Author Topic: EEVblog&some other YouTube channels, no longer free, at best (HD) quality levels  (Read 11955 times)

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Offline MK14Topic starter

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Presumably, this is (or later will be) for everyone, or just rolled out for me (and other randomly selected test candidates).

This would really annoy me, not being able to select the best/better screen resolutions, for my current setup(s).

£12.99 / Month seems rather pricey/expensive to me.

Screen shot, taken very recently:

« Last Edit: August 10, 2023, 05:30:26 pm by MK14 »
 

Offline langwadt

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Presumably, this is (or later will be) for everyone, or just rolled out for me (and other randomly selected test candidates).

This would really annoy me, not being able to select the best/better screen resolutions, for my current setup(s).

it is an extra option for those who want to pay for extra bandwidth

£12.99 / Month seems rather pricey/expensive to me.

premium also gives you no ads and more, I'm not going to waste time watching ads and  someone has to pay YT and creators

don't you pay more for a TV license over there?
 
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Offline tom66

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don't you pay more for a TV license over there?

UK TV licence is optional, if you don't watch live TV.  I don't, so I don't pay it.  Streaming like Netflix is not included, but services like BBC iPlayer are.
 
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Offline MK14Topic starter

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Presumably, this is (or later will be) for everyone, or just rolled out for me (and other randomly selected test candidates).

This would really annoy me, not being able to select the best/better screen resolutions, for my current setup(s).

it is an extra option for those who want to pay for extra bandwidth

From that point of view, you are right, and I have to agree with you (ignoring the psycological aspects of our brains and feelings).

But from a psychological point of view.  NOT being able to select the top quality options, on videos, i.e. HD 1080P (Enhanced).  That would be concerning and annoying.

£12.99 / Month seems rather pricey/expensive to me.

premium also gives you no ads and more, I'm not going to waste time watching ads and  someone has to pay YT and creators

don't you pay more for a TV license over there?

Yes, the British (UK) TV licence, but only by about £0.26 (12 x £13.25 = £159) more per month, based on the £159 current yearly fee, for the BBC TV licence.

But in real terms, if YouTube premium was paid monthly and the TV licence paid yearly, the overall yearly costs, would be about the same.

But not everyone wants to (or even can) pay another bill of £12.99 more, each month.
« Last Edit: August 10, 2023, 06:53:55 pm by MK14 »
 

Offline Veteran68

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Presumably, this is (or later will be) for everyone, or just rolled out for me (and other randomly selected test candidates).

This would really annoy me, not being able to select the best/better screen resolutions, for my current setup(s).

it is an extra option for those who want to pay for extra bandwidth

£12.99 / Month seems rather pricey/expensive to me.

premium also gives you no ads and more, I'm not going to waste time watching ads and  someone has to pay YT and creators

don't you pay more for a TV license over there?


I realize it's a pain to some, but I've been paying for YT Premium for a long time now. As much time as I spend on YT (far more than on Netflix, Hulu, and the myriad of other streaming services my family subscribes to), enjoying it with no ads on any device or TV while supporting the content providers makes the monthly amount well worth it.
 
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Offline MK14Topic starter

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while supporting the content providers makes the monthly amount well worth it.

I'm all for supporting the content providers.  Although I wonder how much (little?) of the amount people pay, actually ends up in the pockets of the actual YouTube creators.

Maybe something like £3.99 per month, would sound much more tempting, for me.  £12.99 seems really, really steep.

Amazon Prime (which I don't currently have), I think is £95 per year, in the UK, which is £7.92 (£7.9167) per month (if paid annually, to save on the costs), sounds a lot better than £12.99.

But it gives Amazon Prime video content, speeded up and free (even for cheap, small items) delivery, same day delivery for some items, and access to other services, such as Amazon Fresh Food delivery service.

My dilemma, is I don't necessarily use YouTube enough to justify the cost. (Although I suspect I watch it way more than I realize).
« Last Edit: August 10, 2023, 07:06:17 pm by MK14 »
 

Offline Kim Christensen

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As much as I like Dave, I'm not paying extra to see the pores on his face.  ::)
 
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Offline hans

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premium also gives you no ads and more, I'm not going to waste time watching ads and  someone has to pay YT and creators

don't you pay more for a TV license over there?

To pay for a TV license to watch channels that plays programs between ad breaks |O

No thanks, I'd rather pay directly for my media. But even if you would get this YT premium, there are lots of YT channels with baked in ads still. So it seems really there to cover YT's bill only. And maybe that's because management is now demanding that YT is going to make a profit. It seems that social media taking a hard turn this year on how "free" it really is.

 
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Offline MK14Topic starter

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As much as I like Dave, I'm not paying extra to see the pores on his face.  ::)

Yes, but it could be extreme eye candy, electronics/computers and stuff, which a person might like to see, in all its full, high resolution (high bit rate), glory.
« Last Edit: August 10, 2023, 07:18:56 pm by MK14 »
 

Offline langwadt

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premium also gives you no ads and more, I'm not going to waste time watching ads and  someone has to pay YT and creators

don't you pay more for a TV license over there?

