I made a video in 1080p that came out to be 3GB. Later, I noticed that you can download it as an MP4 from your account. I downloaded it, and it was only 100MB, and the quality was identical. What kind of compression does YouTube use? It's amazing.
Thanks.
Although the videos on youtube look really good and might appear to have the same quality, to say that they are identical is not true.
I know I'm just nagging, and I guess you do understand (and just quickly used the word "identical") but the real quality won't be identical. Just to make sure there's is no misunderstanding.
A lot of data is lost and once you start editing on youtube videos, or a have a keen eye for details. You'll notice some data is lost.
This becomes notable, for example, when you export your video as a compressed video, and then upload it to youtube. The video will be encoded twice, but the second time information will be missing (because it was compressed the first time). It still might not be very noticeable. But my point is, it's always best to use a file with as much details (with low or no compression) in your workflow, until you come to the final product.
They don't edit a movie in Hollywood with DVD like compression and use that all the way through. No, they use uncompressed and then compress it for the DVD (and for iTunes, Netflix, TV Stations etc). That's why they can "upgrade" and sell the older movies on Blu-ray. And still, the movies are compressed to fit on Blu-ray. (and sometimes they rescan the actual film material in a higher resolution).
Again, sorry for waisting your time with something I think is important, just wanted to share.