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If you want high quality sound after uploading to online video sharing sites websites, going for YouTube every time may not be the best way to go. If the audio quality takes priority over anything else, this list should help decide which service to use.

I uploaded the music video ‘Zero G’ to some of the most popular video sharing sites that do not require any special registration. Some sites have restrictions on the types of videos you can upload.

The resulting videos are embedded primarily in order of sound quality. If the audio quality is equal at any stage, they are placed in secondary order by: how intrusive advertisements are, speed of loading and other site features.

I have worked extensively with audio and have been producing music for over 14 years and have to the best of my ability put them in highest sound quality order. I’ve taken into account: high frequency clarity, punchiness, solidity, bass integrity, colouration and compression artefacts. This top ten is simply showing how good the audio codec settings are for each video site.

Sound playback on some of these sites is so good I consider it to be hi-fidelity and near-CD quality.

The Top 10 Video Sharing Sites for Highest Sound Quality for Music

Rated out of 10.

Highest Quality

Vimeo (9) – Clean interface, Best customization

http://www.vimeo.com/3480639

Dailymotion (9) – Slightly higher sound quality

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/13961384

Viddler (9) – Hi-fi sound

http://www.viddler.com/explore/galaxycode/videos/1/

Medium High Quality

Break (8) – Punchy

http://www.break.com/usercontent/2009/2/Zero-G-by-Galaxy-Code-665095.html

Blip.tv (8)

http://www.blip.tv/file/1753474

Yahoo (8)

http://video.yahoo.com/watch/4610387/12329125

Metacafe (8) – Invasive Pre-ad

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/2400808/

Medium Quality

MySpace (6)

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=52020873

Imeem (6) – Ad overlay and slightly less sound quality

http://www.imeem.com/people/LKBX_DJ/video/oDAIdbXH

YouTube (5) – No ‘high quality’ option available. HD button requires reload of video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQK69cVYHIQ

Other mentions

Revver (8) – Took nearly a month to be accepted

http://revver.com/video/1519249/zero-g-by-galaxy-code/

Low Quality

Google Video (4) – Lower quality than YouTube, allows videos over an hour long.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7575666236026207041

Veoh (3) – pitch bends the sound

http://www.veoh.com/videos/v17460619DGPPYPs7

File Specifications

The uploaded file contains stereo audio at 44100 samples/sec and 16bit resolution per channel compressed with WMA2 averaging 96 Kb/s. Music recorded by Galaxy Code.

The video was taken with a low resolution mobile phone camera which automatically highly compressed the video data. The edited, finished and re-compressed video was uploaded at 320×240 with WMV3 at 782 Kbps bitrate.

Duration 1:53, File size: 11.8 MB.

Tubemogul was used to upload to multiple video sites. Good time saving tool.

Conclusion

Vimeo, Viddler and Dailymotion have the best streaming sound quality with Vimeo coming out on top because of the interface. These top three have high video quality and quick load times.

Posted in Audio Sound

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 5th, 2009 at 5:56 am. You can follow any comments to this post through the RSS 2.0 comments feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.