Youtube codecs and compression 2021 thoughts

[UncleL]

I know this topic was discussed here over and over again but I think Youtube changed again the compression a bit so it's worth to make some new conclusions.

Some time ago many of us discovered that it's important to push youtube to use vp9 codec by uploading videos bigger than 1080p. It's still valid as anything lower than 1440 looks disastrous on youtube. But recently I saw a slight degradation in the compression even on 1440p videos. Previously the difference between 4k and 1440p was marginal and only visible in the resolution. The compression was about the same but now I see that 4k is definitely less compressed.

On my computer screen I see only slight advantage of 4k vs 1440p but there is a huge disadvantage in wasted resources. Starting from sd cards up through the need for bigger ssd's up to the need of more computing power. And what's more - HQ 1080p with minimal compression in reality looks much much better than 4k compressed by youtube. So what I'm going to do... is still work with 2.7k/1440p or even 1080p but at the end I'm going to export and upload all my videos upscaled to 4k. It's stupid know but it is what it is...

... but of course if your computer is strong enough and you have enough money for all those cards and disks you should work straight away in 4k. Not because we really need that but because youtube just hates everything below. But don't be surprised that you 4k video on YT looks worse than 1080p on your own machine

 

[HippoDrone]

Am glad my back catalogue is mostly 1080 upscaled to 4k then, although if they are using the same codec for 2.7k and 4k, it is odd that it is compressing it differently. I may follow suit and upscale my 2.7k to 4k as am recording most of my on bike vlogs at 2.7k now. Longer trips will probs go back to 1080 just to save space and battery though

 

[R-Rated]

I have used the 4k rendering technique regardless of recorded resolution ever since working out the kinks.

 

[HippoDrone]

I have used the 4k rendering technique regardless of recorded resolution ever since working out the kinks.

It was you I think that put us on here onto the cheat mode IIRC @R-Rated <3

 

[R-Rated]

It was you I think that put us on here onto the cheat mode IIRC @R-Rated <3

 

[Baldbiker]

There is another issue for some of us, I was discussing it a little bit in another thread just yesterday, but super HD files are enormous and present some logistical challenges for us with "less than stellar" internet connections. For example, I just made up a new 11 minute video in 1080/60 (and even going 60fps is pushing it for me) It was 1.7 g and took from 11pm last night until 11:30 this morning to finish uploading. I have a family that also needs some bandwidth in this house so tying it up for 3 days really isn't practical for me. Then there is the storage issue. When travelling you will be lucky to get one days footage into a single 64g SD card and getting bigger SD cards can sometimes give you wonky footage results due to the data transfer rates compatibility with your devices. My home pc is a 1 TB hard drive and I wouldn't have room to store all my vids there, and it's a pain, taking a lot of time and work to put them into separate storage. I have viewed my newly uploaded 1080p video on my monitor which does not support 4k anyway, and even with it not fully processed online, still looks like it will have acceptable viewing quality, especially if the viewer has a faster connection than mine. I think I'll be ok to get away with 1080p for a while, but not disagreeing that you could get slightly better video quality uploading it and taking advantage of the Vp9 thing.

 

[UncleL]

Unfortunately it's not "slightly". Sometimes 1080 is so compressed that it's almost unwatchable. Especially in green areas of course.

I just found out that some of my recent videos have vp9 codec for 1080, and most of big channels have vp9 even on the videos uploaded in 1080. I don't know if youtube is just switching completely to vp9 or why is that...
Anyways what I still found out is that even in vp9 - lower resolution videos look terrible. I'm thinking that maybe the compression level is the same for every resolution but it's just less visible in highres due to the number of pixels... That makes some sense.

 

[HippoDrone]

I guess with the higher bitrate GoPro etc are now using even for 1080, YouTube has had to up the anti a bit to keep the footage looking good. Aye, going three tree tunnels may as well be sold tunnels with YT compression at times it gets so blocky

 

[Baldbiker]

Im wondering if the newer GoPro cameras are using better technology and more up to date with youtube because my new Hero 7 black has been recording in 1080p/60 for me and after uploading it's first vid it looks great, even with my crappy internet. My Hero 3+ recorded in the same rez and vids always looks foggy and a bit blurry once uploaded. I havent tried riding with the new camera yet, the true test will be when I go racing by trees and see if the greenery blurs out like it always does.

 

[HippoDrone]

The newer cameras record at a higher bitrate compared to the old ones... 60mbps instead of 45mbps, the Hero 3 may be even lower, am not sure.

 

[Moto Mengy]

Does YT announce changes like this or are they always "under the table"?

 

[HippoDrone]

I think it is all under the counter stuff

 

[UncleL]

Yes, the newer cameras have higher bitrate which is helpful but it doesn't matter for youtube. What I mean is at some quality level it doesn't matter if your camera recorded with 40mbps or 100mbps - YT will recompress it to 4mbps (estimate) and the end result will be the same But if your camera is that old that it can't even provide 4mbps - then sure, buy a new one And of course 100mbps will be better for colour grading than 40, but if you use built in colour profile - it won't matter, it will look the same on YT