Why is 720p, which used to show high quality, like 144p today?

Nowadays, YouTube has become an indispensable part of our lives. So why are the videos we used to watch for hours? looks more and more “pixelated” Have you ever wondered? Are our eyesight damaged or is YouTube trolling us?

Don’t worry, there are actually neither ophthalmologists nor internet goblins involved. The situation is completely It’s about YouTube’s “diet” decision.

In the past, the high bitrates YouTube used for videos were known for the exceptional image quality they offered.

However, this Videos take up more storage space on servers It was causing. In the early days of YouTube, the frequency of users uploading videos to the platform was not as intense as it is today. Over time, the increase in video uploads has caused a significant increase in the platform’s storage and bandwidth costs.

Therefore, this situation occurs on YouTube’s servers. in order to save space This led to the decision to reduce the bitrate of video files. Lowering the bitrate reduces the file size of the videos. made it smaller in size but this process also led to a decrease in image quality.

The main determinant of video quality is bitrate.

Bitrate of the video how high quality it will look is the key criterion; The higher the bitrate, the clearer and more detailed the image.

When videos are uploaded to different platforms, such as YouTube or Instagram, reduce file size and processed on special rendering systems to optimize server costs.

This process allows users to download large files (e.g. 1GB, 2GB or even 50GB) Although they upload to the platform, platforms can download these files to significantly smaller sizes (e.g. 10MB or 20MB).

However, unfortunately, this process may cause a certain decrease in the quality of the video because reducing the file size often results in loss of detail.

Another factor is that screen resolutions have increased significantly over time.

Earlier 720p resolution, It offered high-quality images for the monitors in our homes or our mobile phones. However, with the advancement of technology, today the market 8K and even 16K There are screens with high resolution.

So even a lower resolution video, Exceptionally clear on modern screens It means we can watch. For example, when viewing 720p video in low resolution on the computer; When we watch the same thing on our phone, we feel like we are watching in high resolution quality.

With the development of technology, we would not be surprised if 1080p resolution joins the poor quality bandwagon in the near future!

You can find our other contents that may interest you below: