YouTube Testing ‘1080p Premium’ Playback Option

YouTube is testing 1080p Premium mode, which will be a nice perk for paid subscribers if the feature goes out of testing.

Some YouTube users are reporting a new playback quality setting for their videos. Alongside the classic 1080p playback option, there’s a new option called “1080p Premium” with the clarification that it offers “extended bitrate”. A spokesperson told The Verge that the site is currently testing this new video quality and that it is only available to “a small number of YouTube Premium subscribers.”

YouTube is testing 1080p premium mode.

According to YouTube, it is “an improved version of the existing 1080p that offers more information per pixel, which helps provide a better viewing experience.”Also, there shouldn’t be any changes to the standard definition quality of 1080p, which isn’t good news for some.

According to several comments on the current Reddit discussion about this test, users consider the 1080p standard definition on the American giant’s site to be very poor quality. But with a higher bit rate, which is a measure of the amount of video data transferred in a given amount of time, it can mean better images without increasing resolution. As the XDA developers note, moving to 4K will indeed give access to much sharper and more accurate renderings, but it will also need to manage a much heavier stream, which not all connections and all packages allow.

A nice little bonus for paying subscribers if the feature goes out of testing.

This extended 1080p variant is currently just a test and YouTube may not ultimately decide to roll it out to everyone. If this were the case, and this quality would have appeared at the stage of simple testing, only YouTube Premium subscribers would be eligible for it. The subscription costs €11.99 per month for an individual offer or €17.99 per month for a family offer (up to 5 participants).