Google Launches Video Quality Report Rating ISPs For YouTube Playback

[MarlaDesat]

Google Launches Video Quality Report Rating ISPs For YouTube Playback


The tool rates how well internet service providers can deliver videos, similar to Netflix's ISP speed rankings.

Google has launched a tool for YouTube users in the US to see how well their internet service provider can deliver videos. The tool rates ISP quality based on the quality of the stream supported and the frequency of buffering or interruptions. ISPs rated "HD Verified" support streaming at at least 720p without buffering. The "Standard Definition" rating means the ISP can deliver at a resolution of at least 360p with moderate load times. The lowest quality rating is "Lower Definition", meaning that only resolutions lower than 360p can be streamed or that videos frequently buffer and load slowly.

The ratings taken into account billions of YouTube videos streamed across thousands of ISPs. The Video Quality Report is based on how quickly all YouTube data was loaded over the last 30 days, broken down by ISP and geographical location. The rating for each location and ISP is based on the minimum speed available speed for at least 90% of those 30 days. The data is anonymized, so no user data is stored or provided by the report. The full methodology report [http://www.google.com/get/videoqualityreport/#methodology] details how Google measured response times and how each rating was defined.

Google's Video Quality Report is similar to the terrible customer service ratings [http://ispspeedindex.netflix.com/], and poor delivery of content like YouTube contributes to that dissatisfaction. How does your ISP stack up? Let us know in the comments!

Source: Variety [http://www.google.com/get/videoqualityreport/ ]


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[MCerberus]

Well at least when Google's fighting the ISPs, they're too busy to fight their user.

 

[Raziel]

That chart is odd and their comparisons ranking seems off. No scaling marked for the vertical lines. Comcast ranked as HD verified for providing 90-94% hd, but universe ranked as sd because there hd is 87-90%? And why is comcast placed first among hd? Synergy has 93-97% hd.

 

[Remus]

Yup, pretty backward here. I get a flat 10Mbps and with that, I run 3 computers, 3 phones, and netflix. Haven't had any real hiccups yet. It could be better, oh wait it couldn't. I live in the rural midwest. What I use is the best that's available to me, that's not saddled with an urban line that can slow down at peak times, and isn't restricted on my usage, so I can download GBs of data at the end of a month just as easily as I can at the beginning. It's not terrible but it was a chore finding an ISP that fit all these criteria and had speeds that were at least average. It still ranks on the low end on Google's chart but I'm not complaining. All their high and a good portion of their medium ones simply aren't available in my area - not a large enough consumer base to be worth the effort.

 

[Glaice]

The infrastructure varies from state to state here. For example Alabama or Kansas is gonna have shit like Satellite or low level DSL/cable while areas like California and New York tri-state area will have stuff like Verizon FIOS due to population density it can get.

I blame greed, incompetance and/or unwillingness to deploy high speed to low density/rural regions.

 

[Clive Howlitzer]

Comcast is absolutely terrible unfortunately they have a monopoly around here and I have no other options unless I want to get crappy DSL.

 

[yamy]

Come talk to me Google when you make disabling DASH an option on Youtube.

If I have a 60M internet I don't see why I can't choose to load the whole video in one big chunk rather than having waiting for it to buffer every 20 seconds or when seeking to another part of the video.

(Yes I know there are ways of doing it by scripting or plugins, but I don't see why they can't have the option natively on their website)

 

[VoltySquirrel]

This is tangentially relevent: a graph visualizing the average speeds on Netflix on Comcast from May of 2013 until now. I unfortunately had to start using Comcast in January and the near constant sub-480p video pissed me right the fuck off. The sudden jump to HD only made me more angry. In summation: Fuck you, Comcast.

 

[alj]

Virgin Media in the UK are terrible for youtube, they cache videos on there own local slow ass servers to save on bandwidth, i have had to use the hosts file on my PC (i will soon move to a decent router running pfsence) to block the virgin media cache servers so it will look on youtubes servers for the videos

And they also throttle youtube traffic.

Honestly i am thinking of switching to pulsnet fiber it may be a bit slower but at least you can use that speed how you want.

 

[FalloutJack]

They still don't understand that it's their own fault, slapping another update on the mechanism without untangling that mess they call codework.

 

[Strazdas]

my country is not rated, as expected. no struggle here except when im at work and they throttle the connection here (rare). after all, when you got to provide for over 500 computers and one of them is watching 4k youtube video you may want to lower than traffic.

People still struggle to stream youtube videos on a broadband connection? 0_o What kind of backwards internet does the US have? I knew it was bad but 1080p youtube is still pretty compressed. I can watch it whilst downloading other things.

apperently so. youtube is so compressed you can watch it at 10mbps apperently. no wonder it looks worse than uncompressed 720p.
now if youtube streamed uncompressed videos...... but yeah that would need 240mbps for 1080p and admitedly not everyone has it. not that youtube has storage for uncompressed videos anyway.

Come talk to me Google when you make disabling DASH an option on Youtube.

If I have a 60M internet I don't see why I can't choose to load the whole video in one big chunk rather than having waiting for it to buffer every 20 seconds or when seeking to another part of the video.

(Yes I know there are ways of doing it by scripting or plugins, but I don't see why they can't have the option natively on their website)

worse yet if you use third party to play youtube streams it appears to simply not give more than a few seconds of data to the player and any hicup on youtubes side (and it happens a lot) means you got to see your player go into buffering mode. so much for stream support ech.

This is tangentially relevent

wait, is that, yes, thats 3 mbps. . oh god im sorry for you.