A few days ago, Film Hurricane released a video that was taken down across the internet, and I watched the supplementary footage provided by enthusiastic netizens. The content mainly criticizes streaming platforms for their unlimited compression of video quality and for pushing different video streams to different devices. Moreover, to make the videos appear clearer, sharpening technology was used. Finally, it compared the changes in video bitrate on streaming platforms from 2020 to today, calling on users to unite and pressure video platforms.
Of course, this video resonated with many viewers, including those on Bilibili, who flooded the comments and bullet screens with remarks like "Protect our UP" and similar comments, implying a strong criticism of Bilibili. But I can only say that everyone who leaves their familiar field can only become He Tongxue, and now Tim has become He Tongxue. In summary, from a coding perspective, there are many errors in the video, and blindly promoting the advantages of AVC encoding is self-limiting. Advocating for users to pressure the platform does not recognize the commercial value of Bilibili users. The fact that such a supplementary video can still be revered by so many people only shows that videos like He Tongxue's are still quite popular.
First, let me talk about my starting point, which is that people should not have to pay for services they cannot enjoy. This "cannot enjoy" generally refers to objective conditions that prevent enjoyment. If one insists on saying they can experience emotional value (like a sense of superiority), that's fine too.
For example, the so-called lossless music, where QQ Music now emphasizes the premium master version 2.0. Taking Stefanie Sun's Encounter as an example, the premium master version 2.0 is 16.46 times the size of high-quality music at 320kbps. So how much difference in sound quality is there? With my poor phone and an Oppo Bluetooth headset, I really can't tell.
Previously, when experimenting with AI voice changing, I tried to distinguish music at different bitrates using a double-blind test. The result was that with my equipment and my ears, I could not distinguish between high-quality music (320kbps) and lossless music. The human ear is the weakest link in the listening process, so what is there to pursue?
The same goes for video quality. I usually watch videos on my phone, and with such a small screen, there is not much difference between 1080p and 4k. I wouldn't go to the extent of enlarging the video to an almost unwatchable level just to count every hair, so the compression of video quality by streaming services is basically imperceptible to me. I believe most people's usage situation should be similar to mine; otherwise, long before Film Hurricane exposed it, everyone would have already raised a fuss. Now, when Film Hurricane releases a video, everyone rubs their eyes in confusion, realizing that it does seem a bit blurry (still unsure if it's an illusion), and they raise the banner to collectively attack the "capitalists," which is quite touching.
Some might say that even if I can't tell, the quality of service provided by the video platform should not change 😡. They need to provide options for different bitrates and video encodings for users to choose from. Even if users choose and then experience buffering due to poor network or overheating due to unsupported hardware decoding, that would still be good civility.
First, let's talk about the loss of service quality caused by switching video encodings. Tim painted a pastoral picture of the promised land where, back in 2020, Bilibili's video bitrate was 1080P AVC 6M, while the currently outrage-inducing Bilibili is at 1080P HEVC 1M bitrate. I captured an image from a Zhihu user; I wonder if anyone can distinguish between these two different encodings and bitrates.
At least from my perspective, I cannot distinguish them. If people are cursing on various social platforms just because of this slight quality loss, I think the slow internet and overheating due to software decoding would provoke even more intense criticism.
Surely some will say I am defending the capitalists, and even if I am not being paid, my spirit has been poisoned. It is indeed satisfying to criticize from a high ground, especially since Bilibili is doing so poorly. They do not do ads well, inserting some ads into the streaming; they do not do e-commerce well, with a bunch of overpriced membership purchases. However, in terms of playback experience and membership prices, it is still better than iQIYI and Tencent Video. We cannot just watch the market's big hand sweep Bilibili into the trash can.
If we must demand that Bilibili improve video quality, who will compensate for the loss of membership fees? 😦
If we must demand that Bilibili go bankrupt, who will compensate for the loss of video experience? 😦
I hope Film Hurricane can set up its own website to provide me with supplements, rather than just posting Bilibili video links and Baidu Cloud links.
Additionally, some are promoting PCDN, which can only be described as unethical, and that's it.