Air 2 U-Tube ruins my videos!!

[A.O.]

As a test per this thread, I just took a 4K 60fps video with my MA2 this afternoon, and then directly uploaded it (completely unedited) to YouTube at https:/youtu.be/BvnvjL-4kRc. Nerd Stats says it is playing back to me at 1080p 60 fps. It doesn't give me the option to play it back at 4K, which I believe it should if I'm willing to accept jerky playback. So did it get uploaded at 4K and YouTube is just adjusting it based upon my download bandwidth, or did it get uploaded at 1080p ... and if so why? Did it get adjusted based upon my upload speed? If so, that could explain why A.O. with his 0.69 upload speed had problems.

My original 4K file certainly is sharper than the YouTube version.* Although the video was taken in the late afternoon and the winter sun makes the colors even more washed out than you'd expect dry Arizona terrain to look.

Thanks for any comments.

*p.s. I have a several different video players and it's quite interesting the different quality (mostly with regard to jerkiness) between them. Surprisingly to me, Windows' "Movies & TV" seems to play the best ... even better than VLC. I think that's probably because Movies & TV plays true full screen on my 4K monitor, whereas the others insist on windowing it ... which I'm sure requires some on-the-fly rendering.

Interesting as yesterday I did the same, changed my settings to 4k and 60fps took a couple videos and uploaded them straight to you tube from the chips. Now they all still say "Processing HD version" no clue how long that will take.. here is the SD versions.. unedited so no musak..

I also noticed it has 2 options , "wide" view, and "zoom" view. in the zoom mode I can only goo to 30fps, while in wide I can shoot all the way up to 60fps, which is what these are

 

[Ty Pilot]

As a test per this thread, I just took a 4K 60fps video with my MA2 this afternoon, and then directly uploaded it (completely unedited) to YouTube at https:/youtu.be/BvnvjL-4kRc. Nerd Stats says it is playing back to me at 1080p 60 fps. It doesn't give me the option to play it back at 4K, which I believe it should if I'm willing to accept jerky playback. So did it get uploaded at 4K and YouTube is just adjusting it based upon my download bandwidth, or did it get uploaded at 1080p ... and if so why? Did it get adjusted based upon my upload speed? If so, that could explain why A.O. with his 0.69 upload speed had problems.

My original 4K file certainly is sharper than the YouTube version.* Although the video was taken in the late afternoon and the winter sun makes the colors even more washed out than you'd expect dry Arizona terrain to look.

Thanks for any comments.

*p.s. I have a several different video players and it's quite interesting the different quality (mostly with regard to jerkiness) between them. Surprisingly to me, Windows' "Movies & TV" seems to play the best ... even better than VLC. I think that's probably because Movies & TV plays true full screen on my 4K monitor, whereas the others insist on windowing it ... which I'm sure requires some on-the-fly rendering.

Keep in mind, there are two stages in the process of uploading UHD videos to Youtube. The first stage is the actual upload and the time this takes falls to your internet upload speed, Youtube will take it as fast as you can give it. The second stage is the processing stage and this all depends on the size of your video as well as the container and codecs used and other factors. I just uploaded a 6 minute 4K video that was just under 6GB and it took less than an hour to upload but almost 14 hours before the final UHD versions were available.

 

[AZDave]

Keep in mind, there are two stages in the process of uploading UHD videos to Youtube. The first stage is the actual upload and the time this takes falls to your internet upload speed, Youtube will take it as fast as you can give it. The second stage is the processing stage and this all depends on the size of your video as well as the container and codecs used and other factors. I just uploaded a 6 minute 4K video that was just under 6GB and it took less than an hour to upload but almost 14 hours before the final UHD versions were available.

All true, of course. The video I linked above (https:/youtu.be/BvnvjL-4kRc) was shot in 4K 60 fps, was about 3.5 GB, and took about an hour to upload. I didn't check how long it took to process to HD, but maybe two or three hours (just guessing). I checked it again just now (next day) and Nerd Stats ("optimal res") still shows it as being 1080p 60 fps instead of 4K, even when I try to change the playback resolution. The change to a maximum of 1080p is the part I'm trying to understand.

I have a different video (similar file size) on YouTube that I shot about a month ago at 4K/60 and Nerd Stats says it uploaded as 4K ("optimal res" = 3840x2160)... and although it sometimes defaults to a bit lower res on playback (2560x1440) I can force it to playback at 4K with an occasional bit of halt for buffering. My wireless ISP speed is decent, but it can be variable depending upon local demand and it's not cable quality.

