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.