
Amid the pandemic we are facing and authorities increasingly asking people to stay home, the use of the Internet, especially broadcast services, is skyrocketing. Amazon Prime Video, Netflix, YouTube, Twitch and others have already announced measures to try to ensure everyone accesses their videos without gagging, but there are differences between the measures on some platforms.
YouTube reduces standard video quality to SD worldwide
Netflix, for example, opted for a reduction in the data rate or bit rate without lowering the resolution of the video itself. YouTube is already one of the platforms that now forces you to load at a lower resolution while maintaining the data rate, that is, the final quality, and allows you to increase the image size manually by the user.

Oops wait! So does reducing resolution not reduce the quality and quantity of data to transfer? Not quite. Resolution is not the only thing that defines the quality of a video image, or even a JPG image, audio and the like, there are a number of factors. Among them, in addition to the image size, the bit rate that will be transferred from a server to a device, for example.
Data rate versus bandwidth
Reducing the amount of data sent to each user can help guarantee the service for everyone (Photo: Pixabay)
To understand metering on Netflix, you first need to understand the difference between the data rate of a media file and the bandwidth of the connection. Both can be called bitrate and throughput, and whether those terms are correct or not matters little. What matters is that it confuses, so it is necessary to clarify it.
The data rate of a media file refers to the maximum size of a second of the video. A video, as you may already know, is divided into frames, the most common speed is 30 fps (30 frames per second). Each table has its own set of information, and the total of 30 (or 24, 60, 120, and the like) forms the bitrate.
The bandwidth of the connection is the speed of your internet. Brazilian 4G, for example, has an average of 20 Mbps. Some fixed broadband operators offer packages of 100 Mbps, 200 Mbps or even more. This rate is the maximum amount of data that your Internet can receive from a central server.
Data volume
YouTube chose to lower the standard resolution without decreasing the volume of data (Photo: Pixabay)
The bit rate of a media file, therefore, is the amount of data it has each second. Netflix reduced this rate to decrease the amount of information that its servers need to send to each user connected to the platform. This reduces the quality of the image because it is less data, which can slightly reduce sharpness and cause noise, which some call “pixelization”, especially in very dark areas of the frame.
The resolution is not the lowest: it is that this image has less information. When loaded onto a large screen such as a TV, details are missing to display. On smaller screens, you will hardly notice the difference.
Facebook and Instagram will reduce the quality of video in Brazil
Globoplay will reduce video quality to meet demand
In short, Netflix’s decision ensures resolution, keeping sharpness a little closer than the user is used to, but reducing the amount of data transferred, resulting in images with a lower level of detail and sometimes , even more noise, even.
By sending less information to each user, Netflix, as well as Facebook, Globoplay and other services with similar measures, the platform avoids what we call server bottlenecks. This could cause suffocation and connection failures. YouTube’s measure also alleviates traffic because not everyone will manually increase the resolution, which in itself already reduces the amount of information to be transferred.











