Video Clarity on Youtube

[SweetTripl]

Morning all,

I've recently uploaded a video to youtube and I don't know if I'm imagining it but it seems that videos aren't as clear as they used to be at 1080p. Even watching more professional channels like 44 teeth they don't seem to have as much depth and they go a bit grainy at times. I've tested on multiple devices and device types and same results. Even used different internet connections. Am I just imagining this or am I right?

 

[Hippo-Drones]

There have been various discussions on this in the past on here, but to save you searching, YouTube compresses footage, and depending on what resolution and bitrate it is uploaded at, YouTube gives it a different codec. If the video is 2.7k or higher, it gets the VP9 codec from YouTube, if it is 1080 or lower, it gets the AVC1 codec. This isn't in all cases, but that is the general way videos get divided.
What that means, is the videos with the AVC codec will look worse than the videos with the VP9 codec, even if viewed both at 1080.
YouTube will also automatically lower the resolution when you watch if your internet speed is slow or has a bad connection unless you force it to use the best resolution available.

 

[R-Rated]

Also, YouTube loves having a huge buffer before playing at the highest resolution including uploading. On longer videos (more than 5-10 minutes), it wants even more of a buffer.

First best resolution on playback, on Android devices you have tell the app to load at the highest resolution. Then it builds its comfort buffer and plays.

If you are using a PC you can pull up the "stats for nerds" and see what the video was loaded as and is playing as. It will also show the health of the video feed to your machine.

As @HippoDrone mentioned about the Codec - Here is a thread featuring the upscaling method some sly motovloggers use. Granted the samples were made with GoPro Hero4 Silver and the tech has gotten so much better since then:

https://motovlog.com/threads/making-1080p60-look-like-4k-by-getting-youtubes-bigger-bit-rate.17619/

Incidentally I have a low resolution challenge video coming soon - WVGA anyone?

 

[Skipshift]

I'd echo everything R-Rated said above.
I upload all my videos as 4k just so they will be as clear as possible at any resolution. That's just from my own testing with resolutions and YT compression.
It eats quite a bit more disk space on my end, but it doesn't make me feel like I am looking at my video through a water bottle.

 

[Guest]

As long your computer can handle it, with how cheap memory cards and spare batteries are getting, no point in not shooting/editing/uploading in 4k.

The extra file size is easily offset by a $50/year GoPro Plus membership which gives you free returns on a damaged GoPro in case bad things happen.

Keep in mind, once upon a time 720P was called 720 HD... now it's dropped the "HD" tag. I think in 5 years time we'll see the same thing with 1080P. In addition to offering better quality today, it's always good to future-proof the content you're making.