Non-premium members getting just 360p videos?

The Whiskey Media sites have recently started showing YouTube embedded videos to their non-premium users. This has resulted in us having videos that are shown in only 360p. That's pretty bullshit.

I don't want to sound like I'm demanding anything, because I'm not paying, but HD videos are available for free at most other websites. I feel that we should get atleast 480p. 360p is crap. Watching the video review for Uncharted wasn't a pleasant experience. The video quality standards have risen and 360p should only be acceptable for videos uploaded in '06 or '07, not in 2011.

I'm not against the fact that the videos are being uploaded to YouTube cause that's saving bandwidth and attracting new people to the site, but the quality shouldn't suffer because of it. I'm sure most other members agree with me.

@Twilight said:

I don't want to sound like I'm demanding anything, because I'm not paying

If you didn't want to sound demanding then maybe you shouldn't have made this thread in which you are demanding higher quality videos.

As a paying member, I agree with this non-paying member's sentiments. Up it Whiskey Media.

@sirdesmond said:

@Twilight said:

I don't want to sound like I'm demanding anything, because I'm not paying

If you didn't want to sound demanding then maybe you shouldn't have made this thread in which you are demanding higher quality videos.

I didn't want to sound demanding but I wanted to tell them my problem and hopefully they'll fix it.

+1 this is step backward, I honestly expected the switch to the YouTube player to mean that HD would become a free feature for all to enjoy, not a downgrade in quality potentional members. Video content is what makes Whiskey Media, don't ruin that with videos which are lower resolution than my phone.

I'm pretty sure the video's have always been only 360p. They haven't downgraded the quality. And the quality always seems fine to me. I rarely watch the video's in HD, and the standard def vids always seem decent enough.

 I feel that we should get atleast 480p. 360p is crap. Watching the video review for Uncharted wasn't a pleasant experience. The video quality standards have risen and 360p should only be acceptable for videos uploaded in '06 or '07, not in 2011.

I'm not against the fact that the videos are being uploaded to YouTube cause that's saving bandwidth and attracting new people to the site, but the quality shouldn't suffer because of it. I'm sure most other members agree with me.

@BulletproofMonk said:

@Twilight said:

I feel that we should get atleast 480p. 360p is crap. Watching the video review for Uncharted wasn't a pleasant experience. The video quality standards have risen and 360p should only be acceptable for videos uploaded in '06 or '07, not in 2011.

I'm not against the fact that the videos are being uploaded to YouTube cause that's saving bandwidth and attracting new people to the site, but the quality shouldn't suffer because of it. I'm sure most other members agree with me.

Yeah, I have to agree with this. HD videos should be free in this day and age.

Especially if they're on Youtube.

I've noticed a few compression issues, mainly on the Uncharted Quick Look, but maybe they've always been there and I'm just noticing it now because of the switch. Still sucks though that we get the intern content in 720p on youtube, but get the main videos at much lower quality.

@sirdesmond: but his argument is valid so he has the right to demand

@Twilight: It actually looks the same as it always has.. The main selling point for me of the premium membership was the HD content. If you don't think the membership is worth the pittance that they ask per month, then don't complain about the video quality!

They could at least bump it up to 480p, but I think HD should remain a subscriber only feature.

They are also doing the opposite of attracting members to the site by uploading it in 360p. Most YouTube member will most likely just laugh at the low resolution, then they will leave and watch some of the thousands of HD videos instead and never visit the giant bomb channel again.

@MattyFTM said:

I'm pretty sure the video's have always been only 360p. They haven't downgraded the quality. And the quality always seems fine to me. I rarely watch the video's in HD, and the standard def vids always seem decent enough.

You're probably right with that they've always been in 360p. I've been thinking about making a thread about it before. And seeing it saying "360p" right there on the player made me go ahead and finally make one.

Attracting people form YouTube is a great idea, but for them to want to go to the website, a great first impression is needed. There is no doubt that GiantBomb and all the other Whiskey Media sites produce great video content, but when the videos aren't uploaded in 720p, the site doesn't seem that professional to me. Especially when all the other gaming websites (IGN, Gametrailers etc.) upload all their videos in 720p.

