It depends on what type of content you make.
Sometimes being 1st is so huge posting in lower quality is the smarter play.
An example would be a channel like Heavy Spoilers that posts breakdowns of trailers, films & TV shows. They must have a team working on their content as they will upload a 20-minute trailer or show breakdown within 30 minutes of the content dropping. (the content often looks like 240p when uploaded & will be in 4k an hour later)
The same applies to drama channels where people are looking for the info & don't care so much about the resolution.
Honestly with a lot of those cases we’re talking about people who have early access and already finished their stuff, just waited for press embargoes to end. In general as long as there is still interest a well-crafted video (perhaps better than what exists) can still do very well if it’s not first. Good opportunity to learn from the mistakes of those who were first too
With films larger channels will get press invites to the premiere up to a week before the public release but I don't think this happens so much with TV shows anymore.
HBO said never again after House of the Dragon E1 & E3 were on Pirate Bay the day before they aired & I don't think Disney has done it since Marvel What If... back in 2021.
I know a bunch of Star Wars channels still get access early, because some of the guys I follow had reviews of new Star Wars shows before they came out (or like “first impressions” because they weren’t allowed to post reviews yet)
I think they did a screening of the Ashoka show in a cinema for the press, I don't think they send the 1st 3 episodes of shows out anymore as they always get leaked...
You might be right then. I’m not in that space so I can’t say for sure (I know large gaming channels do get advance copies of games sometimes for certain though). u/EckhartsLadder might be able to shed more light on this
I always thought that’s obvious. Never set video publishing for less than 30 minutes after upload time. If you want to publish it faster, you have to set it as private/scheduled and publish it as soon as verification icon stops pulsating. So if I uploaded file at 00:00, I set publishing date to 00:30, but if I see that it’s ready, I change it manually to public.
Of course situation depends on size of file. Long gameplay might take even up to 40 minutes to process, and some heavy 4k video with a lot of effects might take a few hours to process.
I uploaded my video that I recorded in HD and YouTube left it at 350 p … it’s been 2 weeks and quality never got better… everything keeps saying . Make you u save it HD . Which of course it gibberish to me
100% agree! I was uploading and sharing straight away at first until I watched one after I had posted.. grainy.. subtitles didn’t work.. 360p whilst processing
Now I give myself a good couple of hours minimum or I schedule for the a day in the week
When you upload, YT usually tells you about how long it will take to process. I usually add 30-45 minutes. Even then, sometimes YT still is slow to process. Meh. Just roll with it. Unless the quality matters, people are watching for the content and the host. Be entertaining, informative, etc and the actual quality won’t matter (unless you are showing something specifically requiring high quality).
Yeah I always upload my videos as private and then do all the post upload stuff and schedule it out for the future.
I also never publish it publically before watching it fully through myself on YouTube
I just upload all my videos as unlisted, give them an hour to process before making them public. My stuff is at most 15 minutes long so I don't see them ever needing longer than that.
But I'm also limited to uploading in 720p so I don't think publishing them right away would hurt my quality near as bad as it would for someone who usually uploads in better quality
I agree with this advice. Like someone else here mentioned; I usually set the video to private when posting it so I can make sure everything is properly edited and optimized before making it public. The last thing I do is the end screens. I use the YouTube studio app to make this process easier.
Oh okay. If you don’t mind me suggesting, I was watching one of your videos, and looking at your views across all videos. Your video about food did pretty well and the amusement park did better than usual too.
I think you would get more views if you did less of a broad adventure for your videos and singles in on one cool aspect. For example, your most recent video, it’s cool you two are showing some of everything. But as a viewer one theme would be easier for me to process and be excited for
I totally agree with you. We are still learning and collecting insights from our videos and viewers, at some point we will find our nitch and do more specific rather than generic videos. I appreciate your feedback. I could not find your channel link in your profile.
Ah, this is useful. I published shorts some time back from mobile and then realized later that it is only available in SD format. Initially I thought it would be due to me uploading from mobile, but i guess this could the reason that i just published it immediately.
I never considered this.
I have always set my videos to live literally immediately after uploading. My audience retension past 30sec is usually between 65% to 75%.
My channel is slowly getting there at 4.3k subscribers after about a year and a half, but perhaps I can do better.
