1080, if possible. Remember, more and more people watch YouTube on their TVs now.
Thanks, Crown (and also mirrorlessNY(youtuber)).
It's probably best I just spell it all out for ya, the dilemma I'm facing. I edited a video which consists of copy I've typed, old photographs, and old film (circa 1974), in Elements 14. When I went to render the video, the default setting was on 480. Not happy with the quality of the images (still and moving), I tried rendering it at various other resolutions. When comparing them, just using my eye test, this is what I got:
Best quality: 1440 x 1080.
2nd best: 1280 x 720. (This was a VERY close second.)
3rd best: 1920 x 1080. (This was not very good. Not much better than the default 480 I started with.)
So, I went with 1440 x 1080, even though it required I re-crop several photographs in my video. My goal is to attain the BEST possible image quality, I didn't mind doin' that extra work of re-cropping.
I thought everything was hunky-dory, and uploaded the video to youtube. It played it at 1080, and looked terrific. But, before I published it to the public, I did a quick test with a few friends, sending them the unlisted link, and asking them what their devices were playing my video at. Unfortunately, I got the following results:
Friend 1: his desktop played it at 720, and his phone played it at 480
Friend 2: his laptop played it at 480, and his phone played it at 480
Friend 3: her tablet played it at 720, and her phone played it at 720
I was surprised by these results, because in my ignorance, I thought youtube would detect what resolution I had rendered the video at, and set the default there automatically for anyone who opens the link. I guess it doesn't work that way.
The problem is, when I've rendered the video at 1440 x 1080, it looks considerably worse when youtube plays it at 1280 x 720. Same thing when it plays it at 480.
So my question is this. Other than putting a request at the start of my video for viewers to make sure it's set at 1080, what can I do to best ensure that people will see it in the best quality possible?
Thanks for listening.
Tom
