Does 4K video really make a difference?

[darksmokeyt]

I currently use my cell phone to record, which honestly suffices in my eye. It has the ability to record in 4K, but I have it set to 1080p at 60fps.

My question to you guys is whether bumping the quality up will be a better tradeoff. I can hardly notice a difference myself. (likely because none of my devices have a 4K screen)

All in all, I do not want to wait longer for an upload if 4K resolution doesn't impact the video much.

Thanks!

 

[The BBQ Chef]

At this moment I think people that watch anything in 4K are few and far bewtween. 1080p will be fine for now.

 

[TYTD]

At the moment; no. not really. for two reasons. the consumer grade tech isnt at its best quite yet and even if you do capture in full 4k only people with 4k monitors will get any benefit out of it...it's a bit like how the early 1080p consumer grade cameras didnt really capture as colourfully or crisply as 1080p cameras from the present day do. unless your really eegar to future proof your content ready for when a majority of people have swapped to 4k in about 5 or so years from now I'd honestly say that 1080p or sharpened upscaled 2k is more than enough for the current kit thats available.

 

[UhoohExtra]

4k will take forever to upload your vids to the youtoob

 

[The NotARubicon!]

We shoot most of our videos with 5-7 cameras and we record on all but 2 or 3 in 1080p ...
As already posted, nobody is watching in 4K and the extra upload time and editing/rendering time arent worth it..
BUT —
Shooting in 4K IS great if you know you are going to need to zoom/crop without loss of any image quality (to a point)...

 

[babyteeth4]

Not worth it at this point for 95% of us to shoot in 4k. There's a time and place and a type of video and lighting conditions where it might be warranted. Or some people just might want to shoot in the highest quality even though it may not be very visible. But most of us don't really need to at this point. I would like computers to get faster and storage to get bigger before making the switch.

 

[Kesler's Dad]

For exhibition, what everyone above has said is pretty much correct. But for acquisition, there are a lot of benefits of shooting 4k. The most useful for me is cropping shots (zooming in without losing much quality) in the editing stage. For the record, I shoot in 8K.

 

[Highfalutin' Low Carb]

I’m gonna dissent with everyone here. Regardless of whether there’s a real technological benefit to 4K and the end result of the final video, I personally believe that YouTube HEAVILY promotes 4K videos in the Suggested Video section when viewed in a 4K YouTube app on a Smart TV, Roku, AppleTV 4K or similar device. Just like how YouTube goes out of their way to auto-suggest YouTube Live videos because it’s a new platform, they also heavily promote 4K videos to big screen devices.

I’m a cord cutter. I ditched cable and satellite for streaming, and most of my Big Screen viewing is from YouTube. On a 4K-capable device, I notice a huge boost of 4K suggested content. They get auto-tagged as 4K, just like 1080 content gets auto-tagged.

This is VERY anecdotal, but I regularly watch several Disney fan vlogs. They frequently post 4K ride walkthrough videos. When watching on a laptop on the same YouTube account, I rarely get their videos suggested as my next video. When I watch on the same account on a 4K device, their 4K videos are comstantly suggested as the next video.

There’s something there, but I can’t quantify it.