YouTube is experimenting with a "Premium" 1080p streaming option for subscribers

[Alfonso Maruccia]

In context: Every now and then, YouTube runs limited "experiments" to test new features or new viewing options. The streaming giant seemingly does so to collect user feedback and change its plans accordingly.

The latest experiment from YouTube is about a new quality option for video streaming, a "1080p Premium" option which is only accessible to paying subscribers of the YouTube Premium service. YouTube has confirmed the experiment, even though the company is not planning to remove the usual viewing options provided to free users at this time.

The new option was noticed by some Reddit users, who lamented the fact that YouTube's new CEO was "already making changes." The 1080p Premium option seemingly provides an enhanced bitrate for Full HD resolution. As video enthusiasts know pretty well, a higher (or "enhanced") bitrate means more bits are streamed in the player, providing a higher quality video experience using the same codec technology.

Bitrate is actually just one variable in the complex equation for internet videos, as resolution, color depth and the overall quality of the original video also play a role in the viewing experience. Furthermore, when a video is uploaded to YouTube, its quality usually goes down despite one's best efforts to use the highest possible bitrate during the video editing phase.

According to YouTube spokesperson Paul Pennington, the new 1080p streaming option is currently available to "a small group of YouTube Premium subscribers." Pennington explains the "enhanced bitrate" part as a way to provide more information per pixel that results in a "higher quality viewing experience."

Pennington also confirmed that the new option doesn't affect the existing 1080p video quality for non-paying users. YouTube's standard bitrate for Full HD videos can hover between 8 and 10 megabits per second, which results in a stark decline of the video quality compared to a 1080p home video release on Blu-ray disc that can go up to 40 Mbps.

According to a screenshot of the "stats for nerds" YouTube tool provided by yet another Reddit user, the new 1080p Premium option seemingly goes up to around 13 Mbps compared to the aforementioned 10 Mbps upper limit.

In recent times, YouTube ran another experiment with video quality by hiding the 4K/Ultra HD resolution behind the Premium paywall. The move was essentially rejected by the community, as users were losing something they had free access to for years. 1080p Premium is providing an additional viewing option with no paywall for the original free experience, so the move shouldn't encounter the same negative reaction from video makers.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/97718-youtube-experimenting-premium-1080p-streaming-option-subscribers.html

 

[Hexic]

Ahahahahaha.

No.

 

[Avro Arrow]

I've said it before and I'll say it again. You can always tell just how incompetent a corporation's "leadership" is by the quality of their ideas. Google's "leadership team" doesn't seem to have significantly greater intelligence than a bag of pucks.

I just hope that they're kept away from the Quantum Computing department because I shudder to think how a bunch of Dunning-Kruger case studies like them could screw up something that advanced.

 

[Alfonso Maruccia]

I've said it before and I'll say it again. You can always tell just how incompetent a corporation's "leadership" is by the quality of their ideas. Google's "leadership team" doesn't seem to have significantly greater intelligence than a bag of pucks.

I just hope that they're kept away from the Quantum Computing department because I shudder to think how a bunch of Dunning-Kruger case studies like them could screw up something that advanced.

It could be worse. It could be Elon Musk :-S

 

[Avro Arrow]

It could be worse. It could be Elon Musk :-S

Oh yeah, I agree, it could always be worse. That doesn't mean that it's good though.

 

[m4a4]

Honestly, if they want to put a higher bitrate streaming option behind a paywall (something that will cost them more than whatever free options I'll still get to use), that's fine with me.

I won't pretend something like this and 4k streaming is cheap. I otherwise couldn't care less to use the highest option of streaming for 99% of youtube videos...

 

[Alfonso Maruccia]

Honestly, if they want to put a higher bitrate streaming option behind a paywall (something that will cost them more than whatever free options I'll still get to use), that's fine with me.

I won't pretend something like this and 4k streaming is cheap. I otherwise couldn't care less to use the highest option of streaming for 99% of youtube videos...

