Despite its name, YouTubes Stats for Nerds feature isnt just for nerds. The option is turned off by default in all YouTube videos, but when enabled, a small window appears over your video with information like current video quality, buffering information, not to mention a bunch of technical mumbo jumbo. That mumbo jumbo, however, can prove to be quite useful.What each stat for nerds actually meansIf you're having a problem with playback on YouTube, or you're just curious about your video's stats, these details can be quite informative. Here's what each one means: Video ID / sCPN: The videos ID in YouTubes database and the code for your specific playback instance.Viewport / Frames: The video players resolution (not the videos resolution) and the current frame youre on.Current / Optimal Res: The videos current resolution versus its original resolution.Volume / Normalized: The current volume of the video youre watching and how much the audio is normalized. Normalization matches louder and quieter parts of the sound more closely to protect the listeners ears and speakers. The parenthesis shows how loud the video is compared to YouTubes baseline.Codecs: The medias video and audio compression codecs.Color: This shows the current color range of the content youre watching.Connection Speed: Your devices network connection. Network Activity: The data transmission from YouTubes servers to your device. The higher a videos resolution, the higher the network activity will be.Buffer Health: How much YouTube is able to buffer the video to avoid playback hitches and dropouts due to poor connection speed.Mystery Text: A long string of text whose meaning is not clear at first. More on this below.Date: The current date and time for the viewer.YouTube doesn't disclose exactly what Mystery Text is, and many have guessed at its meaning. But the top comment on a previous version of this article, posted by Raphael Chalk, broke each section down for the Mystery Text example of s:4 t:1759.84 b:1459.421-1884.549 P pbs:3354:s:4: The stream number or segment number.t:1759.84: The video's current timestamp, in seconds.b:1459.421-1884.549: Denotes the video's buffer range, in seconds. 1459.421 is the beginning of the buffer, while 1884.549 is the end. It shows how much of the video is actually buffered. P: This appears whenever the video is paused.pbs:3354: pbs stands for "Playback Session," and identifies the current session of video playback.Some of this information is neat, but most of it will look like techno gibberish for average users. That doesnt mean it isnt helpful, however. The network information is useful if youre having playback issues and cant pinpoint whats causing it.However, Stats for Nerds main use is for aiding YouTubes engineers with troubleshooting bugs. If you ever encounter YouTube problems like sudden app crashes, slow video buffering, or other issues, snap a screenshot of the Stats for Nerds window and send it to YouTube support with a bug report.How to turn on YouTubes Stats for NerdsStats for Nerds is useful, but finding and turning it on will differ slightly based on the device youre using.Desktop (Windows, Linux, Mac)Open YouTube.com in your browser of choice.Start watching a video.Right-click the video once to open the video menu.Select Stats for Nerds to toggle the overlay.AndroidIn the YouTube app, go to Settings > General > Enable Stats for nerds.Next, play a video.Tap the three-dot More button in the video player.Tap the Stats button. iOS and iPadOSOpen the YouTube appGo to Settings > General.Enable Stats for Nerds.Play a video.Tap the video, then tap settings gear, then tap Additional Settings.Tap Stats for nerds. SmartTVs, gaming consoles, and streaming devicesIn general, toggling Stats for Nerds should work the same on these devices.Open the app on your device.Start a video.Bring up the video playback controls (usually by pressing your remote/controllers default select button).Tab over and select Settings.Scroll over and select Stats for Nerds.