To pay for a TV license to watch channels that plays programs between ad breaks |O

No thanks, I'd rather pay directly for my media. But even if you would get this YT premium, there are lots of YT channels with baked in ads still.

if a creator decides to put an ad in a video you can skip that video or creator

So it seems really there to cover YT's bill only. And maybe that's because management is now demanding that YT is going to make a profit. It seems that social media taking a hard turn this year on how "free" it really is.

nothing is free, and if no one wants to waste their time watching ads companies will have to find another way to pay the bills

afaiu YT pays creators more for a premium view than for a free viewer watching the ads, I'm sure Dave will know for certain
 
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Offline Veteran68

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There is a difference between ads and in-video sponsors.

YT Premium (or an ad blocker, at least up until recently) will block the general YT ads that play before/during/after videos. Those ads generate impressions that the content creator gets a cut of (if only a penny per 100 impressions or something like that). You block those ads, or have Premium, the creator no longer receives that bit of income. My understanding was the YT shared a cut of Premium revenue with content creators to make up for that ad revenue loss, but I don't know details. I'm sure Dave could fill us in.

If a content creator has a sponsorship deal where they mention or shill products inside their video, then that's beyond the scope of Google and YouTube and is an agreement between the creator and the sponsor. Has nothing to do with Google/YT ads and what Premium does for you.

For me, Premium is worth cutting out all the annoying YT ads. For the creators I follow (and it's a lot, across a variety of subjects), the ones who are sponsored are not obnoxious about it, it's typically relevant to the content, and I can always fast forward past the ad portion since it's just part of the video -- unlike YT ads.
 

Offline asmi

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nothing is free, and if no one wants to waste their time watching ads companies will have to find another way to pay the bills
+1 Also storage space and bandwidth cost something too. As the saying goes, if you don't pay for something, that means you are the product being sold.

afaiu YT pays creators more for a premium view than for a free viewer watching the ads, I'm sure Dave will know for certain
I seem to recall he even said so in one of his videos. As I understand, YT allocates a certain portion of the monthly fee for creators and distributes it between creators you've watched weighted by the time you spent watching their content.

Offline Kim Christensen

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For me, Premium is worth cutting out all the annoying YT ads. For the creators I follow (and it's a lot, across a variety of subjects), the ones who are sponsored are not obnoxious about it, it's typically relevant to the content, and I can always fast forward past the ad portion since it's just part of the video -- unlike YT ads.

Yup... I prefer the in video product plug by the creator. Especially when they place a distinctive graphic at the end of the spiel. Then it's an easy matter of doing a quick mouse-over of the timeline and instantly skipping to the end of the ad.
 

Offline thm_w

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For me, Premium is worth cutting out all the annoying YT ads. For the creators I follow (and it's a lot, across a variety of subjects), the ones who are sponsored are not obnoxious about it, it's typically relevant to the content, and I can always fast forward past the ad portion since it's just part of the video -- unlike YT ads.

Sponsor block: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/sponsorblock-for-youtube/mnjggcdmjocbbbhaepdhchncahnbgone
I don't watch ads or sponsor spots. If you want you can just get it to highlight the timeline and not skip the segment as well.

I think my patreon bill is $50/month or so though.

edit: someone measured the difference here
"not being able to edit comments is annoying.. its actually 10.9MB for regular 1080p and 25.6MB for premium 1080p"
So for that specific video it was about 141kB/s vs 332kB/s ?
« Last Edit: August 10, 2023, 09:27:40 pm by thm_w »
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Offline MK14Topic starter

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Sponsor block: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/sponsorblock-for-youtube/mnjggcdmjocbbbhaepdhchncahnbgone
I don't watch ads or sponsor spots. If you want you can just get it to highlight the timeline and not skip the segment as well.

I think my patreon bill is $50/month or so though.

edit: someone measured the difference here
"not being able to edit comments is annoying.. its actually 10.9MB for regular 1080p and 25.6MB for premium 1080p"
So for that specific video it was about 141kB/s vs 332kB/s ?

Thanks, that is amazing.

I didn't even realize, sponsored ad removal, was a thing, so wouldn't have sought it out.  Now that I know it exists, it is food for thought, to use it.

On the other hand.  Sometimes, because a particular YouTube video, is so relevant to ones own interests.  A well considered (by the YouTube creator) sponsorship section or product placement, can actually be useful, interesting and helpful.

That bitrate increase sounds significant to me.  Some content, doesn't really matter that much, if the bitrate is not as high as it can be, but other content types, can be noticeably nicer, to have the vibrant, detailed, high bit rate version.

E.g. A teardown video, where you want to see as clear as possible, views of the internal PCBs, components and things.  Rather than a slightly fuzzy, lower bit rate version of the same video, making it harder to see component markings on ICs, and less eye candy, when seeing the original device in operation.
 

Offline langwadt

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Sponsor block: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/sponsorblock-for-youtube/mnjggcdmjocbbbhaepdhchncahnbgone
I don't watch ads or sponsor spots. If you want you can just get it to highlight the timeline and not skip the segment as well.

