Low quality Youtube uploads no matter which render settings. Please help!

[Deleted]

I'll keep this brief:

Rendering .mov video recorded from iphone. Rendered file is close to quality of the original file. When uploaded to youtube it's very blurry. Link to render/original comparison picture

Rendered in Sony Vegas (1):
.mp4
Profile High
Progressive scan
Pixel aspect ratio 1
Number of reference frames 2
Variable bit rate (max 45,000,000, average 30,000,000. Sometimes increase but it makes no difference)


Rendered in Sony Vegas (2):
.avi (sony vegas doesn't seem to allow an .mp4 container when using H264)
Progressive scan
Pixel aspect ratio 1
video format x264vfw - H.264/MPEG-4 AVC Codec
Interleave every frame
Rate control single pass - bitrate-based (ABR) (tried numbers 6000 - 10,000 - 30,000 - 50,000

There must be something that's making youtube render to the low quality I'm seeing, but I can't figure it out. Thanks very much for any help.

[Butler to Baby Sloths]

Is the video still low quality after a couple of days?

[Deleted]

I've been doing video editing for a few years now and it took a long time for me to get things right.
Here's what I use in vegas for 2560x1440 60FPS on YouTube;
- Mainconcept AVC/AAC
- 60FPS
- Progressive scan
- 1.00 Pixel Aspect Ratio with 2 reference frames
- 50Mbps constant bit rate

As an example of the quality this produces; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLzAE-GyXZY

Obviously, that's game footage but I use the same settings for other projects (including video shot on a DSLR). You should also allow YouTube at least 24 hours to make sure that it's encoded across the various quality options.

I appreciate the time you took to post but did you not read what my post? The settings you wrote are pretty much what I use already.

[Deleted]

And yet you haven't answered the question of whether you're giving youtube the required time for it to be encoded for the quality options... Mind answering that question or even linking to a sample of video instead of a single captured frame?

Of course I have. It only takes 5 minutes for 1080p to appear on the 40s video I'm testing these rendering settings out. Do you really think I'd make a thread about low quality unprocessed 360p? I know the video is 1080p and it's been up for 24 hours.

[Puupi]

Have you tried uploading a non-rendered version?

[Deleted]

Have you tried uploading a non-rendered version?

It was the first thing I did, actually. The rendered versions/the raw file uploaded look pretty much identical after they're 1080p on youtube. I'm coming to the conclusion that youtube hates iphones.

[Deleted]

I did read your post. Are you using MainConcept (MC) AVC/AAC or another encoder as Vegas has several built in. You mentioned that you're using a profile (with the setting 'high') but the MC encoder doesn't have this option when presented in the Vegas interface.

What version of Vegas are you using? Some older versions have really poor quality render output.

Vegas Pro 12 and I'm using mainconcept AVC/AAC .mp4

Just uploaded the video with a constant bit rate of 135m (ridiculously high) and it changes nothing. Getting tired of this now.

Edit: I just want to reiterate that the renders always look good, it's just whenever it goes through youtube it ends up looking around what you'd expect from 720p.

Screenshot link incase you can't see the thumbnail for some reason

[mojo6912]

I suffered the same problem. My personal solution was to render my videos in 4k resolution. Youtube seems to allow much more bitrate if it detects higher res. I don't know that is just my findings. Try it.

edit: also 2-pass looks a bit better too. It takes twice as long to render though.

edit2: you can try cranking up the max bitrate too. I find if you do that on 1-pass though, your average bitrate will be higher than what you set. I think if you do 2 pass with a very high max it will do a better job at maintaining your set average.

[VooDsXo]

I've been doing video editing for a few years now and it took a long time for me to get things right.
Here's what I use in vegas for 2560x1440 60FPS on YouTube;
- Mainconcept AVC/AAC
- 60FPS
- Progressive scan
- 1.00 Pixel Aspect Ratio with 2 reference frames
- 50Mbps constant bit rate

As an example of the quality this produces; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLzAE-GyXZY

Obviously, that's game footage but I use the same settings for other projects (including video shot on a DSLR). You should also allow YouTube at least 24 hours to make sure that it's encoded across the various quality options.

60fps 1440p shouldn't require 50mbps for youtube, as 4k youtube bitrate is 40Mbps

[mojo6912]

Youtube recommends 85M bitrate for 4k 60fps high quality video.