General Question about YouTube videos and audio quality compatible with iOS devices?

[JohnPyn]

Hi everyone,

I'm wondering something about music and video quality, I've always believed that the higher the quality (360p, 480p, 720p, 1080p) of the YouTube video I want to download, the better the music quality. I've tested it though, this is what I did, I downloaded a video in 1080p and the same in 720p, I then converted it with the mac using right click and then convert to M4A, and I did this process with both the 720p and the 1080p video but the size of the M4A file is exactly the same so I guess the quality is the same too?

I've used YouTube to MP3 with the same video and the converted file's (M4A) size is around 8MB (I'm not 100% sure of the video's definition used for the conversion but I believe it automatically uses the highest, I can't change it), does it have the same audio quality of the 11MB one or is it different?

Basically I'm looking for the highest audio quality, I don't really mind if the size is high or not as long as it's compatible with iOS devices it'll be perfect as long as audio is the best. What can I do to "achieve" what I'm looking for?

Thanks a lot for help, I'll really be very grateful to anyone that can help me

 

[Armen]

Hi everyone,

I'm wondering something about music and video quality, I've always believed that the higher the quality (360p, 480p, 720p, 1080p) of the YouTube video I want to download, the better the music quality. I've tested it though, this is what I did, I downloaded a video in 1080p and the same in 720p, I then converted it with the mac using right click and then convert to M4A, and I did this process with both the 720p and the 1080p video but the size of the M4A file is exactly the same so I guess the quality is the same too?

I've used YouTube to MP3 with the same video and the converted file's (M4A) size is around 8MB (I'm not 100% sure of the video's definition used for the conversion but I believe it automatically uses the highest, I can't change it), does it have the same audio quality of the 11MB one or is it different?

Basically I'm looking for the highest audio quality, I don't really mind if the size is high or not as long as it's compatible with iOS devices it'll be perfect as long as audio is the best. What can I do to "achieve" what I'm looking for?

Thanks a lot for help, I'll really be very grateful to anyone that can help me

Why don't you do the right thing and just buy the songs on iTunes rather taking this mediocre Youtube mp3 approach?

1. All the songs you purchase will always be available to download with your apple ID moving forward.
2. The audio will always be top notch
3. You won't need to fuss with album art or song info.
4. You will also support the artist

 

[JohnPyn]

Why don't you do the right thing and just buy the songs on iTunes rather taking this mediocre Youtube mp3 approach?

1. All the songs you purchase will always be available to download with your apple ID moving forward.
2. The audio will always be top notch
3. You won't need to fuss with album art or song info.
4. You will also support the artist

Well, if I gotta be honest I'm a little young and my father wouldn't allow me to buy them and not only that but songs are pretty expensive on iTunes, and personally I don't really see it as a so bad thing to do since everyone I know does it and there's videos and programs everywhere for this

 

[Armen]

Well, if I gotta be honest I'm a little young and my father wouldn't allow me to buy them and not only that but songs are pretty expensive on iTunes, and personally I don't really see it as a so bad thing to do since everyone I know does it and there's videos and programs everywhere for this

I can understand your situation.

 

[Vetvito]

Basically everything is compressed on YouTube and will lose quality.

Solution, find you another site to download from.

 

[JohnPyn]

Basically everything is compressed on YouTube and will lose quality.

Solution, find you another site to download from.

What I meant is, which format (compatible with iOS) should I convert into so that I won't lose the quality of the starting video? As I understand for personal use from YouTube isn't illegal whilst from another site it would be, I'd rather stick with YouTube was just wondering which conversion won't make me lose audio quality

 

[Armen]

What I meant is, which format (compatible with iOS) should I convert into so that I won't lose the quality of the starting video? As I understand for personal use from YouTube isn't illegal whilst from another site it would be, I'd rather stick with YouTube was just wondering which conversion won't make me lose audio quality

I can tell you purchased itunes songs are not mp3. They are M4a or AAC..something like that.

 

[RoboWarriorSr]

Question about YouTube videos and audio quality compatible with iOS devices?

What I meant is, which format (compatible with iOS) should I convert into so that I won't lose the quality of the starting video? As I understand for personal use from YouTube isn't illegal whilst from another site it would be, I'd rather stick with YouTube was just wondering which conversion won't make me lose audio quality

Like the previous person said, YouTube compresses and lowers the quality of audio, there isn't a file format that will "magically" make the audio sound better. M4A is Apple's solution to FLAC and MP3, it's suppose to have better sound quality at a smaller file size when converting from the original master file (~60 MB) which YouTube is not. Both AAC and M4A are to be more efficient for iOS devices. YouTube audio files are around 128 Kbps for HD videos. iTunes is currently 256 Kbps. M4A if used correctly is around 600+ Kbps depending on the original sound file (8~40 MB depending on the length of the song).

 

[JohnPyn]

Like the previous person said, YouTube compresses and lowers the quality of audio, there isn't a file format that will "magically" make the audio sound better. M4A is Apple's solution to FLAC and MP3, it's suppose to have better sound quality at a smaller file size when converting from the original master file (~60 MB) which YouTube is not. Both AAC and M4A are to be more efficient for iOS devices. YouTube audio files are around 128 Kbps for HD videos. iTunes is currently 256 Kbps. M4A if used correctly is around 600+ Kbps depending on the original sound file (8~40 MB depending on the length of the song).

Ok, I understand, I apologize, maybe I didn't make my self better, I was just wondering if there was a format that wouldn't let me lose quality during the conversion proccess not to increase it just not to lose it, but if I understood correctly M4A will be ok, thanks a lot for help, you've been both very kind

 

[RoboWarriorSr]

Question about YouTube videos and audio quality compatible with iOS devices?

Ok, I understand, I apologize, maybe I didn't make my self better, I was just wondering if there was a format that wouldn't let me lose quality during the conversion proccess not to increase it just not to lose it, but if I understood correctly M4A will be ok, thanks a lot for help, you've been both very kind

Converting doesn't lower quality unless while using a converter you specifically have it lower it. A reason would be to save space. Converting a file will just change the format nothing more. Converters will usually not lower the quality if it's around 256 Kbps. And for iOS devices M4A is recommended since it will work better on them. Also 4K (1440p+) is slowly being rolled out on YouTube and the audio quality has been increased along with it. I believe it's around 256 Kbps so extracting music from those will certainly be a boost in sound quality.

 

[JohnPyn]

Converting doesn't lower quality unless while using a converter you specifically have it lower it. A reason would be to save space. Converting a file will just change the format nothing more. Converters will usually not lower the quality if it's around 256 Kbps. And for iOS devices M4A is recommended since it will work better on them. Also 4K (1440p+) is slowly being rolled out on YouTube and the audio quality has been increased along with it. I believe it's around 256 Kbps so extracting music from those will certainly be a boost in sound quality.

I understand now! Thank you very much for helping me, that's all I needed to hear^^ converting to m4a won't change the quality eheh thanks a lot really