YouTube Mulls ‘1080p Premium’ Option for Paid Subscribers

(Image: Christian Wiediger/Unsplash) If you pay for YouTube Premium, you may have recently come across a new playback option in the bottom-right corner of your screen. YouTube is sneakily testing “1080p Premium,” a video quality option that streams at an enhanced bitrate.

YouTube videos play at 1080p (1,920 pixels horizontally, 1,080 vertically) by default. Free and paid users can adjust playback down to 144p, 240p, 360p, 480p, and 720p60 (720p with 60Hz frame rate), depending on the video they’re watching. YouTube has also added higher-definition options over the last decade: 1080p HD, 1440p HD, and 4K. Together, these choices allow users to tailor their viewing experience based on the device they’re watching on, their internet speed, their comfort, and more.

Over the last few days, Premium users have reported seeing a new 1080p Premium option in the video quality menu. YouTube spokesperson Paul Pennington told The Verge that “a small group of YouTube Premium subscribers” can try out the feature, which purports to offer “an enhanced bitrate version of 1080p which provides more information per pixel.” This, Pennington said, creates a higher-quality viewing experience.

Bitrate, or the measurement of how much video data is transferred within a specific timeframe, is often said to be half of what makes up a visually appealing playback experience. YouTube’s standard 1080p option typically plays at eight to 10 megabits per second (Mbps). While YouTube hasn’t said what Mbps 1080p Premium would provide, a Reddit user who took advantage of YouTube’s “Stats for Nerds” tool found the playback mode to run at about 13Mbps—a marked improvement from the standard option, given the massive difference just 3Mbps can provide.

With the news of 1080p Premium, some non-Premium users have expressed concern that YouTube is ditching the standard 1080p option to tempt free users toward its paid subscription. YouTube insists this isn’t the case. According to Pennington, “there are no changes to the existing quality offerings for 1080p (HD) resolution on YouTube.” It’s also important to remember that 1080p Premium is in testing; there’s no guarantee YouTube will roll it out to all Premium subscribers.

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