YouTube tests premium subscription if you want to watch at 4K video resolution

Youtube is really becoming outright annoying to use if you're using an unpaid account on a vanilla browser. I'm sure there are better ways to maximize profitability. I'm sure much of the expense of running it comes down to all the data being uploaded to it and practically staying there forever. Perhaps they should limit what people can upload, or even warn about videos that will be deleted if they were unpopular and go unviewed for a certain amount of time. YT has become a bit too commercial at this point to be a place to share family videos.

I use AdNauseum - AdBlock screws over content creators, where you get to consume their work and they get nothing for it. AdNauseam allows the ads to load and simulates clicks but otherwise hides them from the user, so the ad company gets screwed but the content creator doesn't.
I'm normally against ad blockers but for a lot of sites, they're just getting more and more annoying. I'd say the 2010s was kind of the best time for ads - you didn't get spammed with popups, many weren't too resource intensive, and most sites weren't flooded with them every few seconds.

Well yeah, why not if you have a 4K display? Even if you don't have a 4K display, 1440p and 4K are nice for videos that look terrible due to the compression algorithm.

The alternatives are only worth it if the content you want can also be found there. It's the same kind of thing said to Windows users - many have grown to hate the OS but the alternatives won't work if they expect to use all of the same software. I say this as someone who hasn't used Windows on any of my own PCs in years.

 

No thanks.

 

This is low! A very low move by Youtube! GREEEEEEEED!

 

Yes, I don't know how in the hell they manage the mountains of absolute garbage uploaded to their system - must be multi-millions of terabytes of absolute dog$%&$ that have 10 views, that YouTube still has to pay to buy expensive server hard-drives to store them in forever. I don't know how they do it myself.

But yes level of ads being shown now to me every time I watch something on the LG Web-OS YouTube app is getting very annoying. But... I still won't buy subscription because you-tubers and advertisers are clever - they now have the ads in the videos themselves so you are still going to get those ads even with premium... like all the LTT crap.

 

Yeah but pressing the L key 2 or 3 times is usually enough to skip the ad entirely. It's a little annoying but less so than waiting a certain amount of time to click Skip Ad.

 

So, I guess ad revenue isn't paying the bills at YouTube anymore? I mean, bandwidth prices just keep dropping every year, as do hardware costs for servers, etc. So, I assume that the fundamentals at YouTube are only getting better, not worse. Is this just a pure cash grab?

 

There is a noticeable diference, even on a 1080p display, between the various resolutions.
It's probably more due to bitrate and compression than actual pixel count though.
I've watched multiple videos at 1440p on my 1080p monitor and there is a noticeable diference, not so much at 4K though.
It will be a long time until I upgrade to 4k to be able to consume that kind of content, and I'd first get 1440p as an intermediate cheap option.

 

Ad revenue must be enough but they want more, to please the shareholders.

This is the common M.O. of startups nowdays, they start by offering a great service/product for cheap or even for free to amass customers quickly and lock them into their services/products, even if this means burning huge amounts of investors cash, then do a public offering, so initial investors and the founders of the companies can make millions and then start to milk customers every way possible, just like any other company...

 

+1 - Exactly this ^ will happen in Q1 2023 , once they deploy V.3 it will render any adblock on any browser unusable , and that's when i will stop viewing youtube forever and will become a memory on my brain . They will push V.3 very hard and make you watch unskipable adds forever and ever ...

 

This is getting ridiculous.

 

ill never pay for it.
Theres is the opportunity to other streaming service to shine.

 

Cannot recall the last time I saw an ad on youtube. It's been many many years. Adblock ftw.

 

I've never used YouTube on my TV's software. I have my PC connected to the TV, so I just use Windows on it, so Firefox + Adblock = Bliss.
On phone, same thing: Firefox + Adblock = Bliss (even though Firefox on Android isn't the best, it still holds up pretty well, especially the Adblock part).

Personally I'd never use Brave again, seeing that they were caught cheating twice, and also to stop using Chrome based browsers altogether.

 

1440p is fine if it's available and using FF and Adblock Plus i've never seen any ads.

 

iirc this has existed for like half a year already, some creators are given the option to limit 2160p to youtube premium members in exchange for a higher percentage of ad revenue on those videos. Not a viewer/user alpha/beta test.

I don't think many channels will go for such a deal, considering how little money they get from youtube ads compared to sponsorships for example (I watch quite a bit of youtube, and never seen that anywhere myself). Probably not worth it to piss off your community over pennies.

So...no need to go full ape mode over old news.

 

Not affecting any videos I watch in 4K on my 4K monitor in glorious HDR...anyone got any links for me to try?

 

Why would anyone watch blurred 1080p or 720p on a 4K screen?

 

Notably less download size for something I'd likely only watch once. Video is still plenty clear-enough at 1080p; I use a 50" 4K TV as my primary display

 

seems like it's the age of "let's get what we can from these suckers with any means" era

 

Google has been slowly killing YouTube for years now. Let them hasten their own demise if they want. Oddly enough, only music and music videos are worth paying YouTube Premium for... if you use an iPhone...