YouTube Issuing "Report Cards" On Carriers' Streaming Speeds 110
OakDragon (885217) writes In the shadow of the "Net Neutrality" debate, Google's YouTube has created a service to report on your carrier's usage and speed, summarizing the data in a "Lower/Standard/High Definition" graph. You may see the service offered when a video buffers or stutters. A message could display under the video asking "Experiencing interruptions? Find out why." Find your own provider's grade here.
Grade is on the curve (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Swap DASH for HTTP (Score:2, Interesting)
If you disable DASH, doesn't that mean you just can't get 1080p video and are stuck with 720p at best?
I myself just drag-and-drop the youtube links into vlc and let it play them directly. VLC doesn't do DASH either, so according to this bug it is stuck at 720p. [videolan.org]
But at least there are no ads and no autoplay and it is easy to resize, etc, etc.
Re:Time Warner cable is actually better? (Score:5, Interesting)
There's something fishy with these results. The Google report rates the connection from my small, local ISP at "Standard Definition", and then when I compare providers in my area apparently Comcast is "HD Verified". This just doesn't add up.
The problem with this is that I have available, and pay for, fiber broadband advertised at 90mbps, and speedtest.net concludes that I am getting what I pay for (92 up/35 down). I have a Roku or other streaming media player in every room and it's not unusual to have multiple HD movies streaming at the same time in different rooms, in addition to tablets, xbox, and other internet activity.
So I have to conclude that either Google isn't testing my actual connection as it appears to and is instead showing an average from my ISP, or the results are fixed and the big, shitty cable companies have "sponsored" their own "HD Verified" results. The latter seems more likely, I've had Comcast internet in this area before fiber became available and it doesn't compare, and even the cheapest packages at my ISP are pretty quick.