Well, you should consider this from a video creator's point of view too. After rendering with Davinci Resolve, my latest video (Bright Memory: Infinite) was essentially perfect.

After uploading to YouTube, the same video was, well, a piece of crap compared to the original recordings :-D

 

[hahahanoobs]

Perfect timing because I'm looking to buy my first 4K TV soon. If 4K isn't a video option but 1080p Premium is, the upscale will look that much better.

 

[Eflow]

If I pay for 1080p premium (not happening) will Youtube still auto select 480p as my default streaming quality even though my connection can easily handle 4k?

What a joke.

 

[m4a4]

Well, you should consider this from a video creator's point of view too. After rendering with Davinci Resolve, my latest video (Bright Memory: Infinite) was essentially perfect.

After uploading to YouTube, the same video was, well, a piece of crap compared to the original recordings :-D

I have a feeling that a higher bitrate stream won't mean all that much if the re-encoding done on their end is still pretty crappy lol

And if it does, then I'd say that's still on Youtube to not make the experience that wildly different between settings (unless that's a selling point?).
But then again, they still haven't got HDR workable (last I heard), so who knows...

 

[Alfonso Maruccia]

I have a feeling that a higher bitrate stream won't mean all that much if the re-encoding done on their end is still pretty crappy lol

And if it does, then I'd say that's still on Youtube to not make the experience that wildly different between settings (unless that's a selling point?).
But then again, they still haven't got HDR workable (last I heard), so who knows...

I'm not 100% sure, but I think that by using H.265 you can avoid video re-encoding on their servers. That's what I'm using for rendering my videos in Davinci Resolve, anyway.

HDR not working on YouTube? Well, I've just purchased a ****tastic 1440p display from Dell (AW2721D), and I've tested HDR with my UHD Blu-ray discs and YouTube on Edge. It damn works pretty well as my eyes were bleached by colors, that I can assure you :-D

 

[Xclusiveitalian]

It's time to leave Youtube

 

[letsgoiowa]

Here's a great way to monetize in a way that's fair.

Creators that want to upload in anything above 1080p have to have a Premium account. Only fair because they're uploading hundreds of GB. Most don't need this, but real professional channels will want to do this.
High bitrate options for Premium users 1.5-2x the bitrate of freeloaders.
120 FPS videos and streams for Premium users only (the power of AV1!)

What wasn't fair is watching all this content for absolutely free and giving nothing in return for it. It's not fair to the creators or the ones who built the infrastructure. For the price of a Netflix subscription, it's way more than fair to pay those creators for near infinite content. I don't understand why people value this at $0 but value Netflix at $15 or $20.

 

[m4a4]

I'm not 100% sure, but I think that by using H.265 you can avoid video re-encoding on their servers. That's what I'm using for rendering my videos in Davinci Resolve, anyway.

HDR not working on YouTube? Well, I've just purchased a ****tastic 1440p display from Dell (AW2721D), and I've tested HDR with my UHD Blu-ray discs and YouTube on Edge. It damn works pretty well as my eyes were bleached by colors, that I can assure you :-D

I don't know either. But I'd bet they do something to trim down sizes (considering they're the ones paying for the storage and distribution).

Last I heard, some big creators were (still) complaining about how bad HDR was on youtube (LTT being the main one).
If it's working in general everywhere now, that's news to me...

 

[loki1944]

Guess they are slow learners...or just stupid.

https://www.macrumors.com/2022/10/18/youtube-ends-premium-4k-video-test/

 

[brucek]

I don't understand why people value this at $0 but value Netflix at $15 or $20.

Did you miss the part where YouTube inserts ads and the creators often do sponsored videos, while Netflix does neither?

Also, while I think there's some great YouTube creators out there and I applaud their work, the average YouTube video is not the same production quality of a high budget movie (or even a moderate budget one.)

