Uploading to YouTube for best quality

Questions & Answers
1

As I try and do more video content I want to make sure it’s at the best quality but it seems YouTube can be a bit temperamental!

The last two videos I uploaded I thought I had done at 1080p but when they play back on my iPad they do at 720p with YT saying this is the best quality.
Yet one I uploaded earlier in the year plays at 1080p 60fps?

Someone also said that you can upload 4K but YT will only play it back in 1080p.

For those of you regularly uploaded how do you get the best quality? Some of the YouTube channels I watch seem to have excellent quality - do they pay for this?

Any help / thought appreciateed

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2

4k uploads play in 4k … if your device can handle it.

How are you uploading? Direct from an editor of manually uploading a rendered video?

Don’t forget - it can take a while for YT to make the higher resolutions available - as in 10 mins or more, depending on how busy they are.

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3

If it’s a new YT account … 4k may not be available? Can’t recall if they restrict for new accounts.

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4

Thanks Dave

It’s not a new account though not many videos uploaded by me.

I think it might be that the last 2 I uploaded direct to YT from FCPX automatically. Some are saying render to computer and then upload using YT. I think that’s what I did with my higher res video.

Think I will run a couple of tests

5

And didn’t realise that it took time for the 4K to become available, thanks

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6

I always save locally and upload manually - always had some kind of frustration with letting the editor do it for me.

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7

Regardless of what resolution you record in, always render to 4k, it forces YouTube to use a better codec. Works for me.

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8

If I want better quality - I use Vimeo, simple.
Life is too short to waste time uploading files that are massively larger than their source resolution can justify.

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9

Up to an hour sometimes. I seem to recall that rendering in a youtube friendly container & codec can speed this up. MP4 and H.264 are used by YouTube so uploading in this format may speed up your processing time.

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10

Never tried Vimeo - is it accessable on smart Tv’s for playback? Uploading in 4k doesn’t take that long BTW, just enough time for a cup of tea :grin:

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11

@BrianB if you’re using FCPX you can share/export direct to YouTube at 4k from the programme. Thats what I do! As previous poster said, it takes a while for YouTube to process it, but it looks awesome on my 4k TV.

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12

Not sure - I’m not a fan of Smart TVs … manufacturers are poor at firmware upgrades. I find Chromecasting works really well for all things … and only £30.

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13

As we were discussing earlier … one can from many editors, but I’ve also had more problems than rendering locally and manually uploading.

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14

Thanks everyone for the replies - going to be doing some testing over the coming days trying out the different ideas!

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15

Doubt it is still the case.

When you upload to YouTube it initially transcodes to a low bit rate H.264 . It then transcodes the original to VP9 for android and Windows and some other format for IOS.

I think youtube holds a few different formats for different devices.

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16

Me too. I have 4K videos online from my Mavic. I have edited in both Resolve and Premiere and both create 4K 25 FPS MP4s and they upload fine.stats

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17

Steve

I have just checked out in your channel and the Selsey video auto views in 1080p on my iPad yet the drone shot auto views in 360p - but I can change it to 1080p? The vagaries of YT I suppose!

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18

I don’t know if this will help . . . Change the quality of your video - YouTube Help worth a look.

You should be able to change your default viewing definition on any platform to at least 1080p.

S.

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19

Just some advice for anyone uploading their videos to YouTube.

If you upload at 1080p YouTube will generally use a low quality codec so you will lose the quality of the video.

To overcome this (from what I have read) is to upscale your video to 4k then upload that to YouTube. This will ensure that the compression is made with the better quality codec.

If anyone believes this is not the case please chime in.

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20

Do you have examples to share?