4K on YouTube - What's your opinion?

RidingWithStymie

RidingWithStymie

Active Member
Is there any advantage to uploading 4K videos on YouTube? Is there much demand?

It seems to me that 4K is overkill, except for viewers who watch on a TV. I suspect not many people watch YT on big screens.

What do you think?

Thanks in advance for your feedback,

Stymie
 
If you can, always upload 4K videos. YouTube will then downgrade them to the lower resolution BUT will and can never upgrade a lower resolution video to 4K. Yes, there are people who watch 4K videos and not just on TV. My computer monitor can show 4K. So if your camera can record in 4K, it is kinda foolish not to.
 
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Jack Decker said:
If you can, always upload 4K videos. YouTube will then downgrade them to the lower resolution BUT will and can never upgrade a lower resolution video to 4K. Yes, there are people who watch 4K videos and not just one TV. My computer monitor can show 4K. So if your camera can record in 4K, it is kinda foolish not to.
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What Jack said.

A good HD camera is good but if you can do 4K do it. if the 4K looks worse than the HD to you then stick to the HD.

Also worth noting I have some pretty badly filmed video that still do well because the content I assume is what people look for in my video's not the video quality. But it all depends, great content is generally only made better by a higher resolution/better filming/production, rarely does it make the content worse.
 
If you plan to have your channel in it for the long haul then they should ALL be 4K every time. Someday it will be the standard and eventually 720 or even 1080 will be a turnoff

I recently upload an old video redone on 4K it worked well and found a lot of new viewers. But don’t do it often. Recycling old videos too much will drive people away
 
I will be the devil advocate. Just some thoughts not necessarily what I believe.

The genre is in a flux right now. 4K is great, if you can do it, then yes, do it...

Downside? They are usually huge files, very taxing on editing programs / equipment and it takes much more expensive equipment to do it. I know this to be fact, I have a i7-6770K with a 1070 sitting in it with 64GB mem and it struggles with 4K still in Premiere. I've bought a new rig to handle this. Don't think these 250 dollars camera's are 4K, they are NOT. They take a 1080 capture and push the size to 4k size... SIZE. Again, SIZE not QUALITY. True 4K equipment is somewhat expensive.

Another downside? Like a poster above me said, a good majority will be viewing it on a phone or tablet. No one will watch 4K on that, it makes no sense and Youtube will auto - resolution it anyways, most likey 480p for sub 200, 720 for 200 or better. If I didn't load my own videos, etc, I don't think I would watch too many videos on a browser. Leads me into the next downside

the next step is 4k right? In theory, sure, but no. It is not. At least right now. Because people are on smaller screens, using WI-FI and such, a 4K video in many ways is useless. Again, they can downgrade to a 1080p but I will bring this up one more time; is it worth the extra trouble to publish 4k if no one watches it in that version?

I won't even get into FPS, which IMO is more important than 4K right now.

These are just thoughts, not really my personal thought process, but ones that I feel you can take in account.
 
I partially agree, it can quite often be an overkill.

Before I started I bought a camera, it was important it shot 4k. Today I don't even use 4k. The big files and editing just makes it a nuisance to me. I know that in some payed programs you can substitute the 4k footage with lower res, to make it easier to edit, but I can't in what I want to use.

These are my stats.
1612540707557.png

There is a huge difference. Highest amount of views are from phones. But people on TV have more than twice the watchtime.

I do think, if all my videos were 4k instead, it would have improved the stats for TV and PC a little.

For someone who is already making travel videos, if that person already have a decent 1080k camera, I would recommend a cheap drone as the next investment, before a true 4k camera. (!!!Depending on location, as drone laws can be very strict!!!).

If you are making a lot of scenic travel shots, then no. It's not overkill. But there are likely other investments (time or money), that would be more helpful long term.
 
Vedstedsen said:
I partially agree, it can quite often be an overkill.

Before I started I bought a camera, it was important it shot 4k. Today I don't even use 4k. The big files and editing just makes it a nuisance to me. I know that in some payed programs you can substitute the 4k footage with lower res, to make it easier to edit, but I can't in what I want to use.

These are my stats.


There is a huge difference. Highest amount of views are from phones. But people on TV have more than twice the watchtime.

I do think, if all my videos were 4k instead, it would have improved the stats for TV and PC a little.

For someone who is already making travel videos, if that person already have a decent 1080k camera, I would recommend a cheap drone as the next investment, before a true 4k camera. (!!!Depending on location, as drone laws can be very strict!!!).

If you are making a lot of scenic travel shots, then no. It's not overkill. But there are likely other investments (time or money), that would be more helpful long term.
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Excellent info here.

Yeah and again, I was just being devils advocate.

Love the drone idea, they can get some really good ones for not that much now adays.
 
I really appreciate everyone's input. In the final analysis, 4K is out of reach for me right now. I have a Canon M50 and GoPro Hero6 Black. both claim to shoot 4K. But my laptop, disk space, not to mention rendering time, upload time, etc, is a different story. Not to mention, I live/travel full-time in a van, so I already have enough challenges right now - lol!

Honestly, the quality of my videos isn't very good yet. I have a ways to go just to get the most out of the equipment I have. I have a lot to learn.

I will keep 4K on the back burner for now.

Thanks again,

Stymie
 
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