YouTube thumbnail looks pixelated. Is this normal?
I uploaded my first video today and was really excited about it, but the thumbnail is driving me insane. The image is 1280x720, it's a PNG, and the original file is perfectly sharp. Even if I zoom in a ridiculous amount on my PC, it still looks fine. But the moment I upload it to YouTube, it turns into a blurry, pixelated mess.
The strange part is that it only seems to happen on desktop. On my phone and tablet, the thumbnail looks exactly the way it's supposed to. I even checked from different computers and different internet connections, and it's still pixelated when I go to my channel and look at the Videos tab. What's even weirder is that if I search for the video on YouTube, the thumbnail looks much better there.
I've read a few things online and even asked AI about it. It said YouTube generates different thumbnail versions and that, depending on server load, it can sometimes take 24-48 hours for all of them to be processed and updated. Is that actually a thing? Has anyone else experienced this? I'm just trying to figure out whether I should wait it out or if there's actually something wrong with my thumbnail.