Poll - what resolution to your upload to YouTube as ?

[RonanCork]

Hey Guys,

Am really curious as to what resolution do you upload your YouTube videos as ?

Thanks Ronan

 

[RadioFlyerMan]

I've seen posts similar to this. There were a lot of opinions in both directions... high res to offer the best to YouTube and let them re-render it; or lower res because you are kidding yourself and gain nothing with high res.

I go high res... like Remo said in Casino... "Why take a chance?"

 

[Gringorio]

For personal stuff I shoot and upload 2.7. 2.7k allows to shoot at 60fps. Then, takes less time to upload, less storage. Plus the viewer can choose less resolution depending on their internet service.

 

[Thomas B]

Doesn’t YouTube display everything as 1080p regardless of original file type? Maybe I’m confused on this point.

 

[Gringorio]

Doesn’t YouTube display everything as 1080p regardless of original file type? Maybe I’m confused on this point.

I think it depends on the quality of the uploaded file. I subscribe to channels that only do 720p and others that upload 4k. But I usually select the option to watch in 1080p if the uploaded video offers that quality.

Someone else might know better details on how YouTube chooses at what resolution to initially display any given video.

 

[pjarvo18]

I upload in full 4K personally. The device being used to view should then give the person the option of what resolution they want to watch it in. If somebody has a 4K smart tv and want to watch in full resolution, let them. Tho I only upload to YouTube to have a storage of my video outside of an SD card.

 

[ZX14-R]

Doesn’t YouTube display everything as 1080p regardless of original file type? Maybe I’m confused on this point.

If it displayed everything in 1080 why would it give you the option for 2160 4K display ??

 

[Thomas B]

If it displayed everything in 1080 why would it give you the option for 2160 4K display ??

Must be a setting I’m missing... the reason I asked is that I haven’t seen this option.

 

[pjarvo18]

YouTube will only let you view in the maximum resolution your device supports. Also, Apple has funny concepts with what it allows to use in 4K. On older iPhones and iPads, even though they support 4K, it will not let you use 4K footage that was not recorded on the actual device. There are workarounds, but I use an iPhone 7 to edit 4K footage from my MP1 and have to use an SD card reader to import footage to iMovie, then export in 4K back to my camera roll. If I only import the footage to my camera roll it will downgrade to 1080P.

 

[RonanCork]

Hey All,

Some interesting feedback there. I upload as 4k my recent videos (I was previously just uploading as 1080p). I notice on my phone (Huawei p20) sometimes (or maybe always, can't remember) doesn't allow (in the quality options of the video) 2160p but only allows 1080p and lower. But on my laptop (Lenovo) it does allow the 4k option. It's good to know.

Thanks Ronan

 

[Fruxen]

You should know that Youtube doesn't show the actual video file you uploaded. Uploaded videos are always re-encoded to Youtube's own formats and different resolutions.

So if you upload a standard 1080p video file already "internet optimized" in fairly low bitrate with some compression artifacts, it will still be recompressed to another 1080p video file on Youtube, with even more compression artifacts added on top.

That's why you should always try to give the re-encoder a clean video in high resolution and fairly high bitrate to work with. In practice that means 2,7K-4K in 40-60 Mbps. It will produce the best quality video, even when downscaled to lower resolutions like 1080p.

Drone shots are often the worst case since they often have complex movements with foliage and trees that is difficult to compress to video. Other channel content, like people talking in a static studio, is less prone to artifacting, and people usually don't watch that stuff because of video quality anyway. Which means the old 1080p standard is just fine for a lot of stuff on Youtube. But I always find it annoying when I watch tutorials about drone video quality and then they have uploaded it in a heavily compressed low resolution 1080p where all details and refinement are completely smeared out...

Youtube supports up to 8K btw.

 

[RonanCork]

You should know that Youtube doesn't show the actual video file you uploaded. Uploaded videos are always re-encoded to Youtube's own formats and different resolutions.

So if you upload a standard 1080p video file already "internet optimized" in fairly low bitrate with some compression artifacts, it will still be recompressed to another 1080p video file on Youtube, with even more compression artifacts added on top.

That's why you should always try to give the re-encoder a clean video in high resolution and fairly high bitrate to work with. In practice that means 2,7K-4K in 40-60 Mbps. It will produce the best quality video, even when downscaled to lower resolutions like 1080p.

Drone shots are often the worst case since they often have complex movements with foliage and trees that is difficult to compress to video. Other channel content, like people talking in a static studio, is less prone to artifacting, and people usually don't watch that stuff because of video quality anyway. Which means the old 1080p standard is just fine for a lot of stuff on Youtube. But I always find it annoying when I watch tutorials about drone video quality and then they have uploaded it in a heavily compressed low resolution 1080p where all details and refinement are completely smeared out...

