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Adobe Premiere CC 2019: Avoid this mistake for 3D 180 / VR180 videos

Uploading VR180 at 5.7K resolution
Uploading VR180 at 5.7K resolution

Adobe Premiere CC 2019 is probably the best video editor for editing VR180 and 360 videos. However, I found out that as of March 2019, there are bugs that could lead to disastrous results.

Yesterday, I edited an Insta360 Evo VR180 video in Adobe Premiere. The rendered file was 5760 x 2880, h.264, 150mpbs VBR, equirectangular, stereo SBS 180 vertical, 180 horizontal.  When I uploaded it to Youtube, the video correctly appeared as a VR180 video, but YouTube would only show a resolution of up to 1440p.  Here is the previous video, capped at 1440p:

At first, I thought the processing was just delayed.  But after a while, it became clear that YouTube would never show it at its full resolution.  Because of the lower resolution, a lot of people hit the dislike button. After all, in the video I stated it was 5.7K and it was not.  It was an embarrassment.

I tried reuploading several times, changing bitrates, etc. Each time it would be limited to 1440p.  I suspected there was an issue with the metadata.  I tried running the Premiere-edited files through the Google VR180 metadata injector tool and uploaded it.   This time, YouTube recognized the file correctly as 5.7K / 2880p.

Here is the new version at 5.7K:

To be fair, other people have been able to upload VR180 at full 5.7K resolution from Premiere, using the exact same workflow.  And I assume Adobe will issue an update that will fix this problem.  For now, it is safer to run the video through the Google VR180 tool before uploading to YouTube.

Here’s another tip: after uploading any 360 video or VR180 video to YouTube, you will first see that the video is very low resolution (approximately 360p).  Give it some time – at least an hour – to allow YouTube to continue processing the file at its full resolution.

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Mic Ty

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  • The Google Injector made things worse, oddly. Now my video on YouTube is 5K, but in the Oculus Go headset (YouTube VR), the video is just a plain flat screen video (even though on the YouTube website I can pan around with the mouse, so it’s definitely VR180).

    Also, your video above that you say is 5.7K shows up as 1080p when I check the quality settings on YouTube, and that’s the highest it goes. Definitely doesn’t look 5K in the headset either.

    I’m highly puzzled!

  • Hi Mic!

    I’ve been having trouble with the image quality of the EVO on Youtube as well. In my case, Youtube appears to recognize that it’s 5.7K, but it still looks like garbage. I think it’s partly to do with the fact that there’s a lot of camera movement – but still – it seems unacceptably bad. Can you share your Premiere Export settings? Maybe I’m doing something wrong.

    • Hi Richard. Is it blurry? Or lots of compression artifacts? Do you have a link to a sample? Meanwhile, try h264 and change bitrate to adaptive high bitrate.

      • Hi Mic Ty, I have the same problem as Richard. The EVO 180 3D footage looks good in Premiere 2020 but blurry with artefacts when exported as H.264, 150mbps High Adaptive Bitrate, VR SBS 180 horizontal/vertical. Any thoughts?

  • Thank you! I spent days trying to figure out how to get my SBS 180 3D VR to work on youtube… no other article talked about Googles VR180 tool… which solved all my problems with meta data. One item I would recommend for your tutorial is to mention that in for your video to become fully view-able by all devices in VR (phones, computers, headsets etc) youtube will process those versions after the low quality version becomes available. About an hour after you upload the high quality and VR versions will be available. Before I knew this I would delete my video to quickly because I thought it was not working.

  • Hi there. Great article! I’m wondering, as of July 2020 is this still the case or does it look like Adobe has fixed the issue? Also at this point is it possible to upload using HEVC instead of H.264 with 5.7K for VR180?

  • I am having a problem in that the stereoscopic side of it looks wrong when viewed on the occulus. looks
    fine in 2d ie you can pan the video , but when viewed wiht the quest 2 headset, the depth is all wrong ie back bits appearing at the front etc
    I have tried exporting it with premiere vr setting and the VR180 creator, both do the same thing
    any ideas