My YouTube Year in Review

Yesterday I received an email from YouTube with my 2025 year in review. It contained many statistics such as the fact that I started my channel on January 4, 2007, which means I’ve been a YouTube creator for 6,912 days. They also provided me with my top video of the year:

I knew intuitively that most of my subscribers would be from the United States, but little did I know that I have subscribers elsewhere:

And finally, I was given some statistics on the age groups and days of the week when my audience views my videos:

If you want to see the videos on my YouTube channel, search for @DigitalDaddyLA or just visit https://www.youtube.com/@DigitalDaddyLA/videos.

Video Conversion Hack

Let’s say that you need to convert a video from one format to another (e.g., for playback compatibility) or scale down the resolution to reduce the file size. There are video converters that you can buy for both Mac and Windows platforms to get the job done. You could also load the video into a video editor (e.g., iMovie or Final Cut Pro for Mac; various options on Windows) and then export with the desired format and resolution.

However, did you know that there is an unconventional option that also works pretty well and is completely free? All you have to do is upload the video to YouTube (free) and download it with 4K Video Downloader (also free). Let’s discuss these 2 steps in more detail.

Step 1: Upload the video to YouTube. Every video that is uploaded to YouTube is automatically processed upon completion of the upload. During processing, YouTube compresses the video and creates multiple versions of the video in different resolutions (e.g., 360p, 480p, 720p, 1080p, and 4K). This is because depending on the device and bandwidth, YouTube selects the best possible resolution to provide the viewer with an uninterrupted video stream. The YouTube System Requirements help page provides recommended sustained internet speeds for each video resolution. In my experience, the processing occurs rather quickly, with 360p and 480p versions most readily available, and higher resolutions taking several minutes or even hours, depending on the length of the video. Some users have reported extended delays, but generally the process is fairly quick. YouTube will not create a video in a resolution that is higher than the original video, but it will create a compressed version of the video at the same resolution. For example, if you upload a 1080p video that is 100 MB, after YouTube compression, the processed 1080p file might be only 50 MB—this obviously cuts down on bandwidth requirements. So essentially YouTube is doing the video compression and conversion for you with every upload.

Step 2: Download the video from YouTube. Now that there are multiple versions of your video on YouTube servers, all you need to do is download the one you want. I’ve previously discussed some of the benefits of 4K Video Downloader which is my go-to choice for downloading YouTube videos, so I’ll discuss this in a little more detail (but note that there may be other applications that work equally well). Simply paste the YouTube video link into 4K Video Downloader. If you have Smart Mode enabled, the app will download the video in the format and quality that you specify. If you disable Smart Mode, you’ll be presented with choices such as these:

Note that there are versions for different resolutions as well as video formats. And if your video was created in a high frame rates (e.g., 60 fps), you may see options for lower frame rates as well. Simply pick the video that you want, and in a few moments you’ll have your converted video. Viola!

Note that YouTube does provide recommended upload encoding settings which include an MP4 container, AAC audio codec, H.264 video codec, a common frame rate (e.g., 24, 25, 30, 48, 50, or 60 fps), a 16:9 aspect ratio, and various recommended bitrates. However, it is capable of handling a wide spectrum of other encodings beyond these recommendations. For example, I just converted a video using the approach described above, and here are the before-and-after encodings as displayed in VLC media player:

Original video, .mov container, 1.63 GB

Processed YouTube video, .mp4 container, 33.6 MB

As you can see, YouTube converted Apple ProRes 422 Standard to H.264 and preserved the 1280x720 resolution and 30 fps frame rate. I have not seen an official exhaustive list of all encodings that YouTube is capable of handling, but my guess is that their capabilities are broad since they’d want to lower the barrier to entry as much as possible. If you can accept the fact that processed YouTube videos are going to be converted to H.264, perhaps this hack will work well enough for you.

Record Movies with QuickTime Player

Did you know that if you have a Mac running macOS High Sierra (10.13) or later, you already have a handy dandy application that allows you to record movies from your built-in camera, iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch? That application is called QuickTime Player, and it is capable of recording movies from a variety of sources. Simply launch QuickTime Player and then click File > New Movie Recording. If you click the Options menu (the down-pointing arrow immediately to the right of the Record button with the red dot), you’ll be able to specify the following settings:

Camera: If you have a built-in camera, it will likely be the default setting and will allow you to record yourself which can be useful for vlogging. However, if you have an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch connected to your Mac, you should also be able to record whatever is displayed on screen for those devices, like this.

Microphone: This allows you to choose an audio input. For most users, it will default to the internal microphone, but if you have more than one available, you should see those choices too.

