Shadowplay YouTube Quality Issue

[iamcactus]

I have been getting into YouTube these past few days and i have noticed a quality issue with my video's. They look like crap, and i don not know why. I have watched countless tutorials and guides on how to get the best settings on ShadowPlay and Vegas Pro 15 render settings, but my video's still look terrible. I record ShadowPlay at 1080p 50mbps. These are my Vegas Pro 15 Render Settings: (Side note i add some colour correction and a little bit of Sharpness as well)

https://imgur.com/a/YkPOMwk (Video)

https://imgur.com/a/7ezN6pS (Project)

Also compare my video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tj88oIblz4g&t=40s

to this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWaW4Zvqvj0

Obviously the second video looks better and my video looks blurry. But we both rendered our videos at 1080p 60 but his video looks way better than mine. Is it the colour correction and sharpness? Is it the Bit Rate? Is it my Render Settings? Recording Settings? or is it just YouTube? I am really struggling to find an answer to this issue yet.

 

[Frag Maniac]

It's mostly YouTube at fault. By that I mean YT uses a very low bitrate when converting a 1080p upload. It only uses 1/3 to 1/4 the bitrate it uses for 1440p uploads, despite 1440p being only about 78% more pixels. It doesn't matter how big a bitrate you compress with, beyond 12000 Mb/s it will just go to waste. That is why they recommend 12000 bitrate for 1080p uploads in their guidelines.

As for the other person's video, it looks to me like they were maybe using an ENB mod that sharpens the foreground and blurs the background. However it's also at night, and GTA V always looks better at night than day.

After many frustrations experimenting with pretty high compression settings on my ShadowPlay captures, I finally tried the resize trick. It used to be you could use a 3rd party tool to resize to 2048x1152, and it would trick YT into using a higher bitrate, but they caught on to that and now it will only use higher rate for 1440 uploads.

I was worried resizing to a whopping 78% larger res, vs 7% larger with 1152p, would just make the video worse. After all, you cannot add in the extra pixels, because it's captured at 1080p. However the results were MUCH better, and it's because YT uses 3 to 4 times the bitrate for 1440p.

YT recommends 30 Mb/s bitrate for 1440p uploads, so just keep your average bitrate at that. I start with 50 Mb/s in Shadowplay and use Avidemux to compress to 30 Mb/s and resize to 1440p. Vegas Pro also has the option to rezsize to larger video resolution. Skip to the 6:00 mark in the below video for how to do that.

[video="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Mivp_9pYy4"][/video]

These are videos I've uploaded at 1080p and after resizing to 1440p. As you can see the difference is quite clear. There's no more blurring and pixelating when moving fast on or over detailed ground with foliage. Not even the smoke or dust blurs or pixelates. You'll need to watch them fullscreen to really see how much difference there is. The 1440p one looks good even full screen on my 32" TV.

1080p Upload
[video="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUkL0uj3EAU"][/video]

1440p Resized Upload
[video="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlmHhh_Wtsg"][/video]

 

[iamcactus]

It's mostly YouTube at fault. By that I mean YT uses a very low bitrate when converting a 1080p upload. It only uses 1/3 to 1/4 the bitrate it uses for 1440p uploads, despite 1440p being only about 78% more pixels. It doesn't matter how big a bitrate you compress with, beyond 12000 Mb/s it will just go to waste. That is why they recommend 12000 bitrate for 1080p uploads in their guidelines.

As for the other person's video, it looks to me like they were maybe using an ENB mod that sharpens the foreground and blurs the background. However it's also at night, and GTA V always looks better at night than day.

After many frustrations experimenting with pretty high compression settings on my ShadowPlay captures, I finally tried the resize trick. It used to be you could use a 3rd party tool to resize to 2048x1152, and it would trick YT into using a higher bitrate, but they caught on to that and now it will only use higher rate for 1440 uploads.

I was worried resizing to a whopping 78% larger res, vs 7% larger with 1152p, would just make the video worse. After all, you cannot add in the extra pixels, because it's captured at 1080p. However the results were MUCH better, and it's because YT uses 3 to 4 times the bitrate for 1440p.

