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How to Produce 4K and 2K Videos for YouTube

This guide shows how to

1. Produce a 4K video as adherent as possible to the standards for this format

2. Publish the video on YouTube, that supports resolutions up to both 4K and 2K

Specifications

YouTube is describing quite accurately all the minimum requirements for uploading your material with the YouTube recommended upload encoding settings.

Briefly, for the 4K and 2K cases we have:

Type	Video Bitrate	Mono Audio Bitrate	Stereo Audio Bitrate	5.1. Audio Bitrate	Resolution and Aspect Ratio
2160p (4K)	35-45 Mbps	128 kbps	384 kbps	512 kbps	3840x2160 (16:9)
1440p (2K)	10 Mbps	128 kbps	384 kbps	512 kbps	2560x1440 (16:9)

Bemerkung

Newer versions of Kdenlive already have 2K project profiles (QHD) and 4K project profiles for UHD and DCI with a variety of frame rates. Therefore, the following steps are only needed if your Kdenlive version does not have them (seriously consider an upgrade) or if you want to change certain parameters.

Step 1: Create Custom Project Settings

Under Menu ‣ Project ‣ Project Settings create a new custom project settings as follows.

For 4K

1. Size: 3840x2160

2. Frame rate: 60/1

3. Pixel aspect ratio: 1/1

4. Display aspect ratio: 16/9

5. Colorspace: ITU-R 709

For 2K

1. Size: 2560x1440

2. Frame rate: 60/1

3. Pixel aspect ratio: 1/1

4. Display aspect ratio: 16/9

5. Colorspace: ITU-R 709

Notice that the settings for Project Folder, Video Tracks, Audio Tracks and Thumbnail should reflect your personal needs.

Step 2: Create Custom Consumer Profile

We are going to create a total of four profiles: two for 4K and two for 2K. This is necessary because despite their recommendations YouTube will not display videos in 2K nor 4K unless they are rendered at 30fps. Therefore, it is recommended to keep separate profiles for 2K and 4K, one each for 30 and 60fps.

Bemerkung

The profiles have been created for Ubuntu 14.10 64bit, other distributions may have a different default directory for storing consumer profiles.

Under /usr/share/mlt/presets/consumer/avformat/Youtube_Advanced (Linux) or C:\Program Files\kdenlive\share\mlt\presets\consumer\avformat\ (Windows) create the following files:

4K_60fps

description=4K 60fps
f=mp4
frame_rate_num=60
frame_rate_den=1
width=3840
height=2160
progressive=1
vcodec=libx264
vb=40M
g=30
bf=2
acodec=aac
ab=384k
pix_fmt=yuv420p
threads=4
coder=1
movflags=+faststart
meta.preset.extension=mp4
meta.preset.name=4K 60fps

4K_YouTube

description=4K Youtube
f=m4
frame_rate_num=30  <-- Pay attention here (30fps is crucial
frame_rate_den=1
width=3840
height=2160
progressive=1
vcodec=libx264
vb=40M
g=15 <-- Pay attention here (this has to be half the frame rate)
bf=2
acodec=aac
ab=384k
pix_fmt=yuv420p
threads=4
coder=1
movflags=+faststart
meta.preset.extension=mp4
4meta.preset.name=4K Youtube

2K_60fps

description=2K 60fps
f=mp4
frame_rate_num=60
frame_rate_den=1
width=2560
height=1440
progressive=1
vcodec=libx264
vb=10M
g=30
bf=2
acodec=aac
ab=384k
pix_fmt=yuv420p
threads=4
coder=1
movflags=+faststart
meta.preset.extension=mp4
meta.preset.name=2K 60fps

2K_YouTube

description=2K YouTube
f=mp4
frame_rate_num=30 <-- Pay attention here (30fps is crucial)
frame_rate_den=1
width=2560
height=1440
progressive=1
vcodec=libx264
vb=10M
g=15 <-- Pay attention here (this has to be half the frame rate)
bf=2
acodec=aac
ab=384k
pix_fmt=yuv420p
threads=4
coder=1
movflags=+faststart
meta.preset.extension=mp4
meta.preset.name=2K YouTube

Step 3: Create Custom Rendering Profile

In the Rendering window create a new profile.

In the Profile window write the following values:

For 4K 60fps rendering

Parameter	Value
Destination	File rendering
Group	MP4
Profile Name	4K 60fps
Extension	mp4
Parameters	properties=4K_60fps vb=%quality+‘k‘ ab=%audiobitrate+‘k‘
Video qualities	35000,40000,45000
Default quality	40000
Audio Bitrates	384,256,192,160,128
Default Audio Bitrate	256

For 4K Youtube standard (30fps) rendering

Parameter	Value
Destination	File rendering
Group	MP4
Profile Name	4K Youtube
Extension	mp4
Parameters	properties=4K_YouTube vb=%quality+‘k‘ ab=%audiobitrate+‘k‘
Video qualities	35000,40000,45000
Default quality	40000
Audio Bitrates	384,256,192,160,128
Default Audio Bitrate	256

For 2K 60fps rendering

Parameter	Value
Destination	File rendering
Group	MP4
Profile Name	2K 60fps
Extension	mp4
Parameters	properties=2K_60fps vb=%quality+‘k‘ ab=%audiobitrate+‘k‘
Video qualities	10000
Default quality	10000
Audio Bitrates	384,256,192,160,128
Default Audio Bitrate	256

For 2K Youtube standard (30fps) rendering

Parameter	Value
Destination	File rendering
Group	MP4
Profile Name	2K YouTube
Extension	mp4
Parameters	properties=2K_YouTube vb=%quality+‘k‘ ab=%audiobitrate+‘k‘
Video qualities	10000
Default quality	10000
Audio Bitrates	384,256,192,160,128
Default Audio Bitrate	256

To see the results of using the above project and render profiles watch this video.

Notes

Sources

This How-to was written and published in the KDE Kdenlive forum on February 8th, 2015 by user marcozambi. It was adapted slightly to fit the style of this documentation.