Quality: You can choose either High or Maximum. If recording a movie from your built-in camera, high quality means H.264 video and 44100 Hz AAC audio, whereas maximum quality means Apple ProRes 422 video and Linear PCM audio. If recording the screen on a mobile device, high quality means H.264 video and 44100 Hz AAC audio, whereas maximum quality means H.264 video and Linear PCM audio.

After specifying your movie settings, press the Record button to start recording. During recording, the Record button turns into a Stop button which you can obviously click to stop the recording. If you like the results, click File > Save to save your recording.

Interestingly, I was using a 3rd party USB to Lightning cable to connect my MacBook Pro to my iPhone, and although I have successfully charged my iPhone with that cable many times, QuickTime refused to display my iPhone as a camera input until I changed my cable to an official Apple Lightning cable.

Finally, if you want to just record audio without video, from QuickTime Player you can click File > New Audio Recording instead. It should come as no surprise that your settings will be limited to Microphone and Quality.t

Canon Full Frame Mirrorless Cameras: R6 and R5

It’s been a while since I’ve written about photography, partly because I haven’t done much photography lately while sheltering in place, and partly because I haven’t seen any interesting developments. Things changed on July 9 when Canon introduced the EOS R6 and EOS R5. These are full frame mirrorless cameras targeted to professionals (and enthusiasts who don’t balk at the price tags).

Although Canon was relatively late to the mirrorless game and has been playing catchup with Sony, they do have a lineup of mirrorless cameras and introduced their first full frame mirrorless camera with the EOS R in 2018.

Both the R6 and R5 raise the bar in terms of photo and video quality over the R, with the most significant improvement being the addition of in-body image stabilization which the R lacked (it depended on image stabilization built into the lens). This should improve low light photography which is a common scenario that I face when capturing moments indoors (e.g., birthday parties, performances/recitals, family gatherings). It should also reduce camera shake for videos.

Another improvement is in the ISO range for the R6 which has a native ISO range of 100-102,400 (expandable to 204,800) which is an improvement over the R which has a native ISO range of 100-40,000 (expandable to 102,400). The top-of-the-line R5 has a native ISO range of 100-51,200 (expandable to 102,400) whose lower ISO might have been a compromise due to its enormous pixel count.

Another improvement is in video resolution. Whereas the R is capable of 4K video, it tops out at 30 fps. The R6 ups the frame rate for 4K video to 60 fps. Meanwhile, the R5 not only shoots 4K at 120 fps, it also introduces 8K video at 30 fps in both RAW and H.265 formats.

Regarding megapixel (MP) count, The R6 has a modest 20 MP which is lower than the R which has 30.3 MP. The R5 raises the bar to 45 MP. I personally don’t put a whole lot of weight into the MP count since a vast majority of my photos are intended to be viewed online or converted into 1080p videos, so my current Canon EOS Rebel T4i with 18 MP is more than sufficient for those purposes, and I’ve also created 24x36 inch prints which look fine. Then again, I’m an enthusiast/hobbyist, and professional photographers may have different needs.

There are many other new features and specifications in the R6 and R5, but to sum up these 2 new cameras, the R6 is more geared toward pro-level photographers who need better low light performance, and the R5 is better for pro-level photographers who also demand higher quality video. Regardless, this is another indicator that mirrorless cameras have a role in professional photography and that DSLRs will eventually fade away.

Technology Consequences of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Given that the world is now sheltering at home to reduce transmission of COVID-19, we have become more reliant on technology to get us through our daily rituals.

Video Streaming

Given that schools around the nation have temporarily closed, video streaming has become more popular than ever before. Many working parents like me have probably thrown screen time recommendations out the window to let our mobile devices babysit our children while we work. Therefore, it was not surprising that when I tried to launch a movie on Disney+ on my Apple TV the other day, I was greeted with the following message:

It is well known that Disney+ ran into bandwidth issues with its November 2019 launch. This week, Disney+ reduced bandwidth for its Europe launch in an effort to reduce strain on infrastructure. I suspect that similar supply-demand issues are causing connection problems nowadays. Did you know that you can check Downdetector to see if others are having the same problem?

Video Conferencing

Many workplaces have transitioned to remote work where possible, and this has driven a tremendous increase in demand for video conferencing. Zoom has capitalized on this opportunity, but it has not yet overtaken some of the incumbents in the video conferencing space. We use both Microsoft Teams and Cisco Webex at my workplace, where Teams had traditionally been used more for internal collaboration, and Webex had been used for external calls. In retrospect, it is fortunate that we have 2 video conferencing services. The day after Microsoft aired a Super Bowl commercial for Teams, most of us were unable to connect to Teams meetings and switched on the fly to Webex. This past week, many of us were able to connect to Webex but unable to get the computer audio to work, so we switched on the fly to Teams. I don’t know the root cause of these issues, but it would not surprise me if their connections were overloaded due to a surge in demand.