Youtube supports up to 8K btw.

Hey - thanks for that detailed explanation. Your spot on when you mention about trees and foilage in drone shots. Iin the case of some of my videos - that is exactly where I notice the issues of pixelation.
Thanks - Ro

 

[mtb.arizona]

I think it depends on the quality of the uploaded file. I subscribe to channels that only do 720p and others that upload 4k. But I usually select the option to watch in 1080p if the uploaded video offers that quality.

Someone else might know better details on how YouTube chooses at what resolution to initially display any given video.

first factor is what resolutions the video has available. obviously a 1080p video wont be coming to you at 4k, etc.

next up is the client/device. specifically, the resolutions the client can natively display. you can usually still choose a res higher than your screen manually, but the software will try to use the highest res your screen (and source video) can display.

this gets sidetracked by some internet providers that use traffic shaping though. some cell carriers may limit 4g youtube streaming to 720p for example.

somewhat related to the isp traffic shaping is available bandwidthm if the source video is 4k, device can display 4k res, your hardware can decode and render 4k, but your connection is like a 56k modem, itll pick a lower res until it finds one where it can keep a reasonable frame buffer consistently.

 

[brett8883]

Must be a setting I’m missing... the reason I asked is that I haven’t seen this option.

You have to use Chrome to see 4k videos on YouTube. Google uses VP9 codec for high res videos and Apple is boycotting VP9 even though it's an open source and royalty free codec, sad. So Safari is not capable of viewing 4k videos on YouTube.

 

[johnmeyer]

Upload all the versions you listed, and then look at the results and see if you can tell a difference. No need to do a poll.

Since most videos are viewed on small screens these days, 720p is more than sufficient. And, if you know what you're doing, 720p looks just fine on a 55" screen (it's what many "broadcast" TV shows use).

 

[Johnmcl7]

Youtube will normally choose a resolution based on your connection speed but it's possible at least within Windows to choose a higher resolution than the display, I can choose 4K on 16:9 and 21:9 1440p displays.

I see the logic in doing everything in 4K but I tend to just use 1080p as I find it's more compatible and not a big downgrade in quality, if I do a 4K render I usually do a lower 1080p one to stick on my phone and for sharing.

 

[Fruxen]

Upload all the versions you listed, and then look at the results and see if you can tell a difference. No need to do a poll.

Since most videos are viewed on small screens these days, 720p is more than sufficient. And, if you know what you're doing, 720p looks just fine on a 55" screen (it's what many "broadcast" TV shows use).

IMO the low bitrates is perhaps a bigger problem than resolution alone. 720p on Youtube is just 6,5 Mbps bitrate and can't handle too much movements at once. Slow moving scenes might look ok, and also the typical TV shows with talking people in front of a static background. Those things are easy for the video codec to compress.

But as soon as there are complex movements the image falls apart very quickly at 6,5 Mbps. Drone footage with moving bushes and trees leave trails of pixel goo. Flowing water stutters. Fine textures like grass fields and water surfaces are smeared out and turns into color blobs. The scene loses it's depth and looks flat. For me this is distracting even on a small display, and looks really bad on a 55" TV. 720p is ok for talkshows but not for drone footage in my opinion.

 

[johnmeyer]

IMO the low bitrates is perhaps a bigger problem than resolution alone. 720p on Youtube is just 6,5 Mbps bitrate and can't handle too much movements at once. Slow moving scenes might look ok, and also the typical TV shows with talking people in front of a static background. Those things are easy for the video codec to compress.

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?

 

[brett8883]

I always upload my videos to YouTube in ProRes 422. It might be overkill for most people but it does help that extra 2%. A compressor is always more efficient if it starts with an uncompressed file. Totally uncompressed isn’t realistic so the next best thing is to use an intermediate codec which has been designed in a way that it expects to be compressed and encoded for output later.

Admittedly uploading a ProRes file takes about 6x longer than uploading a h.264 for only about a 2% increase in perceived quality but if you want the very best quality on YouTube that’s how you can do it.

 

[GadgetGuy]

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?

You can control the YT bitrate indirectly. I never use the YT recommended 4K upload choice in PP CC, which is awful. Instead, I have created a custom output in 4K at 100mbps, at a Constant Bit Rate, and a keyframe every 12 frames, in maximum render quality. My rendered output to upload to YT is then roughly the same file size as the original video on the microSD card. The higher the bit rate the original upload is, the less YT destroys it. After YT fully renders my 4K upload to 4K, it looks great on my 4K TV, through the YT app.