Questions About Youtube and Storage

I've got a two part question if you wouldn't mind helping me out.

I'm currently using a T3i, it's new to me as of a few months ago. The video quality is really impressive to me except for when I try to put them on Youtube. They get really compressed. I've seen other T3i videos on Youtube which look really good so I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong.

For video editing software I'm using Magix. I've tried exporting the video clips after I've edited them into several different formats (mpg, mov, etc) and sizes (I try to use the largest available), but still can't seem to get that smooth impecable quality that I've seen posted by others. Here's an example ( http://www.youtube.com …=wFUME1oJCas&fe​ature=plcp )of one of my "best" ones. You can see how the quality just isn't that great.

Can someone please share what your process is for posting videos on Youtube?

The other part of my question has to do with storage. I primarily use the video for whale watching trips and will wait until the season is over to make a DVD out of them. I'm wondering which would be the best route for storing them. I was thinking of getting those USB devices (which I'd need many large ones) or an external harddrive. I'm just curious what the norm seems to be with you more experienced guys.

If you are really serious about your video storage, get two hard drives. One for storage and one for backup, but do not mirror them.

What were your rendering settings in that video?

1. Video quality is compressed quite a bit by YouTube. The best thing you can do is upload the largest file size you can prior to compression. You will never get the exact same quality that you saw prior to uploading the file.

2. I use Sony Vegas. I literally take the files straight out of the DSLR and work on it in Sony Vegas. I output it as .mpg or .m2t file. Then I take that file and I compress it to a YouTube size video that will upload quickly. I have slow upload speeds and most people never really mention anything about quality.

3. I'm critical about the video quality and I always feel that it's terrible, even when it's at 1080p (this is on my computer monitor). However, if I watch the video on a HDTV, the quality is very good and crisp.

4. I just store my videos on my local hard drive. Others have suggested to use RAID/Drobo/Online Storage.