Crafting Captivating Edu-Videos: Essential Techniques and Tips for YouTube Success

Easy Ways to Make a Great Educational Video for YouTube

Marion Dubois

Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions

YouTube is an app that makes it easy for teachers to carry out their work efficiently and conveniently. A teacher should start a YouTube channel because it is beneficial to their students and themselves. The materials or content dished on these channels helps give lessons and instructions in the absence of the teacher, give a detailed explanation and trigger the students’ interest.

Also, it archives all the lessons for a long time and makes them easily accessible by both the present, past, and future students. Students can quickly go back for a review for upcoming exams. Through feedbacks or comments, teachers can provide answers to students with the problem of clarity.

A teacher needs to know what an educational video is, what makes an excellent educational video, and how to make an educational video for YouTube before opening a YouTube channel. Now, let’s delve into it!

Part 1. What’s an Educational Video?

From the name “educational video,” you can coin out that it is a video made for the sole purpose of educating or passing out knowledge for the sake of learning. The primary purpose of these videos is to teach an audience about a particular problem or important topics they want to learn about.

Sometimes brands use this method to advertise their brand while being a source of information.

Part 2. What Makes a Good Educational Video?

An excellent educational video aids the learning process. It triggers learners in analyzing and evaluating concepts provided by the video. Videos are great educational tools that most teachers must adopt due to their role in facilitating the learning process.

To make a good educational video, you should keep the following points in mind:

• Keep your students engaged

An excellent educational video should be eye catchy and exciting to get your student’s undivided attention. You can achieve it in any way, one of which is that you need to put yourself into the teaching mode, which means that you should give out the impression of your excitement for the course content you are talking about. Ask them questions, let them feel involved in the process. Please don’t go ahead talking with a cold tune. It makes them tired of listening or seeing the video.

• Be sure to maintain a right-size of video length

It’s better shorter than longer. Have you ever seen a boring, long movie? It’s almost the same feeling you get seeing a long educational video.

The video should be straightforward to leverage the advantage of this form of learning. One needs to make this video of the right size for easy assimilation by the learner. Depending on the course topic, your video can be between 2 - 20 minutes long.

Most importantly, don’t try to do much and use more straightforward, understandable concepts.

• Stay focused

Making your videos focused and not running around many things helps it pass the information that plays a good role in video length management and engagement. Videos that try to divert from the topic may end up not hitting the nail on the head and not accomplishing their purpose.

• Center your interest on the student’s needs

Any educational content should be centered to meet the needs of the students. That goes beyond creating content, but covers the entirety of satisfying the needs of your learners.

Part 3. How to Make a Great Educational Video for YouTube?

The best and most recommendable video maker for making a great educational video is Wondershare Filmora.It is a video maker that enables you to create videos with effects like transition, filters, motion elements, and titles on your video.

Color grading and speed control of each clip on your video are possible using Filmora. You can apply other features like screen record, split-screen options, audio ducking, keyframing, motion tracking and more with an easy-to-use interface to fit the student’s interest.

To make a great educational video for YouTube, you can achieve this using Filmora. Follow the steps below.

Step 1. Launch Filmora and select the aspect ratio

Launch Filmora by double-clicking on the icon, and start working on a new project by selecting project aspect ratio.

Step 2. Create a new project and import footage

Click the “New Project” icon on the program’s welcome screen and wait for some time for the editor to load.

Then, move to choose your desired aspect ratio and click on the import footage icon located at the left corner of the video editor.

Step 3. Organize your project material

At the bottom of the “My Project” tab, click on “add a new folder”. In that new folder, arrange the footage alphabetically. This reduces time spent browsing files and increases efficiency.

Step 4. Preview and edit your video

Press the play icon to preview the video clip. Trim your video clip to the desired video size by dragging the end of the video clip left or right.

Then add customized text and add effects to the video if needed. An amazing effect can be added to each clip of the video to create an outstanding video.

Step 5. Export and share the video

When you’re okay with the already made video, click the Export button. Choose the YouTube option to upload it easily from the Filmora program.

