Pushing the limits of Youtube Video

Pushing the limits of YouTube Video

  2014 10 16

  Time for a happier post. I am the type who likes to push my limits and break records in all categories - and technology is no exception. More recently I wanted to push the limits on YouTube videos. I set out to create the shortest HD (1280 X 720 Pixels) YouTube Video.

  I chose the category of shortest HD video because the shortest YouTube video had already been done.

  What is the shortest YouTube video possible? When you upload a video unto YouTube that video is converted into YouTube's own format (most likely an MP4 format) at a standard frame rate of 30 frames per second. That means that each frame plays for 0.03 seconds or 1/30 of a second.

  However, a single frame does not qualify as video because by definition video is a series of slightly different pictures depicting motion. A single frame is no more than a picture with a very short duration embedded in a video format without motion and thus cannot be considered true video.

  So the shortest possible YouTube video would be at least 2 frames playing consecutively at 30 frames per second. Thus the shortest true YouTube video would last 0.06 seconds or 1/15 of a second.

   The shortest HD YouTube video I successfully uploaded to YouTube was 0.366 seconds long and consisted of 9 frames at 25 frames per second. The video format uploaded was WMV 9 video with a bitrate of 7,000 kbps at 1280 X 720 pixels.

   
   I had tried uploading videos with fewer frames but the upload kept failing. I had even tried uploading shorter videos in FLV, Mpeg, MP4, and AVI video formats but the upload kept failing. I had even tried uploading shorter videos using the suggested H.264 codec (The most recommended codec for YouTube) but the upload kept failing. I even tried an uncompressed AVI using virtual dub.

   I searched for the shortest video on YouTube and found one titled,"Shortest Video Ever On YouTube!" The video had 2,164,917 views and was uploaded by charlestrippy.

  Shortest Video Ever On Youtube!

  Now I don't know if this is truly the shortest video on YouTube or if he was the first to do the shortest video on YouTube (sadly there are no official YouTube records) but it does seem to play just 2 frames.

  So I downloaded the video file with my FireFox browser using a plugin named,"Download Helper," and the video format was an FLV. If I remember right the FLV was just 48 kb.

  So FLV video format must be part of the key to uploading the shortest YouTube video. Either way, Ill keep trying, I did however register my claim of the shortest HD YouTube Video with RecordSetter.

  Shortest HD Video On YouTube

  As a note, YouTube will soon be allowing a maximum frame rate of 60 frames per second. When this occurs, the shortest possible YouTube video will be 1/30 of a second or 0.03 seconds (with at least 2 frames).

  2014 10 26

  Aside from trying to create the shortest HD YouTube Video, I wanted to do something that had never been done before in video. I created 2 videos in 1 video.

  Normally when we watch video each frame played is somewhat similar to the frame before it and these frames are part of the same scene. What I did was alternate the frames from 2 different videos. Therefore, the first frame was from video 1, the second frame was from video 2, the third frame was from video 1, and so on.

  The over-all video played at a frame rate of 30 frames per second, and half of those frames were from video 1, and the other half of the frames were from video 2. Therefore, video 1, and 2 were playing at 15 frames per second each.

 
  Its a really interesting video to watch, it would seem that the human brain perceives 2 translucent videos playing at once. And I do not know of anyone who has tried this before.

  I used virtual dub to export each frame as a picture from video 1, and 2 into 2 different folders. From folder 1, I used a bulk rename utility to name each frame by odd numbers. From Folder 2, I named each frame by even numbers. I than added the contents of folder 1, and 2 into folder 3. And from Folder 3 I loaded the pictures into virtual dub, and set the frame rate at 30 frames per second to produce my final video.

  2014 10 27

  I wanted to push the technology of my Iphone 5c, and attempt to record a 4 K (3840 X 2160 pixels) video to upload to YouTube. As you know the Iphone 5c can only record a maximum HD resolution of (1920 X 1080 Pixels).

  However, The Iphone can take 8 MP pictures with its camera (each picture is 3264 X 2448 pixels). I simply took 30 pictures, and loaded them into virtual dub to produce an uncompressed AVI video at 30 frames per second. The resulting 1 second video was 685 MB, which took well over an hour to upload.

  It is my highest resolution video at 3264 X 2448 pixels, and within the YouTube video settings you can watch it at 4K resolution.

 
  4 K is 4 times the resolution of HD video and is the highest resolution you can upload to YouTube.

  2014 10 31

  The lowest resolution you can upload to YouTube is 144 pixels (theoretically 12 X 12 pixels). The video made up of the fewest pixels that I could successfully upload was 16 X 24 pixels (384 pixels). I had tried uploading YouTube videos with fewer pixels but the YouTube uploader kept failing.

 
I had also submitted my record breaking claim to RecordSetter.com.

