Quote:
Originally Posted by DVDdoug
As far as I know you can't directly download from YouTube. So unless you download as a lossless format* you're getting lossy-to-lossy conversion... an additional generation of lossy compression. And, since it was probably uploaded in a lossy format, you're probably on the 3rd generation of lossy compression.
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There isn't a lossless format on the server...
It's video, not audio. Video is always compressed and so is the audio in the stream.
"Direct download" is a bit of a semantic trap here. It doesn't mean much. Sure, there's no ftp, it's streaming. But most people use the word "downloading" to differentiate from listening to a stream.
And a stream can be damaged on it's way to the client. It's UDP, not TCP. No packets are retransmitted if they are lost on the way. But in general, packet loss isn't a problem and never has been, unless one of the routers or lines on the path between your computer and youtube is defective.
If you want quality, just avoid youtube.