YouTube is secretly re-encoding videos: This same 2008-uploaded 720p video had a higher quality in 2011 than 2019!

submitted by Handroid7 from archive.org

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[–]JasonCarswell 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (2 children)

Very interesting indeed. This could be huge news. However I wonder if the quality thing is really true so much as simply different. I couldn't see a difference. It's odd to compare 2011 RealPlayer with 2019 YouTube-DL. I don't know if a video game is the best comparison.

Last I uploaded to YouTube was in 2007 and their compression quality was shit. And those videos remain shit. Vimeo and Facebook were superior then and for some time thereafter.

If I were YouTube and had enough processors I'd go completely to HEVC x265 (or something newer) assuming quality was maintained - or better yet, from the archived original uploaded source, assuming they kept an archive.

Higher compressed videos dramatically improve traffic and put part of the burden (decompression) on the user.

[–]Handroid7[S] 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (1 child)

Thank you for the comment.

I couldn't see a difference.

Compare at 00:07 when Mario jumps into that vertical water.
The 2019 version has noticeably more artefacts than the 2011 version.

It's odd to compare 2011 RealPlayer with 2019 YouTube-DL.

I don't think it should make a difference if downloaded at the same time. (I don't know whether YouTube-DL existed back in 2011, but both should be downloading the same information if functional at the same time.)

[–]JasonCarswell 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

I just never trusted RealPlayer, but you're correct - the source should be the same - unless there are variations across their global servers.

[–]m68k 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

To make room for more content from big media corporations.