
However, this move received a fair amount of backlash from the community, as some people were losing access to something they previously had for free. Last year, the company tested a 4K playback feature that was only accessible to subscribers. This is not the first time YouTube has tested higher-quality video behind its Premium paywall. This is why lower-quality videos take up less bandwidth in the journey from YouTube’s servers to the viewer’s screen. YouTube doesn’t show videos at their maximum bitrate to save on bandwidth costs. The new Premium 1080p option could provide a 50 percent boost in bitrate, resulting in a better viewing experience for those willing to pay for the service. While YouTube typically uses variable bitrate encoding, which means the amount of data used fluctuates depending on what’s on the screen, video encoded at a higher bitrate will generally look better.

It revealed that the Premium 1080p option ran at around 13 Mbps compared to 8 Mbps in the standard mode for the same video. One Reddit user shared a screenshot of the “Stats for Nerds” tool, which is accessible via the settings toolbar of a YouTube video.

YouTube’s new Premium 1080p option is an attempt to provide a better viewing experience for its Premium subscribers. YouTube’s standard 1080p bitrate, on the other hand, ranges between 8 and 10 Mbps, resulting in footage with more blocks than Blu-ray. A 1080p Blu-ray, for example, provides a maximum of 40 Mbps, which delivers a crisp image. Bitrate refers to how much data is used to transfer each second of video.

Other factors, such as bitrate and color depth, are also crucial in making a video look good. It’s worth noting that resolution is just one factor in determining overall video quality.
