Best Video File Formats for YouTube

Read time: 6 minutes

Hardly anything’s more frustrating than editing a video perfectly, only for YouTube to compress or crop it badly. When this happens, it feels like all your hard work was for nothing. It can happen when you upload your video file in either the wrong format, or with the incorrect aspect ratio and bitrate settings.

It doesn’t take too much effort to correct this mistake though as you just need to use the right video file format, video resolution and frame rate settings that’s compatible with YouTube’s guidelines. We’ll discuss the most common video formats and which one of these are most suited for this platform. We’ll also go over the recommended settings for video upload on YouTube.

What’s the criteria for choosing the best video format for YouTube?

You must keep these parameters in mind when trying to look out for the best video file format for YouTube, based on your requirements.

• Compatible video format: This is the most basic criteria; video format should be supported by YouTube and your video editing software.
• Compatible codecs: Your video file must have codecs compatible with YouTube’s upload settings. H.264 (video codec) and AAC-LC (audio codec) are the recommended codecs.
• Aspect ratio: Use the aspect ratio that suits the type of video that you’re uploading. For ex, 16:9 is the standard for long videos and 9:16 is the standard for YouTube shorts.
• Video resolution: Check if you want to prioritize video upload speed or video’s quality. High resolution videos are large in size, and thus, take a long time to upload.
• Frame rate: Frame rate is typically selected during the video filming process, although it can be changed in the post-production process. Recommended range for video frame rate is between 24-30 fps.

What happens if you choose the wrong video format and settings?

• Blurry video output.
• Loss of video quality.
• Improper color grading of videos.
• Video takes longer to process during upload.

Complete cheat sheet of YouTube’s recommended upload settings

These are the recommended upload settings given by YouTube for uploading videos without any loss of video quality.

Different video formats for uploading on YouTube

Here are the best video formats for uploading on YouTube:

1. MP4 (Top choice for YouTube)

MP4 is the most universally supported video format that works with almost all devices and editing software. MPEG-4 (MP4) is a standard video container that maintains the same video quality, file size, and compression in almost all media players.

Main features:

• Uses H.264 video codec and AAC audio codec.
• Works well with standard resolution videos as well as ultra-HD and 4K videos.
• Offers good video compression without compromising the video quality.
• Majority of editing software has MP4 as the default export format.

Best use case: Uploading video files on YouTube.

2. MOV (Works well for editing videos on Mac)

MOV is a popular video container, primarily used by Apple’s QuickTime Player. It stores different types of video data like the video streams, audio tracks, subtitles, header information, and other video metadata.

Main features:

• Mainly used for professionally editing video files.
• Gives flexibility to videographers during video editing for a professional finish.
• Preserves high-quality master files.
• Compatible with high-quality codecs like Apple ProRes.
• Works well as a video container to store a high-quality video draft before preparing final video file.

Best use case: Professionally editing video files.

3. WebM (Ideal for Web-based video playback)

WebM is an open-source video format that is primarily used for web-based video playback. It uses VP8, VP9, and AV1 video codecs and mainly Vorbis or Opus as audio codecs.

Main features:

• Primarily designed for high-definition video playback on the web.
• Compatible with VP8, VP9, and AV1 codecs.
• Provides efficient compression of video files with preserved quality for web playback.
• Suited for playing embedded videos on a website.

Best use case: Web-based video playback.

4. MKV (Best for storage)

MKV is a free, open-source video container that stores audio, video, and subtitles in one single container. These files can be played using VLC Media Player.

Main features:

• Stores multiple video (H.264, HEVC/H.265), audio tracks, and subtitles within a single container.
• Easy playback and repair of corrupt video files.
• Simple navigation with the help of chapters, menus, and other metadata tags.
• Supports archiving of high-quality videos.
• Allows users to store entire video collections in one place.

Best use case: Long-term storage and archiving.

5. AVI (Legacy format)

AVI is an older container format, launched by Microsoft in 1992. It was primarily used in the early stages of video editing and playback.

Main features:

• Common in older video editing and playback.
• Produces large-sized video files.
• Supports a variety of codecs like DivX, XviD, Motion JPEG, MP3, and PCM audio.

Best use case: Working with older video files.

How to convert your video to a YouTube compatible format?

If you’ve a fully edited video file that you want to convert to a YouTube compatible video format, it’s better to convert it to the appropriate format instead of recreating the whole video. Kernel Video Converter can be used in this case to convert your video files to a compatible format like MP4. It can be helpful if you’ve a legacy format video file. Make sure that you convert a copy of your video file so that you don’t lose it.

Uploading mistakes that may affect YouTube video quality

Even if your video is shot and edited perfectly, any mistakes during upload can ruin its quality. We’ve given common uploading mistakes that determine if your video is processed and uploaded on YouTube in the original quality or not:

• Uploading video with wrong codec: Video files with wrong or unsupported codecs will not get compressed properly. As codecs determine what information is retained in a video file, incorrect codecs can also increase the size of the video file. For standard compression, H.264 is the preferred choice for video upload.
• Bitrate is too low: Bitrate of a video determines how much information is displayed per second. If the bitrate of a video file is too low, the encoder might compress the video file too much. This will give rise to visual artifacts in the video file or might make the video blurry.
• High compression of source video: Compressing the source video file again and again can lead to generation loss. Important video details can be lost by decoding and encoding the already compressed file.
• Uploading with wrong aspect ratio: If you’re uploading a YouTube video with an incorrect aspect ratio, then it can get stretched, cropped, or blurry. Don’t change the aspect ratio of the source video file when uploading it to YouTube and stick to the standard setting (16:9) to avoid any mistakes.
• Changing frame rate of the source file: Changing the frame rate of the source file unnecessarily can disturb how motion appears in video files. Doing so can duplicate or remove frames from the video file, causing unnatural movement.
• Ignoring audio settings: Codec issues aren’t limited to just video streams. An incorrect audio codec or bitrate setting can affect the overall audio of the file.
• Video file got corrupted: Interrupted upload or incorrect codec sequences can corrupt the video file being uploaded to YouTube. If you’ve a backup copy of this video file, then you can try uploading it again. But if you don’t have a backup copy available, and this is the only copy of video file with you, then it’s better that you repair it as quickly as possible with the help of a trusted video repair solution.

Final Verdict: Which format should you choose?

In majority of cases, MP4 container and H.264 are the ideal combination to upload your video files on YouTube. However, go through the settings below if your preferences change with situation:

• For final YouTube video upload: MP4 with H.264 and AAC codecs.
• For Mac devices and professional editing: MOV with Apple ProRes codec.
• Web-based video playback: WebM format.

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