• DaVinci Resolve

  Upload 4K VS 1080P for social media vertical videos

  Posted by jerry rio on March 11, 2025 at 6:09 pm

  Good day all,

  I’ve been researching and uploading youtube shorts plus Tiktok and Instagram Reels.

  I’ve read threads on reddit and watched over 50 videos on the topic of how to upload and maintain the highest quality.

  So many conflicting opinions. To start with Google recommends you use MP4 with 1920 x 1080 resolution with a fixed bitrate of 10, 000 for youtube shorts and 8,000 for TikTOK and Instagram.

  Supporters of this method say that this way the platform does not need to compress your video that much and will lead to a better-looking video on the platform.

  Others say that while the video is always compressed, if you upload a video (even if it’s rendered in 1080p) you should upload it at ultra hd with the bit rate set to best and auto. The thinking here is that, yes, the video will be compressed even more, but since you are starting with 4k and the compression algos have more to work with. With this method you will have a better-looking video on the platform when viewed.

  I have tried both and don’t see much difference to be honest

  Then there are the formats. While youtube themselves recommend MP4 with .264 codec, once again, many editors say: ” use quicktime with .265 codec, it will look better” and the MOV container

  Can anyone give a definitive answer and list the settings that would be best and explain why.

  Size of upload file isn’t an issue.

  My channel presents man on the street interviews from the 90’s that have been restored and upscaled in Topaz(which I’ve done quite well). So, there is not a lot of movement, but I still want the best quality videos I can get, especially after going through all the trouble of upscale and restoration.

  Thanks, and appreciate all feedback.

  Here is a link to my channel if you want to view any of the videos, I’ve already uploaded using various settings.
  https://www.youtube.com/@90sFUNHOUSE/shorts

  12th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-12700 2.10 GHz
  64.0 GB (63.7 GB usable) RAM
  Windows 11 Home
  RTX 3060 video card 12 gigs ram
  RESOLVE VERSION 19.0.1 build 6

  

  youtube.com

  90'sFUNHOUSE

  Take a trip back to the 90's for a look at real life on the Streets of NYC. Observe life before the internet. From the city streets to the thriving nightclubbing scene, the FUNHOUSE will entertain you with interviews, observations … Continue reading

  Aaron Colbry replied 3 days, 2 hours ago 2 Members · 1 Reply
• 1 Reply

• 

  Aaron Colbry

  September 25, 2026 at 11:32 pm

  Good question, and your real-world test (seeing little difference) is actually pointing at the right answer. Here’s the breakdown: **Every platform re-encodes everything you upload.** There is no way to bypass compression, so the “upload 1080p so they don’t compress it” theory is a myth. The real question is: which upload gets you the *better* re-encode?
  **The “upload 4K” trick and where it actually worked:** On YouTube, uploads at 1440p and above historically received the more efficient VP9 encode, while 1080p uploads often got older AVC/H.264 encodes at lower bitrates. That’s where the “upload 4K even if it’s upscaled” advice comes from, and for regular landscape YouTube videos it genuinely helped for years. But YouTube’s Shorts pipeline has changed a lot, and most Shorts now get the better codec tier regardless of upload resolution — which is exactly why your A/B test shows little difference. Trust your eyes on this one.
  **TikTok and Instagram Reels:** Both crush everything down to roughly 1080×1920 no matter what you upload. A 4K upload doesn’t unlock a better codec tier there the way it once did on YouTube; it mostly means a bigger file sitting in their processing queue. And since your source is restored/upscaled 90s footage rather than native 4K detail, upscaling to 2160×3840 before upload gives their encoders no real extra information to work with.
  **What matters more for your specific content:** Old interview footage has grain and noise, and noise is the #1 bitrate killer — encoders burn enormous amounts of data trying to preserve grain, which starves the actual picture of bits. Two things will improve your uploads more than the 4K-vs-1080p debate ever will:
  1. Light temporal noise reduction in Resolve before export — just enough to calm the grain, not enough to look plasticky.

  2. A clean, high-bitrate master file. Don’t let the bitrate starve: 16-20 Mbps is a sane target for talking-head 1080p vertical.
  **Suggested Resolve Deliver settings (one master for all three platforms):** Custom Export > Format MP4, Codec H.264, Resolution 1080 x 1920, frame rate matching your timeline, Quality set to “Restrict to 20000 Kb/s”, audio AAC at 320 kbps. Upload that same file to Shorts, TikTok, and Reels.

  So: stick with 1080p, stop worrying about the 4K trick for short-form, and put the effort into the denoise plus a healthy bitrate instead.

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