Your videos might appear blurry and unclear when you watch it right after uploading it on YouTube.

Most of the time, this is because when you upload a video on the platform, it is first processed in low quality. 

So there is nothing wrong from your end and there is nothing extra you need to do. 

This problem is regularly faced by all YouTubers. And it has only one solution – give your upload some time (sometimes several hours). 

Below is the official Google support page response for low video quality after upload:

“When you upload a video, it will initially be processed in low quality. This process helps you complete the upload process faster. When the upload flow is complete, your video will be available to stream in low quality, on a wide variety of devices.

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Higher qualities, such as 4K or 1080p, can take more time to process. While this processing happens, your video may seem to be missing higher qualities for several hours. Once high-resolution processing is finished, higher qualities will be available on your video.” (source)

However if the problem still persists, then there may be other issues which you need to attend to. 

Reasons for blurry YouTube Video and How to Solve them:

1. The Video Card Drivers Are Outdated:  

When you see distortion and glitches during YouTube viewing, one of the reasons is that your computer’s hardware needs modifications or updates. 

Ensure your system has the latest video drivers for your graphics card. 

An outdated graphics card or one with a low memory can also be the issue causing YouTube videos to not load properly on your device.

If you are editing videos then make sure your device has a good graphics card installed. 

Check out how to choose a graphics card for video editing, and the best SD card for 4k Video.

2. Bitrate is not set according to the quality of your video:

If you’re not happy with the quality of your YouTube videos, it’s likely because you have exported it at a lower bitrate.

After you are done with the editing, the video editing program renders the video. 

Even though you shot the video on 1080p or higher resolution, if you don’t select proper export settings, the video will not be clear.

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The best practice is to select the bitrate according to the quality of the recorded video. 

Adjusting the video bitrate should allow you to fix blurry YouTube videos.

The expected rendering bitrate is 16 Mbps bitrate if producing videos specifically for Youtube.

Note – Higher bit rates lead to larger file sizes, requiring longer video upload time.

3. Display Resolution: 

The display size of any video you stream online depends on the bandwidth. If the bandwidth is higher, the site will display a larger size. 

The video frame size is low for lower resolutions, like 240p and 360p which is one of the reasons for pixelization.

The more pixels a video image has, the better it can show the details of a scene or movie, and the higher the resolution, the more pixels it will have. 

4. Your Internet Connection Is Poor: 

Slow Internet connections support very specific video qualities. If you have a weaker connection, the video’s playback quality will automatically decrease while the video is being played.

A slow bandwidth will also affect the sharpness of the video you are watching. 

If you share your broadband connection with others or divide it between many concurrent online tasks, such as downloading files, performing Internet research, and sending and receiving email attachments, you may not have enough bandwidth for your video to play smoothly. 

Stop the video and wait for the file to preload before resuming playing, or free up the internet for your videos.

5. The video quality is manually set to low: 

Check the video quality if all your YouTube videos look blurry even though the controls below the videos look fine.

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Changing the default playback resolution to a higher quality might help. 

You can control the display quality by clicking the settings icon (three dots) at the very bottom tray of the app. Then, click the Quality tab and choose a higher display quality.

If on mobile at least go with 480p. On bigger devices like a laptop or a computer 1080p is ideal. 

On a 40+ inch tv, 1080p is the minimum for getting a good quality picture, and go for 4K if your TV and the video support it!  

Low Quality Video affects your viewers and ultimately revenue

You will never want your channel to serve fuzzy streams to your subscribers. 

A low quality video has a drastic effect on viewer rate which ultimately affects your popularity and revenue.

Spending some dollars to get good recording devices and equipment is wise rather than losing on all your hard work.

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VDMS (Verizon Digital Media Services) conducted a survey a few years back asking most prominent internet users what quality of videos they prefer.

“The survey found that the average time spent viewing video fell by a whopping 77% when video quality dropped. 

More than 85% of respondents said that they expect a TV-like quality experience for every video they see on the internet.” (source)

Check out some of the reasons why high quality video is essential for your firm.

Final Thoughts

Video quality is essential to all your media files, whether you are publishing on YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook or any other social media channel. 

At the very beginning, it is recommended to make high-quality videos instead of standard-definition ones. 

Check out all our tips on which cameras to choose for recording and which editing software is recommended here.

Even after this, for some reason you find out that the video appears blurry, you need to troubleshoot the problem as quickly as possible.