1. Forum
  2. Usenet
  3. UK.TECH.BROADCAST

  • What a strange thing to do.

    From jon@21:1/5 to All on Mon Oct 28 15:21:55 2024
    Instagram has revealed that it lowers the quality of older, less popular
    videos - reserving higher quality for more popular content.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Graham.@21:1/5 to reading.mostly@crap.org on Tue Oct 29 16:53:41 2024
    On Mon, 28 Oct 2024 15:21:55 -0000 (UTC), jon
    <reading.mostly@crap.org> wrote:

    Instagram has revealed that it lowers the quality of older, less popular >videos - reserving higher quality for more popular content.

    It seems a sensable policy for a social media outfit to follow. Cloud
    storage isn't free.

    --
    Graham.
    %Profound_observation%

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From John Williamson@21:1/5 to Graham. on Tue Oct 29 17:57:23 2024
    On 29/10/2024 16:53, Graham. wrote:
    On Mon, 28 Oct 2024 15:21:55 -0000 (UTC), jon
    <reading.mostly@crap.org> wrote:

    Instagram has revealed that it lowers the quality of older, less popular
    videos - reserving higher quality for more popular content.

    It seems a sensable policy for a social media outfit to follow. Cloud
    storage isn't free.

    They are probably lowering the quality as it is sent out. Storage and processing is relatively cheap, but, worldwide, bandwidth is limited
    and, even now, not cheap in the quantities they use. There are a number
    of major links which are stll awaiting repair after damage that could
    have been either deliberate or accidental.

    This, in March this year is just one example.

    https://edition.cnn.com/2024/03/04/business/red-sea-cables-cut-internet/index.html

    --
    Tciao for Now!

    John.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Theo@21:1/5 to John Williamson on Thu Oct 31 15:39:47 2024
    John Williamson <johnwilliamson@btinternet.com> wrote:
    On 29/10/2024 16:53, Graham. wrote:
    On Mon, 28 Oct 2024 15:21:55 -0000 (UTC), jon
    <reading.mostly@crap.org> wrote:

    Instagram has revealed that it lowers the quality of older, less popular >> videos - reserving higher quality for more popular content.

    It seems a sensable policy for a social media outfit to follow. Cloud storage isn't free.

    They are probably lowering the quality as it is sent out. Storage and processing is relatively cheap, but, worldwide, bandwidth is limited
    and, even now, not cheap in the quantities they use. There are a number
    of major links which are stll awaiting repair after damage that could
    have been either deliberate or accidental.

    It's costly to transcode in real time. I'd guess they're like Youtube in
    that they precompute videos at various sizes (4K, 1080p, 720p, 480p) and
    codecs (h264, h265, AV1), so they can select which one to serve based on the client. This means that every video has eg 12 different files for all the combinations. Maybe they have just decided to delete some of the
    combinations, eg just offering 720p in h264 and removing the others?

    Theo

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)