x264 settings for Youtube

[SameSelf]

What settings does everyone use for encoding 1080p content for Youtube using x264 cli? Youtube recommends the following, but I am not sure if I have to tweak my x264 settings or not. I would normally do a bunch of tests myself. But I don't have a Youtube account, and I am not the one who uploads the videos. I have read that it doesn't really matter what you do because Youtube will re-encode no matter what. But then why does Youtube provide recommended settings? TIA

https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/1722171?hl=en

This is my current script:

x264.exe --preset slow --level 4.1 --ref 4 --tune grain --crf 17 --vbv-maxrate 40000 --vbv-bufsize 40000 -o "video.264" "signpost.avs"

[LigH.de]

Again, and again, and again ... (did you search?):

It will probably not matter much, because YouTube will probably re-encode every upload (already to ensure that no malware stays embedded). Strategies are different; I know people who blow up the video extremely to gain a little advantage in chroma downsampling (possible with VDSL, a waste of upload time without).

In general: Upload as much quality as you can afford with your upload bandwidth. Grain tuning will boost the details a bit. Whether or not VBV values will prevent re-encoding is not so certain...

[Skiller]

I know people who blow up the video extremely to gain a little advantage in chroma downsampling

The main advantage is the bitrate that Youtube assigns to it's quality levels; above 1080p YouTube is pretty generous.

Here's an example: Upload a 25 or 30 fps video at 1080p and YouTube encodes it at about 4.3 MBit/s. Scale the same video to 1440p and you get 10 MBit/s when playing it at 1440p and it looks A LOT better because of that bitrate boost.

[SameSelf]

Again, and again, and again ... (did you search?)

Are you accusing me trolling? I don't follow...

Anyway, it sounds like you would use the same settings for Youtube? Maybe you can post an example? That would be preferred.

[SameSelf]

The main advantage is the bitrate that Youtube assigns to it's quality levels; above 1080p YouTube is pretty generous.

Here's an example: Upload a 25 or 30 fps video at 1080p and YouTube encodes it at about 4.3 MBit/s. Scale the same video to 1440p and you get 10 MBit/s when playing it at 1440p and it looks A LOT better because of that bitrate boost.

Wow,I had not heard of that before. Very interesting strategy. I am not sure how to scale up to 1440p. Will need to look into doing that. Thanks.

[LigH.de]

Are you accusing me trolling?

Not "trolling" — just not searching much before posting; I remember about half a dozen posts about "how to optimize videos for YouTube" already existing. But I must admit, I did not understand the key of Skiller's approach completely so it is indeed a kind of "cheat" if you get more bitrate fore the same downscale level only because you uploaded a higher original resolution. Unfortunately, that means even bigger uploads, thus even more time for uploading, and the most usual connection type (Asymmetric DSL with 2..8 Mbps downstream) will have only about 1/10 the upload speed of your download limit. Lucky if you have up to 100 Mbps down (VDSL or Cable), then you may also have up to 20 Mbps up.

[pandy]

Again, and again, and again ... (did you search?)

Are you accusing me trolling? I don't follow...

Anyway, it sounds like you would use the same settings for Youtube? Maybe you can post an example? That would be preferred.

Nope, however there is no sense to use slow encoding for YT as YT re-encode all videos to own encoder (with own settings) some people experience problems uploading complex video and sometimes is recommended to broke quality with matching YT bit rate locally (so YT re-encode video anyway and quality will be reduced slightly more but probably quantizer pumping will be less visible).
Definitely you should read at least few topics like this:
https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/372607-Struggling-with-Video-Quality-%28YouTube%29
https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/371494-Youtube-videos-pixelated-every-5-seconds

[Skiller]

But I must admit, I did not understand the key of Skiller's approach completely so it is indeed a kind of "cheat" if you get more bitrate fore the same downscale level only because you uploaded a higher original resolution.

Every level on YouTube (480p, 720p, and so on) always gets the same bitrate, it does not depend on the bitrate or resolution of the uploaded source file (the only exception is if the video content cannot reach this bitrate, like with a static picture). However, higher levels get more bitrate in relation to their dimensions (bits per pixel ratio). And that's the point I'm trying to make.

Say you upload a 1080p video and then watch it in 1080p on YouTube. Then you upscale the same video to 1440p and upload it (file size will be much bigger for the same CRF of course...) and then watch it in 1080p again – no difference, but if you watch it in 1440p you can clearly see the benefit of the better bits per pixel ratio.

Some math:
At 1920x1080 there are 8160 16x16 macroblocks sharing about 4.3 MBit/s
At 2560x1440 there are 14400 16x16 macroblocks sharing about 10 MBit/s
That's a 76% increase in macroblocks and a ~133% increase in bitrate. Plus, the upscaled 1440p video should be easier to encode since it's softer than a native 1440p video.

[SameSelf]

I searched the web before posting here and the advice I found was generic: upload the highest quality/bit rate your bandwidth will support because YT will re-encode at a lower bit rate. IOW give YT as much to work with as possible. My question was a little more specific and on the lines of: here is my x264 code, what would you change if anything? My apologies, I should have been more specific. I am a newbie when it comes to x264. But I really, really like x264 because it runs super fast on my machine versus AME or ffmpeg. This is the only x264 script I have come up with so far for another purpose. In the past, I used AME and encoded to exactly the recommendations listed by Google. Can someone show me what x264 settings they use for YT?

Here is what I have divined so far from the responses:

Skiller: uprez to 1440p to take advantage of the higher bit rate YT allows at that rez, because 1080p and lower are capped at a lower and same bit rate. An interesting strategy I may try in the future.

pandy: using the slow preset is pointless. Would you rec medium, fast, faster?

Ligh.de: Grain tuning boosts detail a bit. OK good, I will keep it then. The general advice from the web still applies. OK, sounds like my 40 Mbit/s rate is fine. VBV may or may not prevent re-encoding. This surprised me tbh. I don't recall why the VBV buffers are in my script. I picked it up somewhere for a completely unrelated reason.

I should also mention that this is not gaming video or animation but people, lots of people moving around on the screen with pans and zooms. So a very busy video. Not much different than a sports video like a soccer game.

[SameSelf]

hmmm, looks like YT offers some very specific advice for Movie/TV creators:

https://support.google.com/moviestvpartners/answer/1679498?hl=en&rd=1

All my video is ProRes HQ. But sounds like they restrict ProRes uploads to very specific content. 1080p H.264 content they allow up to 60 Mbps.