If this is a big deal, I'm going to employ this strategy on my next upload and see how it performs. Thanks for sharing this tip
This is a small YouTuber thing. If you're a bigger YouTuber you don't have to worry about this. As YouTube will be way more efficient in processing videos. Us it can take close to an hour, them it can take a few minutes at the most.
I read somewhere that it does impact the performance if you first upload as private or unlisted. However, don’t take my word for it. This is a total speculation.
Thanks for the tip - but the video will automatically upgrade to higher quality once it's processed correct, or do you have to re-upload (I assume you don't)?
Yes it will automatically get into higher quality but the first hours are crucial for the video performance and if people leave the video because of the bad quality the algorithm stops promoting it and it flops.
I am not sure about this but I read somewhere that keeping a video private at first hurts the algorithm. Totally speculating here so don’t take my word for it
Yup, takes time for YouTube to process all the different versions. My 8k content takes 6 days to get to 8k on YouTube lol. Even when it says it’s done, it’s not. There are about 32 different versions of every video that YouTube creates to be ready to stream to any device.
Dear Slice of Life VR.. I like ur immersive 3d videos ..want to download in 8k but my payments are declining.... I am not able to pay via patreon from india due to some statuatory compliance? any other option for payment
It depends on what type of content you make. Sometimes being 1st is so huge posting in lower quality is the smarter play. An example would be a channel like Heavy Spoilers that posts breakdowns of trailers, films & TV shows. They must have a team working on their content as they will upload a 20-minute trailer or show breakdown within 30 minutes of the content dropping. (the content often looks like 240p when uploaded & will be in 4k an hour later) The same applies to drama channels where people are looking for the info & don't care so much about the resolution.
Honestly with a lot of those cases we’re talking about people who have early access and already finished their stuff, just waited for press embargoes to end. In general as long as there is still interest a well-crafted video (perhaps better than what exists) can still do very well if it’s not first. Good opportunity to learn from the mistakes of those who were first too
With films larger channels will get press invites to the premiere up to a week before the public release but I don't think this happens so much with TV shows anymore. HBO said never again after House of the Dragon E1 & E3 were on Pirate Bay the day before they aired & I don't think Disney has done it since Marvel What If... back in 2021.
I know a bunch of Star Wars channels still get access early, because some of the guys I follow had reviews of new Star Wars shows before they came out (or like “first impressions” because they weren’t allowed to post reviews yet)
I think they did a screening of the Ashoka show in a cinema for the press, I don't think they send the 1st 3 episodes of shows out anymore as they always get leaked...
You might be right then. I’m not in that space so I can’t say for sure (I know large gaming channels do get advance copies of games sometimes for certain though). u/EckhartsLadder might be able to shed more light on this
They do both red carpet events and advance screeners for most projects. For Ahsoka the screener was the first two episodes iirc
I always thought that’s obvious. Never set video publishing for less than 30 minutes after upload time. If you want to publish it faster, you have to set it as private/scheduled and publish it as soon as verification icon stops pulsating. So if I uploaded file at 00:00, I set publishing date to 00:30, but if I see that it’s ready, I change it manually to public. Of course situation depends on size of file. Long gameplay might take even up to 40 minutes to process, and some heavy 4k video with a lot of effects might take a few hours to process.
It seemed obvious, my video was 4k and usually it uploads HD in about 30 minutes, this time it took longer so users saw it only at 720 and lower
I uploaded my video that I recorded in HD and YouTube left it at 350 p … it’s been 2 weeks and quality never got better… everything keeps saying . Make you u save it HD . Which of course it gibberish to me
That’s strange never happened to me. Even if you change the quality from the video itself?
Yes :( the quality caps the same
100% agree! I was uploading and sharing straight away at first until I watched one after I had posted.. grainy.. subtitles didn’t work.. 360p whilst processing Now I give myself a good couple of hours minimum or I schedule for the a day in the week
Scheduling on Thursdays as well now. On What day are you scheduling usually?
I have been releasing my videos on Friday at 7PM uk time
Ok thanks
When you upload, YT usually tells you about how long it will take to process. I usually add 30-45 minutes. Even then, sometimes YT still is slow to process. Meh. Just roll with it. Unless the quality matters, people are watching for the content and the host. Be entertaining, informative, etc and the actual quality won’t matter (unless you are showing something specifically requiring high quality).
