Video & audio quality enhancements

To improve the viewing experience, YouTube may automatically apply visual and/or audio enhancements to your content. These enhancements can improve video quality or make audio clearer and more balanced. They are not applied to every video.

About video & audio enhancements

Visual enhancements can help improve a viewer’s watch experience. These enhancements may include:

  • Adjustments to brightness or color
  • Increased video clarity and sharpness
  • Increased video resolution with Super resolution, which uses Google-built technology to make low resolution uploads look like they were filmed in HD
Note: Viewers can always toggle between increased video quality with Super Resolution and the original upload resolution through the video quality settings.

Audio enhancements can help improve a viewer's audio experience. These enhancements may include:

  • Automatic adjustments to volume levels and sound mixing
  • A more comfortable listening experience with Stable volume, an enhancement that balances the range between quiet and loud parts of a video, reducing variations in sound
Note: Viewers can turn Stable volume on or off in their player settings.

We typically apply these enhancements when we expect they will improve the viewing experience. However, we understand that some creators may prefer their content to look and sound as close to the original as possible. These settings give you control over the default viewing experience for your channel’s content. To ensure every viewer can watch and hear your content, their individual accessibility settings may take precedence in some cases.

Some enhancements, like Stable volume or Super resolution, may have separate controls for viewers. If you disable enhancements for your channel, viewers may not be able to use these features.

You can manage whether these enhancements are applied to your channel's future uploads using the visual and audio quality enhancements settings. The setting does not affect ads or videos you already uploaded.

Note: You can only manage your visual and audio quality improvements settings on YouTube Studio on your computer.

Turn visual & audio quality enhancement settings on or off

  1. Sign in to YouTube Studio on your computer.
  2. Click Settings and then Channel and then Advanced settings.
  3. Check or uncheck the Let YouTube enhance visual quality box.
  4. Check or uncheck the Let YouTube enhance audio quality box.
  5. Click Save.

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