The FlipShare software that comes with the Flip cameras allows you to do some really cool things with ease.   One of the features it has is the ability to let you easily upload a video to YouTube from the FlipShare menu.   It’s a convenient feature that doesn’t require the user to open aweb browser and go digging for the file.

Unfortunately, uploading a video to YouTube this way can have negative affects on the video, particularly the sound.   As an example, take a look and listen to the following video.   This video was uploaded with the FlipShare software.

Now watch and listen to this video, which was uploaded via the YouTube website by browsing to the raw AVI file on my desktop.

In the second video, you will notice that I don’t sound like I’m talking underwater, as I do in the first video. The sound in the second video is clear, but the first video the sound is quite garbled or hissy.

In looking at the screenshot above, it appears that FlipShare or YouTube does something to the file when it is uploaded via the FlipShare program.   The raw AVI file is changed into a file named Video 67, and for some reason it does not have a file extension.           This file name change could be the result of the compression that the FlipShare program uses, and the result is degraded audio that has a slight hiss.   I have no idea what causes this, but my only advice would be to upload your Flip videos via the YouTube website, rather than through the FlipShare program.