Youtube to Reduce Default Playback Resolution to 480p Globally

[Tech_Dreamer]

DVD res is making a comeback yo!

 

TLDR :

• Spoiler

   

  • Corona quarantine increased general video streaming traffic.
  • YouTube traffic being among one of them.
  • YouTube is deciding to lower automatic playback resolution from HD to 480p to deal with ISP stress.
  • You can manually change it to HD.
  • But default Playback will be locked to 480p max whenever you open a window anywhere.
  • It will be a temporary 30 day setting for the whole of April.
  • 30 day goal is due to the virus being under control scenario & people getting back to work & the traffic reduces.
  • Being applied WorldWide (not locked to any particular region).
  • Thanks Corona.

   

   

YouTube streaming has surged due to people being under quarantine during this pandemic. Google is well equipped to handle YouTube streaming strain in the past, But the current problem is the consistency at which contents needs to be provided. For the first time ever Youtube is above Netflix ranking almost 2X the Volume in streaming data. To counter the global traffic Youtube is planning to reduce the default resolution to 480 to reduce the pressure on internet infrastructure globally.

 

 

Quote

“YouTube already limits the quality of video based on the strength of a user’s internet connection. YouTube doesn’t believe the world will run out of internet bandwidth any time soon, but is taking a preemptive measure given growing concerns at the government level.We continue to work closely with governments and network operators around the globe to do our part to minimize stress on the system during this unprecedented situation”

 

The resolution limit is set for a month (30 days) globally across all platform. 30 days limit is due to the expectation that the pandemic & associated quarantine will be under control by time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Most of the current generation isn't subscribed to cable like old gen folks glued to a TV , so naturally most of the internet platforms are being relied for daily entertainment. Plus Over 43% of the global internet is consumed by Netflix, Google, Amazon, Facebook, Microsoft & Apple collectively.

 

Quote

Use of streaming services has surged  in recent weeks as hundreds of millions of people stay home to contain the spread of the virus. While YouTube viewing has historically spiked in the evening when people are off work, consumption is now more steady across the day

 

In Europe, video providers including Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Disney+, are also slashing streaming quality to avoid internet congestion. Read about it in a previous thread here made by Porina >>

 

 

Anyways what do you think about it , Post your comments & thoughts down below. imo i think it's a decent move. i wouldn't say a good one since it's the year 2020 & we shouldn't be at a 480p dvd res as a default at this point.  that's 2009 dvd era shit. atleast 720p should be a standard. especially when they know they can handle it globally, but 480p is just reducing it furthermore for that extra safe space that isn't essential.

 

 

 

Sources:

https://www.bloomberg.com/technology?sref=nF2P89s4

https://www.iphoneincanada.ca/news/youtube-definition/

https://www.psu.com/news/youtube-default-video-quality-being-reduced-to-standard-definition/

https://www.sandvine.com/blog/covid-19-update-growth-of-video-during-work-at-home

https://www.onenewspage.com/n/Technology/1zlqy75ecn/YouTube-is-reducing-its-default-video-quality-to.htm

https://bgr.com/2020/03/24/youtube-video-quality-sd-coronavirus-impact/

https://www.wired.com/story/youtube-slashes-video-quality-save-bandwidth/

 

 

Others :

https://www.sandvine.com/blog/netflix-vs.-google-vs.-amazon-vs.-facebook-vs.-microsoft-vs.-apple-traffic-share-of-internet-brands-global-internet-phenomena-spotlight

https://www.sandvine.com/blog/covid-19-update-growth-of-video-during-work-at-home

[minibois]

Hmm, 720p would be alright.. But I think 480p is just a bit too low. There is just not enough bitrate in that.

But I guess what must be done, shall be done.

 

If it's choosing between no YouTube and 480p YouTube, I think I'll go with the latter.

[akio123008]

Well it's just the default. If you want more you can still set it to HD. On top of that, lots of video content on youtube really doesn't need high resolutions and framerates. Also most people don't give a damn; my dad watches videos all the time, on the tiny screen of his phone, and he doesn't even know of the resolution setting. I think it's a smart move to set the automatic mode to 480; loads of people wouldn't even notice.

[Ashleyyyy]

installs extention to force 1080p

 

your move youtube!!!!

[Kilrah]

How evil of you.

[mariushm]

I'd be fine with it if Youtube would actually use a bunch of servers to recompress the content from original source to 480p using high quality preset, not the presets which are "optimized" to be easy to be played by slow machines and so on.

 

I usually watch everything on 720p... currently using a laptop with 1366x768 resolution so no need for more than that.

[Tech_Dreamer]

FYI , They'll be throttling Console Game download speeds globally soon. read that news while i was looking for other sources for this news.

[porina]

I have a bitwit video playing on another system right now. It has a 1080p display. I haven't overrided the quality, it is playing in 1080p, even not running full screen. Hmm... have they not enabled it yet? Or decided I'm worthy of the higher resolution? Or is it done silently? It looks better than 480p. I'd settle for 720p which is often what it defaults to if I don't tinker with it.

 

BTW I usually run windowed so it'll never display native 1080p, but I prefer 1080p for quality from the higher bitrate. Rarely it'll randomly drop to 360p but manually selecting higher is fine. Not because it is a new upload encoding, it must detect something to make it think my connection sucks.

