Which format to export for youtube without losing the quality after uploading?

[Alex Gerulaitis]

A shot in the dark: have you tried upscaling to 1080p (or 2K) and uploading as such?

Try also uploading (a sample) to Vimeo and perhaps Google Drive or Dropbox so we could have access to the original and compare the quality.

[Ivan Myles]

The original file is 720×576 with rectangular pixels and the YouTube version is 656×480 with square pixels. You would be better off exporting your file at 640×480 or 960×720. Render a short test clip at both resolutions and see how they look when uploaded.

In addition, make sure the YouTube player is sized appropriately. If it’s too big or too small the video will be rescaled during playback.

[Chris Tompkins]

and get away from the dv codec, it’s horrible.

Chris

[John Sierra]

@ Alex

I uploaded a 1080p version but it’s just as blurry as the other videos. I’ve put up two sample files on my profile, you can download them from there (Vimeo kept downscaling the videos to 4mb regardless of my upload size and also made the downloaded version blurry). The files on my profile are both at the original quality I’m looking for (they’re the sequence…..)

@ Ivan

I tried both frame sizes and they’re on my Youtube channel as:
– 640 x 480 = Sequence 01_1
– 960 x 720 = Sequence 01_2

It slightly improved but still wasn’t significant enough. I also tried exporting from Premiere Pro with an aspect ratio as square pixels but it didn’t make much difference. I found it surprising though that even though the 1080p version was 100mb compared to the others which were 31mb, the quality was still brought down to the same level. Even when using a .mov file, its still the same result.

@ Chris

I can’t change the source codec/format. The footage is all from a game and I’ve been using an older capture card. I don’t think I’ll be able to re-film everything again because it’s around 2 hours of footage

I’ve seen posts about a way of converting SD quality into HD. Would that be a viable option?

[Chris Tompkins]

I see, you’re original footage is DV PAL.
I would export using the youtube specs for SD videos, see pic here:

Chris

[John Sierra]

Using the guidelines, what settings should I put when exporting on Premiere Pro? I can’t find some of them such as “2 consecutive B frames, closed GOP, CABAC, colour space”. Here are the settings I tried which still gave a blurry image once uploaded:

Format: H.264
Video:
– PAL
– 640 x 480
– 25 fps
– Field order = None (progressive)
– Aspect ratio = 4:3
– Profile = High
– Lvl = 3.0
– VBR, 1 Pass
– Target bitrate = 3
– Max bitrate = 6

Is there anything I’m missing or something to change?

[Chris Tompkins]

Yes, change:

VBR to 2 pass for one thing and see this pic for the rest:

Outside of that, it’s the best it’s going to be and you’ll have to live with it IMO.

Chris

[Ivan Myles]

– Export 640×480 with Aspect set to Square Pixels (1.0000).
– Enable Maximum Render Quality and export directly from Premiere Pro (i.e. don’t use the Queue when rescaling).
– The bitrate settings recommended by Chris should be fine. For best quality maximize average bitrate and set Key Frame Distance to one (1) frame.
– Under the Multiplexer tab set Stream Compatibility to Standard (it defaults to iPod).

[John Sierra]

Every video I upload is blurry at 360, but if I change the settings to 480 it becomes clear which is great. I’m now just trying and experimenting with each of these export settings to see which one gives the best quality.

Thank’s for the help

[Alexander Cockburn]

Hi Shamik,

You Tube will default to an SD player based on your internet speed..there is no way to guarantee HD playback (unless you embed the video). Try clicking HD on your YT player first and see if it plays better?

This is the same for every viewer so no guarantee your viewers will see HD unless they have ticked the box to play all content in HD…

Hope this helps..

Alex