Conclusion

Without a doubt, the process of creating an educational video requires that you pay attention to some things to create an excellent educational video that achieves the learning goal. Once you’ve learned what it means to make an educational video, how to go about it wouldn’t be something to worry about.

Thus, with the steps mentioned above, how to make a great educational video for YouTube has been answered. Now, you can go ahead and make amazing educational videos by yourself.

Marion Dubois

Marion Dubois is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Marion Dubois

Marion Dubois

Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions

YouTube is an app that makes it easy for teachers to carry out their work efficiently and conveniently. A teacher should start a YouTube channel because it is beneficial to their students and themselves. The materials or content dished on these channels helps give lessons and instructions in the absence of the teacher, give a detailed explanation and trigger the students’ interest.

Also, it archives all the lessons for a long time and makes them easily accessible by both the present, past, and future students. Students can quickly go back for a review for upcoming exams. Through feedbacks or comments, teachers can provide answers to students with the problem of clarity.

A teacher needs to know what an educational video is, what makes an excellent educational video, and how to make an educational video for YouTube before opening a YouTube channel. Now, let’s delve into it!

Part 1. What’s an Educational Video?

From the name “educational video,” you can coin out that it is a video made for the sole purpose of educating or passing out knowledge for the sake of learning. The primary purpose of these videos is to teach an audience about a particular problem or important topics they want to learn about.

Sometimes brands use this method to advertise their brand while being a source of information.

Part 2. What Makes a Good Educational Video?

An excellent educational video aids the learning process. It triggers learners in analyzing and evaluating concepts provided by the video. Videos are great educational tools that most teachers must adopt due to their role in facilitating the learning process.

To make a good educational video, you should keep the following points in mind:

• Keep your students engaged

An excellent educational video should be eye catchy and exciting to get your student’s undivided attention. You can achieve it in any way, one of which is that you need to put yourself into the teaching mode, which means that you should give out the impression of your excitement for the course content you are talking about. Ask them questions, let them feel involved in the process. Please don’t go ahead talking with a cold tune. It makes them tired of listening or seeing the video.

• Be sure to maintain a right-size of video length

It’s better shorter than longer. Have you ever seen a boring, long movie? It’s almost the same feeling you get seeing a long educational video.

The video should be straightforward to leverage the advantage of this form of learning. One needs to make this video of the right size for easy assimilation by the learner. Depending on the course topic, your video can be between 2 - 20 minutes long.

Most importantly, don’t try to do much and use more straightforward, understandable concepts.

• Stay focused

Making your videos focused and not running around many things helps it pass the information that plays a good role in video length management and engagement. Videos that try to divert from the topic may end up not hitting the nail on the head and not accomplishing their purpose.

• Center your interest on the student’s needs

Any educational content should be centered to meet the needs of the students. That goes beyond creating content, but covers the entirety of satisfying the needs of your learners.

Part 3. How to Make a Great Educational Video for YouTube?

The best and most recommendable video maker for making a great educational video is Wondershare Filmora.It is a video maker that enables you to create videos with effects like transition, filters, motion elements, and titles on your video.

Color grading and speed control of each clip on your video are possible using Filmora. You can apply other features like screen record, split-screen options, audio ducking, keyframing, motion tracking and more with an easy-to-use interface to fit the student’s interest.

To make a great educational video for YouTube, you can achieve this using Filmora. Follow the steps below.

Step 1. Launch Filmora and select the aspect ratio

Launch Filmora by double-clicking on the icon, and start working on a new project by selecting project aspect ratio.

Step 2. Create a new project and import footage

Click the “New Project” icon on the program’s welcome screen and wait for some time for the editor to load.

Then, move to choose your desired aspect ratio and click on the import footage icon located at the left corner of the video editor.

Step 3. Organize your project material

At the bottom of the “My Project” tab, click on “add a new folder”. In that new folder, arrange the footage alphabetically. This reduces time spent browsing files and increases efficiency.

Step 4. Preview and edit your video

Press the play icon to preview the video clip. Trim your video clip to the desired video size by dragging the end of the video clip left or right.