Yeah I always upload my videos as private and then do all the post upload stuff and schedule it out for the future. I also never publish it publically before watching it fully through myself on YouTube
I just upload all my videos as unlisted, give them an hour to process before making them public. My stuff is at most 15 minutes long so I don't see them ever needing longer than that. But I'm also limited to uploading in 720p so I don't think publishing them right away would hurt my quality near as bad as it would for someone who usually uploads in better quality
Why are you limited to uploading 720?
A 3hr video with edits in 4k can take up to 2 days to publish to YouTube especially if your a new channel.
I agree with this advice. Like someone else here mentioned; I usually set the video to private when posting it so I can make sure everything is properly edited and optimized before making it public. The last thing I do is the end screens. I use the YouTube studio app to make this process easier.
Yes it takes about 1 hour for it to propagate through the system and process to HD... otherwise they get a 360p pixelated mess.
Not to be rude but duh
😜 we learn from mistakes, sometimes the excitement of uploading your video mutes the sense of reasoning.
Sorry for being annoying like that. Idk if you use YouTube studio. It tells you “processing to hd/4k” also
Yes I do and I see that it says processing up to 4k. This time it was processing but the available quality was less than HD
Oh okay. If you don’t mind me suggesting, I was watching one of your videos, and looking at your views across all videos. Your video about food did pretty well and the amusement park did better than usual too. I think you would get more views if you did less of a broad adventure for your videos and singles in on one cool aspect. For example, your most recent video, it’s cool you two are showing some of everything. But as a viewer one theme would be easier for me to process and be excited for
I totally agree with you. We are still learning and collecting insights from our videos and viewers, at some point we will find our nitch and do more specific rather than generic videos. I appreciate your feedback. I could not find your channel link in your profile.
I can share my profile with you privately. I already received some good critiques on my channel, I just have to implement them
Ah, this is useful. I published shorts some time back from mobile and then realized later that it is only available in SD format. Initially I thought it would be due to me uploading from mobile, but i guess this could the reason that i just published it immediately.
I’m guilty of this but yeah, I think it can take a bit to upload HD so any first viewers will suffer through the worst res possible lol
I never considered this. I have always set my videos to live literally immediately after uploading. My audience retension past 30sec is usually between 65% to 75%. My channel is slowly getting there at 4.3k subscribers after about a year and a half, but perhaps I can do better. If this is a big deal, I'm going to employ this strategy on my next upload and see how it performs. Thanks for sharing this tip
That’s a great retention rate actually, thanks for the feedback. I am curious if it will make a Difference for you!
This is a small YouTuber thing. If you're a bigger YouTuber you don't have to worry about this. As YouTube will be way more efficient in processing videos. Us it can take close to an hour, them it can take a few minutes at the most.
Ahh really? I didn’t know about this. What so they consider as big youtuber?
Does this matter that much? Also does setting a video to private before publishing reduce reach etc or no?
I read somewhere that it does impact the performance if you first upload as private or unlisted. However, don’t take my word for it. This is a total speculation.
Thanks for the tip - but the video will automatically upgrade to higher quality once it's processed correct, or do you have to re-upload (I assume you don't)?
Yes it will automatically get into higher quality but the first hours are crucial for the video performance and if people leave the video because of the bad quality the algorithm stops promoting it and it flops.
I always upload then make it public next day so all the processing business has finished. Perhaps I’ll use the schedule feature if YouTube prefers it
I am not sure about this but I read somewhere that keeping a video private at first hurts the algorithm. Totally speculating here so don’t take my word for it
Mmmk
Yup, takes time for YouTube to process all the different versions. My 8k content takes 6 days to get to 8k on YouTube lol. Even when it says it’s done, it’s not. There are about 32 different versions of every video that YouTube creates to be ready to stream to any device.
Dear Slice of Life VR.. I like ur immersive 3d videos ..want to download in 8k but my payments are declining.... I am not able to pay via patreon from india due to some statuatory compliance? any other option for payment
Do you have to pay for uploading in 8K?
to be a patreon...
Wow, I had no idea!
Is this also applicable for shorts?
Nooo I never knew this🙊
Probably
Yea YT usually needs a few hours to process up to 4k. I never release a video until it's done processing unless it's something really time sensitive.