I was about to say that the site doesnt have YouTube embedded videos and then I checked the Video Review....   Shit

In the long run, it saves Whiskey Media more money if they host their videos on Youtube, a media player that works better than any other on the web.

I'm a premium member, and I usually never watch WM's videos in HD because I can somehow tolerate the eternal hell that is 360p.

@BUCK3TM4N: That wasn't the point of my post. The point was the he demanded something and preceded it with "I don't want to be demanding." That's all. It's like when people say "no offense" and follow it with something offensive. It's just a pet peeve of mine.

Because of all these premium videos for the last few weeks I personally don't consider being able to watch content in higher resolution a special feature anymore. If it makes sense financially GB should consider making HD videos viewable by everyone.

HD is the new norm for many game related sites, it should be for GB as well.

@gike987 said:

They are also doing the opposite of attracting members to the site by uploading it in 360p. The standard YouTube member will most likely just laugh at the low resolution, then they will leave and watch some of the thousands of HD videos instead and never visit the giant bomb channel again.

Youtube is a massive site. The 'standard' member is not someone who cares how many p's their video is in.

This generation is not spoiled, not one bit.

I was logged out the other day and didn't realise until I was watching a video in the youube player. i don't notice anything perticularly bad about the quality.

360P is okay for watching a clip from a TV show, but for games you really notice the compression I find. It seems worse than the standard definition videos on the non-YouTube player. (dat YouTube compression)

It really is silly they aren't at least 480P, they're hosted on YouTube for a start, and Whiskey are likely getting ad revenue from it, yet the videos are 360P? So many sites offer HD video for free, this just seems incredibly odd.

We're nearly in 2012, Gametrailers have been doing HD video on their own servers for free since 2006 or so. I know they're a bigger and more supported site, but as I've said, these videos are hosted on YouTube; yet they're still limited to 360P.

Edit: When I was a subscriber I never really bothered with HD video, I just think the current situation is daft.

@Rattle618 said:

This generation is not spoiled, not one bit.

It's not about being spoiled, it's about keeping up with the times; the lack of HD has been silly for a while, but now it sticks out more as they're not hosting it.

@CL60 said:

@BulletproofMonk said:

@Twilight said:

I feel that we should get atleast 480p. 360p is crap. Watching the video review for Uncharted wasn't a pleasant experience. The video quality standards have risen and 360p should only be acceptable for videos uploaded in '06 or '07, not in 2011.

I'm not against the fact that the videos are being uploaded to YouTube cause that's saving bandwidth and attracting new people to the site, but the quality shouldn't suffer because of it. I'm sure most other members agree with me.

Yeah, I have to agree with this. HD videos should be free in this day and age.

Especially if they're on Youtube.

This is exactly how I feel.

I'd say go along with most other sites have it. Have 480p and standard def download for free users- and 720/1080p stream and download for everyone else. Sounds perfectly fair to me. 360p isn't exactly....enjoyably watchable on a 42inch tv stretched out. Granted, most people aren't like me and want to use their hdtv for everything.

It's hardly a demand when it's about keeping the quality *the same as before*. Jeff has gone on and on about how they don't want to gate people off, but rather offer incentives to pay. Well this is exactly the kind of rug pulling he was specifically saying they wouldn't do.

The hilarious thing is how unfavourably it compares to actual youtube content. Every day users pump out similar quick looks at 720p or above on youtube without asking a penny for it, because that's literally a standard feature of that site. So here we're downgraded from the site's baseline quality as the content is moved OFF of GB servers onto a completely different site whose content is more or less always twice the resolution.

And it's not even about 720p, it's about how QLs now all look like garbage compared to before. With the Whiskey Media player the low resolution content was saved by great - or low - compression. Now even TRAILERS FOR VIDEO GAMES, hosted ENTIRELY BY YOUTUBE, containing absolutely ZERO GB CONTENT are streamed on this site as 360p compressed artifact orgies. Of course the funny tangental thing is that you can go to youtube and a different channelon there to see it in 1080p if you want.

I love this site, I love the content it produces and I love the staff, but this is hard to interpret as anything but a backhanded way of sticking non-paying members with basically *the worst quality gaming related videos on the internet* while maintaining that no content has been gated off.

I think it says a lot that this is a topic that even paid members say "HD should be free". I'd be curious to see what the metrics are for use of anything above 480p on their videos here on the site in comparison. I rarely watch the videos on anything above the "low" resolution or even 360p, but a lot of that has to do with the fact that the internet at my house is Clear (which might as well be 56k in this day and age). Even when I'm up at work, where we have a dedicated fiber line, I don't run any videos higher than the "low" setting. The only exceptions are when I'm watching something on a big game like Battlefield 3 or Uncharted 3.

However, given that so many sites offer a minimum of 480p for their videos in terms of HD content, it seems like that should at least be the standard used on one of the most competitive and excellent gaming sites in existence.

I think HD should be free for all users. Especially since now they are hosting all the videos on YouTube to save on bandwidth costs.

@Rattle618 said:

This generation is not spoiled, not one bit.

That's just stupid. It's like a cellphone not being able to send MMS. It's the standard now and everyone should do it. You gotta keep with the times.

Watching videos on the standard size window in 360p is fine, but in full screen it's unwatchable. I really hope they bump it up to 480p for everybody.

Hmm dificult one, i understand the cost side of things, with an increase in traffic and longer videos comes a LOT of bandwith.

My Guess is someone at whiskey looked at long term prospects, and decided to make the call.

Is this good for users? no not really, is it good for whiskey? probably.

believe me they do not pull that kind of shit just too fuck with their users, that is the last thing they want.

Youtube is taking the bandwidth cost so why are they not 720p? I can understand actual GB content should be just HD for premium members but seriously trailers for games I could find on youtube anyway should be 720p on the site.

I recognise that I'm not owed anything because i'm not a paying customer, but 360p videos really do look awful. Even if you don't full screen them and leave them at the default size they look terrible. In my opinion it makes the site seem a bit cheap and I can see it putting off potential new users.

The original argument for making HD videos a subscriber only option was bandwidth. With YouTube that is no longer an issue. However I understand that the Giant Bomb guys might want to keep HD just for subscribers as an incentive to pay, but perhaps they could consider upping to at least 480p.

@BetonneTom said:

Hmm dificult one, i understand the cost side of things, with an increase in traffic and longer videos comes a LOT of bandwith.

My Guess is someone at whiskey looked at long term prospects, and decided to make the call.

Is this good for users? no not really, is it good for whiskey? probably.

believe me they do not pull that kind of shit just too fuck with their users, that is the last thing they want.

Sure, when they were hosted on the WM servers then I completely understood why they didn't offer HD for everyone. But having 360p videos uploaded on YouTube doesn't make any sense at all.

Plus, they're making weekly premium member exclusive content now. I think HD video, or atleast 480p, should be available for everyone.

@Twilight said:

The Whiskey Media sites have recently started showing YouTube embedded videos to their non-premium users. This has resulted in us having videos that are shown in only 360p. That's pretty bullshit.

I don't want to sound like I'm demanding anything, because I'm not paying, but HD videos are available for free at most other websites. I feel that we should get atleast 480p. 360p is crap. Watching the video review for Uncharted wasn't a pleasant experience. The video quality standards have risen and 360p should only be acceptable for videos uploaded in '06 or '07, not in 2011.

I'm not against the fact that the videos are being uploaded to YouTube cause that's saving bandwidth and attracting new people to the site, but the quality shouldn't suffer because of it. I'm sure most other members agree with me.

you get what you dont pay for you cheap bastard. no but seriously there is a reason for why its on higher since there is a "cost" for them. this has been talked about alot before and your complaining about 120p

i think its funny that you call it bullshit and then right after say that you dont wanna sound like your complaining

just like MattyFTM says i think its allway been 360 before so they diddent downgrade. and 360p is fine

so basicly if it bother you enough then upgrade your account its really not that much money especially considering what you get. if you dont want to then just be happy with what you get. atleast they diddent do the thing they talked about doing to the bombcast

@Twilight: Yes i agree, i feel that i get enough shit for my money. downgrading free users, is making the experience worse for them. Forcing people to subcribe due to technical limitations is a wrong strategy, espessialy when you first take the good option away.

