• EmergMemeHologram@startrek.website
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    1 year ago

    Has anyone noticed YouTube’s video compression has become much worse lately?

    I tried watching a video I’ve seen before and I felt like I stepped back into 2007 again. That same video wasn’t like that last year.

    • Krauerking@lemy.lol
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      1 year ago

      I would not be surprised at all if they are ramping up their compression algorithm to save additional bandwidth. Netflix has been feeling like that too. Blacks are a mess on both now. I get that it costs money but man you got to question where all of it is going for how much they make.

      • tobbue@feddit.de
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        1 year ago

        Netflix definitely increased 1080p compression (or said better, nerfed it). 1080p even looks a little pixelated on my mobile phone now when it looked great on a PC monitor a few years ago.

      • EmergMemeHologram@startrek.website
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        1 year ago

        I’m on gigabit fibre, so not sure why they would do that.I have noticed that though.

        What I’ve noticed is the resolution isn’t necessarily lower, but the amount of detail and texture is lower

        • wischi@programming.dev
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          1 year ago

          They do that to save bandwidth and money. It’s not your bandwidth they are trying to save, it’s theirs because streaming so many videos to so many people costs money. So they are trying to be sneaky and use lower quality settings as often as possible to reduce cost.

          • Ann Archy@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            I wonder what the total of data transmission is for an average day on YouTube. It’s got to be in the petabytes.

        • Buddahriffic@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          I suspect that they can detect ad blockers in more cases than they try to block them. They could do that to “divert” the ad blocker/ad blocker blocker arms race. Assuming you’re blocking ads. If not, then it’s a moot point.

          • Ann Archy@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            I’m in IT and I find it annoying to have to update my scripts and such every time they push new anti-adblock measures. A friend of mine who is perfectly tech savvy has not bothered updating his and is getting ads on everything now.

            Just imagine the number of people who are completely clueless or are just so brainwashed used to ads that they don’t even care- I’d be surprised to find functioning ad blocking on over 15% or so on videos served on YouTube. Maybe 20% because that’s kind of the economic cut-off point for when it starts hurting and they do anything about it on Google’s part.

            • Hugucinogens@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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              1 year ago

              Take this with a grain of salt because it’s what some guy on the internet (me) “remembers reading something about, once”, but adblock rates on the general internet, were around 3% or something similar (can’t be bothered, please look it up yourself)

              Therefore, I really wouldn’t hope for such an insane number as 15% on YouTube.

              We are not the primary users. Your uncles, aunts, nephews and nieces are. The shopkeeper in the corner store. Your teacher. Your 50 year old doctor.

              • Ann Archy@lemmy.world
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                1 year ago

                I felt 15% was exaggerated, but I honestly wouldn’t be surprised by your estimate at all either.

      • credit crazy@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        I’ve noticed that they also sometimes change the speed of a video. Always a slight change but an annoying amount

    • Perfide@reddthat.com
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      1 year ago

      Yes. Auto is essentially the “720p or less but we’re gonna lie and say it’s 1080p still” option now. I’m constantly having to manually choose my resolution to get the full bitrate.

    • XiELEd@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      There was that whole controversy about the Wish trailers because of Youtube compression…

    • Chailles@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      It really makes their tests for the higher bit rate “1080p Premium” quality just seem like reducing the current 1080p and locking out the one we already had.