Poll - what resolution to your upload to YouTube as ?

[Fruxen]

I'm not sure what you are suggesting that the OP do. Can you control the bitrate? AFAIK, you cannot. Therefore, if the bitrate is low, then that would argue for using lower resolutions since, at a fixed bitrate, you'll have fewer motion-induced artifacts if there are fewer pixels.

Is that what you meant?

If the bitrate on Youtube was the same regardless of resolution, yes I would agree. But it's not. You increase the bitrate indirectly by uploading videos at a higher resolution.

720p is streamed from Youtube at 6,5 Mbps
1080p - 10 Mbps
2,7K - 20 Mbps
4K - 45-56 Mbps

So 4K has almost 10 times more bitrate than 720p. Sure 4K has more pixels for the codec to handle, but you still end up feeding almost ten times more video data per second to the viewing device. Which greatly improves video quality.

Youtube servers store a re-encoded version for each of the different resolutions available, which is all the way from 256x144 pixels up to the max resolution of the uploaded video file. Then the player auto-picks a video resolution that it thinks suits the current playback device and detected internet connection speed. So people can watch a video smoothly in good enough 480p-720p on their small mobile phone, or enjoy it in full 4K on the big TV or computer screen. The video just has to be uploaded in 4K to begin with.

 

[Elude]

4K unless it’s shot at 1080 (certain quick shots and when I’m zooming extra cause I don’t post edit )

 

[EveryDayDrones]

I know this is an older thread, however I’ll still add my answer. When I am uploading a drone video to YouTube my choice of quality will change to match the footage, example - for slow cinematic footage I will use the highest quality possible which usually includes a lower rate of Frame Per Seconds, For high Speed FPV flying I will usually lower my video quality which in most cases increases Frames Per Second for smoother footage (since I’m flying fast) - EveryDayDrones

 

[brett8883]

I know this is an older thread, however I’ll still add my answer. When I am uploading a drone video to YouTube my choice of quality will change to match the footage, example - for slow cinematic footage I will use the highest quality possible which usually includes a lower rate of Frame Per Seconds, For high Speed FPV flying I will usually lower my video quality which in most cases increases Frames Per Second for smoother footage (since I’m flying fast) - EveryDayDrones

I would just upload in the frame rate you want at the highest quality and resolution you are willing to upload.

YouTube gives a higher bit rate allowance to 4k videos and videos over 30 fps so uploading a 4k 60 fps video in say 1080 60p doesn’t make any sense. YouTube is going to give viewers the best quality their device and internet connection allows.