YouTube rolls out AI upscaling and higher-res thumbnails to cater to couch viewers

[Shawn Knight]

TL;DR: YouTube has rolled out several new features and tools aimed at making content creation and viewing more suited to the living room experience. Chief among them is a new AI-powered feature that automatically upscales lower-res videos to higher resolutions.

Kurt Wilms, senior director of product management for YouTube on TV, said the new feature will initially work to convert SD videos into HD quality. Eventually, he said, the tech will support resolutions up to 4K.

Wilms noted that creators will retain full control over their library, adding that both the originally uploaded file and the upscaled video will be kept intact. Viewers will have the option to watch either the original or the enhanced video, which will be labeled as "super resolution" in the settings menu. Creators will be able to opt out of AI upscaling at any time.

YouTube is also expanding the thumbnail file size limit, from 2 MB to 50 MB – enabling "stunning 4K-resolution thumbnails" to help creators better market their videos. YouTube is also experimenting with larger uploads with select creators, we're told.

Elsewhere, Google is revamping how viewers interact with creators' channels. The latest design enables users to flip through YouTube channels complete with immersive previews on the homepage. The new design is better catered toward couch consumption, and should help enhance both content discovery and engagement.

Related: YouTube takes over the living room – Viewers stream over a billion hours a day

Speaking of discovery, YouTube has also updated how videos are discovered when watching on a TV. Now, initiating a search from a creator's channel will show results from that channel prioritized at the top instead of results getting lost in a sea of other videos from the platform.

YouTube is also doing more to meet viewers where they are watching on the shopping front. Soon, shopping-tagged videos will have scannable QR codes that will instantly take users to the relevant product page. Wilms said the new addition will help creators drive conversions and help advertisers grow their brands.

Image credit: Andrey Matveev

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YouTube rolls out AI upscaling and higher-res thumbnails to cater to couch viewers

 

[Billybobjoey]

Wow, a new youtube feature that's actually useful and not super controversial for once? People who want the upscaling can keep it enabled, those who don't can disable it. I appreciate that it isn't forced on everyone.

 

[daffy duck]

Maybe using more bandwidth and less compression would result in 1080p that doesn't look like complete crap. Some of the FHD YT videos I see are horrendously bad and are running at disgraceful bit-rates deliberately IMO to force you to buy a premium subscription.

 

[hahahanoobs]

Maybe using more bandwidth and less compression would result in 1080p that doesn't look like complete crap. Some of the FHD YT videos I see are horrendously bad and are running at disgraceful bit-rates deliberately IMO to force you to buy a premium subscription.

Agreed. On the flipside, 1080p Premium videos have been some of the best I've seen on Youtube compared to some that are 4K. I have a cheap 4K TV.

 

[LooseBowels]

Alright! Now I can watch upscaled 240p content from back in the good ol' days of YouTube circa mid-late 00s!

:/