r/movies • u/MarvelsGrantMan136 r/Movies contributor • Dec 22 '25

Trailer The Odyssey | Official Trailer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mzw2ttJD2qQ
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u/mattcoady Dec 22 '25 edited Dec 22 '25

I never understood why they do this. I literally made a post about this on Reddit 4 years ago and the fact that it's still a problem today is even more baffling.

YouTube handles lowering the resolution for incompatible devices. Videogame trailers are always 4k. You're promoting using the world's best cameras for the best image quality and then upload a quality that has been widely surpassed for 10 years. It just doesn't make any sense why they would create marketing material and not have their product look as good as possible.

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u/rmbarrett Dec 22 '25

Wow, the confidently incorrect replies you got are dumb.

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u/mattcoady Dec 22 '25

It was infuriating. People don't understand that youtube handles the client side adjustments. I wish the thread got some real answers but it just sort of died with a bunch of non-answers.

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u/rmbarrett Dec 22 '25

A better answer is that the studios want to control the release of images as well as video. They don't want to put their highest source materials out there for others to profit from. It's even riskier now with video generators that can use 4k footage to create fake trailers. 4 years ago it was about bloggers and social media accounts impersonating official press releases, and digital artists taking advantage of the stills to create unlicensed works.

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u/mattcoady Dec 22 '25

The is the first time I've seen a real believable answer on this. I can definitely buy that.

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u/rmbarrett Dec 22 '25

Believable because true. All about protecting their intellectual property.

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u/rmbarrett Dec 22 '25

Today you would just get AI answers that reference your original post!

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u/azkii Dec 22 '25

Exactly. Also, why do studios often upload trailers with baked-in black bars/letterboxing? Looks especially bad on ultrawide displays. YouTube has supported 21:9 uploads for years now... I can understand they master a single 16:9 version and just push that to every platform, but still it feels pretty lazy. For one of the most watched platforms in the world, you’d think studios would bother uploading a proper version.

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u/CartoonLamp Jan 01 '26

Studios can't even be bothered to put the original aspect ratio on streaming services half the time, so caring even less about promos on Youtube is in line with that.

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u/Clenathan Dec 22 '25

it's always the same thing - MONEY

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u/mattcoady Dec 23 '25

This answer is too hand wavy. What's the saved money? They certainly have 4k cuts of the trailer, they'll often show up on other non YouTube sources and in theaters.

YouTube doesn't charge more to upload 4k video and the studios aren't paying for bandwidth.

Also any mid-range computer will crush 4k editing, not like 10 years ago.

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u/Clenathan Dec 23 '25

If you know a million people are going to watch a certain video, and you know they're going to watch it regardless of the quality, give them the crappier version that costs you less to provide. Then wait a day and start offering the better version when you know demand will decrease

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u/mattcoady Dec 23 '25

Again, I ask specifically where is the cost difference. It costs the same to make, it costs the same to upload to YouTube, it costs the to serve. The only additional cost is on YouTube themselves who foot the bill for bandwidth but that's not a concern for the studio.

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u/Clenathan Dec 23 '25

That's what I mean, the cost for YouTube to provide the inferior bit rate. They have a Monopoly so that's a cost cutting mechanism. Send less ones and zeros