Then add customized text and add effects to the video if needed. An amazing effect can be added to each clip of the video to create an outstanding video.

Step 5. Export and share the video

When you’re okay with the already made video, click the Export button. Choose the YouTube option to upload it easily from the Filmora program.

Conclusion

Without a doubt, the process of creating an educational video requires that you pay attention to some things to create an excellent educational video that achieves the learning goal. Once you’ve learned what it means to make an educational video, how to go about it wouldn’t be something to worry about.

Thus, with the steps mentioned above, how to make a great educational video for YouTube has been answered. Now, you can go ahead and make amazing educational videos by yourself.

Marion Dubois

Marion Dubois is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Marion Dubois

Marion Dubois

Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions

YouTube is an app that makes it easy for teachers to carry out their work efficiently and conveniently. A teacher should start a YouTube channel because it is beneficial to their students and themselves. The materials or content dished on these channels helps give lessons and instructions in the absence of the teacher, give a detailed explanation and trigger the students’ interest.

Also, it archives all the lessons for a long time and makes them easily accessible by both the present, past, and future students. Students can quickly go back for a review for upcoming exams. Through feedbacks or comments, teachers can provide answers to students with the problem of clarity.

A teacher needs to know what an educational video is, what makes an excellent educational video, and how to make an educational video for YouTube before opening a YouTube channel. Now, let’s delve into it!

Part 1. What’s an Educational Video?

From the name “educational video,” you can coin out that it is a video made for the sole purpose of educating or passing out knowledge for the sake of learning. The primary purpose of these videos is to teach an audience about a particular problem or important topics they want to learn about.

Sometimes brands use this method to advertise their brand while being a source of information.

Part 2. What Makes a Good Educational Video?

An excellent educational video aids the learning process. It triggers learners in analyzing and evaluating concepts provided by the video. Videos are great educational tools that most teachers must adopt due to their role in facilitating the learning process.

To make a good educational video, you should keep the following points in mind:

• Keep your students engaged

An excellent educational video should be eye catchy and exciting to get your student’s undivided attention. You can achieve it in any way, one of which is that you need to put yourself into the teaching mode, which means that you should give out the impression of your excitement for the course content you are talking about. Ask them questions, let them feel involved in the process. Please don’t go ahead talking with a cold tune. It makes them tired of listening or seeing the video.

• Be sure to maintain a right-size of video length

It’s better shorter than longer. Have you ever seen a boring, long movie? It’s almost the same feeling you get seeing a long educational video.

The video should be straightforward to leverage the advantage of this form of learning. One needs to make this video of the right size for easy assimilation by the learner. Depending on the course topic, your video can be between 2 - 20 minutes long.

Most importantly, don’t try to do much and use more straightforward, understandable concepts.

• Stay focused

Making your videos focused and not running around many things helps it pass the information that plays a good role in video length management and engagement. Videos that try to divert from the topic may end up not hitting the nail on the head and not accomplishing their purpose.

• Center your interest on the student’s needs

Any educational content should be centered to meet the needs of the students. That goes beyond creating content, but covers the entirety of satisfying the needs of your learners.

Part 3. How to Make a Great Educational Video for YouTube?

The best and most recommendable video maker for making a great educational video is Wondershare Filmora.It is a video maker that enables you to create videos with effects like transition, filters, motion elements, and titles on your video.

Color grading and speed control of each clip on your video are possible using Filmora. You can apply other features like screen record, split-screen options, audio ducking, keyframing, motion tracking and more with an easy-to-use interface to fit the student’s interest.

To make a great educational video for YouTube, you can achieve this using Filmora. Follow the steps below.

Step 1. Launch Filmora and select the aspect ratio

Launch Filmora by double-clicking on the icon, and start working on a new project by selecting project aspect ratio.

Step 2. Create a new project and import footage

Click the “New Project” icon on the program’s welcome screen and wait for some time for the editor to load.

Then, move to choose your desired aspect ratio and click on the import footage icon located at the left corner of the video editor.

Step 3. Organize your project material

At the bottom of the “My Project” tab, click on “add a new folder”. In that new folder, arrange the footage alphabetically. This reduces time spent browsing files and increases efficiency.

