How to upload video clips from a camera phone to YouTube
10 May 2006
Sharing pictures on Internet photo albums has quickly become popular among camera phone and digital camera owners. And why not? It's fun to let friends and people on the other side of the world see our pictures, and maybe get feedback from them. It's not a huge surprise that we might want to share our video clips as well. Maybe it's even more fun. Let's take a look at techniques for posting camera phone videos on YouTube.
- Use your camera phone as a camcorder.
There's an almost overwhelming selection of photo-sharing services available on the Internet that are ready to store and display your pictures for free. Now, a number of video-sharing services have become available as well, including the following:
Dailymotion, Revver, vSocial, and YouTube. In addition, the popular photo-sharing site Buzznet has extended its services to video-sharing.
Sharing photos is one thing, but sharing video clips is another thing entirely, because of the following:
- Even a short video recording can become a large file. The size of the file depends on the image size and how much the video software compresses images. For example, a 50-second clip captured in tiny 176x144 (QCIF) resolution in phone-specific 3GP format results in a 500 KB file. Digital cameras can capture video in higher resolution, and they typically don't compress images as heavily as camera phones do. For instance, a 320x240 (QVGA) resolution video clip about 60 seconds long and saved in AVI format takes about 10MB of memory space in a digital camera.
- Many video-sharing sites allow posting of video clips only from an Internet browser. Consequently, you can't send videos from your camera phone by email. You have to first copy the recordings to your computer.
- Practically all digital photos are stored in JPG format, but there are many different and incompatible formats for digital video. Often, it is difficult to view videos recorded by other people, or for you to share your videos. You can't be sure if other people can watch the videos at all.
- Usually, you need additional software for watching videos. For example, YouTube requires Macromedia Flash Player software - but practically no mobile device comes with the software.
- A video recorded in 320x240 resolution looks fine in YouTube.
YouTube solves some of these problems. You have to use a computer for uploading and watching videos, but you don't have to worry about video formats.
Here's what you have to do when you want to share your camera phone video recordings on YouTube:
- Before you record new video clips on your camera phone, make sure it is saving images on the memory card. You can change this setting by activating the camera, opening the menu, and changing the default storage device to memory card.
- Record your video. You can find tips for shooting video on a camera phone here.
- Remove the memory card from your camera phone and insert it into a memory card reader. Copy the video clip from the memory card to your computer's hard disk. If there's no memory card on your phone, use Bluetooth, infrared, or data cable for transferring the video to your computer. Remember where you saved it.
- If you want to improve your video's attractiveness, edit it in a video software application, such as Windows Movie Maker, Apple iMovie or Adobe Photoshop Album. Video editing applications allow you to change the format and resolution of your home movie. YouTube recommends MPEG4 video format at 320x240 resolution with MP3 audio for best viewing.
- Don't worry. You don't have to do anything to your video before uploading it to YouTube. The service will do the necessary format conversions. We tested several different video formats and resolutions, and they all played fine on YouTube. For example, a video in 3GP format in 176x144 resolution, an AVI video in 320x240 resolution, and an MPEG4 clip in 320x240 resolution all played fine. The only problem we had was with a 3GP video that lasted 10 seconds. YouTube played the audio the way it was recorded, but it could only show three frames.
- Launch the Internet browser application, such as Firefox or Internet Explorer, on your computer and logon to www.youtube.com. You have to register to the service befroe uploading videos.
- Once you have signed up, click the Upload tab. Fill in the required forms and wait for your video to be copied to the server.
- Check how your video plays on YouTube. If the video looks mosaic, click the small box with a square around it on the lower right-hand corner of the video. It will resize the video to its original size and make it sharper.
- Resizing a small 176x144 resolution video to its original size makes it look better.
Then, take a deep breath and wait for other viewers to rate and comment on your masterpiece.
Related stories:
Tips on capturing video clips with a camera phone
How to copy photos from a camera phone to a computer
The best camera phone for your photos
Product reviews:
Canon Ixus 750 / Powershot SD550
editor@avecmobile.com 12.05.2006 00:26
Update to the story: YouTube has just announced that they can receive movies by MMS. This means that you can send video clips directly from a camera phone to your YouTube account. First, you have to create a mobile upload profile for your YouTube account. You'll get a unique email address where you send your video clips. You should save the email address in the contact list on your phone. Sending video clips directly from the camera phone to YouTube by MMS works fine - if your service provider lets through large messages. Some service providers have limited the maximum size of MMS messages to 50KB or 100KB. It is, however, difficult to record video clips that are smaller than this even on a camera phone. While the MMS upload is a welcomed improvement, even better solution would be to let us send video clips by email. At the moment, YouTube can't receive video clips if you send them as attachments from the email application on your phone. Practically all camera phones come with the MMS (multimedia messaging service) feature, but in addition to having the feature on the phone, you may have to activate the MMS service with your service provider. You pay for each MMS you send, or your service provider may offer a data communication plan that includes a number of MMS messages per month.