 

[NumberSix]

I'd happily pay £24 a year to use an ad free YouTube but of course Google is too greedy to see the sense in that.

 

[SirHumano]

I'd happily pay £24 a year to use an ad free YouTube but of course Google is too greedy to see the sense in that.

It used to be $14.99 USD per month until late 2022 and now it costs like $20.99 USD. I'd say in 10 years it will probably cost as much as cable used to.

 

[SirHumano]

Here's a great way to monetize in a way that's fair.

Creators that want to upload in anything above 1080p have to have a Premium account. Only fair because they're uploading hundreds of GB. Most don't need this, but real professional channels will want to do this.
High bitrate options for Premium users 1.5-2x the bitrate of freeloaders.
120 FPS videos and streams for Premium users only (the power of AV1!)

What wasn't fair is watching all this content for absolutely free and giving nothing in return for it. It's not fair to the creators or the ones who built the infrastructure. For the price of a Netflix subscription, it's way more than fair to pay those creators for near infinite content. I don't understand why people value this at $0 but value Netflix at $15 or $20

Not fair watching for free? Your attention is the product that is sold to advertisers for billions of dollars a year.

 

[SirHumano]

If I pay for 1080p premium (not happening) will Youtube still auto select 480p as my default streaming quality even though my connection can easily handle 4k?

What a joke.

I have youtube premium. The quality defaults to the highest available quality of the video you are watching. Thinking of cancelling my subscription though since they recently raised the price 25% without adding any value to the service.

 

[Guyver1wales]

Give us full uncompressed audio FFS!

 

[hwertz]

Not sure if there's a point. Youtube already has good encoders that result in not needing that many mbps for a nice quality stream. I'm sure people can find individual scenes and screenshots where the 13mbps stream looks better than 10mbps, but just casually watching youtube vids I'm not sure at all I'd be able to tell the difference.

 

[Hodor]

Not sure if there's a point. Youtube already has good encoders that result in not needing that many mbps for a nice quality stream. I'm sure people can find individual scenes and screenshots where the 13mbps stream looks better than 10mbps, but just casually watching youtube vids I'm not sure at all I'd be able to tell the difference.

Yeah, they should have offered that a few years ago when video quality was pretty bad in average. In the meantime video codecs have advanced, storage got bigger, internet got faster, and quality is nowadays pretty good.

But hey, maybe they'll just downgrade the quality to 2017-level and then offer 2023 quality as premium?

 

[Terminal velocit]

It could be worse. It could be Elon Musk :-S

Oh no I disagree. Musk at least is autistic even if it’s higher functioning, these people think and process information in the same way as anyone else and still do stupid things. As someone with a nephew that’s also autistic I understand that even if they are incredibly smart. Being autistic seriously effects their ability to understand how other people think about things. So yeah Musk does some things that we would consider as stupid but in his mind makes perfect sense. The YouTube executives have no excuses for the dumb things they do.

 

[nismo91]

I wonder if they converted the existing 1080p videos to "Premium 1080P" and create a downsampled version which is the new 1080p.

the reddit reports of bitrate are... a little bit misleading because the stats for nerds section says connection speed. I can open any 1080p videos right now and it will display 40-50mbps because that's what youtube utilize from my 100mbps connection. it has nothing to do with the video bitrate.

in fact come to think of it, we've been aware of youtube bitrate recommendation. there will be a lot of backlash if youtube suddenly takes higher bitrate than the recommendation because a lot of creators optimize their videos that way.

in fact it doesn't make too much sense if they upped their video bitrate guideline because it's gonna make the filesize significantly bigger, which means they pay more for storage and we need faster connection to load the videos.

https://support.google.com/youtube/...py=,video-resolution-and-aspect-ratio,bitrate

with 8K not becoming the mainstream standard yet, it would be better if they just reserve 8K res for the premium users. if you can afford 8K display, you can surely afford youtube premium.