Why do my HD videos look like garbage on YouTube?

Jungle Explorer

Jungle Explorer

I Love YTtalk
I wondering if someone can help me figure out why my videos look so bad once uploaded to youtube. I do most of my filming outdoors and I use a DBPower SJ4000 sports cam, which is a GoPro knock off. It actually takes amazing quality videos when viewed in the original .MOV format it records in. I use Corel VideoStudio Ultimate X9 to do all my editing in and I render the final video in the MP4 format (1920 x 1080, 30fps). The final product looks 99% as good as the original video.

The problem occurs when I upload the video to youtube. On youtube my videos look grainy and pixilated even when viewed in 1080p. I see other peoples videos that are super sharp, so I know it can be done, I just don't know what I am doing wrong. Any suggestions?
 
Hey Jungle man. It's probably just a compression issue. Action camera footage is already pretty low bit-rate and compressed. So after editing it. Exporting it (which compresses it again). And uploading it to youtube where it is again compressed it will lose some sharpness and have more compression artifacts etc. That being said I watched your most recent video and it looked just fine. It looks like the kind of quality I would expect from a decent 1080p gopro knock-off. If you're wanting better quality imagery you will have to purchase a more expensive camera that records at a higher bit-rate and has better compressed or RAW formats.

Do you film all of the footage on this sports cam? I would recommend putting something like a Panasonic G7 or Gh4 or a Sony A7 series camera on a tripod and filming a lot of it that way. You will get much better quality out of those cameras.
 
Staying Alive Comedy said:
Hey Jungle man. It's probably just a compression issue. Action camera footage is already pretty low bit-rate and compressed. So after editing it. Exporting it (which compresses it again). And uploading it to youtube where it is again compressed it will lose some sharpness and have more compression artifacts etc. That being said I watched your most recent video and it looked just fine. It looks like the kind of quality I would expect from a decent 1080p gopro knock-off. If you're wanting better quality imagery you will have to purchase a more expensive camera that records at a higher bit-rate and has better compressed or RAW formats.

Do you film all of the footage on this sports cam? I would recommend putting something like a Panasonic G7 or Gh4 or a Sony A7 series camera on a tripod and filming a lot of it that way. You will get much better quality out of those cameras.
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Thanks. Yeah the last one turned out okay, but the one before it turned out worse. That is the things. All of my videos look fine on my computer. It's only after uploading to youtube that they are degraded. But some are more degraded then others, even though they have been through the same editing process on my end. Actually the raw footage shot by my camera is fantastic. Even when viewed on my 65" HD TV it looks awesome. Yes, a better camera would give me better video, but I would be satisfied if I could just get the quality of what this sports cam produces. The problem is, I am not even getting that. I would say the end product on youtube, is less then 50% the quality of the original or maybe 60% at best. That's a huge loss. I am just looking for ways to reduce that loss. When I have an extra grand laying around, I might consider buy better quality video equipment, until then, I have to make do with what I can afford.

I do have a Pentax K-r DSLR that films in 720p, the video is pretty good but for some reason certain videos will have a clicking sound clicking sound in them. The main problem though is that it does a horrible job of dealing with light changes and it is slow to focus. Since I do all my filming in outdoor conditions, it just makes the camera not useful to me in most situation. On the video you watched though, It was the K-r that I used to film the target. It was sitting on a tripod next to me and I had a 300mm lens on it. The video was not that good because of the haet waves radiating from the ground in front of the target. Another thing I hate is that I can't use the viewfinder to film, video mode only works with the LCD screen. I can't seem to find any modern video cameras that use a viewfinder. I love viewfinders and hate LCD screens for filming. But I will say this, under the right circumstances, it can take pretty good video with my K-r. Here is a sample. You will be able to hear the clicking noise in this video. If it were not for this, the video audio would be astounding.

[DOUBLEPOST=1471537976,1471528577][/DOUBLEPOST]To the Moderator. Why was my thread moved to this forum from the Video Editing and Equipment forum? This thread is about video editing, equipment and youtube compression algorithms. It was moved to a review forum. I am not asking people to review my videos. I am asking for technical advice about video editing and conversion to make videos appear better on youtube. Not sure I understand the reasoning here.
 
So like I said it has to do with youtube's compression and the amount of information they have to work with. I would try exporting your finished video into different formats at different bitrates and then uploading to youtube and see what gives you the best results. Usually exporting an .mp4 (h.264 compression) at about 8-10 Mbps is ideal for getting the best upload results on youtube. You could also experiment with .wmv 10 Mbps or .mov or .avi. But in my experience youtube doesn't play too well with a lot of .mov files and .avi is pretty archaic by now.

Good luck! I like your content!
 
Thanks. I looked at your channel too. I am going to watch some of your videos when I get time. Right now I am gearing up for dove season. My 2015 video turned out pretty good, but needed to be better (ttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1UL20w-saY). I got in a couple new cameras yesterday, I need to bust out and see if they are any good (More cheap knock offs). Last year I only had the one sports cam and my K-r. But I still got a video that will go viral if I post it. I just got permission to make a comedy out of it. One of my hunting guest who had asked me to film her (first time hunter) got stung in the butt by a red hornet. She forgot the camera was filming her and she drops drawers and moons her son-in-law asking to see if he can find a stinger. It was PRICELESS! The poor son-in-law. He was looking at the sky, the ground, anything butt his mother-in-laws rear. There is no real nudity, she was wear skin colored shapewear, so at first you thing there is. Anyway, she was really embarrassed by the whole thing, so I did not post the video. In a private showing I showed it to her and her family and there were people that laughed so hard they had to change their pants. I spoke with her last week and asked if I could make a short hunting comedy out of it and she agreed (for 50% of the profits). Since you are in to making outdoor comedy, I will watch your videos to get some ideas on how best to do this.

Back on topic. Here are the settings I am rendering in. Tell me what you think I should change for best result with youtube.

MPEG-4 Files
24 bits, 1920 x 1080, 30 fps
Frame-based
H.264 High Profile Video: 15000 Kbps
48000 Hz, 16 Bit, Stereo
MPEG AAC Audio: 192 Kbps



Here are the original file attributes before editing and rendering

File type: MOV
Compression: h264
Attributes: 24bits, 1920x1080
Frame rate: 30.000 frames/sec
 
I would actually adjust the 15000 Kbps down to 8000 or so (8000 Kbps is the same as 8 Mbps and so on, like what I mentioned).
If you are still getting bad results try exporting it as a .wmv file instead of an MPEG-4 (.mp4). I hope you get it working how you want!

I'm subbed so I'll be keeping tabs on your vids as well! :D
 
Staying Alive Comedy said:
I would actually adjust the 15000 Kbps down to 8000 or so (8000 Kbps is the same as 8 Mbps and so on, like what I mentioned).
If you are still getting bad results try exporting it as a .wmv file instead of an MPEG-4 (.mp4). I hope you get it working how you want!

I'm subbed so I'll be keeping tabs on your vids as well! :D
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Okay. Will give it a try on my next video, but that may a bit. I have tons of work to do over the next 2 weeks getting ready for opening weekend of dove. Expecting about 30 hunters. Got to prepare all the hunting stations and clean the roads and stuff. Work, work work! I am hoping to get some good video shots this year with more cameras to cover more angles and hunters. Thanks for the advice.
 
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