Yes, there is a way to produce great-looking YouTube videos every time. Read on for expert advice and test results.

[Editor's Note, 7/20/12: After we published Jan's article, he received a note from Colleen Henry, Video Hacker, Google Video Infrastructure, with further recommendations for encoding for YouTube. We've added that information as an addendum at the end of the article.]

If we didn’t live with YouTube’s scale on a daily basis, and somehow seemingly take it for granted, it would almost be too big to imagine. According to one source, in February, 2012, YouTube accounted for 75.9% of all visits to video-related websites, with AOL Video and Hulu tied for second with 2.8%. According to YouTube’s FAQ, over 800 million unique viewers visit YouTube each month watching over 3 billion hours of video. In 2011, YouTube had more than 1 trilllion views, or around 140 views for every person on Earth. These are U.S. federal deficit types of numbers.”

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