Google offers to test a 1080p mode on YouTube with better image quality. This mode is for YouTube Premium subscribers only.
By adding more and more ads to its YouTube video service, Google is clearly trying to push users into the YouTube Premium subscription. The firm regularly adds other benefits for subscribers to the service.
As several Internet users have spotted, Google would now have an idea that is likely to make a lot of talk about it: reserve better video quality for subscribers.
Pay to remove compression
have, in fact, discovered a new option “1080p Premium” in the menu allowing to choose the quality of a video. The option specifies that it is an enhancement of the bit rate. THE bit rate refers to the amount of data contained in the video for each second. In other words, it is a marker of video compression. More the bit rate is high, the better the video will be, but the more demanding it will be on your internet connection.
Obviously, this new quality mode would be reserved for YouTube Premium subscribers. Increasing video quality is especially in demand in the gaming industry where gameplay footage in a game can easily be ruined by overly aggressive compression.
The addition of a 1080p Premium mode is sure to put the debate on a two-speed YouTube back on the table between free users of the service, who still watch advertising and therefore pay Google, and Premium users.
One wonders if Google will go further after this step. Could the 1440p, 4K, 60 fps or 360 modes also eventually switch to the Premium subscription? The idea had already caught on. For the firm, it is undoubtedly a question of rationalizing the costs in storage and in computing power induced by the progressive improvement in the quality of the videos on its platform.
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