Mar 25, 2020 10:06:00

YouTube drops the resolution when playing videos worldwide, under the influence of the new coronavirus

Internet traffic is skyrocketing around the world as the spread of the new coronavirus forces many people to self-isolate. Affected by that, YouTube had announced that it

would lower the default resolution of delivered videos in Europe, but it became clear that this measure will be expanded worldwide from Tuesday, March 24, 2020 Was.

YouTube to Limit Video Quality Around the World for a Month-Bloomberg
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-03-24/youtube-to-limit-video-quality-around-the-world-for-a-month

YouTube will limit video quality worldwide for the next month-Polygon
https://www.polygon.com/2020/3/24/21192418/youtube-video-quality-standard-coronavirus-high-definition-one-month-april

Bloomberg of overseas media reports that 'YouTube will reduce the quality of video around the world from March 24 (Tue). This is an effort to mitigate the increase in Internet traffic due to the spread of the new coronavirus'. Was. In addition, Google has allowed overseas game media Polygon to take measures to reduce the resolution when playing videos on YouTube. The resolution during video playback is reduced for about one month.

YouTube says that the resolution automatically selected when playing the distributed video will be reduced to the standard resolution ( 480p ). However, this simply means that the 'resolution automatically selected when playing a video' is 480p, so the user can arbitrarily change the resolution to a higher one.

To prevent the spread of the new coronavirus, many people live at home with no urgent need to go out. As a result, the number of viewers of video distribution services such as YouTube and Netflix has increased dramatically.

Regulators in Europe have eased this situation by calling on popular video distribution services such as Netflix and YouTube to reduce bandwidth usage, which has led to efforts to lower Netflix video bitrate, Efforts to reduce video playback resolution have begun. YouTube applied this approach not only to Europe but also to the whole world, and took measures before government agencies in regions outside Europe.

Google also stated that `` We are working closely with government agencies and network operators around the world to minimize the stress on the system in this unprecedented situation '' Is out.