I felt the same way about the mobile browser, it just 'feels' shady. Whiskey gets a lot of its traffic trough an emotional connection between users and crew. That is a very rare position in an enviroment where everybody is a complete imbicile: The Internet. They shouldnt toy with that too much.

but then again seeing that this is the internet, everybody will now freak out and then forget about it.

I agree that 480p should be available for everyone. I also feel like the HD quality is a bit worse that it should be...

@Grillbar said:

just like MattyFTM says i think its allway been 360 before so they diddent downgrade. and 360p is fine

so basicly if it bother you enough then upgrade your account its really not that much money especially considering what you get. if you dont want to then just be happy with what you get. atleast they diddent do the thing they talked about doing to the bombcast

But the videos look a lot worse than before. Others have mentioned YouTube compression so perhaps that's it, but I assure you the new videos do look noticeably worse.

I get that I'm not paying and that the Giant Bomb guys don't owe me anything, but equally I don't think that uploading stuff to YouTube at 480p is such a massive request. They can say no, and that'd be fine, I'd still visit the site, but I see no problem in asking if they'd consider improving the quality of their site for those of us who don't pay a subscription fee. We still get shown ads so we are valuable to them I assume.

The second issue that people have mentioned is whether this "use YouTube to attract new users" will work if their videos there are only in 360p. My guess would be that they're really hurting their appeal by not uploading videos to YouTube in 720p. Whenever I search for gameplay footage or new game trailers on YouTube I always use the results filter to only show HD videos. But this is a secondary issue, and I'm sure they've got people who do this for a living looking into how best to drive traffic from their YouTube stuff.

The main issue remains; please sir, can I have 480p?

HD should be availabe for all. It's 2011 ffs. The fact that it's used as a bullet point to promote memberships is quite sad.

This generation is not spoiled, not one bit.

I wouldn't be opposed to non-subs getting HD videos. I pay for the exclusive videos, not for HD.

In addition to what has already been mentioned: youtube can't be watched in fullscreen mode as conveniently as the integrated video player. If I were a potential new member and saw a Quick Look in that bullshit youtube quality with new windows popping up on fullscreen I would never come back again.

Luckily I am already a member...

I'm feeling some deja vu....yep here is this exact same thread from 3 weeks ago:

http://www.giantbomb.com/forums/general-discussion/30/really-no-hd-videos-for-all-users/518085/

OCCUPY WHISKEY MEDIA!!

WE ARE THE (according to the Whiskey Media homepage) 82%!!

Right... anyone got a tent I could borrow? Obviously I don't want to have to pay for one myself.

@dudeglove said:

As if you lot can tell the difference.

If you can't tell the difference between 340p and 720p then there's something really wrong with you and you should probably get it checked.

It "baffles" me more that there are people who claim they can't see the difference between a movie on DVD and a Blu-ray in 1080p.

I wouldn't be opposed to non-subs getting HD videos. I pay for the exclusive videos, not for HD.

Yea, as a subscriber, especially now that, because of YouTube, the bandwidth is no longer much of an issue, I have no problem with non-subs getting HD. I subscribe for the content, not the technology.

Slightly off-topic, but here's how I feel sub levels should break down: Non-subs get everything related to current game coverage, like Quick Looks, Video Reviews, etc. Subs should get everything personality-driven, not necessarily related to current game coverage, like Lantern Run, Jar Time with Jeff, and Vinny's Joust machine. Obviously, the exception would be content existing before subs were available, like TNT.

I guess I'm fucking weird. I always watch my videos in low quality at standard player size so they load really quickly. Always has worked fine for me quality wise. I don't care if non-subs get HD video, I'm in it for all the amazing subscriber videos they've been putting out and just to support my favorite place to hang out on the internet for the past three years.

its kind of a dick move that ur locked into 360p if ur not a subscriber , i get they can make money if they link utube videos and save on bandwidth but this will alienate people in the long run especially future new member ( subscriber or free) .

i watch the videos in 360p so if its higher or not doesn't make a difference to me.

HD video is specifically one of the selling points of premium membership. I see nothing wrong with that, and I pay my membership as a result. The way they choose to charge for their service is their own prerogative, and I'll have to decide as time goes on whether or not I find it worth it.

And at $50 a year, I currently find it worth it to enjoy these guys' content in HD, and to get the subscriber content. If the price raises significantly, I'll just have to reassess the situation.