YT recommends 30 Mb/s bitrate for 1440p uploads, so just keep your average bitrate at that. I start with 50 Mb/s in Shadowplay and use Avidemux to compress to 30 Mb/s and resize to 1440p. Vegas Pro also has the option to rezsize to larger video resolution. Skip to the 6:00 mark in the below video for how to do that.

[video="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Mivp_9pYy4"][/video]

These are videos I've uploaded at 1080p and after resizing to 1440p. As you can see the difference is quite clear. There's no more blurring and pixelating when moving fast on or over detailed ground with foliage. Not even the smoke or dust blurs or pixelates. You'll need to watch them fullscreen to really see how much difference there is. The 1440p one looks good even full screen on my 32" TV.

1080p Upload
[video="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUkL0uj3EAU"][/video]

1440p Resized Upload
[video="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlmHhh_Wtsg"][/video]

Thanks for the help man! Just to make it clear, when i resize a video to 1440p, do i just render it in 1440p in Vegas Pro? If so i will definitely try that tomorrow. Also i watched some GTA videos from some people i watch on YouTube and i think it might just be the colour correction that make the video more HD looking and less blurry. Again thanks for your help dude.

 

[Frag Maniac]

Yes, it's always quicker to compress and resize in one step, so do the resizing when you compress. Also, make SURE the size option you choose is 2560x1440. Also YouTube likes MKV as a container, so best to use that if you can.

Like I said, GTA V looks way better at night than during day scenes. I'm willing to bet most of it was that. He very well could have been using a color correction mod though like an ENB profile, or a custom ReShade profile he made himself or someone made for him, many have been made for GTA V. Often times they have some kind of sharpening built in as well.

It's been awhile since I played GTA V, but the main thing I remember about night vs day is at night the cars, streets, and reflections look very sharp and clear. I also noticed in that video of his you posted that things in the distance are softened with blur. Between that blur and the dark of night you cannot see blurring and pixelating in the foreground. I think Rockstar may have freed up rendering resources by blurring the distant stuff to make the foreground look sharper. And that is smart because you really can't make out distant objects as well at night anyway.

I used to play Mafia III on my 7970, and it struggled to play it without lag. Then I found a ReShade mod for it, and oh man, what a difference. It not only made the game look tons better, it actually made it perform a lot better too. Better yet, it didn't have a problem with dark scenes looking too dark, something that is common with SweetFX, and the main reason I don't use it unless I have to. I'm tellin ya, the guy that made that Mafia III mod is a maestro.

 

[iamcactus]

I just tried this and uploaded the video private and it worked! Thanks a lot man! Will definitely try this for real when i next record for my Let's Play. Thanks for the help!!!

 

[Frag Maniac]

I just tried this and uploaded the video private and it worked! Thanks a lot man! Will definitely try this for real when i next record for my Let's Play. Thanks for the help!!!

To be clear, you mean you tried the resolution resize trick, and in Vegas? If so, maybe post a before and after video so people can actually see the difference. I've probably had to give this same advice about a half dozen times in the last couple weeks. The more people that know about it, the less I have to repeat myself. I'm thinking maybe I should just write a guide on it and request they make a sticky of it.

Oh, btw, forgot to say the Lanczos3 method of resizing is usually the best option. If you had great results though, it may have already been set to that.

Anyways, glad it worked for you. There was never any doubt in my mind that it would.

 

[iamcactus]

I just tried this and uploaded the video private and it worked! Thanks a lot man! Will definitely try this for real when i next record for my Let's Play. Thanks for the help!!!

To be clear, you mean you tried the resolution resize trick, and in Vegas? If so, maybe post a before and after video so people can actually see the difference. I've probably had to give this same advice about a half dozen times in the last couple weeks. The more people that know about it, the less I have to repeat myself. I'm thinking maybe I should just write a guide on it and request they make a sticky of it.

Oh, btw, forgot to say the Lanczos3 method of resizing is usually the best option. If you had great results though, it may have already been set to that.

Anyways, glad it worked for you. There was never any doubt in my mind that it would.

Yeah i will 100% do a before and after video, I've recorded the next Let's Play already and i am just about to resize it. Thanks for your help man.

 

[Frag Maniac]

No problem, looking forward to seeing your results.