerful functionality that the average user doesn’t take advantage of.

Over the next few weeks, we’ll be sharing some advanced YouTube tips that you can take advantage of right out of the gate.

One of my favorite tricks will save you time and help you get the most out of your videos:

Download .MP4 Functionality

You have the option to download any video on your YouTube channel as an .MP4 file. Here’s how:

Sign in to your account, then go to http://www.youtube.com/my_videos (you can also reach this page via the top-right dropdown with your username)

If you’re using Chrome, make sure you are on the expanded list view (see image):

If you’re using Firefox, click the dropdown next to “Insight” (see image):

Click “Download .MP4″

There is a lot of value to this functionality:

• Cloud Hosting: The file you originally uploaded to YouTube could be deleted, saving you valuable space on your computer or hard-drive.
• Free compression: No matter what type of file you originally upload (.mov, .avi, .wmv, etc.) you can always download a compressed .MP4 without any quality loss (even for HD videos). Typically, the .MP4 is up to 60% smaller than the original file. If you wanted to, you could re-upload the .MP4 and download a new .MP4 for an even smaller file.
• File Sharing: If you are comfortable giving someone else access to your account, they could download the .MP4 – eliminating the need for DropBox or an FTP transfer.

Archiving an .MP4 file, rather than your source video file, will save you hard-drive space. Because the .MP4 is not proprietary (like Apple’s .MOV) you or your favorite outsourced video editing service can easily edit videos later if you need to, since most editing systems accept the file type.

PRO TIP – First, upload your video to YouTube. Then, download the .MP4 and upload it to your Facebook page. Facebook tends to favor .MP4′s, and you’ll save a lot of time in upload because of the reduced file size.

About .MP4 - MP4 is short for ‘MPEG-4,’ or ‘Moving Picture Expert Group-4.’  An .MP4 file extension always means there is both audio and video. Audio-only MPEG-4 files generally have an .M4A extension (this is the successor to the .MP3). The ‘Moving Picture Experts Group’> is a working group of experts that was formed by ISO and IEC to set standards for audio and video compression and transmission.

Related posts: