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PaperclipPerfector  3mo ago (text post)   2198 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for May 31, 2024

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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What's your preferred video watching speed?

I watch most Russian-speaking youtubers at 2x, with just a few fast talkers getting a 1.75x setting. Most English-speaking youtubers are watchable at 1.5x, the most articulate (or non-native Euro speakers) at 1.75x. This guy, however, takes the cake (pun intended). Somehow I can understand him at 1x, struggle to understand him at 1.25x and at 1.5x I might as well be listening to Prisencolinensinainciusol.

Didn't know you were Russian. I prefer 2x or 1.5x for podcast.

Depends highly on the content, my familiarity with the subject or the language it's in, whether I'm watching it with my wife and various factors relevant to her, and what the purpose of the video is. For example, if it's English and a subject that I'm familiar enough with that I can process most of the information extremely quickly and am only looking to see if there are some nuggets of new ideas, definitely 2x. Though I am always ready to rewind and slow it down if necessary. An example scenario would be that I'm watching a recording of an academic talk in an area that I know pretty well, but BLAM, he starts banging out some chunk of stuff that I haven't really seen before, I'll go back and go through that section slowly.

Wife is a native French speaker, and I'm kinda learning. We watch a few French language channels together, but a nice compromise is that they are subjects that I otherwise know a lot more about than she does. We literally watch some of those on 0.75x. I can't actually tell if they're "fast" talkers relative to some typical rate, because I'm just not good enough at French to know, but slowing it down doesn't mess with the sound of it too badly, helps give me time to comprehend the words, and she's okay with it, because she's pretty new to the content.

Some videos we watch purely to relax before bedtime. Channels are picked appropriately, and they're a smooth, buttery 1x.

2x speed when possible (and I'd probably experiment with a little, but not too much, higher if offered). If they speak too quickly for me to keep up, I'll drop a little to 1.75 or 1.5, or more if needed. I'll drop temporarily and rewatch a portion if something was hard to catch.

But video content feels inefficient, so I try to prefer text, or watching quickly.

People watching videos (at least, ones primarily meant to inform) at 1x speed is kind of crazy to me. How do you sit through that? Why not watch twice as much in that time? At least, for me, 1x speed is, unless there's a very quick speaker, quite a bit slower than what's needed for me to understand—it's at the pace of them speaking, and usually it's faster to understand a sentence than to come up with one. Perhaps that would change if I watched videos on harder to understand topics, like advanced math or something.

I should probably make more use of youtubetranscript.com.

In my case because I'm almost always watch videos in the background and more often than not I already don't have enough to last through the day without repetition.

1x. I tried higher and I didn't like it.

I love speedreading fiction, but when reading I can adjust my pace. If a scene is dense I can take my time, if it's boring, I'll go faster. But that's not possible with videos. So I don't see the point. It's also why I don't like videos except for entertainment.

I hate video info-dumps, but it depends on the video. I could swear that some videos are designed for play at higher speeds, because the people on them talk so slowly and enunciate so well. Others, I can't understand if it's faster than 1.25x or 1.5x. And then there's also the matter of content: if my mind has to engage with what's being presented, that's the limiting factor.

I watch/listen to most videos and podcasts in English at 2x speed, Spanish or Chinese media at 1.5x speed, and any other languages or things I need to pay particular attention to at 1x.

It is downright inhuman to listen at anything other than 1x. Audio is an inherently time-sensitive medium. We evolved to interpret and understand the subtle audio cues in human speech. This includes timing.

I am honestly learning for the first time that people watch videos of people talking at more than 1x speed.

That's nothing. I know a guy who watches movies and TV shows on 2x or more.

2x, because that's the fastest it goes without other extensions (I go to 2.5-3x when a platform supports it). A lot of what I watch could honestly just be blog post + picture, and a lot of people talk very slowly (I'm not convinced that's intentional, but it wouldn't surprise me if it was).

I can't really do that for music channels for obvious reasons, but for anything else, the information density of video is far too low normally.

(I also read extremely quickly by most standards, too, so that might explain some of it. Now if only I could use that power when reading technical documentation...)

If it's not watchable at 1x it's not worth watching.

How do you find so much time to watch videos? Are you just much more patient than I am?

I can't stand watching videos at less than 2x speed and often speed them up to 3x or even 4x.

The problem is that most YouTube videos are poorly scripted, edited, and paced. Watching them at their original speed feels like torture.

I don't feel like I miss anything important. There's no loss in comprehension. And I think that everyone should at the very least try increasing the playback speed. It's really just a matter of getting accustomed to a faster pace. Once you do, you'll never go back.

I would have assumed that a question like this would select for the outliers, people boasting about their content consumption speed. But it seems like I'm the only one here. Anyone else?

How do you find so much time to watch videos you're not enjoying?