Smallest Video Format Uploaded To YouTube Measured In Pixels

2014 11 01

I wanted to create the fastest picture slide show on YouTube. I simply loaded all of my 10,392 pictures into virtual dub and set the frame rate at 30 frames per second. The Uncompressed AVI video plays for 5 minutes, 46 seconds. Every frame that makes up the video is a completely different picture. That is to say the video plays 30 pictures per second.
 

 
I submitted my record breaking claim to RecordSetter.com.

Fastest Picture Slideshow On YouTube

I also learned that the maximum duration YouTube will now allow is 11 hours. So I may attempt the longest HD YouTube Video but I am sure it would take days to upload.

A message for every high school teacher, and principal

Attention Dr.Phil - An Excellent Discussion on Bullying Solutions (YouTube Video)

A message for every high school teacher, and Principal

My Name is Darryl Learie . I  was severely bullied for years in high school.

I know from personal experience that bullying in school is a destructive action that is met with apathy within the public school system. 

When students are bullied, they are unable to achieve successful grades in their school work. Their survival and preservation of self becomes their only priority.  Dropping out of high school also becomes a very real coping mechanism to the bullying problem. I don't need to explain that poor grades, and unfinished schooling is detrimental to any quality of life and financial success they could have enjoyed and benefited from within their lives.

Not to mention that the above will limit their capacity to contribute to society academically and intellectually.

 Being bullied is also catalyst for future emotional, and mental illnesses (which will eventually cost the government, and effect future generations). 

The effects of bullying last far into ones adult years. And ultimately through low self-esteem and low self-worth, leads to a life of dysfunction (especially when the bullying takes place during those years when a student's brain undergoes a massive transformation in concept of self).

That student's eventual self-destruction and/or life of dysfunction does not only effect them personally but with every relationship they have in life, and future generations of children they will conceive.

When students are bullied, the abuse that they receive can only manifest in one of two ways; inward - which commonly leads to suicide, or outward - which leads to  varying degrees of aggression towards others, and  in the most extreme cases deadly violence towards others.

The public school system say that they are concerned with the continuing problem of bullying - but being actively proactive speaks far more than merely words of conviction.

There is an apathy within the school system when it comes to addressing the bullying problem. This apathy is the product of many forms of denial. Like schools that deny that they have a serious bullying problem for fear of tainting the school's public and professional image. 

Another form of this apathy is when the bullying issue is ignored because no school authority( whether it be teachers, principals, or even school trustees) will take on the responsibility of addressing it. 

Ideology is also a problem. When the success of a school is solely measured by academic performance it serves to ignore whatever casualties are suffered because the majority go on to be working members of society.

Below are some personal examples of how this apathy also limits people like myself who are willing to address the bullying issue.

I produced a video aptly named "How Bullying Changed My Life Forever," and sent links to that video, along with a letter of concern, to several important school boards and trustees and staff of the schools in the city that I live. But I have had no one ask for my further involvement in any capacity to address the issue.

In 1998, I produced an anti-bullying speech with help from an English Professor, and presented the writing to my old high school.  They were not going to share the work with their students. 

They did not offer to rework the speech with me, they simply turned it down - even though I am willing to help as a volunteer, simply hoping to have purpose in this issue.

This is the apathy I am talking about.

It is up to the schools to implement an anti-bullying atmosphere. An atmosphere where students do not act as if being at school is matter of survival of the fittest (or survival of the most popular) but rather work as a team towards the betterment of their collectively role in society.  

Just like that in a library where conflict rarely occurs because a strict, quiet atmosphere of consideration is already established and understood.

There is an answer to the bullying epidemic - but it requires a network of school authorities sharing their stories of success to the bullying problem, and implementing an anti-bullying curriculum.

It requires a constant awareness of the bullying problem and presenting that awareness to every school authority involved - for out of sight, out of mind, and thus no action.

It requires the constant celebration of all students, not just those who excel academically and/or athletically.

How many schools credit awards for moral aptitude?

Every issue starts with awareness which leads to conversation, than debate, and eventual collaborative efforts to resolve the issue at hand.

There are solutions, there are answers

It is not up to the bullied to seek out the answers, for they are simply trying to survive and should not have to problem solve what should not happen to them in the first place. For their only role is to attain an education as their right.

Is it not the job of every teacher to build up every student? For every student cannot reach their highest potential academically if they do not have a strong emotional foundation.

Society is a bee-hive where are greatest purpose is not necessarily measured by our jobs but rather by the positive impact of our relationships onto our fellow human beings.

Every person has purpose in society. 

Evil happens when good people do nothing. Be part of the solution - not part of the problem.

I created my other video - How being bullied changed my life forever, please watch and share this video with every school authority for surely they can watch 18 minutes of what I personally suffered for years.

Thank-you for reading - Darryl Learie