Mobile Communication

Finally, with businesses transitioning to remote work, mobile device usage has been rising. Wireless service providers are recognizing the need for increased communication during the pandemic, and I was pleasantly surprised to receive the following notification from Verizon Wireless:

What other ways have you leveraged technology to get through your day, and what kinds of unintended consequences have you witnessed? Regardless, I hope you stay safe, productive, and connected (at a distance, of course).

UFC: Undisputedly Fantastic Content

The UFC is not a fight company, it’s a production company—

one of the biggest in the world—that just happens to sell fights.

This is a quote from Into the Cage: The Rise of UFC Nation by Nick Gullo. As a mixed martial arts (MMA) fan who not only watches MMA fights but also follows matchmaking, fight preparation, fight promotion, weigh-ins, and post-fight press conferences, most of which is available on YouTube, this made complete sense to me. I’ve always been impressed with not just the depth of insider coverage of the UFC (which stands for “Ultimate Fighting Championship”), but also the quality of video production. A sampling of UFC programs that I regularly watch include (in no particular order):

• UFC Countdown: summarizes the journey of the fighters leading up to UFC events
• UFC Inside the Octagon: analysts profile fighter strengths, weaknesses, and fight strategy
• UFC Embedded: an inside view of the lives of fighters in the days leading up to an event
• UFC Connected: a detailed focus on UFC fighters and their lives in and out of the octagon
• Dana White: Lookin’ for a Fight: Dana and his buddies watch local fight promotions; show production is in an adrenaline-pumping, profanity-laced travel vlog format
• Dana White’s Contender Series: a fight card in between UFC events, with certain fighters on each episode awarded UFC contracts

There are also special video series such as UFC: 25 Years in Short. And let’s not forget The Ultimate Fighter reality TV series whose season 1 finale arguably saved the UFC from bankruptcy. Since I make home movies and have my own YouTube channel, I can appreciate the professional production quality of all UFC videos. The UFC really does invest a lot of effort in keeping its fan base engaged in its business 365 days a year, and a big part of that, at least from my experience, is through high quality video content. Recently I came across an article that provides insight into the UFC’s finances, and it provided the following chart:

Content production costs totaled a whopping 19.6% of all UFC expenses in 2015. The only larger expense category was fighter compensation (23.0%), and coming in third was employee compensation (11.3%). In other words, the UFC spends almost twice as much money producing content as it does paying its own employees. Note that there is a separate category for marketing costs (10.4%), exclusive of content production.

Elsewhere in the book, Nick Gullo summarizes a conversation with UFC President Dana White. Dana asserts that boxing promoters don’t invest in the sport because they simply coordinate and promote boxing matches, then take their money and run. Gullo writes:

On the flip side, the UFC “four walls” the event—which means they handle everything: broadcast production, ticket and merchandise sales, designing posters, you name it. The organization 24/7 promotes its fighters, pushes them in the UFC magazine and The Ultimate Fighter, features them on the UFC website, the television shows, video blogs, billboards. Drive down the highway, enter a grocery store, flip on the TV, wherever you turn it’s UFC Nation. And because they do everything and control everything, they deliver product that eclipses boxing.

I appreciate when my world view is challenged by a new perspective, and I agree that the UFC is a production company that happens to sell fights. I think this also supports Bill Gates’ assertion that content is king. While there are other MMA promotions such as Bellator, ONE Championship, Professional Fighters League, Titan Fighting Championships, Rizin Fighting Federation, and many others, the UFC is in a class of its own by any measure. I believe that its content production and its “four walls” approach has a lot to do with its success.

Even if you are not a fan of MMA, hopefully you’ll at least click on some of the links and appreciate the high quality UFC video content.

Be a HERO

Daddy bought a new toy—a GoPro HERO7 Black. Woo hoo! I upgraded from my HERO3+ Black to take advantage of the following features in the HERO7 Black: waterproof body, 4K60 video, HDR photo mode (and an enhanced HDR option which they call SuperPhoto), image stabilization (which they call HyperSmooth), a touch screen interface, and GPS tagging. There are other nifty features such as live streaming and voice control, but I don’t expect to use them much. However, while playing with the settings in the GoPro iOS app, I was pleasantly surprised to learn of 2 more features that were not well advertised on the GoPro website.

