YouTube choosing its own encoders? How to get the best quality 1080p.

[Nass86]

Hey guys,

I read something and lost it about how to ensure you get the best quality encoder out of YouTube once it receives your video and compresses it.

I record 1080p 30fps at CQP 17 for 2 hours and come out with about a 20gb MKV file.

I would be interested to know:

1. How to ensure I end up on the better encoder from YouTube once it decides what to do with my file
2. What it is called and
3. How to spot it?

As I’m sure this will be useful for others, also.

Best wishes
Nassrr

 

[cyclemat]

You will need to upload in 1440p or 4K to guarantee VP9 on all of your videos! Sadly, YouTube again removed the ability for 720p and 1080p videos to be always encoded in VP9 if uploaded in 50 or 60FPS

 

[Nass86]

You will need to upload in 1440p or 4K to guarantee VP9 on all of your videos! Sadly, YouTube again removed the ability for 720p and 1080p videos to be always encoded in VP9 if uploaded in 50 or 60FPS

Thanks for the reply.

Is VP9 what one would wish for in 1080p 30fps?

I don't need 4k or 1440.

 

[cyclemat]

look the problem its VP9 is the better codec sharp edges and so and many uploader blow scal up the videos in 1440 to become the VP9 codec so the video has a better quality the most people have set the player resolutioin to HD or 720p but VP9 is the better codec

 

[Lawrence_SoCal]

Is VP9 what one would wish for in 1080p 30fps?
I don't need 4k or 1440.

Yes, what you want is YouTube to re-encode your video using VP9. The question is what do you need to send to YouTube to get YT to always encode in VP9? And the answer, per @cyclemat (and I've seen others say the same) is to upload in 1440p or 2160p (4K). You may not want/need to send at that resolution, but that is what will, at the moment, kick of YT re-encoding using their best encoder settings. And then, YT (and most other CDNs like Facebook, etc) will sending out the requested (lowere) resolution based on receiver settings

Something to consider is
- livestream vs local record (edit) and later upload
- bandwidth. Bandwidth more likely to be a constraint when livestreaming, vs upload and publish (unless super tight deadline/timing required for posting/publishing uploaded video)
- and yes, local disk space when recording, but I just got an archive 4TB HDD (refurb with 5yr warranty) for $60, so I wouldn't think disk space all that much of a constraint/issue

 

[Nass86]

look the problem its VP9 is the better codec sharp edges and so and many uploader blow scal up the videos in 1440 to become the VP9 codec so the video has a better quality the most people have set the player resolutioin to HD or 720p but VP9 is the better codec

This is really helpful. Thank you @cyclemat and @Lawrence_SoCal really appreciate it.

I will record locally for youtube, upscaled to 1440p, and stream to twitch at 1536x864 29.97ps (16:9) as this gets a really nice middle ground for a 3977 (video)+ 320 (audio) bitrates which retains the most users for me, setting Base Canvas at 1080p and see how I do!

(My laptop's max resolution is 1080p otherwise I would base higher).

 

[Nass86]

I just wanted to say a big thanks. Whilst I did my first live stream on the Canon M50 in 1080p, and I need to adjust aperture and the various lighting settings, I am really happy with the overall quality for my first attempt at a VP9.

I upscaled the video on Davinci Resolve to 4k, settings the maximum bitrate at 90,000 (overkill). Think it came out at a 50gb file for 1hr 20 mins. So everything took longer but I am happy. Might try the 1440p way next.

Here's the video: