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YouTube. Im sure this has been a thing for a while... but this is getting out of hand. (lemmy.ca)
submitted 1 month ago by to c/enshittification@lemmy.world
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It'll keep continuing until you get one FPS and no audio without paying for premium.

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[–] 36 points 1 month ago (6 children)

It's reasonable for a free service to offer premium features

Very true.

Enshittification means ... changing the existing service to make it worse, to encourage people to pay for subscriptions.

Also very true.

YouTube cut the default bitrate when they added this "feature". It was incredibly obvious to my eyes the instant it was pushed out, and remains obvious everytime I come across one of these videos. If they had just charged for better bitrate, I wouldn't have cared. However, they also cut the default bitrate down, making all the videos that have this look really bad.

This is textbook inshittification, complete with the gaslighting bullshit of saying "we were always like this! Its your fault it seems worse than it was!" in every design decision involved in the process.

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  • [–] 4 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (5 children)

    If they did, then that would be enshittification, yeah. But I cannot find any evidence of it being true, only testimonies from people. Which could be the player buffering, showing lower resolution due to internet connection etc, etc.

    My 1080p streams have looked the same as they always have. Testing it now, they are playing at around 80,000kbps, using AV1. If people upload at 1440p/4K, then it's just a non-issue anyway as they have much higher bitrates.

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  • [–] 5 points 1 month ago (3 children)

    This feature is limited to videos that don't have a better resolution than 1080p. It's also even more limited to videos that the uploaders choose to enable it on, or at least, se subset of 1080p videos, since I've seen new 1080p videos both with and without it. Finally, it doesn't apply to old 1080p videos.

    if people upload at 1440p/4K, then it's just a non-issue anyway as they have much higher bitrates.

    Yup. Doesn't make it any less frustrating to see my favorite nature guy's videos turn to shit just because of it.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (2 children)

    These two videos look identical to me and get the same bitrates. Why are they only uploading in 1080p now though? Their video could be poorly encoded in the first place which YouTube cannot magically save. It's going to look worse in these kind of videos anyway, because of all the foliage and particles from fires.

    There is still no hard evidence YouTube made regular 1080p worse to sell "Enhanced Bitrate" and I don't think there is going to be. I think people got used to higher bitrates with 1440p/4K videos and now when they see a 1080p video they are surprised by the quality change, see the "Enhanced bitrate" option and make this assumption.

    I have gone back to old videos and they are just the same as they were. They have been transcoded to AV1, but that codec is magic, they are probably using less bitrate now than they were when released.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 month ago (1 child)

    Right. I haven't been able to actually do my own testing for life reasons, but I think it matters less what the actual numbers are here, and more that the guy stopped posting free 4k versions once the paid 1080p option came out; basically cutting his quality down in the name of, whatever benefit he gets from the paid 1080p thing.

    In short, YouTube added a paid feature that encouraged the use of a shittier quality unpaid user experience. Worse, because it appears to be a choice on the creators side, instead of YouTube or the viewer, it shifts blame from YouTube, who created the situation in the first place, to the creator, who only took advantage of it (or used it because this is their job and they need the money to live).

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  • [–] 0 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

    He doesnt get a benefit afaik. Its automated by YouTube, some (1080p) videos get it, some dont. Thats why is might look shit, this creator just has a worse setup now and isnt encoding his videos with a good enough bitrate. If YouTube think your video will benefit from more bitrate, then it transcodes in a higher bitrate, if it doesnt, then that enhanced option doesnt even appear.

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