So maybe YouTube makes some decisions based upon upload speeds, maybe with some consideration for file size as well ... and as you say, choice of codec. I think I'll do some internet sleuthing on the subject.

Speaking of codecs, I've been shooting videos on the MA2 in Normal at 4K 60fps, which forces the MA2 to use H.265. To get to H.264 it seems I have to drop down to 4K 30 fps ... which also then lets me chose either Normal or HDR. Possibly YouTube handles H.265 differently than H.264.

 

[Ty Pilot]

What Youtube does is process your video at each of the resolutions; a 4K video has (I think) there are 7 choices from 144 up to full 4K which as you noted is 3840 x 2160, the process is to do the small res versions first. This is why right after upload you'll see maybe a 144 or 320 res and then shortly after it'll have 480, 720 and so on.

The reason you have no choice to raise the resolution is currently is that; for whatever reason, those higher res versions are not done processing. I have been using Youtube for about 13 years now and one thing is for certain - their processes seem to always be changing and sometimes it just takes more time. As I mentioned I uploaded a 4K video a few days ago and the next day it still only had up to the 1080 version, I thought I may have done something during upload and thought about deleting and trying again but I waited and sure enough a few hours later it was all there.

Meanwhile I uploaded bigger 4K videos over the last 2 years and none took that long to process and my internet speed has not changed so go figure.

 

[AZDave]

What Youtube does is process your video at each of the resolutions; a 4K video has (I think) there are 7 choices from 144 up to full 4K which as you noted is 3840 x 2160, the process is to do the small res versions first. This is why right after upload you'll see maybe a 144 or 320 res and then shortly after it'll have 480, 720 and so on.

The reason you have no choice to raise the resolution is currently is that; for whatever reason, those higher res versions are not done processing. I have been using Youtube for about 13 years now and one thing is for certain - their processes seem to always be changing and sometimes it just takes more time. As I mentioned I uploaded a 4K video a few days ago and the next day it still only had up to the 1080 version, I thought I may have done something during upload and thought about deleting and trying again but I waited and sure enough a few hours later it was all there.

Meanwhile I uploaded bigger 4K videos over the last 2 years and none took that long to process and my internet speed has not changed so go figure.

Wow ... I had no idea that it could take that long to process. I wouldn't be surprised if they have some sort of priority system, though, where maybe accounts with a larger viewership get handled first. I'd do it that way too if I owned YouTube. I'll keep checking over the next several days.

Anyway, thanks for your thoughtful replies! Take care.

 

[ninja_geezer]

i have uploaded a few not many to youtube and all mine look great on my 55 inch sony dolby vision TV ,takes an age to upload in 4 k though.

 

[dstuart]

So here are a couple of my woods videos, shot them in 1080 at 60fps and until I loaded them to U-Tube they were reasonably smooth and crystal clear... Now they are basically unwatchable.. Wish you cold see them before U-tube got them.
If this is how they are going to come from u -tube what is the point, cant hardly even watch them!!!

What to do???

You Tube might do a better job.....

 

[Jet skier]

Unless you have enough views to be monetized, your video uploads are degraded. Right click on YouTube video and look at the stats for nerds compression algorithm vp09 good and avc1 bad!

I don’t think that’s true because I hardly have any views in my videos are wonderful they are in 4K but it does take quite a while tell them to fully render in 4K

 

[A.O.]

You Tube might do a better job.....

??? They are you tube

 

[STS-Mavic-Mini]

So here are a couple of my woods videos, shot them in 1080 at 60fps and until I loaded them to U-Tube they were reasonably smooth and crystal clear... Now they are basically unwatchable.. Wish you cold see them before U-tube got them.
If this is how they are going to come from u -tube what is the point, cant hardly even watch them!!!

What to do???

When I viewed these on my IPad, they started out looking pretty poor. Clicked on the 3 dots in upper right corner and saw they were being rendered at quality setting of 480, switched quality setting to 1080p, and they look fine. There doesn’t seem to be a way to set a default video quality.

That being said,I use Vimeo and don’t hav these sues.

 

[Opix Tm]

So here are a couple of my woods videos, shot them in 1080 at 60fps and until I loaded them to U-Tube they were reasonably smooth and crystal clear... Now they are basically unwatchable.. Wish you cold see them before U-tube got them.
If this is how they are going to come from u -tube what is the point, cant hardly even watch them!!!

