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1080p viewing experience (feddit.org)

submitted 2 weeks ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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I use a 1080p monitor and what I've noticed is that once creators start uploading 4k content the 1080p version that I watch on fullscreen has more artifacting than when they only uploaded in 1080p.

Did you notice that as well?

Watching in 1440p on a 1080p monitor results in a much better image, to the detriment of theoretically less sharper image and a lot higher CPU usage.

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[–] MrSoup 16 points 2 weeks ago (5 children)

YouTube automatically generate videos in lower resolution of the one uploaded.
So when you watch a 4k video and switch to 1080, you are no longer watching the original video but a re-encoded one by YouTube itself which could have more artifacts since it's resized and compressed.

I dunno the exact specs (like bit rate, etc.), someone will probably add them in another reply.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 2 weeks ago (4 children)

I believe YouTube always re-encodes the video, so the video will contain (extra) compression artefacts even if you’re watching at the original resolution. However, I also believe YouTube’s exact compression parameters aren’t public, so I don’t believe anyone outside of YouTube itself knows for sure which videos are compressed in which ways.

What I do know is that different content also compresses in different ways, simply because the video can be easier/harder to compress. IIRC, shows like last week tonight (mostly static camera looking at a host) are way easier to compress than higher paced content, which (depending on previously mentioned unknown parameters) could have a large impact on the amount of artefacts. This makes it more difficult to compare different video’s uploaded at their different resolutions.

[–] MrSoup 5 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

YouTube always re-encodes the video

You are right. For example you can upload an avi to YouTube, but they will never host and stream an avi.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 weeks ago

AVI is a container, not a codec. An AVI container can contain video encoded with any kind of codec (unlike some other container formats, which are more restrictive). If you want to, you could put e.g. a VP9 or AV1 video stream (so the ones that YouTube is using) into an AVI container. In theory at least, if you uploaded an AVI file containing VP9 video, YouTube could just extract it from the container and stream it as is, but they'll still re-encode it. Before you think that all of this talk of modern codecs in AVI containers is theoretical, AVI is used a a standard for archiving with some institutions, so it's more relevant than you might think.

However, you are partially right in that AVI can not be used for streaming, not just by YouTube, but in general, since this requirement obviously wasn't taken into account when it was introduced in 1992 and thus not incorporated into this standard.

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