The desktop version of YouTube, the one that loads in your web browser, just received an update which is meant to improve the viewing experience regardless of that size (aspect ratio) each video was recorded at, but not everyone is happy with the changes.

The update announcement was made by Marissa, a community manager on the YouTube Help Forums(Opens in a new window). What YouTube has managed to do is remove the black bars that used to appear alongside non-widescreen and vertical videos. Instead, the video will be enlarged to fill the available space as best possible for 4:3 videos, or in the case of vertical videos specifically where that isn’t possible, there will just be white space either side during playback.

Here’s how YouTube now handles a 4:3 video:

You’ll notice that some of the video is clipped in order to better fill the available space on the page.

YouTube is also enhancing videos that are already in an easy to handle 16:9 aspect ratio by using the available white space on the page. It means the videos may play in a slightly bigger format than you’re used to, but YouTube says this doesn’t impact video quality at all.

The feedback on the forums so far isn’t exactly positive. Some people are complaining that the videos are too big now, or that the full screen option no longer works properly. Others do not enjoy the fact they are losing some of the video in order to fill the available space. They would much rather see all of the video at the smaller size as before as in some cases the video quality is worse because of the zooming effect.

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The automatic video size tweaks have been used for YouTube on Android and iOS for a while, but they make more sense as a compromise on those smaller displays. For desktop users, it makes little sense as we have much larger screens and the option to go full screen or resize the browser to suit.

It looks as though YouTube is simply aligning the viewing experience across mobile and desktop without really considering the downsides. Hopefully the negative feedback opens their eyes to reverting back, or at least giving users the option to turn off the automatic “best viewing experience” tweaks.