What to do???

utube only give better codec (I mean vp9 codec) for resolution start from 2K unless you've got many viewers, if you upload only on 1080p and you dont have many (I don't how many supposed to be) utube only give you avc1 codec which terrible on 1080p, so my suggestion upload minimum at 2K

 

[DanMan32]

When I viewed these on my IPad, they started out looking pretty poor. Clicked on the 3 dots in upper right corner and saw they were being rendered at quality setting of 480, switched quality setting to 1080p, and they look fine. There doesn’t seem to be a way to set a default video quality.

That being said,I use Vimeo and don’t hav these sues.

I've noticed YT often selecting a less optimal resolution. I don't have the fastest internet speed, but good enough for 1080p from YT.
I get about 10x2 as a special deal (in price) through a company I worked for over a decade ago. It's a lot lower than today's standard cable (cable is all that's available to me right now, other than DSL), but it's just me and it's usually satisfactory as long as my onedrive isn't syncing large files up to cloud during a video/audio conference.

 

[DanMan32]

By the way, DJI only encodes about 40Mb when below 4K. At least all my 1080p are around 30 to 40Mb.
Cache is 2 to 8 Mb I think.

 

[A.O.]

utube only give better codec (I mean vp9 codec) for resolution start from 2K unless you've got many viewers, if you upload only on 1080p and you dont have many (I don't how many supposed to be) utube only give you avc1 codec which terrible on 1080p, so my suggestion upload minimum at 2K

Those three up there were loaded at 4k

 

[Rudiger]

utube only give better codec (I mean vp9 codec) for resolution start from 2K unless you've got many viewers, if you upload only on 1080p and you dont have many (I don't how many supposed to be) utube only give you avc1 codec which terrible on 1080p, so my suggestion upload minimum at 2K

It took 5 pages to get to the correct answer! This is it right here. Youtube re-encodes every video that is uploaded to an optimized codec. For 1080p and smaller Youtube encodes to avc and for larger resolutions Youtube encodes to vp9. Even vp9 will show some quality loss but it will look considerably better than videos encoded with avc.

 

[spsphotos]

When I viewed these on my IPad, they started out looking pretty poor. Clicked on the 3 dots in upper right corner and saw they were being rendered at quality setting of 480, switched quality setting to 1080p, and they look fine. There doesn’t seem to be a way to set a default video quality.

That being said,I use Vimeo and don’t hav these sues.

Vimeo might be ok if you don't upload many vids or very small ones. Otherwise you need to pay for it. I upload vids that can be as large as 5gb...YouTube is free.

 

[JohnChap]

Have a look at your playback settings (the cog at the bottom of the screen). They seem to default to 720p or auto, if you select 1080p then you should find it nice and crisp.

 

[Alky1229]

You do have to upload to YouTube in the highest quality you can because they will slightly downgrade your video quality. I have some videos on my channel, haven’t done many drone ones yet, but I’ve uploaded in a higher quality and they go to my channel nice and clear, sometimes when you view them you have to, as a user change the video quality using the settings gear symbol because YouTube is stupid and plays them in a lower quality a lot of times. Take a look, the lower quality ones on there are old videos from lower quality cameras so ignore the quality on those https://youtube.com/user/alky1229.

So here are a couple of my woods videos, shot them in 1080 at 60fps and until I loaded them to U-Tube they were reasonably smooth and crystal clear... Now they are basically unwatchable.. Wish you cold see them before U-tube got them.
If this is how they are going to come from u -tube what is the point, cant hardly even watch them!!!

What to do???

 

[realice]

That a bit strange. But from my experience, to have good video on Youtube (even if need 1080) you should upload it in 4k. I always have like terrible results when upload 1080 video. But 4 k looks nice in both YouTube resolutions 4k and 1080
Do not know what they are doing wit 1080 source to make it such terrible

 

[stevenws]

I was so unhappy with the quality of my videos on YouTube, that I got a channel at Vimeo. Really great videos now! Of course, I have to pay for it, but the price is quite reasonable even for terabytes of video, so I've been using it for storage as well. If you'd like to see the quality, my channel is vimeo.com/JimFlannery

These are some of the best quality videos I have seen on Vimeo or YouTube... just super! The scenery is 5 stars! What drone do you fly? I have a used DJI Mavic Pro, but not crazy about the focus. I'd love to buy a Mavic Pro 2 eventually. Do you happen to use the Litchi app on any of your flights? That app amazes me. I have a free account on Vimeo and am trying to 'follow' you on Vimeo, but... the email confirmation they require is not showing up anywhere in my hotmail? Strange! Thanks for sharing.