Instagram doesn’t give users too much control over the quality of their uploaded video. Sometimes, you have filmed a perfect video and post it on Instagram, and it will turn out to be a blurry one. So, why the Instagram video looks much worse after uploaded? Why does Instagram lower video quality? Why do my videos look blurry on Instagram story? And how to upload HD videos on Instagram?
Here are the answers.
Section 1: Why do my videos become poor quality when I upload them on Instagram?
To balance the user experience and the quality of your Instagram video, which will affect the time of loading, the company chooses the former and use its built-in compression algorithms to shrink your videos, and photos too btw, to a smaller size while uploading. So that streaming on Instagram is more smooth and faster. Also, costs can be cut due to less server storage and usage of bandwidth.
Moreover, there are a few types of videos supported on Instagram, which are Instagram Story, In-feed Video and IGTV, etc. Each of them has its specific video uploading restrictions. If the video you intend to post does not satisfy the restriction requirement, the Instagram algorithm will be called automatically without your knowledge to compress and modify your video data.
The problem is a 10-minute video took by iPhone11 is around 2GB. Once the source file is larger than the Instagram video requirements, it will be compressed. For video post to Instagram Feed-in, a 4K video would be squeezed to 1080P while a 480P/720P video is enlarged to the same 1080P resolution. And, as you can imagine, videos get blurred.
Section 2: How to post HD videos on Instagram?
To limit the effects of Instagram video compression and upload an HD video to Instagram, here are four steps to follow.
Step 1: Pre-Record a good quality video
Remember this rule. “The higher quality your pre-record video, the better your Instagram video will look after uploading.”
- Good equipment: Record your videos with the best quality camera available. Aside from iPhone8 & later, Huawei P10 & later and Google Pixel 3 & later, filming with a regular phone is less recommended, because most of these phones don’t have a good lens and the record settings are very limited.
- Stabilization: Whether using a camera or phone as a filming device, I strongly recommend to use a tripod, so the video is less likely to blur.
- Set for the Maximum of output quality: Before recording, set to use high resolution (e.g. 4K) and FPS(e.g. 60fps), so later it leaves room for editing and Instagram compressing.
Step 2: Figure out which among the three video features you like to use on Instagram.
For example, you have filmed a video slightly longer than one minute, but you don’t want the web host your video after 24 hours. Then you should go with the Instagram story. But the story video cannot be longer than 15 seconds. In this case, find a video editing tool to split the video into several 15-second clips, and then upload them. The series of videos, once on the web, will be automatically played one after the other.
Once you know what type of video you want to upload, be sure to go through the restrictions below, including dimension, aspect ratio, file format, and maximum file size. Keep those setting in mind when start editing.
Instagram video Specs & Size:
| In-feed video Posts/Ads | Carousel video ads | Instagram Story/ ads | IGTV | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Resolution | Square:600×600 Horizontal: 600×315(Landscape video ad) Vertical: 600×750 | Recommended:1080×1080 Minimum:600×600 | Recommended:1080×1920 Minimum:600×1067 | Minimum resolution: 720 pixels. |
| Aspect ratio | Square:1:1 Horizontal: 1.9:1(Landscape video ad) Vertical: 4:5 | 1:1 | vertical: 9:16 or 4:5 horizontal: 16:9 | vertical: 9:16 horizontal: 16:9 |
| Video Length | maximum length 60 seconds(120 seconds for Landscape video ad) | maximum length 60 seconds | maximum length 15 seconds | Maximum 15 minutes ( upload from mobile devices) /Maximum 60 minutes (upload from PC) |
| Frame Rate | maximum frame rate 30fps | maximum frame rate 30fps | Minimum frame rate is 30FPS | Minimum frame rate is 30FPS |
| Format | .MP4 or .MOV | .MP4 or .MOV | .MP4 or .MOV | Only MP4 |
| File size | Maximum file size allowed is 4GB | Maximum file size allowed is 4GB | Maximum file size allowed is 4GB | For video file length less than 10 minutes, it cannot exceed 650MB and for those length less than 60 minutes, it cannot exceed 3.6GB |
| How long can you keep | Indefinitely unless user delete them | Depends on your budget | 24hours before archive | Indefinitely unless user delete them |
| Others | Video Codec: H.264 | Bit Rate: 3,500 kbps video bitrate | Audio: AAC audio codec at 44.1 kHz mono | |||
Step 3: Edit the existing video to satisfy the uploading restriction requirement
Aiseesoft video converter is a tool does a quality job on video editing.
- File format conversion: MP4 works for the story, in-feed video, and IGTV, but many other formats are not compatible on Instagram. Aiseesoft allows you to convert various format to MP4 for Instagram.
- The video taken by phone is either 16:9 or 9:16, but you may prefer 1:1 image size instead. Aiseesoft gives you the flexibility to do so.
- If you film a video with your iPhone 11 for 10 minutes, and the file will be in GBs, but the 10-minutes video on IGTV cannot exceed 650MB. Play around with the video/audio settings, and Aiseesoft tool will convert your video to fit Instagram.
Aiseesoft video converter is user-friendly and easy to use. To make a perfect video to upload to Instagram, just follow the steps below:
- Step 1. Open Aiseesoft video converter on your PC;
- Step 2. Browse and input the source video file;
- Step 3. Choose output format;
- Step 4. Customize the video settings (video quality, video codec, bit rate, aspect ratio, frame rate, etc.) and audio settings (audio codec, channel, etc.);
- Step 5. Choose an output location;
- Step 6. Click Convert;
The conversion will take a while. When the work is done, the video is good to go.
Step 4: Upload the HD Video to Instagram
You are recommended to use WIFI, especially for larger videos like IGTV.
If the length of the video is less than 15 minute, you can upload from your mobile devices. But if it is longer than that, then you can only do the uploading via internet on PC or Mac. IGTV can be directly posted via the Instagram website. Or there are a lot of third-party applications available to do the uploading on desktop.
Gramblr is an Instagram uploading tool that works on Windows, Mac, and Linux.
- Open Gramblr
- Sign in to Instagram
- Choose the video you would like to upload
- It’s optional to fill the Caption
- Click Upload
Don’t forget to configure the audience settings on Instagram. This setting determines who can view this video, public or your followers only.
Happy uploading!