Remember when YouTube added support for 60 FPS videos a few months back? Well now it’s taking things to the next level, or perhaps even farther than that by adding support for 4K videos at 60 FPS. The catch is that not only are the cameras that are required to shoot such videos ridiculously expensive, the minimum of 3840×2160 displays that you would need to play them are expensive as well.
Just a few months back, YouTube bumped up the quality of the videos it hosts by allowing for gorgeous, 60 FPS video playback. Now they’re cranking things up to an almost absurd level. 60 FPS video, on YouTube… at 4K. The catch? It’s just something of an experiment, for now, and is limited to a reaaally tight batch of clips. That’s okay, though — the very vast majority of videos on YouTube aren’t shot at anywhere near this resolution/framerate yet, anyway. Cameras capable of shooting 4k/60FPS footage aren’t impossible to find, but they’re generally crazy expensive and are far from the standard. YouTube’s selection of clips are all pretty gorgeous… if your computer can handle them. You’ll need a display capable of handling 3840×2160 to take advantage of the resolution to begin with — but if the rig behind the display isn’t up to snuff, these videos will look way worse than they usually do. On a brand new Retina iMac, they’re mindbendingly beautiful. On my one-year old MacBook Air? They’re a chunky, choppy mess.