 

Will keep monitoring... also just did a speedtest, connection speeds look normal. Actually, might even be a personal best at 382/37 (typically 360/36).

[Tech_Dreamer]

4 minutes ago, porina said:

I have a bitwit video playing on another system right now. It has a 1080p display. I haven't overrided the quality, it is playing in 1080p, even not running full screen. Hmm... have they not enabled it yet? Or decided I'm worthy of the higher resolution? Or is it done silently? It looks better than 480p. I'd settle for 720p which is often what it defaults to if I don't tinker with it.

it starts from April 1st alone according to the news article. but i guess you can use a browser plugin to force a certain default resolution by then as well.

[PlayStation 2]

Do note that you can very easily manually set the video to whatever other resolution you desire. YouTube is just temporarily cutting the default back to 480p as it generally slashed around 1/3 to 1/2 of the bandwidth required from 720p videos, even more if it’s a 60fps video. 

Nothing really frustrating, thankfully, but something to note.

[Kilrah]

Nothingburger, it takes 2 clicks per video to change it back and there are extensions to do that for you. But most "normies" won't do it, and that's what will make the difference.

 

I usually watch YT on my 12" iPad Pro (with comments displayed) and I've more than once been watching half of a video in 480p before noticing it had decided to stream me that for some reason.

[porina]

3 minutes ago, Tech_Dreamer said:

it starts from April 1st alone according to the news article. but i guess you can use a browser plugin to force a certain default resolution by then as well.

Thanks, didn't see that in a skim of the post. I'm not bothered enough that I usually don't change quality unless it becomes really noticeable (like the random drops to 360p). The exception is the occasional video where detail can make more of a difference.

 

I think most of the content I "watch" is primarily spoken anyway, so less needing to focus on the screen.

[TempestCatto]

Ironically, it's been defaulting me to 1440p recently and I don't know why. I barely have a good enough connection for 1080p. Either way, if I select 1080p the video is just fine.

[Doobeedoo]

I mean you can watch on higher no doubt. But really their bitrate overall is bad, they should increase it really.

[Curufinwe_wins]

As long as they don't change the cap, and just the default... **shrugs** not saying it makes me happy, but it is fair enough

[Teddy07]

Does anyone experience the change? My videos are still 1080p by default

[SpaceGhostC2C]

1 hour ago, Kilrah said:

Nothingburger, it takes 2 clicks per video to change it back and there are extensions to do that for you. But most "normies" won't do it, and that's what will make the difference.

 

I think you are underestimating the number of websites embedding YouTube videos, including (what used to be) news sites surrounding it with a couple poorly written paragraphs, an avalanche of ads and calling it a "news piece". Those also get defaulted, and locked, to 480p.

[Kilrah]

Which is great!

[Ashleyyyy]

1 hour ago, minibois said:

Hmm, 720p would be alright.. But I think 480p is just a bit too low. There is just not enough bitrate in that.

But I guess what must be done, shall be done.

480p looks horrible. 720p too quite frankly. it's not the 90's anymore.

 

and i think that it's not something that "must be done". the internet is not something that can run out. it's just simple connections between computers. i really do not understand why these measures are neccesary, since my country has been on a sort of lockdown for days, and aside from my router crashing (after a reset it was fine) i've noticed no issues at all... 

[corsairian]

Are they starting this in April or effective immediately? Cause I just got a video to do 1080p auto. But if this was 2 weeks every video would be 480p lol....

[Kilrah]

16 minutes ago, Twilight said:

it's just simple connections between computers. i really do not understand why these measures are neccesary

These connections have limited bandwidth, everything will work perfectly fine as long as they aren't saturated, but if they ever became then everything would crash hard potentially for days. And nobody wants that to happen right now since the internet is basically the last thing that still allows people to do things, so it's best to take preventive measures to be sure it doesn't happen.

[Zando_]

9 minutes ago, Twilight said:

and i think that it's not something that "must be done". the internet is not something that can run out. it's just simple connections between computers. i really do not understand why these measures are neccesary, since my country has been on a sort of lockdown for days, and aside from my router crashing (after a reset it was fine) i've noticed no issues at all... 

It eases the load on ISPs. A good thing in a time where the people who run the network infrastructure and fix it are probably also trying to stay home.

12 minutes ago, Twilight said:

480p looks horrible. 720p too quite frankly. it's not the 90's anymore.

A  lot of people use YT for music and stuff, or are like me and watch the video in a picture-in-picture overlay in the corner, mostly listening along. For anyone doing that, 480p is going to be fine. You're either ignoring the video anyways, or it's so small that the low resolution doesn't matter. 

For people actively watching stuff, just go to the toggle and toggle it higher if you need more quality to enjoy the content. 

[Ezzy-525]

Can we not just close down Facebook and have their bandwidth?

[it_dont_work]

You set it once to hd and it'll follow for every video after

 

Given my shit internet is in Australia, it's not like I'm not used to changing the res often anyway, just like setting pretty much all US/UK/Canadian videos to playback speeds of 1.5, because you all talk to fucking slow. 

[Rohith_Kumar_Sp]

If they force it on Netflix and Amazon, another great reason as to why you don't own your content, these days most of the content never gets released on physical media. more reasons for pirates i guess.