Just filling time with slop

This sounds a lot like speed reading. You can increase your reading speed without losing comprehension based on information density. This means a lot of nonfiction books you can speed read because they typically spend 200 pages to convey 1-5 key ideas. But if you were going through a physics textbook, you can speed read all you want but you're not going to retain any information. I guess it depends on what kinds of videos are being watched.

Unlike speed reading, it's not easy to adjust your consumption rate on the fly. I find it very annoying having to rewind the video when watching at faster speeds if I miss something and want to rewatch it. If I feel I need to speed through the video I actually just use the right arrow key to skip a few seconds and read the subtitled text than increase the video speed. I think it really depends on the video. I usually read for knowledge and watch for entertainment, so I don't really increase the video speed because I'm trying to enjoy my time watching the video, not optimize for speed. I read fiction slower, too.

YouTube doesn't have a speed option faster than 2x, so you'd have to go a bit out of your way to get the videos to play faster.

I remember this when looking at my reading speed for various things

Fiction I typically read at 600 words per minute it's really easy to read and you don't need to remember every single sentence.

Textbooks though I'm reading at 100-200 words per minute. Typically every word matters and the information density is often high enough that reading 1 page creates a lot of noteworthy information.

I watch youtube video's with my hands on the J K and L keys and mash J/L to rewatch/skip various bits, and I almost always do 2x speed

While I generally agree with your comment, I think in my own case, 2x speed is usually closer to reading than speedreading, in that I'm still able to follow pretty closely, not merely get it because it's low in information density. It doesn't feel like I'm forcing my brain to comprehend faster, it just feels like I'm causing them to get through what they're saying at a less ponderous speed. Of course, they vary in how information-dense they are, so I will slow down depending on the video.

Generally and with many exceptions: 2x speed for non-fiction that I'm giving my entire attention, 1x if my attention is split (background listening for gaming or chores).

I will unhealthily attempt to maintain that 2x even in situations where constantly pausing and rewinding brings my effective watch speed below 1x.

2x almost all the time, except when it's music, the audio isn't clear (as is the problem with your linked video), or there's onscreen text I can't read fast enough. I also tend to watch movies at 1.5 speed when the platform supports it.

1x. If it's a video I'm actually watching, I want to watch it as intended. If it's a "video" where the point is that people are talking, I have it on in the background while doing something else. With my attention split between the words and the something else, I'll lose track of what's going on if it goes too fast, and I won't get bored at 1x because my attention is already split.

If it's a video that needs to be actually watched and it's too boring at 1x, I'll just stop watching and find something better.

I have watched a few foreigners who speak noticeably slower than usual (Marbozir and Great Scott) at 125-percent speed. But I generally stick to normal speed.

1.25x is fine. Anything more and it begins to sound weird to me. If I’m watching YouTube rather than reading about an issue it’s probably because something about the video or audio presentation is interesting to me, and increasing the speed to 1.5x and beyond kind of defeats the purpose of enjoying that.

In the case of something purely informational like some kind of coding tutorial or software installation troubleshooting I’ll usually skip/scrub through it until I find the part I want, then watch closely and intently at normal speed.

1x. I honestly can't understand people who watch at anything faster, it just seems bizarre to me.

Unless the topic is difficult to parse or the speaker is talking very fast, I get bored very quickly watching a scripted video at x1. It’s actually detrimental for understanding the topic because my mind starts wandering away

I feel like I'm taking crazy pills. Is this how other people have been watching videos all this time?

It depends on the video. Most of the time I'm watching at 1x speed, with a few exceptions, such as a weekly talk show sped up to 1.3x speed, which cuts a 2- to 2.5-hour show to just over an hour.

From podcasts and audiobooks my preferred speed is 1.35x, which makes the speaker sound more energetic and intelligent without becoming artificial or chipmunky. Given Youtube does not allow 0.05x gradations I settle for 1.25x.

The Complete LOADING SCREEN TIPS Ranking in Eu4

I see the Paradox youtuber community is badly in need of that sequel.

I see the Paradox youtuber community is badly in need of that sequel.

EU5 is shaping up to be a very different game from EU4. People love to shit on mana and other gamist mechanics, but I don't know well the simulationist approach of EU5 will work as a game.

Typically 1.75-2x speed, with 1.25-1.5x for very fast speakers with reasonably condensed videos.

Greater than 2x enabled by various browser extentions when "fast-forwarding" or when I failed to resist clickbait but still want to know the proposed answer. I find that at less than 4x I am still able to catch things I would have missed if I just tried to scrub through the video to find what I want.

I watch at 1x but I skip around a lot.

As for the guy you linked, I don't have any issues understanding him at 1.75x but at 2x it gets exhausting. I wouldn't know how that compares to other videos though since I usually only watch in 1x.

Effectively less than 1x speed, because I often pause and take it in, scroll on my phone, look up some obscure detail, or go back in the video/rewind by so many seconds to replay, etc. it’s a slog for me to get through any series.

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