YouTube

For displaying video on the web, YouTube is the preferred host to allow for the best compatibility on computers and mobile devices.

Below are the recommendations we use when uploading videos to YouTube:

Audio Codec: AAC

• Channel: Mono or Stereo
• Sample rate: 44.1kHz or 48kHz

Video Codec: H.264

• Progressive scan (no interlacing)
• High profile encoding
• Variable bitrate
• Color space of 4.2.0 or higher

Frame rates

The frame rates should match the primary source material of the footage. Video created by the digital media team is typically done at 23.98fps or 29.97fps.

Container formats

The preferred file format container of choice is either a .mov or .mp4 encoded with the H.264 codec.

For more information about YouTube upload settings, please refer to the official support links below:

Supported YouTube file formats

Audio/Video problems

Advanced encoding settings

Video Presentation

On the YouTube viewer page, videos are presented in widescreen (16:9) format. If the video is not in widescreen format, YouTube will automatically add black bars to either letterbox (black bars on the top and bottom) or pillarbox (black bars on the left and right sides) your video so that it fits within their player window. Therefore, it is not necessary to letterbox or pillarbox your video ahead of time to fit our recommended video sizes.

Sharing a YouTube video

Videos can be shared by going to the player page on YouTube, and selecting the share link. This allows for a short web link to be generated that looks like the following:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3h-ZyLZncE
or
http://youtu.be/_3h-ZyLZncE

These links can be used to link to the video on social media, or as hyperlinks on a web page.

Embedding a YouTube video

For University web pages, please use a video widget to embed the video. Instructions can be found on the style guide.