Are 480p and 720p good enough?

Vedstedsen

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I would pick 1080 and patience.
I think both 480 and 720 is too much of a drop in quality. Especially 480.
 

LandyVlad

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480 - no, just no. Makes it look like it was recorded by the first ever super crappy digital camera.
720 - only if absolutely necessary.
1080 - take time and do this.
4K - not necessary.

IMHO 1080 is the sweet spot.
 
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Nicekid76

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as much as everyone hate 720 (or WORST 480 *gasp*), I've seen a Youtuber from Japan who started in 2020 making videos in 480 and getting 100k subs with 8.5 million channel views ... that original 480p video has 3+ million views in 2020 alone and he just recently upgraded to 720 which isn't even considered HD anymore (talk about getting plutoed).

The most important thing is the content. If 480 is somehow going to help you make content faster, then by all means.

I do have some questions:

  • What kind of video are you creating? CGI heavy? Animation? Lots of effects? Vlogs? depending on you answer Those will affect your render/edit time.
  • What program are you rendering out from?
    • Different programs have different methods to optimize the render time. Depending on your program and settings you might be rendering high quality then your footage.
  • How long is your final video? 2 min, 20 min, 2 hours?
    • If your final video is longer, then it makes sense that it would take "longer" to finish
  • You said it takes awhile, How long is "awhile"? Are we talking 2 hours? or 2 days?
For college, I made a 2 - 4 min CGI video project that took 6 hours to render across 8 workstation computers at 1080p
 
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In this day and age, you should be aiming to get as close to 1080p as possible. People can filter their searches to only include HD (720p), 1080p or 4K video. 480p is a relic from the past.
 

Jungle Explorer

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The computer can work with 480p and 720p, while 1080p upload takes a while.
Content is king. If you have good content, the quality of the video is irrelevant. My most popular video was shot on a Samsung Galaxy S2, handheld! The video quality is crap, but people love that video. My first year as I tuber, I shot most of my content on a $40 action cam mount on my head. Those videos are still getting thousands of fo views each month after five years.

1080! is preferred, but if you have great content, it does not matter. Content is King.
 
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JayZippo

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To be completely blunt. There is really no excuse to NOT put up 1080p.

480p? My first video was 480p, in 2006. Not sure it would stop me from watching, but I would either think it was ancient or shot with a flip phone.

You can debate 720p, not terrible, if I was interested I would watch the video, and probably not notice too much difference.

1080p 60fps is where it is at, and considering most of your videos will he watched on tablet and/or phone, it's all you will ever need.

4K to me, at this point, is a waste. Once ina while I will fire up my living room TV, put on youtube, and 40 minute travel video in 4K. It's relaxing, and my 4K TV is so good, it almost hurts your eyes to look its so clear. Other than that, I have never used 4K for anything. OK, fib, I watched a bikini fashion show in 4k, sue me. :)

Long story short, I agree with most of the posters, be patient, upload that 1080 sweetness.

BTW - Nicekid76 always brings the info. If he is posting in a thread, take notice and read it.
 
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Jungle Explorer

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To be completely blunt. There is really no excuse to NOT put up 1080p.

480p? My first video was 480p, in 2006. Not sure it would stop me from watching, but I would either think it was ancient or shot with a flip phone.

You can debate 720p, not terrible, if I was interested I would watch the video, and probably not notice too much difference.

1080p 60fps is where it is at, and considering most of your videos will he watched on tablet and/or phone, it's all you will ever need.

4K to me, at this point, is a waste. Once ina while I will fire up my living room TV, put on youtube, and 40 minute travel video in 4K. It's relaxing, and my 4K TV is so good, it almost hurts your eyes to look its so clear. Other than that, I have never used 4K for anything. OK, fib, I watched a bikini fashion show in 4k, sue me. :)

Long story short, I agree with most of the posters, be patient, upload that 1080 sweetness.

BTW - Nicekid76 always brings the info. If he is posting in a thread, take notice and read it.
I agree with you. I shoot in 4K though and render down to 1080p. I like shooting in 4K because it allows me the flexibility to crop and zoom in post, up to 50%, and still get good quality. 1080p does not give much flexibility for post. Also, rendering down from 4K process a top-quality 1080 file.

I don't know what the OP's connection is, but I upload 1080p and 4K files over my connection which is less than 0.5 Mbps. It takes me 12 hours to upload a 10-minute video in 1080p, and 48 hours to upload the same video in 4K. The great thing about YouTube, is that it has a Upload Resume. I usually upload at night after everyone has gone to bed because when I upload I lock the internet connection down and nobody can do anything else. In the morning I stop the upload, and then resume it at night again.

Another thing is to put the video file on your phone and go to Walmart. Walmart has free wifi and it is actually pretty fast compared to most other places. My Walmart has a 30 Mbps upload speed, and I can upload a 2 GB file in just minutes over it. Just be sure to use a VPN when uploading over public wifi.