The first feature is RAW image file format. When browsing the touch screen interface, you’ll see a RAW option in the photo settings that you can toggle on or off. Note that this setting does not appear to be available in the GoPro iOS app. When toggling the RAW setting to on, the GoPro stores both a .JPG and .GPR file. The .JPG file allows you to view the photo in your camera, while the .GPR file can be processed like any other RAW image file in Photoshop or Lightroom. One of the things I like most about RAW image files is the ability to reduce noise from images taken in low light as well as the ability to adjust highlights and shadows (to a much greater degree than .JPG files). The .GPR files averaged 6-7 MB for 12 MP photos taken at 4000x3000 resolution. Interestingly, unlike the GoPro HERO3+, there is no option in the HERO7 to save photos in smaller resolutions (not that I’d use those options, which is probably why they no longer exist). See What is RAW Format? for more information. For a nice overview of photo features, see this article.

The second feature is H.265 video compression, also known as high-efficiency video coding or HEVC, which basically means that videos are compressed more efficiently than ever before. While this setting does not appear to be available in-camera, the GoPro iOS app lets you toggle between “Most Compatible” (H.264) and “High Efficiency” (H.265) options. With H.265 video compression, files are approximately half the size as compared with H.264 for the same recording quality. See HEVC Explained for more information.

So far I’ve just been experimenting with my new GoPro at home, but I’ve been impressed with all the new features that have been added in the last several models. I can’t wait to start shooting actual events with my new toy.

My Photo and Video Stats

I have a large external hard drive onto which I am able to fit my entire collection of digital photos and videos. In browsing some of the administrator functions associated with the external hard drive, I came across this page:



I noticed that as of today, I have a grand total of 110,118 pictures and 3,909 videos. I am assuming that "pictures" is inclusive of .JPG as well as raw (e.g., Canon's .CR2 format) and photoshop (.PSD) file. Soon I will be adding .HEIC files to my collection, as iOS 11 has replaced .JPG with .HEIC as its new default image file format--I assume that these files will fall under the "pictures" tally as well.

Finally, I assume that "videos" is inclusive of .MOV (the native format in Apple devices), .MTS (the native AVCHD format in my Canon camcorder), and .MP4 (the common format that is almost universally compatible with modern devices like desktops, laptops, mobile phones, tablets, and TV set top boxes). If so, then those numbers should be representative of my complete collection. A final note... while iOS 11 will be replacing the H.264 codec with HEVC, I believe videos will continue to have a .MOV container, so the file extension should not change.

So those are my stats. Do you know how many photos and videos you have in your collection?

Downloading YouTube Videos

I am often asked if it is possible to download videos from YouTube. The answer is yes, and there are several methods.

The first method is through web sites that provide this functionality. There are many free sites to choose from, and typically they simply involve you pasting the URL of the YouTube video into the site and then selecting the resolution of the video that you'd like to retrieve. The video is then downloaded to the default download directory that is specified in your web browser. Although I've used a couple of these kinds of sites, anecdotally I have heard rumors that some web sites that provide such services could be malicious, so generally I avoid them.

The second method is by installing one of several plugins or extensions to your browser. Some plugins work only for specific browsers, so again I defer to you to search for the proper solution. In my limited experience, some Safari and Firefox plugins did not work reliably, so I quickly abandoned this method.

The third method is to install one of several dedicated applications, and that is the focal point of this blog post. While I'm sure there are many high-quality applications that are inexpensive or free, I personally recommend 4K Video Downloader. This is what the Mac OS version looks like (there is a Windows version too):

Simply copy the URL from YouTube and paste it into the 4K Video Downloader app by pressing Command-V or pressing the "Paste Link" button. Depending on your settings, you may have to select a video resolution if you did not specify one by default.

I've used the Mac OS version of 4K Video Downloader for years, and I like it because...

• Frequent Updates. Sometimes YouTube undergoes changes that impact the ability for all 3 methods to download videos. Generally the developers are very quick to update the app to resolve download issues.
• Playlist Compatibility. YouTube videos can be grouped into playlists. Entering playlist URLs enable you to download the entire playlist. Entering the URL of a video within a playlist gives you the option to download that one video or the entire playlist. Pretty slick.
• Multiple Formats. In addition to YouTube this application also supports downloads from Facebook, Vimeo, SoundCloud, Flickr, and others.
• Trustworthy. I have not heard any issues about the application tracking usage or being used for any malicious reasons.
• Freeware. Yes, the price is right. There are some ads, but they are unobtrusive. There is an activation option to remove ads, but the app is full-featured even without activation.
• It Just Works. Enough said.

