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Will YouTube re-encode a video file, which will be uploaded with H.264 encoding? I'm currently working on a video steganography project. Will it be possible to upload to YouTube without any video re-encoding?

Risina
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  • What about asking the YT help line? – captcha Jun 22 '13 at 20:04
  • I know this doesn't answer the question but there is a page that gives suggestions for encoding a video file: https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/1722171 It would be nice to get an answer to your question but I can't see one. I could assume that the "correct" encoding removes the need to re-encode, but we know what assumptions make. YT will, of course, re-encode a few times for different devices and quality nonetheless. – Ken Sharp Dec 18 '15 at 13:13
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    I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because this is a customer support question – Zoe Jan 26 '19 at 18:04

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YouTube always re-encodes your video, but if you're trying to decrease how bad YT's compression makes a video look, there is one option.

Upscale. From a percentage standpoint, YT allots much more bitrates to 1440p or higher resolution videos. I'm not just talking about "well the video has more pixels, so it requires more bitrates". YT increases the allotted bitrate amount far beyond that requirement, and the result is that a 1080p or lower vid upscaled to 1440p or 4k has far less visible compression when compared frame by frame to just uploading a low res video at its native resolution.

Night and day difference, but the viewer must watch the vid with the player set to 1440p or higher, even if their monitor doesn't support high resolutions. They'll still see the drastic difference.

Drawbacks, small text won't be "crisp", but a great option for video that's otherwise ruined by what low bitrates on YT does. Fast paced video games, for example, greatly benefit from upscaling to trick YT into a better compression ratio.

The compression ratio goes up, as the uploaded resolution increases. 1080p has less artifacts than 720p, 1440p is drastically better than 1080p, and 4k video has almost no visible compression.

source: I recorded fast-paced video that demands high bitrates for clear quality, and uploaded it at 1080p, and then 2k, and 4k. Uploaded all 3 versions at 80,000bitrate, found the exact same frame in each video after upload, and compared the 3 uploaded frames to the 3 rendered frames before upload.

Joseph M Cutcher III
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