Serious Quality Issues with AVC1 and VP9 Compression on YouTube

[Migue12HD]

Hello,

I’m experiencing significant quality problems when uploading videos to YouTube.

When uploading videos encoded with AVC1 (H.264) at 1080p, I notice heavy pixelation in many areas, especially around fine edges and important graphical details, which severely degrades visual quality.

On the other hand, uploading in VP9 (for example, at 2K or higher resolutions) improves overall sharpness, but the video appears blurred and simplified, losing textures and fine details.

I’ve tried various bitrates, encoding settings, and resolutions, but the results remain very unsatisfactory for content that requires high graphical fidelity.

My goal is to upload videos that preserve the original graphical quality as much as possible, without these annoying artifacts or excessive detail loss.

Is there any encoding parameter or platform setting that can improve this? Is there an option for YouTube to apply less compression or use better settings?

I would appreciate any advice or solutions to help me maintain the visual quality of my videos on YouTube.

Thank you in advance.

[pandy]

Contact with YT support and ask them - you can search for YT alternatives - some services ( i recall Vimeo payed account) offer possibility to download original media file. YT will re-compress any uploaded file accordingly to own, internal settings, those settings are beyond user control.

[Migue12HD]

Contact with YT support and ask them - you can search for YT alternatives - some services ( i recall Vimeo payed account) offer possibility to download original media file. YT will re-compress any uploaded file accordingly to own, internal settings, those settings are beyond user control.

"Hi,

The recommended encoding is available at: https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/1722171

It’s the way to ensure the best results. Still, it's important to understand that uploaded videos are processed and compressed using specific codecs. It’s not possible for them to look exactly like the original file — if that were the case, the global internet infrastructure would collapse, considering YouTube’s scale.

These codecs can even vary after the content has already been uploaded and processed. So the results may change over time.

When content is distributed online, compression is normal. That’s simply how streaming platforms work.

Regards."

That is the reponse that give me the YT Support.

The problem with switching to another platform is that I’d be forced to abandon my current YouTube channel, which I don’t want to do.

I understand to some extent that compression is necessary, but I believe it shouldn’t degrade the visual quality of a video so heavily. What doesn’t make sense to me is that AVC1 seems to preserve certain areas and destroy others, while VP9 also selectively preserves and damages in its own way.

I know it's very complicated to control YouTube's compression, but at the very least I’d like to avoid overly aggressive degradation or major visual changes. I just wish the compression was more subtle or balanced.

[jagabo]

I understand to some extent that compression is necessary, but I believe it shouldn’t degrade the visual quality of a video so heavily.

And youtube disagrees with you. If you don't like it host your videos yourself. Can't afford it? Then I guess you agree with youtube.

What doesn’t make sense to me is that AVC1 seems to preserve certain areas and destroy others, while VP9 also selectively preserves and damages in its own way.

This makes perfect sense. They just chose different ways of reducing bitrate.

[ricardouk]

Hi Miguel

Have you tried uploading in ProRes? Either 422 or 422HQ? Youtube accepts it. What NLE are you using?

[pandy]

That is the reponse that give me the YT Support.

Technically YT don't care about your compression settings - whatever you set it will be anyway re-encoded with YT own settings - if you have fast upload then you can do even intra coding with very high bitrate - fast encoding and hq but slower upload - YT will take your upload and chew it with own encoding farm.

The problem with switching to another platform is that I’d be forced to abandon my current YouTube channel, which I don’t want to do.

Then you need accept YT limitations - personally i have no experience but commercial uploaders may have higher bitrate but they need to pay for extra bitrate...

I understand to some extent that compression is necessary, but I believe it shouldn’t degrade the visual quality of a video so heavily. What doesn’t make sense to me is that AVC1 seems to preserve certain areas and destroy others, while VP9 also selectively preserves and damages in its own way.

I know it's very complicated to control YouTube's compression, but at the very least I’d like to avoid overly aggressive degradation or major visual changes. I just wish the compression was more subtle or balanced.

You can't control YouTube compression - this is beyond you - YT is the only one that control compression.

You may try to upscale your video, you may think about some spatial and temporal antialiasing - maybe (with big question mark) this will be sufficient for preserving some rudimentary details but personally i don't expect any miracles. For YT goal is to provide maximum number of streams (there are millions users like you each day) with lowest possible encoding time and at the same time at lowest possible bitrate - those goals are against high quality video.

[aheatherly]

I once upscaled a 1080p video to 4K using AI tool, forcing YouTube to use VP9 encoding (which has a 30-50% higher bitrate than AVC1). What surprised me was that the upscaled 4K ended up with twice the bitrate of a regular 1080p.

[Migue12HD]

I understand to some extent that compression is necessary, but I believe it shouldn’t degrade the visual quality of a video so heavily.

And youtube disagrees with you. If you don't like it host your videos yourself. Can't afford it? Then I guess you agree with youtube.

What doesn’t make sense to me is that AVC1 seems to preserve certain areas and destroy others, while VP9 also selectively preserves and damages in its own way.

This makes perfect sense. They just chose different ways of reducing bitrate.

You don’t get it. How do you expect me to abandon my YouTube channel for a fake replacement? Sure, there are alternatives, but YouTube is where my whole history is, and where I used to feel excited about uploading something new.
Now, how am I supposed to upload anything in peace, knowing the video will be ruined? It’s easy to say that when you’re okay with how broken YouTube has become.

[Migue12HD]

Hi Miguel

Have you tried uploading in ProRes? Either 422 or 422HQ? Youtube accepts it. What NLE are you using?

I haven’t used ProRes. I encode my videos using FFmpeg with -crf 0 for lossless quality. Despite that, YouTube still adds compression with blur after uploading. That’s the issue.

[Selur]

Maybe the suggestions over at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTi_l0WFcCk help,...

[Migue12HD]

I understand to some extent that compression is necessary, but I believe it shouldn’t degrade the visual quality of a video so heavily.

And youtube disagrees with you. If you don't like it host your videos yourself. Can't afford it? Then I guess you agree with youtube.

What doesn’t make sense to me is that AVC1 seems to preserve certain areas and destroy others, while VP9 also selectively preserves and damages in its own way.

This makes perfect sense. They just chose different ways of reducing bitrate.

In fact, I’ve tried creating a mirror copy of my YouTube channel elsewhere, but given all the limitations that come with that, it would be preferable if I were allowed to upload videos without such heavy compression on my content.

[Migue12HD]

Maybe the suggestions over at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTi_l0WFcCk help,...

I had already watched that video and it didn’t help. I’m uploading 4K content to YouTube at 100,000 kbps, which already forces VP9 by default and that codec introduces blur that worsens the overall video experience.

[jagabo]

If you're working with RGB or YUV 4:4:4 you will always find small colored text or other objects get blurry on youtube -- because the 4:4:4 color will be converted to 4:2:0 before youtube encodes it.

As a reference I suggest you upload some short clips encoded with a supported lossless codec. That will give you the best possible quality you will ever see from youtube.

[Selur]

did you try adding noise? (i.e. to dark areas so that it isn't that visible?)

[ricardouk]

can you share some "problematic" video samples? Use avidemux and cut/edit using keyframes to avoid recompression.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UxHWPIpq1I