Step 4. Preview and edit your video

Press the play icon to preview the video clip. Trim your video clip to the desired video size by dragging the end of the video clip left or right.

Then add customized text and add effects to the video if needed. An amazing effect can be added to each clip of the video to create an outstanding video.

Step 5. Export and share the video

When you’re okay with the already made video, click the Export button. Choose the YouTube option to upload it easily from the Filmora program.

Conclusion

Without a doubt, the process of creating an educational video requires that you pay attention to some things to create an excellent educational video that achieves the learning goal. Once you’ve learned what it means to make an educational video, how to go about it wouldn’t be something to worry about.

Thus, with the steps mentioned above, how to make a great educational video for YouTube has been answered. Now, you can go ahead and make amazing educational videos by yourself.

Marion Dubois

Marion Dubois is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Marion Dubois

Marion Dubois

Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions

YouTube is an app that makes it easy for teachers to carry out their work efficiently and conveniently. A teacher should start a YouTube channel because it is beneficial to their students and themselves. The materials or content dished on these channels helps give lessons and instructions in the absence of the teacher, give a detailed explanation and trigger the students’ interest.

Also, it archives all the lessons for a long time and makes them easily accessible by both the present, past, and future students. Students can quickly go back for a review for upcoming exams. Through feedbacks or comments, teachers can provide answers to students with the problem of clarity.

A teacher needs to know what an educational video is, what makes an excellent educational video, and how to make an educational video for YouTube before opening a YouTube channel. Now, let’s delve into it!

Part 1. What’s an Educational Video?

From the name “educational video,” you can coin out that it is a video made for the sole purpose of educating or passing out knowledge for the sake of learning. The primary purpose of these videos is to teach an audience about a particular problem or important topics they want to learn about.

Sometimes brands use this method to advertise their brand while being a source of information.

Part 2. What Makes a Good Educational Video?

An excellent educational video aids the learning process. It triggers learners in analyzing and evaluating concepts provided by the video. Videos are great educational tools that most teachers must adopt due to their role in facilitating the learning process.

To make a good educational video, you should keep the following points in mind:

• Keep your students engaged

An excellent educational video should be eye catchy and exciting to get your student’s undivided attention. You can achieve it in any way, one of which is that you need to put yourself into the teaching mode, which means that you should give out the impression of your excitement for the course content you are talking about. Ask them questions, let them feel involved in the process. Please don’t go ahead talking with a cold tune. It makes them tired of listening or seeing the video.

• Be sure to maintain a right-size of video length

It’s better shorter than longer. Have you ever seen a boring, long movie? It’s almost the same feeling you get seeing a long educational video.

The video should be straightforward to leverage the advantage of this form of learning. One needs to make this video of the right size for easy assimilation by the learner. Depending on the course topic, your video can be between 2 - 20 minutes long.

Most importantly, don’t try to do much and use more straightforward, understandable concepts.

• Stay focused

Making your videos focused and not running around many things helps it pass the information that plays a good role in video length management and engagement. Videos that try to divert from the topic may end up not hitting the nail on the head and not accomplishing their purpose.

• Center your interest on the student’s needs

Any educational content should be centered to meet the needs of the students. That goes beyond creating content, but covers the entirety of satisfying the needs of your learners.

Part 3. How to Make a Great Educational Video for YouTube?

The best and most recommendable video maker for making a great educational video is Wondershare Filmora.It is a video maker that enables you to create videos with effects like transition, filters, motion elements, and titles on your video.

Color grading and speed control of each clip on your video are possible using Filmora. You can apply other features like screen record, split-screen options, audio ducking, keyframing, motion tracking and more with an easy-to-use interface to fit the student’s interest.

To make a great educational video for YouTube, you can achieve this using Filmora. Follow the steps below.

Step 1. Launch Filmora and select the aspect ratio

Launch Filmora by double-clicking on the icon, and start working on a new project by selecting project aspect ratio.

Step 2. Create a new project and import footage

Click the “New Project” icon on the program’s welcome screen and wait for some time for the editor to load.

