YouTube moves to AV1 by default to the dismay of some Android users

Re:YouTube moves to AV1 by default to the dismay of some And... by pixelpoet on Friday April 19, 2024 @05:13PM (#40091966)

3840x2160 resolution on a mobile screen seems just plain dumb and wasteful to me, and I have really exceptionally good vision. Even on a 27" monitor I can just barely see the pixels at that res.

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Re:YouTube moves to AV1 by default to the dismay of some And... by Wowfunhappy on Friday April 19, 2024 @05:18PM (#40092007)

I agree, but with an important caveat: Youtube's 1080p streams are over-compressed. I have a 1080p projector, but 4K Youtube videos still look noticeably better due to the higher bitrate.

Admittedly this is on a huge projector and not a phone. I don't watch enough Youtube videos on my phone to know if it would matter there.

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Re:YouTube moves to AV1 by default to the dismay of some And... by sp332 on Friday April 19, 2024 @05:27PM (#40092098)

They added a high-bitrate 1080p option on some videos for YouTube Premium subscribers.

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Re:YouTube moves to AV1 by default to the dismay of some And... by Wowfunhappy on Friday April 19, 2024 @07:36PM (#40093054)

That's nice, but a little odd that it's paywalled when the 4K option is not.

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Re:YouTube moves to AV1 by default to the dismay of some And... by kevincox on Friday April 19, 2024 @10:37PM (#40094208)

There is a small benefit as some videos have "enhanced 1080” but no higher resolutions.

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Re:YouTube moves to AV1 by default to the dismay of some And... by rasz on Friday April 19, 2024 @09:33PM (#40093800)

Afair Apple users also get those higher bitrates by default, for free.

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Re:YouTube moves to AV1 by default to the dismay of some And... by Someone1234 on Friday April 19, 2024 @05:17PM (#40092002)

I don't know what you're responding to? This isn't moving anyone new to 4K, just making 4K more efficient when it is utilized.

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Re:YouTube moves to AV1 by default to the dismay of some And... by pixelpoet on Friday April 19, 2024 @05:22PM (#40092047)

The very first sentence in the article (summary) is about 4k video, and it's supposedly something mobile users are whining about:

> With the rise of 4K video, the AV1 codec is becoming popular for better quality on Android devices.

So I don't get why people are putting themselves in that situation in the first place. It's like choosing to use a fork to row a boat and then going waaaahhhh this isn't working very well... no shit, wrong tool for the job.

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Re:YouTube moves to AV1 by default to the dismay of some And... by pxeboot on Friday April 19, 2024 @05:19PM (#40092014)

They will use the same codec for a variety of resolutions and bitrates. The article mentioned most devices supporting 720p30.

It likely vastly simplifies their backend to use one codec for everything.

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Re:YouTube moves to AV1 by default to the dismay of some And... by xnx on Friday April 19, 2024 @05:33PM (#40092165)

My phone screen pixels often occupy a larger angle of my vision than my 4k TV on account of being less than a foot from my face instead of 10 feet away.

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