Quality loss when uploading on youtube
2 years ago
France

Hi everyone ! I usually record my runs from Switch with OBS and an Avermedia capture card. I get a MKV file as an output, which produces about 1Go/hr of recording. However, when I go on youtube to download the video (after successfully uploading it) it tells me this is an MP4 file which is about 5-6 times lighter. I'm also almost certain that the time spent on the upload corresponds to the original weight of the video, so I would suppose youtube compress it. It tells me the video is on standard quality too. I found that the user can select the quality when uploading but I couldn't find where. Did I miss something ? This is especially the frame drop that affects the quality of the resulting video, rather than the pixels loss. Example here : https://www.speedrun.com/botw/run/y4ee1q3m Thanks !

Finland

you might want to check your recording settings. at least that example you gave is recorded at 480p

pTiplouf likes this
France

So in Avermedia the resolution is set to 1080p and the framerate is set to 30. OBS tells me that the record settings are the same as the source parameters. This might be consistent with the initial quality of the output.

France

Ok so that's a normal issue I guess. I'm just surprised that many other speedruns on youtube that I watch seems better (once again especially about the frame rate). Thanks !

Finland

by recording settings i mean in: OBS > settings > video > output (scaled) resolution and check what that resolution is, mine is at 1920x1080 which means my videos are 1080p

  • what Liv said is good to note

edit: actually you should also check if the original video file looks the same as the one uploaded to youtube

Edited by the author 2 years ago
pTiplouf likes this
France

The recording settings you mentionned : Base resolution : 1920x1080p (16:9) Output resolution (scaling) : 1152x648p (16:9) "scaling filtering" (it's written "Filtrage de la mise à l'échelle" in French) : bicubic, 16 samples FPS : 60

edit : yeah I already did, I think frame rate is at least 2 times slower. It's a MP4 file while the original file is an MKV file.

Edited by the author 2 years ago
Finland

yeah your output resolution is 648p (whatever that is) id recommend to change it to 720p or 1080p if your pc can handle it. the base resolution is just the resolution of the preview window where you can move stuff in your layout

pTiplouf likes this
France

Ok this last item may explain the confusion a lot. I usually don't stream and only have a youtube channel to upload speedruns so they get very few views and no subscribers ofc. The one that I gave here has only 13 views and most of them are partial views. edit : I will switch that to 720p probably, I put 648p only to fit the livesplit window better. Probably not much of an issue.

Edited by the author 2 years ago