Then, move to choose your desired aspect ratio and click on the import footage icon located at the left corner of the video editor.

Step 3. Organize your project material

At the bottom of the “My Project” tab, click on “add a new folder”. In that new folder, arrange the footage alphabetically. This reduces time spent browsing files and increases efficiency.

Step 4. Preview and edit your video

Press the play icon to preview the video clip. Trim your video clip to the desired video size by dragging the end of the video clip left or right.

Then add customized text and add effects to the video if needed. An amazing effect can be added to each clip of the video to create an outstanding video.

Step 5. Export and share the video

When you’re okay with the already made video, click the Export button. Choose the YouTube option to upload it easily from the Filmora program.

Conclusion

Without a doubt, the process of creating an educational video requires that you pay attention to some things to create an excellent educational video that achieves the learning goal. Once you’ve learned what it means to make an educational video, how to go about it wouldn’t be something to worry about.

Thus, with the steps mentioned above, how to make a great educational video for YouTube has been answered. Now, you can go ahead and make amazing educational videos by yourself.

Marion Dubois

Marion Dubois is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Marion Dubois

How YouTube Manages Content Post-Upload

How Does YouTube Work After a Video Is Uploaded

Richard Bennett

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

You use YouTube to watch videos, post your own content, and build up a following. That is how YouTube works for you. This article is about how YouTube works technically. There are a lot of steps which occur between you clicking ‘upload’ and a viewer clicking ‘play’. Understanding this process can be useful to YouTubers because it can help shed light on where problems may be occurring when you have issues uploading or watching videos. Generally when there is a problem it is on your end and there are multiple simple things you can do to fix it.

This article will explain what goes on behind the scenes when you upload a video, where that video really goes, and what happens when somebody clicks play.

How Does YouTube Work

1. What Happens When You Upload?

When you upload a video your computer or device packages it into IP packets. Packets are fragments of information containing both data from your video and the address you are sending it to, in this case YouTube. The packets are encoded into radio signals which are sent through a wifi or cellular network. Your video travels through switches and routers on the internet until they reach YouTube’s servers. Your video is then reassembled and stored.

If uploading takes a long time for you it probably has nothing to do with YouTube; there is a lot that needs to happen for your video to even get there. How long the upload process takes depends on a number of factors including how many devices share your internet connection, how strong your wifi signal is, and the age of your router. If your uploads are taking too long consider compressing your videos before you upload them. You can also try uploading from your college campus or public libraries as institutions like these tend to have fast internet speeds.

2. Where is Your Video Stored?

As it is owned by Google YouTube uses Google’s ‘Bigtable’, a compressed data storage system which allows it to store the 500+ hours of video uploaded to its servers every minute. Bigtable is software, though, not hardware. YouTube and Google both have massive amounts of data and it needs to be physically housed somewhere.

Google has Modular Data Centers all over the world where it keeps its servers. These centers could cost as much as $600 million dollars each and consume huge amounts of electricity. There are six of them in the United States, three in Europe, two in Asia, and one is South America.

3. What Happens When Someone Watches Your Video?

When a viewer clicks on your video their computer sends an encoded request through the internet to YouTube’s servers. After YouTube receives the play request it chooses which format to play the video in based on the viewer’s browser. Your video is again turned into packets, which are again sent as radio signals over the internet to your viewer. Your viewer’s computer or device reforms the packets into your video and their browser plays it.

If videos take a long time to load for you then there are a few things you can do to speed them up. First, consider changing the channel of your wifi router. Most people stay on the channel their router was set to when they first got it and so there is a good chance you and your neighbors are all on the same channel. This causes your networks to interfere with each other. You can also delete the temporary files on your computer. Besides helping you stream video faster this will free up storage space. Another thing you can do is make sure there are as few devices connected to your network as possible while you are watching videos. Besides mobile phones and laptops you may have appliances, like coffee machines and refrigerators, which are wifi enabled. Disconnect them temporarily and it will help your videos to load faster.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

You use YouTube to watch videos, post your own content, and build up a following. That is how YouTube works for you. This article is about how YouTube works technically. There are a lot of steps which occur between you clicking ‘upload’ and a viewer clicking ‘play’. Understanding this process can be useful to YouTubers because it can help shed light on where problems may be occurring when you have issues uploading or watching videos. Generally when there is a problem it is on your end and there are multiple simple things you can do to fix it.

