YouTube video music

auxinput

last night, hopping about YouTube, favorite/familiar music videos, Google Chrome browser beat Firefox slightly, the reverse of the prior night’s slight advantage to Firefox.

Any clues?

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SSD.

Streaming, is the Hard Drive involved? This slimtop is so quiet I am simply not aware of the HD when working/streaming.

In my office, I have an external 2TB SSD, it is my primary HD, internal HD very quiet spinning drive is only programs, system, downloads, screenshots ... I have identical backup SSD in trunk of my car, parked in the street in case the house burns down.

Unplug the SSD, take it with me when I travel, hook to laptop, everything is there. Hook to friends PC, everything is there.

Initially, after rejecting a dedicated streamer (years ago, crap) I tried an earlier HP slimtop in HT first, wondering about processor speed, fanless motherboard AV performance, and HD noise. It impressed me so much I got a duplicate for my office, and gave my high end gaming tower to a friend. I am retired, but I designed office space, demanding CAD software. That little slimtop with 8GB memory performed as well, the spinning HD’s and fans in the tower with dedicated cards were hot and noisy.

One died, so I got this newer identical pair of HP slimtops, newer processor, also motherboard AV, and 12GB memory.

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Video Card, low profile. Nice pick, thanks. Certainly affordable. I’m good at modifying PC innards, I just want to know more before I bother.

Originally I expected to be disappointed by motherboard AV and expected to need to add low profile card. Surprisingly, first unit in HT gave acceptable results.

2nd unit, for office, doing CAD work and heavy photo editing, I thought that one would surely need dedicated video card. Nope. Earlier, CAD, Photo Editing, we would wait for the computer, since several years, the computer waits for me, especially if enough memory.
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Streaming Sources: (all HDMI to Sony AVR).

Where/What processor(s) involved?

1. Fios to Router to Cable Box for primary source
2. HDMI Cable Box to Smart TV, then use
Built in links to YouTube; Netflix; Amazon Prime; VIKI. HDMI to Sony AVR
3. HP Slimtop PC, (from Fios Router) Chrome or Firefox Browser, , HDMI to Sony AVR

Now, results essentially equal, the determining factor TV/PC is whether I will be searching much, if so, the PC and mini keyboard is easier/faster/less aggravating than the variety of on-screen toggle u/d/l/r methods
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Digital Music? (I know nothing)

My friend got into digital streaming, minimal compression, high end DAC. He uses a Macintosh Laptop to view his library, send to DAC.

Isn’t the AV on the Macintosh Motherboard involved?

If so, then no matter what streamer/lack of compression/___? isn’t the quality already set/converted/limited by the motherboard before a separate DAC?

Anything saved on HD is a certain digital quality. Any streaming service software is a certain quality. Still, going thru motherboard’s AV in/out?

I know it’s a big subject, but it seems to me, a laptop’s motherboard might not be best.

Lots of confusion herein. 
 Simply stated, sound quality from youtube music vids  is quite impressive when streamed thru Apple TV.  Very comparable to streaming thru a nucleus using qobuz with both being hooked into a high end hifi system.

speaks to value of a quality signal coming thru any system.

thankful to youtube efforts.

emergingsoul

... sound quality from youtube music vids is quite impressive when streamed thru Apple TV. Very comparable to streaming thru a nucleus using qobuz...

Really? I had no idea! Youtube has always sounded rather lossy to me. Does Apple TV somehow get a different stream than would otherwise be available?

Really? I had no idea! Youtube has always sounded rather lossy to me. Does Apple TV somehow get a different stream than would otherwise be available?

Are you streaming youtube from a device such as Roku or Amazon firestick?  Like I said before, the youtube app on these really sucks and you get all the "lossy" type of audio and video from this.  Computer web browser is superior, but if you're still getting "lossy" sound, then your computer audio system is not high enough level.

last night, hopping about YouTube, favorite/familiar music videos, Google Chrome browser beat Firefox slightly, the reverse of the prior night’s slight advantage to Firefox.

Sorry, no clues. Things may have changed in the last couple of years. When youtube stopped support for IE 6.0, I had to figure out a new browser. At that time, there was significant difference between the browsers. Maybe Chrome has improved?


SSD – this was just an idea to make the slimline quieter and reduce the computer’s power supply requirements. There may be a little improvement in sound quality because you are removing any electrical noise that hard drive motor, but that may not be noticeable.



CAD AND PHOTO EDITING really don’t require a powerful video card. They mostly depend on memory and cpu. It’s not until you get into stuff like 3D rendering or video editing / rendering or gaming that the video card becomes critical.



DIGITAL MUSIC – I’m not sure what you mean by “Isn’t the AV on the Macintosh motherboard involved?”. He’s just using the screen on the Macintosh to run media player software to “play” his music files or stream from a service such as Pandora. He’s likely doing a digital audio output using USB connection to a DAC.

If so, then no matter what streamer/lack of compression/___? isn’t the quality already set/converted/limited by the motherboard before a separate DAC?

Yes, if he’s streaming from Pandora or iHeartRadio or something, it is likely compressed. If he’s using Tidal, he may be streaming uncompressed and high-resolution audio.

Anything saved on HD is a certain digital quality. Any streaming service software is a certain quality. Still, going thru motherboard’s AV in/out?

You would think this and many still believe that data is data and there’s no difference in digital data between any platform. However, there is significant different in sound quality depending on what device is generating the digital pulses going to the DAC (or the digital pulses through HDMI to your Sony AVR). We get into a big discussion on getting a good clean power supply, circuits that clock the digital signal properly and the transmitter chips that generate the pulses onto the digital cable. There is a LOT of room to improve from a basic Macintosh laptop. Laptop is really not the best option here because it’s using a switching power supply adapter (unless you run it while on battery only). You cannot put in upgraded digital audio cards (such as JCAT USB card or a Pink Faun S/PDIF bridge card).