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.
Comment on We're going in the wrong direction
rbesfe@lemmy.ca 7 months ago
YouTube is the worst with this, because they’ve even gone so far as to convert older videos under 1 minute to shorts. They weren’t uploaded as shorts, but now congratulations you can’t scrub through the video or share a timestamped link anymore.
EmergMemeHologram@startrek.website 7 months ago
Krauerking@lemy.lol 7 months 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 7 months 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.
starman2112@sh.itjust.works 7 months ago
Yet another +1 in piracy’s favor. Never had a video I got through a 🧲 look like shit
trashgirlfriend@lemmy.world 7 months ago
Sometimes YouTube will bump you down to like 720p while still showing the quality as 1080p
EmergMemeHologram@startrek.website 7 months 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 7 months 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.
Buddahriffic@lemmy.world 7 months 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.
creditCrazy@lemmy.world 7 months 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 7 months 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.
Daxter101@lemmy.blahaj.zone 7 months ago
YouTube Enhancer for the win. Or Revanced if you’re on Android.
Chailles@lemmy.world 7 months 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.
EmergMemeHologram@startrek.website 7 months ago
Are they actually doing that?
carl_the_grackle@lemmy.world 7 months ago
If you pause the video you can scrub by dragging the end of the bar. It’s terrible UX but it’s technically possible
lobut@lemmy.ca 7 months ago
OMG! I didn’t know that! Thank you! I’ve been having to watch videos again from the start when I accidentally navigate away.
Granted it’s a short time frame but still.
Drinvictus@discuss.tchncs.de 7 months ago
You don’t have to pause for this. I can just scroll from the thin red bottom bar
anarchy79@lemmy.world 7 months ago
The thin red line.
bigdog_00@lemmy.world 7 months ago
You can scrub shorts on mobile (might have to pause it first), but not desktop for some reason…
altima_neo@lemmy.zip 7 months ago
Firefox, right click, show video controls
sanpo@sopuli.xyz 7 months ago
They fucking what!?
Anyway, the “Enhancer for YouTube” addon has an option to force a normal player for the shorts.
creditCrazy@lemmy.world 7 months ago
Now that you mention it I sometimes forget I have YouTube enhancer until I stop and remember oh wait YouTube isn’t normally monochromatic blue. Man I had too much fun redesigning my YouTube css.
dual_sport_dork@lemmy.world 7 months ago
Wait, even videos that aren’t in the vertical aspect ratio? I’ve got an 18 second video posted to Youtube and I’m going to be quite put out if they crop it and shart it out as a “short.”
Daxter101@lemmy.blahaj.zone 7 months ago
I think there’s client sided stuff to do to solve that still, I’m 90% sure on my pc shorts open as normal videos due to an add-on I added a long time ago (the most popular for modding the look and feel of it, someone definitely can add it because I’m out of the house)
Setarkus@lemmy.world 7 months ago
Hello, it’s me, the one deleting their comment :))
I thought I’d be able to reply to that other comment of yours but it didn’t seem to work so I’ll just paste it here:
Oh interesting, I pretty much instantly deleted my comment again because I remembered seeing that the shorts thing in the enhancer was only experimental and assumed it didn’t work well yet.
Can’t find this comment of yours in the thread now
but I can reply from the inbox :))Setarkus@lemmy.world 7 months ago
Daxter101@lemmy.blahaj.zone 7 months ago
Yes, it was
anarchy79@lemmy.world 7 months ago
Youtube Enhancer is my bet. There are others but that’s the most popular. Also removes ads but I’m not sure that works anymore. uBlock and GreaseMonkey with the git script is the way to go for that, just as a public service announcement.