IPhone Question: Does the quality of video decrease on YouTube when you use Edge compared to using WiFi?

It happens to me as well. I’ve heard that’s how it is, but I have no proof. I’d say its just because wifi is so much more stable, but I’m not sure.

absolutely. It is always better with wifi

Is it just because it would take a very long time to stream the same quality of video over the Edge network?

YES, the speed of your connection is everything.

Just wait for 3G my friends, just you wait.

I can’t substantiate this claim, but I heard somewhere that when on EDGE, the iPhone actually downloads a different (lower) resolution video when using the YouTube app for efficiency; conversely the app “throttles up” to a higher-res file when on Wi-Fi; has anyone else heard of this?

Yea Joey I’ve heard that. Loading the hi-res version over edge would make it nearly unusable. It’s slow enough over edge anyway.

I haven’t noticed a resolution change as much as how slow youtube downloads over the Edge network.

Watch one of the more popular videos on there on wifi vs. Edge. “Evolution of Dance”

haha I love Evolution of Dance. It’s a great video. One of my friends has it memorized

Hmm. I’m not so sure it happens like that… I didn’t realize that there are “low bandwidth” and “high bandwidth” streams on Youtube. Something like Realplayer had it (because there were large gaps between someone on 56k and someone on DSL), but as far as I know, all videos on youtube (the site) are encoded in flash, with many more encoded in h.264 (specifically for ipod consumption).

I don’t think h.264 is able to scale up/down based on your bandwidth. There will always be quality differences from one video to the next (based on how someone used their compression when uploading)... but I think that’s the only performance difference.

I agree with the hamburgerman. It really depends on the speed and the bandwidth restrictions of your internet connection. :)