YouTube Introduces Option to Disable AI Upscaling for Low-Resolution Videos

Highlights

YouTube says it’s adding several new tools designed to make the service better on a TV screen, including a “quick shopping” tool and a visual upgrade for older or low-resolution videos.

The company says it will automatically upscale videos uploaded below 1080p using artificial intelligence to HD resolution, and will add support for upscaling to 4K “in the near future” — but it has built in the option for both creators and viewers to opt out.

“Creators will retain complete control over their library, as both original files and original video resolution will be kept intact, with a clear option to opt-out of these enhancements,” YouTube says in the announcement. “And viewers will still be able to watch creators’ videos in the original uploaded resolution, as super resolution will be clearly labeled under settings.”

AI upscaling has been a feature of almost every major TV brand in recent years, as screen sizes have gotten larger and low-resolution videos stopped being a novelty, and Nvidia also provides a similar feature on its Shield TV streaming devices. YouTube’s opt-out option is notable, however, given creator complaints in the past that the platform had been applying its own enhancements to their videos without consent, sometimes with bizarre or undesirable visual results.

The automatic upscaling will only apply to video quality videos uploaded in 240p to 720p resolutions, YouTube spokesperson Veronica Navarrete told The Verge. That means it wo n’t be applied retroactively to aged vids that generators or channels have formerly digitally remastered to 1080p themselves.

YouTube is also expanding the current 2 MB limit on videotape thumbnails to 50 MB to support 4K images, and says it’s presently testing support for larger videotape uploads with select generators. On videos where content creators have tagged products for sale, it will soon be possible for viewers to quickly buy whatever catches their eye using their phone to scan a QR code displayed on the TV screen, taking them directly to the product page. The company is also YouTube settings testing the ability for creators to call out products at specific, timed moments within their videos.