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ZDNET’s Key Takeaways
- YouTube has a new feature that will automatically upscale videos.
- Upscaling will start on videos that are less than HD quality.
- Creators can opt out, and viewers can choose to view the original.
That old YouTube video you love and keep going back to watch? It’s about to look a lot better.
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The TV screen is YouTube’s fastest-growing surface, the company says, so it’s making some improvements. In a blog post detailing several changes coming to the platform for TV viewers, YouTube announced that it will use AI to generate higher resolution for videos.
From SD to HD
The company says it’s starting with videos currently in less than 1080p quality, upscaling them from SD to HD. Auto-scaling to 4K is coming “in the near future.”
Creators will be able to keep control over their content, YouTube added, noting that the original file and resolution will stay intact. In addition, creators can opt out of the new enhancement (which YouTube is calling “super resolution”) if they don’t like how it makes their videos look. Viewers will have the choice to watch in the original resolution or the new resolution.
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YouTube has supported 4K content since 2010, and it’s the standard for most creators today. This change will affect virtually no modern content, but it could impact millions of videos uploaded from 2005 to 2010.
This announcement comes after YouTube debuted AI-powered features for Shorts creators last month.
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A resolution upgrade sounds like a win across the board for both creators and viewers, but there are naturally questions about how good the upgrade will be. AI can still be notoriously wonky for creating or editing video (like the infamous Will Smith concert clip earlier this month), but a simple upscale shouldn’t be too tough.
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Other new features
YouTube also says it’s rolling out several other new features, including:
- A new thumbnail file size limit (jumping from 2MB to 50MB) that will let creators make 4K-resolution thumbnails.
- A shopping QR code that lets you instantly open a product page on your phone.
- Immersive homepage previews that let you see and flip through your favorite channels.
- Contextual search on TVs, meaning when you start a search from a creator’s channel page, you’ll see videos from that channel prioritized.
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Source: Robotics - zdnet.com
