Uploading high quality 1080p videos to Facebook only to have them converted to lower resolution 720p can be frustrating. There are a few reasons why this happens.
Facebook’s Video Compression
The main reason 1080p videos are converted to 720p on Facebook is because of Facebook’s video compression. Facebook compresses and resizes videos to optimize them for different devices and bandwidth capabilities.
When you upload a video to Facebook, it is processed by Facebook’s encoding system which compresses and converts the video to a streamable format. Part of this process is resizing the video resolution to make it more web-friendly.
Facebook has chosen 720p as their standard distribution resolution for videos. So no matter what resolution your original video is, Facebook will compress and convert it to 720p.
This compression allows videos to stream smoothly across the wide range of devices and connections people use to access Facebook. Streaming higher resolution 1080p videos would mean larger file sizes, longer buffering times, and a poor experience for many viewers.
Benefits of 720p for Facebook
There are a few benefits to converting videos to 720p for Facebook distribution:
- Smaller file sizes for faster streaming
- Shorter buffering times
- Works well across all devices from phones to HD TVs
- Consistent quality of videos on Facebook
- Easier for Facebook to store and deliver billions of videos
So 720p provides a good balance of quality and performance for the Facebook platform. Of course for videophiles, seeing your original 1080p video converted to 720p can be disappointing.
Facebook Video Resolution Limits
In addition to compression, Facebook also imposes hard limits on video resolutions it will accept:
| Resolution | Max Height | Max Width |
|---|---|---|
| 720p | 1280px | 720px |
| 1080p | 1920px | 1080px |
Any videos exceeding those dimensions will be resized to fit. So even if you upload a full 1080p video, if it is larger than 1920×1080 pixels, Facebook will scale it down to 1080p first before compressing it further to 720p.
Uploading 720p Directly
Given Facebook’s compression and limits, one way around this is to export your original videos at 720p resolution to start with. Then uploading those straight to Facebook will avoid any down-scaling.
However, you will still have Facebook’s compression applied to the 720p videos. This will reduce quality somewhat but avoids the larger drop from 1080p to 720p.
If you don’t want any compression applied, the only option is to link directly to your video hosted on another platform like YouTube or Vimeo from your Facebook post.
Higher Res Photos Also Compressed
It’s not just video resolutions that get scaled down. High resolution photos get compressed too:
| Format | Max Resolution |
|---|---|
| Square | 720x720px |
| Landscape | 960x720px |
| Portrait | 720x960px |
So the same guidance applies to photos – if you are uploading very high res images to Facebook, they will be scaled down to their max photo resolutions.
Improving Video Quality for Facebook
If you want to maximize video quality from your original 1080p footage for Facebook, here are a few tips:
- Export your video at 1280×720 resolution before uploading – avoids auto downscaling.
- Use two-pass encoding when exporting to optimize quality at lower res.
- Export videos at higher bitrates around 10-12Mbps to minimize compression artifacts.
- Use motion techniques like motion blur to hide lower resolution.
- Add depth of field, film grain, and other cinematic effects to improve perceived quality.
With the massive volume of content on Facebook, some compression and resolution limits are unavoidable. But with the right export techniques, you can still deliver great looking 720p videos from your 1080p masters.
Other Social Media Video Resolutions
It’s not just Facebook that compresses and resizes video uploads. Here are the video resolution limits imposed by other top social platforms:
| Platform | Max Video Resolution |
|---|---|
| YouTube | 7680px |
| Vimeo | 4096px |
| 1280x720px | |
| Instagram Feed | 1080x1920px (portrait) |
| Instagram Stories | 1080x1920px (portrait) |
| Snapchat | 1080x1920px (portrait) |
| TikTok | 1080x1920px (portrait) |
Again, uploading at these recommended resolutions can help avoid any unnecessary downscaling by the platforms’ encoding processes.
Maintaining Quality from Original Footage
To summarize, here are some tips to maintain maximum video quality when publishing to Facebook and social media:
- Shoot original footage at highest resolution possible like 4K or 6K.
- Export separate lower resolution copies optimized for each platform.
- Use two-pass encoding and higher bitrates when exporting to minimize artifacts.
- Add visual effects like grain and depth of field to hide lower resolution.
- Upload directly in each platform’s recommended resolution and aspect ratio.
- Link to higher resolution videos on dedicated platforms like YouTube or Vimeo.
With the massive popularity of social media, platforms need to heavily compress content to make it work across their systems. But with some smart exporting techniques and an understanding of the limits, you can still deliver great looking videos to your followers.
Why Video Quality Matters
Even with compression, maximizing video quality on social media is important for a few reasons:
- Higher engagement – Higher quality video grabs more attention and makes people more likely to watch and interact with your content.
- Stronger brand image – Pixelated, blurry video reflects poorly on your abilities as a content creator.
- More enjoyable experience – Viewers simply find higher quality video more pleasurable to watch.
- Creativity – Technical quality provides room for you apply other creative techniques like color grading, visual effects, composition, etc.
So while on the one hand, video compression is unavoidable, maintaining the highest quality possible for each platform should still be a priority.
At the end of the day, technical quality alone does not make great content. But it does enable you to realize your creative vision more effectively and deliver the best viewing experience to your audience.
Conclusion
To wrap up:
- Facebook converts 1080p video uploads to 720p to optimize streaming.
- 720p provides a good balance of quality and performance for most viewers.
- Exporting in 720p avoids extra downscaling, but compression is still applied.
- Aim to export videos matched to each platform’s recommended resolution.
- Maintain highest quality through technique like dual encoding, high bitrates, etc.
- Focus on optimizing quality to boost engagement, brand image and audience enjoyment.
Converting 1080p to 720p may be frustrating, but with the right exporting workflow you can deliver great looking videos to your audience on Facebook. Just focus on maintaining the highest technical quality possible for each platform.
How do you aim to balance video quality and performance for social media? Let me know if you have any other tips or questions!