YouTube kills background textures even with VP9 4K and lossless encode

[Migue12HD]

Hi. I’m trying to upload videos to YouTube without any visual loss, as close to my local file as possible. I don’t care about bitrate or file size, I just want the uploaded version to keep the exact look I had in my original, including small textures and subtle grain, without YouTube "cleaning" anything.

I’m working with Geometry Dash recordings (1080p60, CFR). The game has sharp edges, flat colors, but also some grainy backgrounds (like big grey bricks with subtle noise). In my original local file, even if the background texture isn’t perfect, it’s visible and part of the visual identity. But when I upload, YouTube destroys that grain, the wall looks too flat, too clean. It’s like it smooths out the tiny roughness that made it look right.

The issue with using CRF 0 is that I can't visually verify the video quality locally, but with other CRF values the videos looked fine and identical to the source, so this shouldn't be the root cause of the problem.

Here’s what I tried:

FFmpeg encode to 2K and 4K (to force VP9)

libx264, libx264rgb, -crf 0, -pix_fmt yuv444p or rgb24

Reescalado with lanczos, neighbor, bicubic, etc.

Also used color_range 1 and all bt709 flags

I check that YouTube gives me VP9, no AVC1

The encoded file looks perfect in my gallery

The uploaded version looks smoother, but worse: background grain is gone or weakened

I don’t care about compression. I just want YouTube to stop ruining the background.

YouTube video frame: https://forum.videohelp.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=87687&stc=1&d=1751383689
Original video frame: https://forum.videohelp.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=87688&stc=1&d=1751383689

Any idea how to keep that texture untouched? Is there any trick, setting or filter to make the grain stay the way it looks in the source? I’m okay with reencoding a huge file or using ProRes if needed, I just don’t want YouTube to mess it up.

Thanks.

[jagabo]

I don't think there's any way to get youtube to retain such fine details. That sort of detail is the first to go with low bitrate encoding.

[LigH.de]

YouTube always re-encodes uploaded material. Always. And with a target of a rather constant bitrate, suitable for streaming, which usually causes varying quality.