Why are my Youtube videos bad quality?

[YogiOG]

I am going to sleep now. Could you let me now how I can stop them turning in to bad quality when I edit in Premier Pro, If I have to use a different editor that is ok.

[YogiOG]

It says 1139x712

[smrpix]

What are your export settings from Premiere?

[newpball]

What are your export settings from Premiere?

Indeed the right question, and in particular what are the average and maximum bitrates.

[Cornucopia]

@YogiOG, you need to look at it from a "optimized workflow" perspective. What you want to do is:
1. Start with the BEST quality source possible (in terms of frame size/detail, framerate, color/DynRange depth, bitrate, etc).
2. Edit your footage while maintaining that best quality. Maintaining it means not changing it, because changing it means 99.999% of the time making it worse.
3. Keep that quality all the way as much as you can, until you upload to YT.

So, first I would say, "what format (codec) is QT player screen recording? - I would HOPE that it gives you the option for either Uncompressed/None or some High Quality ProRes (4:2:2, 4:4:4). If it is the former, you have probably the best your system is capable of (using QT player). If the latter, you should still be good because those are geared towards maintaining "high enough" quality for most peoples' needs.
If, OTOH, your QTplayer screenrecording is being saved as AVC/MPEG4-pt10/h.264, you are ALREADY losing a good amount of quality, even if it isn't that noticeable to you (but it's loss is there).*

Next, Premiere Pro has plenty of export options, and just because something says "YT" doesn't mean it is "best quality YT", especially considering YT re-encodes EVERYTHING it is given. If you give it GREAT quality and it drops it down 2 levels (Great->Good->Fair), you might still be OK, but if you give it Good quality, and it drops it down 1 1/2 levels (Good->Fair->Poor?), you are now complaining. BTW, those "levels" are just a simplification of what's going on, there aren't actual steps like that.
So, you need to choose again what is best coming out of Premiere. With a few exceptions, if you give it great quality source material (uncompressed/lossless or very slightly lossy), the best you can do is to match the outgoing settings to the incoming settings so the editor can pass through as much as it can without re-rendering (and re-encoding). And if that's not possible, the other best thing you can do is give it settings that are BETTER than what went in, so that even if it does re-encode, you are either just transferring or are losing very, very little.

Now, the problem with doing things the way I have just suggested is that your upload source file(s) will often be HUGE! This does eat up time on upload, so to make sure it is worth your while, you export just a very short (~10-15sec) segment as a test and upload that (into private YT folder). Test the outcome, and if it's OK, then you render the whole thing and upload it and wait the long time that will be necessary. If it still is taking too long of an upload time to be acceptable for your purposes, then NOW is when you make decisions about what to compromise. Here, I would say you use a quite high bitrate AVC-in-MP4 file. But again, this is only if all the other things don't turn out the way you hoped - if you have no problem with the wait time of uploading uncompressed/prores/etc. files, those are clearly your best bet for a high quality YT outcome.

If you want to get into particulars, what you really should do is give us actual details about both your Source files (QTplayer recordings), your PPro session settings, your PPro export settings and your resulting upload files, as well as giving us links to the YT outcome. Use MediaInfo (detailed text mode) for the file details, as it is more accurate and more thorough than QT/MacOS itself is.

Scott

*You may have better screenrecording options, quality-wise, than just QTplayer. Look into that if what it is offering is NOT optimal.

[YogiOG]

Cornucopia, Thank You for your reply. What do I actually need to do in QT player to 'make it better.'
Also in Premiere Pro, I am not a really tech knowing guy. What do I need to do IN QT Player and Premiere Pro, to make it like you have explained.

[Cornucopia]

For us to help you, you need to help us, by giving us those details we asked for.

Scott

[YogiOG]

So what details do you need? You have said in MediaInfo format, how do I do that?

[smrpix]

So what details do you need? You have said in MediaInfo format, how do I do that?

Cornucopia's last paragraph states pretty clearly what we're looking for. I asked only for the Premiere output settings because I believe that's where the biggest problem is likely to be happening.

To be more specific, we're asking for the frame rate, dimensions, codec and bitrate at every stage of the process. The nature of your questions suggests you don't know to check these things -- apologies if I'm mistaken. So specifically, when you export from Premiere, how are you setting the frame rate, dimensions, codec and bitrate?

Mediainfo is one of the best tools for this, but Quicktime and Premiere give you most of the pertinent information as well.

[YogiOG]

I attached a screenshot of my Premiere export settings. Is this what you need?

[YogiOG]

FIrst one is of the QT recording. Second one is after being exported from Premier Pro. Is this what you need?

[poisondeathray]

You have major issues with your settings.

If you record 1280x800 @ 59.94 FPS, you should use the same sequence settings - not 720x576 interlaced

Not only is it going to reduce the resolution, it's going to be deinterlaced when you export it (the scaling and deinterlacing will severely reduce the quality)

The frameate conversions will cause problems too. 59.94 => 25 interlaced => 24p . You should keep it the same. By default, PP will use frame blending, so it will be blurry from blends added, blend deinterlacing and down/up scaling

(And when you upload to YT, it will re-encode again, but you can't control that part)

The "easy" way to match everything is to use the "match sequence settings" both when creating the sequence, and in the export dialog

[roma_turok]

You editing in lower resolution
To create sequence matched to the clip
in premiere right click on imported MOV file and select New sequence from clip :



also try if possible change video resolution of the game to higher resolution
if you want higher quality

[YogiOG]

poisondeathray, thank you, I will try this.
roma_turok, I don't understand the bit about the sequence and clip thing. I have changed my game to higher resolution though.
Thank You for your replies.

[YogiOG]

I understand now, roma_turok you were explaining the same thing. Thank You all of you. I will upload a video and see if it is better quality.

[roma_turok]

When you start editing its more easy to create sequence/timeline matched resolution to the clip
by right click on imported MOV file and select New sequence from clip
previously you edited on lower resolution 720x576

[YogiOG]

I uploaded another video. Please take a look. It is a little better quality and fits the screen, but it is still bad quality.

[jagabo]

Nobody knows what your original recording looked like. Or what your premiere processed video looked like. How are we supposed to know what's wrong with the youtube video or where the problem occurred? You should upload a short sample of your original clip and the same clip after processing in premiere. Then the upload that clip to youtube and give a link.

[YogiOG]

The Minestrike Episode 2 was after exporting from Premier Pro and the MineStrike Episode 2 QT player is the QT player one. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCy5S7ox-VoSV6Xi68l69GnA/videos