Dithering for YouTube/Vimeo?

[(Basil) wishnewskyParticipant]

Hi all,

Recently I started to make simple videos for my music and infrequently uploading those to YouTube. Before rendering the final video file, I realized I have no idea which master to put for the audio track -- .wav - undithered(1) or dithered(2), or a consumer-grade mp3(3), or should I preliminary make a conversion to aac(4) which seems what what YT uses. I may be wrong anywhere here, but there are definitely two unclear moments in the process:

A) Rendering a video file itself, and
B) Uploading rendered video file to a video hosting like YT

I understand that dithering during A) depends on the video software (I use free version of VideoPad) and I will RTFM l0l, but option B) is what I don't get. Does YT converts the file (thus no pre-dithering needed)? -->

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• This topic was modified 5 years ago by (Basil) wishnewsky.

[(Basil) wishnewskyParticipant]

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Judging by the fact that ONE single file is uploaded but the viewer gets SIX or more (144p, 240p, 360p etc), each with different audio quality, I would suggest that there IS conversion happening (and subsequently, dithering applied) for all files below the "max quality" of 1080p or 4K or whatever. So, if a video software applies dithering and THEN YT applies another one, I would imagine that un-dithered file is needed at the beginning...

[(Basil) wishnewskyParticipant]

I would continue, but the forum doesn't allow me to post a new big message. In short words, I did not find any single solution, so maybe anyone here has some insights into how this can work? Any ideas appreciated.

[Magnus JohanssonParticipant]

I´d say no need to worry. The copies will be made from the same master, your upload. Adding dither... noise at extreme low level wont hurt. Adding a no frills 16bit dither adds noise at -90dBFS! When in doubt.. add dither. http://productionadvice.co.uk/when-in-doubt-dither/

[(Basil) wishnewskyParticipant]

Thank you, Magnus!

This makes a lot of sense

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