Technical / YouTube is testing 4K quality video playback only for Premium users

Technical | If you are one of the watchers of YouTube videos on the big screen, then there is bad news for you. Now the option of watching 4K videos on the platform will not be available to all users and it is being limited to YouTube Premium subscribers only. Other users will not be shown videos in 4K or better quality.

With the help of YouTube premium service, subscribers get options like watching ad-free videos and playing videos in the background. Apart from this, they also get the benefit of free YouTube premium music and they can download YouTube videos for offline viewing.

Ongoing testing with premium subscribers

A Reddit post has revealed that YouTube is testing 4K video playback with its premium plan. This means that only YouTube users with premium subscriptions will be able to watch videos in 4K (2160p) or better resolution.

Option to be locked for non-premium users

Screenshots shared online suggest that non-premium users will only get quality playback up to 1440p. However, in the video quality section, they will see which resolutions the video is available in, but 4K and above will see them as locked.

Video platform to show more ads than ever

YouTube wants more and more users to take its premium subscription. This is the reason that in the past, there was talk of showing 12 skippable ads and the company is testing it. Such ads are called bumper ads, which are shown for six seconds.