YouTube to lower streaming quality in Europe to reduce strain on the internet

[What Hi-Fi?]

YouTube will set streaming quality to standard definition to reduce strain on the internet amid the coronavirus outbreak.

YouTube to lower streaming quality in Europe to reduce strain on the internet : Read more

 

[simonali]

Why only in Europe? Why aren't these American companies turning down the quality in America, too?

 

[Deleted member 188533]

Most of the backbone datacenters are in the US. There are undersea fiberoptic cables that handle most of the load. I imagine it's to keep those, which have a limited bandwidth, open for critical traffic. Most sites are also throttling speeds to Australia. Same situation.

 

[manicm]

Hearing everyone is reducing their stream quality but nobody says to what? Level at 1080p, 720, 480?

 

[d_wade95]

Hearing everyone is reducing their stream quality but nobody says to what? Level at 1080p, 720, 480?

The article states that default streaming quality will be "Standard Definition"
Which is usually 480p (SD). Which was the standard for most DVD's. (480i if you want to get technical)
720p was considered to be
"High Definition" or "HD" along with
1080p which is "Full HD" and now
2160p which is "4K/UHD"
Hope this helped clear things up!