Once your video has been uploaded, it won't be available right away. YouTube will take some time to process your video (Figure 5-3). Processing involves converting your video into YouTube's special version of Flash video (.flv) format, extracting your three thumbnail options (which we'll cover in just a moment—be patient young 'Tuber), and assigning your video a unique URL so you can easily link to the video. The acres of mighty banks of rack-mount server computers located in YouTube's underground lair, probably in a secret, undisclosed location resembling the Bat Cave on Batman, do this all day, every day, automatically, like magic.
The time it takes to process your video depends on numerous variables, including the length and format of your video, how busy the servers are processing other people's videos, and the quality of your original video. Processing times usually range from 10 to 20 minutes but may sometimes be longer. (Michael Dean has a theory that "better videos take longer," because the computers actually watch them if they're good, but this probably isn't true. That guy has a fairly active imagination.)
Once your video is processed, YouTube then refers to it as "Live!" (Figure 5-4). You can check the status of your videos at any time by clicking the Account link at the top of every page and then choosing My Videos. The status of each video will be listed underneath its title.