editor@avecmobile.com 16.07.2006 07:55
ANOTHER UPDATE: The new Nokia browser on Symbian S60 phones can upload files. Also to YouTube. This means that you can record a movie and upload it to YouTube right away from the phone. So far, we have tested this on N91 and E61. The browser Name and Version is: S60 browser V3.0 (0550).
ganesh patvi 30.07.2006 23:38
i want an information on my view technique which is used for seeing video clips from a distance. it shows the clips nearly length of TV screen
K K Bhattacharya1 06.09.2006 00:10
Sir, I have Nokia N91 cell phone. I am not able to download MPEG4 Video clips from my computer or internet. Kindly send me the suitable software which supports the downloading of the same.Awaiting your reply by return mail. Best Regards, K K Bhattacharya Saudi Arabia
Ari 09.09.2006 08:36
If you have problems with transferring a video file from your computer to your Nokia N91, do as follows: plug in the cable from the N91 to your computer. Choose Disk Drive in N91. Drag and drop whatever files you want into the phone using the Windows Explorer. If you have managed to copy the video to your N91, but the device won't play it, read this guide that explains how you can convert videos into mobile friendly format: http://www.avecmobile.com/index.php?id=797
Yngvar 20.09.2006 07:06
Using ShoZu (www.shozu.com) you can upload videos to YouTube directly from the phone, without going via your pc. Works great if you have a WLAN enabled or company paid phone
sandy 18.10.2006 04:32
i am not able to open video clip on my pc sent through email frm my Nokia 6600
Ari 20.10.2006 07:12
Try installing RealPlayer on your PC. It should play the 3GP-formatted video from your phone.
rajesh 21.10.2006 06:04
download computer to modile phone mpgav song
rald 28.12.2006 22:34
i cant see my videos on the you tube... but it is already uploaded
Mimikicks 29.12.2006 04:02
Rald, if you tried to upload your video via MMS, make sure you can send MMS to e-mail. Try to send one to your own email.
sikandar 16.02.2007 04:16
I want to send video clip to mobile devices
jane 27.02.2007 05:32
i want to download video and sound clips from internet to my mobile phone
Ari 28.02.2007 23:30
Jane, take a look at this review. If there is a video player software on your phone, you might be able watch to YouTube videos on your phone: http://www.avecmobile.com/index.php?id=898
john 23.04.2007 13:33
.3gp video simply doesn't work right on youtube
kizzy 24.04.2007 22:34
I haven't had any problems with 3GP videos on Youtube. http://kyte.tv is a great site for mobile videos.
akis 23.05.2007 11:53
There are more straming ad broadcasting videos websites but the best i find is www.gooclip.net or www.youtubemovies.net
maureen eva t. agduma 27.06.2007 22:15
its good to have this.
ersan 06.04.2008 05:24
i want to find my camera clipc
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Philip Miguel A. Garcia 04.06.2008 10:59
Can also use Sony Ericsson K320i to record and send it in youtube?
steveking 17.06.2008 02:42
YouTubeRobot.com today announces YouTube Robot 2.0, a tool that enables you to download video from YouTube.com onto your PC, convert it to various formats to watch it when you are on the road on mobile devices like mobile phone, iPod, iPhone, Pocket PC, PSP, or Zune. YouTube Robot allows you to search for videos using keywords or browse video by category, author, channel, language, tags, etc. When you find something noteworthy, you can preview the video right in YouTube Robot and then download it onto the hard disk drive. The speed, at which you will be downloading, is very high: up to 5 times faster than other software when you download a single file and up to 4 times faster when you download multiple files at a time. Manual download is not the only option with YouTube Robot. You may as well schedule the download and conversion tasks to be executed automatically, even when you are not around. Downloading is followed by conversion to the format of your choice and uploading videos to a mobile device (if needed). For example, you can plug in iPod, select the video, go to bed, and when you wake up next morning, your iPod will be ready to play new YouTube videos. Product page: w ww.youtuberobot.com Direct download link: ww w.youtuberobot.com/download/utuberobot.exe Company web-site: w ww.youtuberobot.com
jordan 12.05.2009 00:10 www.web-video-player.com
That's great! http://www.web-video-player.com
nomobileemailuploadyoutube 22.08.2009 17:49
using email to upload on youtube with a mobile device does not work, the only way to upload videos on youtube with cell phones is by MMS multimedia messaging, where MMS clips are short the worst video quality ever. youtube need to enable the upload via mobile email, specially for those who got cellular data plan and does not have MMS plan or limited plan.
brent 07.09.2009 08:29
pls help me email me bACK ON HOW TO TRANSFER VIDEO WITH A CELLPHONE OF NO CAMERA ,RECORDER,MEMORY CARD,SIM CARD ONLY
bob 09.09.2009 09:12 www.viewmyact.com
www.viewmyact.com will allow mobile uploads here soon! where talented people get discovered!