YouTube offre la possibilità di scegliere una qualità dei video diversa in base alla connessione che stiamo usando
A circa quattro mesi dall’annuncio della prima fase di test, ora YouTube sta iniziando a rendere disponibile una funzione di cui si sentiva la mancanza: la possibilità di scegliere la qualità predefinita per la riproduzione dei video, sia quando siamo sotto rete mobile che quando siamo coperti dal Wi-Fi.
La nuova funzione è ancora in beta e non è arrivata a tutti. Ha due scopi contemporaneamente: permetterci di essere sicuri di usare la qualità massima quando lo vogliamo e farci risparmiare dati quando ce ne restano pochi. L’idea di fondo si comprende meglio, però, tenendo presente che negli Stati Uniti molte connessioni a Internet fisse domestiche hanno un “data cap“, cioè una soglia massima oltre la quale l’ulteriore consumo si paga. In Italy and many other countries, however, there is no limit to the consumption of Giga with fixed connections and, perhaps, this has also slowed down the release of this feature by YouTube.
How to set video quality on YouTube
In YouTube Settings, on profiles that have already received this news, a new option is appearing: "Video quality preferences (BETA)". You can choose between Auto, High Quality and Data Saver. However, neither the resolution nor the bitrate corresponding to these settings are specified, and once set they are valid for all the videos we are going to watch.
The possibility of changing the resolution (and therefore the bitrate) of a single video on the fly remains. You can choose the resolution directly from the player. It's possible to choose different resolutions: the minimum is 144p, the maximum obviously depends on the video, since a file with 1080p resolution can't be played in 4K but one in 4K can be played at 1080p, if we don't have enough data or the connection is not fast enough.
What quality to set on YouTube
Now that we can choose, we could ask ourselves how to use the new streaming video quality setting. The answer depends mostly on the type of connection we have available, and the ability to set two different qualities between Wi-Fi and mobile is definitely worth taking advantage of, if we watch a lot of videos on YouTube.
If we have fast WiFi and no traffic limit at home, then we can set the high quality without any problems. If our mobile connection isn't the best, or if our plan has little monthly traffic, then it's time to lower the quality in favor of smooth playback. And the health of our wallet.