Just uploaded a version that I'm happy enough with for now, but I'll keep researching the sound quality issue as I re-upload my other vids.

This result is starting with a 799mb dvpal video exported from adobe premiere with the titles added and PCM wav 1411kbps 44100khz audio.

Then into a great wee program called Ripbot264.

All default settings except :
save as mkv
CRF 18
(in properties) resize to 1440x1080
deinterlace BFF -> 25fps
denoise Film
Colours use TV -> PC conversion

The 179mb was processed very quickly by youtube.



Video enhancer made a better job of the upsizing, but so far I haven't got good results with it's deinterlacing filters (will keep experimenting).

Both 720p and 1080p audio always ended up at 128kbps during all my test uploads with different codecs.
360p was either 54kbps or 100kbps, with 54kbps sounding bad.

You would probably do best to deinterlace with Yadif in VirtualDub 1.9x
Possibly do video filtering (remove noise) here, too, for best quality.
Save that as a HuffYUV or DV AVI pre-master file.

Then you can resize and encode to MKV in RipBot, if that's a method you like.
I use MainConcept Reference, but that's a $2K program.

Another deinterlace option is Avisynth, with Yadif+NNENID2. It's more complicated, but I can run over the basics real quick if that interests you.