YouTube says it isn’t messing with 1080p — ‘1080p Premium’ is higher-bitrate

YouTube has confirmed that it’s experimenting with a higher-quality 1080p choice for Premium subscribers after some Reddit customers observed a brand new “1080p Premium” choice within the high quality settings menu. The choice is at present obtainable to “a small group of YouTube Premium subscribers,” based on Paul Pennington, a spokesperson for the corporate.

“1080p Premium is an enhanced bitrate model of 1080p which offers extra info per pixel that ends in the next high quality viewing expertise,” mentioned Pennington, including that “there are not any modifications to the present high quality choices for 1080p (HD) decision on YouTube.” There have been issues that YouTube is nerfing the usual 1080p mode to make the Premium model extra interesting, however the assertion implies that the corporate hasn’t made any modifications.

Whereas 1080p describes a video’s decision, or the variety of pixels that make up the picture, there are extra elements that go into general video high quality. Bitrate and colour depth are additionally vital elements and may even lend to good 1080p video wanting higher than unhealthy 4K footage. Bitrate is commonly used to explain how a lot knowledge is used to switch every second of video.

For instance, a 1080p Blu-ray can provide you a most of 40 Mbps, which offers a reasonably crisp picture. In the meantime, YouTube’s normal 1080p bitrate hovers between 8 and 10 Mbps and could be noticeably blockier than Blu-rays or the unique exports. It additionally will depend on what codec the video is compressed with, as some are extra environment friendly than others and may produce higher outcomes with much less knowledge, typically with prices elsewhere — it may be fairly difficult. (Additionally, bitrate isn’t totally separate from decision; what number of pixels are in a video will play some think about how a lot knowledge you must transmit it in a suitable high quality. If you wish to go deep into the idea, right here’s a reasonably good explainer.)

Nonetheless, it’s usually correct to say that video encoded with the identical codec however at the next bitrate will look higher. That appears to be what YouTube’s doing — one Reddit consumer with entry to the function posted a screenshot of the corporate’s “Stats for Nerds” software, which reveals that the Premium 1080p choice ran at round 13 Mbps versus 8 Mbps in the usual mode for a similar video. Nonetheless, it’s value noting that YouTube often makes use of variable bitrate encoding, that means that the quantity of knowledge it makes use of will fluctuate a bit relying on what’s proven on display.

The corporate didn’t instantly reply to The Verge’s request for touch upon what the typical premium bitrate can be.

The rationale YouTube doesn’t simply present you the unique video file at its most bitrate is that doing so can be costly, each for them and probably for you, relying in your pace and knowledge cap. The decrease a video’s bitrate, and thus the decrease its high quality, the much less bandwidth it takes up within the journey from YouTube’s servers to your display. The 1080p Premium take a look at signifies that YouTube may very well be keen to let folks entry extra high quality so long as they pay for the service.

This isn’t the primary time YouTube has experimented with placing higher-quality video behind the Premium paywall. Final yr, the corporate ran a take a look at that made it so some folks weren’t capable of entry 4K playback until they have been subscribers, a transfer that garnered loads of pushback from the neighborhood. Nonetheless, loads of that got here all the way down to the truth that folks have been shedding one thing they beforehand had entry to totally free. If YouTube actually is holding the standard for the common 1080p choice the identical, then the experiment is simply including a perk for paying clients.