I think my patreon bill is $50/month or so though.

edit: someone measured the difference here
"not being able to edit comments is annoying.. its actually 10.9MB for regular 1080p and 25.6MB for premium 1080p"
So for that specific video it was about 141kB/s vs 332kB/s ?

Thanks, that is amazing.

I didn't even realize, sponsored ad removal, was a thing, so wouldn't have sought it out.  Now that I know it exists, it is food for thought, to use it.

On the other hand.  Sometimes, because a particular YouTube video, is so relevant to ones own interests.  A well considered (by the YouTube creator) sponsorship section or product placement, can actually be useful, interesting and helpful.

That bitrate increase sounds significant to me.  Some content, doesn't really matter that much, if the bitrate is not as high as it can be, but other content types, can be noticeably nicer, to have the vibrant, detailed, high bit rate version.

E.g. A teardown video, where you want to see as clear as possible, views of the internal PCBs, components and things.  Rather than a slightly fuzzy, lower bit rate version of the same video, making it harder to see component markings on ICs, and less eye candy, when seeing the original device in operation.

as long as the camera isn't moving much does the extra bit rate add anything?
 
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Offline thm_w

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It does sound significant.
But it also sounds like "1080p regular" is the same bitrate its always been.

It would be useful for people who don't have 4k screens, don't have hardware capable of processing 4k video.

More measurements here: https://www.reddit.com/r/LinusTechTips/comments/14xl8au/youtube_rolling_out_1080p_enhanced_bitrate_for/jro1ihw/
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Offline thm_w

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as long as the camera isn't moving much does the extra bit rate add anything?

Yeah you won't really notice much if its a mailbag video.
If its a football match or an action cam video, it is very noticeable.
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Offline Psi

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I decided to pay for YT premium mostly for the feature of being able to turn off the phone screen and have the video keep playing. Or rather than audio keep playing without data cost of video.  Love that feature so much, i use it on the train every day.  And YouTube gives content creates way more money per view from a premium person vs an ad person. The lack of ads is of course great too. But i've not had YT ads in so long i've probably forgot how bad it is.

HD on youtube is a pretty low bitrate.  Comparing high bitrate HD or 4K to YouTube HD of 4K is a huge difference.   It's why HD videos on floatplane look so much nicer than Youtube.

So I'm all for YT premium allowing higher bitrates.  But i'm worried they will efficiently just lower the bit rate for non-premium and keep it the same for YT premium  :( or probably make it 1% higher just so they can 'say' it's higher.
« Last Edit: August 10, 2023, 11:15:59 pm by Psi »
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Offline AndyBeez

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What do they mean by enhanced bitrate? YT explain :-//

Seems rather like sticking a silver bow on a box of chocolates and calling it extra luxury delux chocolates. What benefit does the customer derive? By enhanced bit rate do they really mean, not rate limited?
 
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Offline tom66

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Higher bitrate video has less macroblocking during motion and still scenes, so the image looks better.  If you watch on a large screen it might matter to you, if it's just background interest while doing something else, you probably don't care.
 
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Online EEVblog

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Youtube have always provided a relatively low bitrate quality 1080p video to everyone.
Now they have a Premium option for a higher bitrate.
Existing user without Premium are NOT losing out, quality remains the same as it always has.
And this one works for 1080p 30fps video, not higher or lower bitrate. And not for 4k video that's downsampled to 1080p
 
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Online EEVblog

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as long as the camera isn't moving much does the extra bit rate add anything?

Not on my video with just waving hands or a talkng head.
 
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Offline MK14Topic starter

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Youtube have always provided a relatively low bitrate quality 1080p video to everyone.
Now they have a Premium option for a higher bitrate.
Existing user without Premium are NOT losing out, quality remains the same as it always has.
And this one works for 1080p 30fps video, not higher or lower bitrate. And not for 4k video that's downsampled to 1080p

You're right.

But on the other hand.  Previously, free tier YouTube users had all available resolutions, quality settings, etc.  Available.

Now they are changing that policy.

It could be the thin end of a wedge, and as time goes on, more and more features (either existing ones, or new features), get put into ONLY the premium service.

To many people (I think) and some countries, the £12.99 per Month, is not going to happen, as it is too expensive, compared to their available resources.

Edit: But if I partially answer my own post.  It is a bit like everything else, e.g. super fast internet connections, can cost a lot of money per month, hence more well off companies/people, tend to get them.

So the concept that paying more money gets better/faster/more stuff, is well established.  So the YouTube premium is just another example of the same concept.  I.e. You pay more, you get something better.
« Last Edit: August 11, 2023, 12:00:19 pm by MK14 »
 

Offline HwAoRrDk

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To many people (I think) and some countries, the £12.99 per Month, is not going to happen, as it is too expensive, compared to their available resources.

That's the thing, YouTube have different prices for Premium in different countries. Here in the UK, our price is one of the highest. People are getting Premium for greatly reduced prices by using a VPN, etc and signing up as if they were in a different country. (It escapes me right now which countries have a much cheaper price - India? Turkey?)

For me personally, if Premium were more like £5-6 per month, I would pay for it, but not at £12.99.
 
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