This article will explain what goes on behind the scenes when you upload a video, where that video really goes, and what happens when somebody clicks play.

How Does YouTube Work

1. What Happens When You Upload?

When you upload a video your computer or device packages it into IP packets. Packets are fragments of information containing both data from your video and the address you are sending it to, in this case YouTube. The packets are encoded into radio signals which are sent through a wifi or cellular network. Your video travels through switches and routers on the internet until they reach YouTube’s servers. Your video is then reassembled and stored.

If uploading takes a long time for you it probably has nothing to do with YouTube; there is a lot that needs to happen for your video to even get there. How long the upload process takes depends on a number of factors including how many devices share your internet connection, how strong your wifi signal is, and the age of your router. If your uploads are taking too long consider compressing your videos before you upload them. You can also try uploading from your college campus or public libraries as institutions like these tend to have fast internet speeds.

2. Where is Your Video Stored?

As it is owned by Google YouTube uses Google’s ‘Bigtable’, a compressed data storage system which allows it to store the 500+ hours of video uploaded to its servers every minute. Bigtable is software, though, not hardware. YouTube and Google both have massive amounts of data and it needs to be physically housed somewhere.

Google has Modular Data Centers all over the world where it keeps its servers. These centers could cost as much as $600 million dollars each and consume huge amounts of electricity. There are six of them in the United States, three in Europe, two in Asia, and one is South America.

3. What Happens When Someone Watches Your Video?

When a viewer clicks on your video their computer sends an encoded request through the internet to YouTube’s servers. After YouTube receives the play request it chooses which format to play the video in based on the viewer’s browser. Your video is again turned into packets, which are again sent as radio signals over the internet to your viewer. Your viewer’s computer or device reforms the packets into your video and their browser plays it.

If videos take a long time to load for you then there are a few things you can do to speed them up. First, consider changing the channel of your wifi router. Most people stay on the channel their router was set to when they first got it and so there is a good chance you and your neighbors are all on the same channel. This causes your networks to interfere with each other. You can also delete the temporary files on your computer. Besides helping you stream video faster this will free up storage space. Another thing you can do is make sure there are as few devices connected to your network as possible while you are watching videos. Besides mobile phones and laptops you may have appliances, like coffee machines and refrigerators, which are wifi enabled. Disconnect them temporarily and it will help your videos to load faster.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

You use YouTube to watch videos, post your own content, and build up a following. That is how YouTube works for you. This article is about how YouTube works technically. There are a lot of steps which occur between you clicking ‘upload’ and a viewer clicking ‘play’. Understanding this process can be useful to YouTubers because it can help shed light on where problems may be occurring when you have issues uploading or watching videos. Generally when there is a problem it is on your end and there are multiple simple things you can do to fix it.

This article will explain what goes on behind the scenes when you upload a video, where that video really goes, and what happens when somebody clicks play.

How Does YouTube Work

1. What Happens When You Upload?

When you upload a video your computer or device packages it into IP packets. Packets are fragments of information containing both data from your video and the address you are sending it to, in this case YouTube. The packets are encoded into radio signals which are sent through a wifi or cellular network. Your video travels through switches and routers on the internet until they reach YouTube’s servers. Your video is then reassembled and stored.

If uploading takes a long time for you it probably has nothing to do with YouTube; there is a lot that needs to happen for your video to even get there. How long the upload process takes depends on a number of factors including how many devices share your internet connection, how strong your wifi signal is, and the age of your router. If your uploads are taking too long consider compressing your videos before you upload them. You can also try uploading from your college campus or public libraries as institutions like these tend to have fast internet speeds.

