Lower quality can come from the source file, the conversion stage, or the playback format and connection. Compare the affected video with your original file before replacing it.
Check the source quality
SmartVideo converts a copy of the video it can download from your source. A low-resolution or heavily compressed source limits the quality of the result; conversion cannot recover detail missing from that file.
For YouTube sources, conversion is best-effort because of YouTube’s download restrictions. A new YouTube URL does not guarantee a high-resolution import. For Vimeo sources, wait until Vimeo finishes processing every quality level before you embed the video; SmartVideo converts the version it can download at that time. For a reliable source, use your original high-quality file, or download a copy you have permission to use, and upload it to the SmartVideo Library. Replace the old embed with the Library embed for that upload.
Allow conversion to finish
Until conversion finishes, SmartVideo plays your original source, so what viewers see at that stage is your source’s quality, not the converted result.
A video usually takes about as long as it runs to convert, and longer when our encoders are busy. After conversion finishes, reload the page and compare again.
Understand playback quality
SmartVideo does not use the same playback format on every device:
- HLS playback (used on iPhone, and in browsers that play HLS natively but can’t use SmartVideo’s Media Source Extensions playback) can select a lower-bitrate version to suit the viewer’s connection. The default HLS video bitrate targets are 4.8, 1.8, and 0.8 Mbps, with maximum dimensions of 1920 × 1080, 1280 × 720, and 960 × 540 respectively. These are limits, not a promise that every video has all three versions: source bitrate and conversion settings can exclude versions, and smaller sources are not enlarged.
- MP4/DASH playback uses a single converted video capped at 1920 × 1080, preserving the source’s aspect ratio, with a default peak video bitrate of about 3 Mbps (some accounts use a different limit). It is not a multi-quality adaptive ladder, so a slower connection does not automatically explain a resolution drop on this path.
Both formats are converted at 30 frames per second, so 60 fps footage plays back less smoothly than the original.
If quality varies on HLS playback, compare the same video on a stronger connection. If it stays blurry, check the source file and conversion status rather than assuming a bandwidth problem.
If you still need help, email support with the affected page URL, the video source, your browser and device, and whether the issue persists on another connection.
Keywords: low res, low resolution, video quality, blurry