Shotcut and YouTube. Why does OpenShot work?

Mostat · February 20, 2019, 12:30am

I want to point out this low quality from YouTube is because of Shotcut exporting.

It’s only with Shotcut. I have uploaded 1080p 60fps videos exported from OpenShot, just using their default YouTubeHD settings and changing only the FPS to 60.

I upload the videos exported from OpenShot and they stream with all clarity. No uploading in 4k, no fiddling with settings, just export and upload.

Why is this a problem with Shotcut? Why am I forced to export in 4K (as the only solution, really?) when YouTube accepts OpenShots exports just fine?

Why after spending hours to learn a better editor in Shotcut am I forced to go back, just because it can’t get the exporting for YouTube right…

This would be a question on what to do if there was actually an answer. Every solution found says upload in 4k, that’s a horrible cheat and not a fix. This is a pretty BIG flaw for a video editing program to have a problem with exporting for YouTube. How is this not fixed in 2019?

DRM · February 20, 2019, 12:40am

What is the version of Shotcut that you are using?
What export settings are you using?
What are the video bitrates of the exported files from OpenShot and what are those bitrates in Shotcut?
Have you tried raising the video bitrate when exporting from Shotcut?

Mostat · February 20, 2019, 12:49am

Been there, done that.

I’ll forgive you for assuming i didn’t do research before posting, considering most dont. I’ve done multiple tests with different settings and uploaded them all to no avail.

You respond like this isn’t an issue, or like it’s been resolved. I have not come across one poster that’s had success in this matter, 4k method excluded.
Funny enough I used to use some 2004 version of AVS Video Editor that exported video for YouTube that had the same result after uploading. This shouldn’t be an issue in 2019. Does DiVinci do this too?

And BTW my 4k test just failed. Same crappy blurs.

PS) Sorry i’m frustrated after spending hours learning this program to have this crap…
The bitrates are comprable, and i’ve tested up to 100. GOP 30, right codex, different codex, etc…

DRM · February 20, 2019, 12:54am

Not only is that a hell of an assumption, you’re completely wrong. I asked those questions because they were missing in your post and they could help in finding a solution. A post like the one you made isn’t constructive.

Mostat · February 20, 2019, 1:07am

Yeah sorry this is more a rant i guess with the hopes someone had found a solution recently, or who had success uploading 1080p without a dramatic loss of quality, especially with Gopro video action.
The impression I get is if the settings are not perfect, which seems impossible in Shotcut, when uploaded to YouTube it will always process to a degraded quality. This trial and error has been a complete waste of time.

Hudson555x · February 20, 2019, 1:12am

https://community.gopro.com/t5/Cameras/Blurry-video-after-uploading-to-YouTube/td-p/258629

https://community.gopro.com/t5/Cameras/GoPro-Hero7-Blurry-video/m-p/249677#/M72621

Mostat · February 20, 2019, 2:41am

At this point, after hours of learning the software and editing a video, it appears a fundamental flaw exists for anyone wishing to upload a quality HD video to YouTube.

I have tried every combination explained in other posts and more, and even used video from two different cameras. I find it hard to believe as exampled by what i see in YouTube that it is impossible to export a video and not afterward have it so thoroughly degraded by YouTube.

Unfortunately, because I liked Shotcut until after exporting, this program is no longer usable. Maybe YouTube doesn’t like Shotcut. Maybe I came late to the show, and this is the end times of Shotcut, i don’t know. But too bad. I guess for the time being it’s back to OpenShot.

brian · February 20, 2019, 3:12am

OpenShot and Shotcut both use the same open source libraries for video encoding: FFmpeg + libx264. So it should be possible to configure Shotcut to output video with the same encoding properties as OpenShot. I have not used OpenShot, but I wonder if there is any where that it outputs some details of what parameters that it uses.

Here are some clues to go by from the source code:
It looks like they set:
qmin=2
qmax=30
gop_size = 12
max_b_frames = 10

github.com

OpenShot/libopenshot/blob/develop/src/FFmpegWriter.cpp#L975


		c->flags |= CODEC_FLAG_GLOBAL_HEADER;
#endif


	AV_COPY_PARAMS_FROM_CONTEXT(st, c);
	ZmqLogger::Instance()->AppendDebugMethod("FFmpegWriter::add_audio_stream", "c->codec_id", c->codec_id, "c->bit_rate", c->bit_rate, "c->channels", c->channels, "c->sample_fmt", c->sample_fmt, "c->channel_layout", c->channel_layout, "c->sample_rate", c->sample_rate);


	return st;
}


// Add a video output stream
AVStream* FFmpegWriter::add_video_stream()
{
	AVCodecContext *c;
	AVStream *st;


	// Find the video codec
	AVCodec *codec = avcodec_find_encoder_by_name(info.vcodec.c_str());
	if (codec == NULL)
		throw InvalidCodec("A valid video codec could not be found for this file.", path);


	// Create a new video stream

It looks like they use 2, 5, 8Mbps for low, med and high bitrates:

github.com

OpenShot/openshot-qt/blob/develop/src/presets/youtube_HD.xml#L11


<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="no"?>
<!DOCTYPE openshot-export-option>
<export-option>
	<type translatable="True">Web</type>
<title translatable="True">YouTube-HD</title>
	<videoformat>mp4</videoformat>
	<videocodec>libx264</videocodec>
	<audiocodec>libmp3lame</audiocodec>
	<audiochannels>2</audiochannels>
	<audiochannellayout>3</audiochannellayout>
	<videobitrate
	 low="2 Mb/s"
	 med="5 Mb/s"
	 high="8 Mb/s"></videobitrate>
	<audiobitrate
	 low="128 kb/s"
	 med="256 kb/s"
	 high="320 kb/s"></audiobitrate>
	<samplerate>48000</samplerate>
	<projectprofile>HD 720p 23.98 fps</projectprofile>
	<projectprofile>HD 720p 24 fps</projectprofile>

It might be worth trying to map some of those clues into the Shotcut Advanced Export settings to see if you get similar results.

Mostat · February 20, 2019, 4:04am

I appreciate the thoughtful reply and may try out your suggestion. But as of now the only thing i’ll do is wait. The only other thing i have read about to explain this is a long ‘behind the scenes’, i guess, processing process by YouTube that could take hours.

The more looking at youtube and upload quality it seems with Gopro action in video, or just lots of movement, the codec assigned 1080p could be at fault. With You(don’t matter)Tube it could even depend on views or time of day, and apparently they are selective now with who gets some magic vp09 codec.

Mostat · February 20, 2019, 2:52pm

In all fairness I should point out that now I am no longer suspecting Shotcut for this problem. The more I looked for solutions outside of this software the more YouTube seems to be the actual cause for the degrading of quality.
In retrospect it makes sense, and i should have suspected them first. But who woulda thought! Why is there not an outrage at YouTube? Who the heck wants their footage corrupted with pixelation and blur.
It seems people shooting in 1080p are screwed, and to get the good JP9 codec you must shoot and upload in 14.4 or higher or have a large view count on your video.

My apologies to Shotcut and to you DRM, I certainly was frustrated. Thanks for the attempts to help.

bryanb · February 23, 2019, 6:47am

Yep. Most open source video editors (and maybe some of the proprietary ones) use FFmpeg for encoding as a poster above noted.

I’ve found re-encoding at 2560x1440 makes 1080 videos use the VP9 codec on YouTube. To me, the re-encoding is a minor aggravation and just makes the upload a bit longer.

Shotcut itself is fine.

system · May 21, 2019, 12:30am

This topic was automatically closed after 90 days. New replies are no longer allowed.