2. Where is Your Video Stored?

As it is owned by Google YouTube uses Google’s ‘Bigtable’, a compressed data storage system which allows it to store the 500+ hours of video uploaded to its servers every minute. Bigtable is software, though, not hardware. YouTube and Google both have massive amounts of data and it needs to be physically housed somewhere.

Google has Modular Data Centers all over the world where it keeps its servers. These centers could cost as much as $600 million dollars each and consume huge amounts of electricity. There are six of them in the United States, three in Europe, two in Asia, and one is South America.

3. What Happens When Someone Watches Your Video?

When a viewer clicks on your video their computer sends an encoded request through the internet to YouTube’s servers. After YouTube receives the play request it chooses which format to play the video in based on the viewer’s browser. Your video is again turned into packets, which are again sent as radio signals over the internet to your viewer. Your viewer’s computer or device reforms the packets into your video and their browser plays it.

If videos take a long time to load for you then there are a few things you can do to speed them up. First, consider changing the channel of your wifi router. Most people stay on the channel their router was set to when they first got it and so there is a good chance you and your neighbors are all on the same channel. This causes your networks to interfere with each other. You can also delete the temporary files on your computer. Besides helping you stream video faster this will free up storage space. Another thing you can do is make sure there are as few devices connected to your network as possible while you are watching videos. Besides mobile phones and laptops you may have appliances, like coffee machines and refrigerators, which are wifi enabled. Disconnect them temporarily and it will help your videos to load faster.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

You use YouTube to watch videos, post your own content, and build up a following. That is how YouTube works for you. This article is about how YouTube works technically. There are a lot of steps which occur between you clicking ‘upload’ and a viewer clicking ‘play’. Understanding this process can be useful to YouTubers because it can help shed light on where problems may be occurring when you have issues uploading or watching videos. Generally when there is a problem it is on your end and there are multiple simple things you can do to fix it.

This article will explain what goes on behind the scenes when you upload a video, where that video really goes, and what happens when somebody clicks play.

How Does YouTube Work

1. What Happens When You Upload?

When you upload a video your computer or device packages it into IP packets. Packets are fragments of information containing both data from your video and the address you are sending it to, in this case YouTube. The packets are encoded into radio signals which are sent through a wifi or cellular network. Your video travels through switches and routers on the internet until they reach YouTube’s servers. Your video is then reassembled and stored.

If uploading takes a long time for you it probably has nothing to do with YouTube; there is a lot that needs to happen for your video to even get there. How long the upload process takes depends on a number of factors including how many devices share your internet connection, how strong your wifi signal is, and the age of your router. If your uploads are taking too long consider compressing your videos before you upload them. You can also try uploading from your college campus or public libraries as institutions like these tend to have fast internet speeds.

2. Where is Your Video Stored?

As it is owned by Google YouTube uses Google’s ‘Bigtable’, a compressed data storage system which allows it to store the 500+ hours of video uploaded to its servers every minute. Bigtable is software, though, not hardware. YouTube and Google both have massive amounts of data and it needs to be physically housed somewhere.

Google has Modular Data Centers all over the world where it keeps its servers. These centers could cost as much as $600 million dollars each and consume huge amounts of electricity. There are six of them in the United States, three in Europe, two in Asia, and one is South America.

3. What Happens When Someone Watches Your Video?

When a viewer clicks on your video their computer sends an encoded request through the internet to YouTube’s servers. After YouTube receives the play request it chooses which format to play the video in based on the viewer’s browser. Your video is again turned into packets, which are again sent as radio signals over the internet to your viewer. Your viewer’s computer or device reforms the packets into your video and their browser plays it.

If videos take a long time to load for you then there are a few things you can do to speed them up. First, consider changing the channel of your wifi router. Most people stay on the channel their router was set to when they first got it and so there is a good chance you and your neighbors are all on the same channel. This causes your networks to interfere with each other. You can also delete the temporary files on your computer. Besides helping you stream video faster this will free up storage space. Another thing you can do is make sure there are as few devices connected to your network as possible while you are watching videos. Besides mobile phones and laptops you may have appliances, like coffee machines and refrigerators, which are wifi enabled. Disconnect them temporarily and it will help your videos to load faster.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

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