Recently, for shorter videos I've been rendering direct using the Sony AVC codec at 30fps (from 25fps recorded) 16Mbps, and I that has worked quite well and is quite quick, but not as quick as the direct output & Handbrake combo. But the file sizes are pretty big. I do detect a slight increase in image quality using the Sony AVC codec, but I'm not sure if that's just my imagination...
Youtube re-encodes to 30fps anyway, so I figured I might as well do it locally, and it seems to process faster now.