Hope this helps. Happy downloading!

Annual Photo and Video Storage

Out of curiosity, I charted my year-over-year hard drive storage of photos and videos. This was a relatively simple exercise since I store all of my photos and videos in parent folders named by year, so all I had to do was have the operating system calculate each folder's size. I did make some minor adjustments--for example, in 2013 I made a video of a vacation that I took back in 2002, and I stored the video in the 2002 folder, but since I created the content in 2013, I re-allocated that storage space from 2002 to 2013. So essentially the following graphic depicts storage space based on year of content creation:

As you can see, there is an upward trend of storage space consumption. This is not surprising because with each new camera purchased, along came more megapixels. Additionally, in late 2009 when my daughter was born, I began shooting in RAW (actually RAW + JPG). I believe that the combination of baby photos and the addition of RAW files sufficiently explains the jump in storage space between 2009 and 2010.

Not depicted in the figure are some milestones related to video capture. In 10/2009, I purchased a Polaroid DVG-1080P camcorder to capture videos of my then soon-to-be-born daughter. In 5/2011, I upgraded my camcorder to a Canon VIXIA HF M301 which performed much better in low light and had a far superior image stabilization feature.

There appears to be slightly higher storage space consumed in 2005 as compared with the next few years, and I attribute that to our wedding and honeymoon in April and May of 2005 where we not surprisingly generated lots of photo and video content.

Prior to 2005, I shot digital photos with a Canon PowerShot A70 (7/2003 to 6/2005), my first digital camera. However, the storage space was negligible on the above scale. I also used a Canon EOS Rebel S to shoot 35 mm film from approximately mid-1992 to mid-2003, and while I did scan all my negatives and save them as JPG files, that storage space was also negligible.

For the first half of 2016, I am at around 250 GB of storage, so extrapolation to a full year would land me at around 500 GB.  Therefore, it looks like I am leveling off at approximately half a terabyte annually. I suppose this is useful for me to know so I can estimate when I will need to buy additional external hard drives to back up my photo and video content.

Lee Family 2015 Year In Review

 

Here is our Lee Family 2015 Year In Review. It is our 10th edition, and all prior editions are available here.  Also visit Victor's Picasa Web Albums site and YouTube channel.

Santa In Your Pocket

Just for kicks, I decided to test out the Kringl app to see if I could provide evidence to my 5-year old daughter that Santa Claus really did visit our home and drop off a present for her on Christmas Eve. Basically the app lets you record a short video of your own home, and it superimposes a video of Santa so that it looks like Santa had actually visited your home. There is some general information on the Kringl web site about features and functions, but here are a few tips that you might not have learned from their official site:

• For best results, you should not hand-hold your device; rather, try to mount it on a tripod or at least stabilize it by putting one edge of your device against a fixed object (eg, a table or chair) to prevent camera shake
• While the app lets you choose the brightness of the Santa image that is superimposed on your video, a dimly lit room will most closely match the available lighting options
• If you choose to save videos to your iOS device, the resolution of the video will be 1280x720; while it is technically high definition, full HD (1920x1080) would have been nicer

I recorded several scenes and then used Final Cut Pro X to stitch them together and add a title and transitions. The final result is here. Happy holidays!

Video Conversion with HandBrake

I recently wrote about My Digital Content Workflow, and in step 7 I describe how I had been using Xilisoft Video Converter to resize videos from 1080p ("full HD") to smaller sizes like 720p ("HD"). Given that a new version of HandBrake (0.10.0) was released just 2 days ago, I thought I'd give it another look. HandBrake is traditionally known for being used as a DVD ripping application, so I had never seriously considered it for video conversion, although it has had those capabilities for quite some time.  With release 0.10.0 comes several new encoding schemes which I'll probably never use, but it's nice to know that the developers are staying current with newer codecs like H.265 (even if it is still in early development at this stage).

For a vast majority of my needs, I will generally start with a preset and make further adjustments from there.  For example, the iPad present defaults to a 720p resolution, and I might just modify the bitrate to achieve a level of quality that is suitable for the contents of the video that I am converting. I find that a bitrate of 5000 kbps results in pretty good quality, especially for viewing on mobile devices and YouTube, although it is possible to get away with 3000 kbps or less if the video does not contain a lot of fast-moving images.

Overall I'm pleased with HandBrake as a video conversion tool, and given that it is free, it is hard to beat HandBrake in terms of value.  Furthermore, HandBrake is available for both Mac and Windows (and Ubuntu, if you're into that).  If you have any other recommendations for video conversion, I'd like to know!