I know memory is fairly cheap but e.g. there are millions of new videos on youtube everyday, each probably few hundred MBs to few GBs. It all has to take enormous amount of space. Not to mention backups.

    • patsharpesmullet@vlemmy.net
      1·
      2 years ago

      That response is almost 10 years old and completely outdated. I’ve designed and maintained a national media service and can confirm that on the fly transcoding is both cheaper and easier. It does make sense to store different formats of videos that are popular at the minute but in the medium to long term streams are transcoded.

      • mangomission@lemm.ee
        1·
        2 years ago

        Sure it’s old but the stats I posted in a lower comment show that at YouTube’s scale, it makes sense to store.

      • mangomission@lemm.ee
        0·
        2 years ago

        Do you have a source? My instinct is the opposite. Compute scales with users but storage scales with videos

        • SHITPOSTING_ACCOUNT@feddit.de
          0·
          2 years ago

          Consider two cases:

          • the most recent MrBeast video receiving millions of views from all kinds of devices (some of which require specific formats)
          • a random video of a cat uploaded 5 years ago, total view count: 3

          Design a system that optimizes for total cost.