YouTube Supported Video Codecs
I recently learned that YouTube supports some advanced video codecs like ProRes, so I decided to do a few tests to see exactly which codecs and resolutions it supports. Below are my results.
| Codec | 1080p (1920×1080) | 4K (4096×2304) |
| MainConcept H.264 at 10 Mbps (Level 4.1, Main Profile) | Yes | n/a* | MainConcept H.264 at 50 Mbps (Level 5.1, Main Profile) | Yes | n/a* | MainConcept CUDA H.264 | Yes | n/a* | Photo-JPEG | Yes | Yes | Apple Animation | Yes | Yes | Apple Intermediate Codec | No | No | DNxHD 220 10-bit | No | n/a** | DNxHD 220 8-bit | Yes | n/a** | DNxHD 145 8-bit | Yes | n/a** | Apple ProRes 4444 | Yes | Yes | Apple ProRes 422 (HQ) | Yes | Yes | Apple ProRes 422 | Yes | Yes | Apple ProRes 422 (LT) | Yes | Yes | Apple ProRes 422 (Proxy) | Yes | Yes | QuickTime Uncompressed 8-bit 4:2:2 | Yes | Yes | QuickTime Uncompressed 10-bit 4:2:2 | Yes | Yes |
*MainConcept H.264 and MainConcept CUDA H.264 encoder do not support 4K.
**DNxHD codecs do not support 4K.
I originally did this test for a thread on REDUSER.net. The thread can be found here.
