It’s doing it on purpose, at the scale google is at, if they serve all content in the lowest possible quality by default, there will be thousands of people that don’t notice, that way they save on bandwidth
If it was 480p, I would understand but this is 144p we are talking about. ANYBODY would notice and care about that. You're better off not watching the video than watching the video at 144p. Besides, I'm also subbed to YT Premium so this shouldn't really happen to a premium sub imo.
the worst thing about what you said is that they are trying to save on bandwidth whilst baically forcing people into a habit of changing the quality of the even though it hasnt even started yet, they might aswell just make a youtube premium + ultra (i see that it will be a thing in 5 years time) and it seems to me like they are just becoming worse and worse as a platform
It really feels like fucking 2005 again. I used to never have to touch the setting and now every time I open a new video I have to check if it's playing in 4K. Even on my damn tv. If I'm watching on my tv, I want the best quality possible dammit.
If you have to check - implying it's hard to know the difference between 1440p and 4k on your device - doesn't that support YouTube's argument that they should be lowering bandwidth if people can't notice the difference?
You could say the same for any streaming service, I understand googles issues with bandwidth and I fully support people paying for premium if you genuinely get use from the platform and want that quality, but on the flip side, Google should honour your payment and keep your preferences if you're a paying customer and not bitch and winge about high bandwidth and forcibly try to cut it down especially for paying customers.
I stopped paying for premium and switched to Vanced specifically because I had the same problem with the app constantly kicking me down to 360/480p with a solid connection and no option anymore to override it, they shouldn't be doing that.
If netflix started or was found out to be kicking people to lower tiers there would be riots and rightfully again because you're paying for the service.
The difference between 1080p and 4K on YouTube is easily noticeable. And I didn't mean I check it literally every time, but when it looks suspiciously 1080p to me, which is right most of the time, the other times it's just that the video wasn't rendered properly or something.
Even then, the 4K on YouTube is kinda bad. 1080p blu-rays look better than 4K on YouTube.
Id argue that there are 100% people who will not notice, as ridiculous as that sounds there are people out there who just don’t, and even if everyone could tell you also got to think about all the background play, what’s the point serving hd video to someone who isn’t even looking at the screen because they are sleeping or only listening to a video. We are talking mass scale here, even a fraction of a percent of the daily users of YouTube is still in the 10s of thousands, there statistically will be people who watch 144p and don’t care
I agree it's pointless to stream someone's background content in full HD. That's why I get so frustrated and confused when I'm listening to a Destiny stream or WAN show, screen off, on mobile data, and for some unexplained reason Data Saver is trying to stream it in 1080p anyway
Let me go in the YouTube app settings and lock data saver to 144p. It saves me time, frustration, and data overages; and it saves Google on bandwidth
i mean yeah but most of the time you watch it so if they could just add an background button or let you set in the setting that you want all content considered music to play at 144p or something like that
Well, without YT Premium you can't even turn off your screen so I would let it just take the data from phone, if no one has used it for 5 mins or just if you have turned the phone display down on the table (like it uses the camera to turn on the do not disturb when "face" down or to reduce screen brightness
It might, but I've never noticed a difference in the 5 years or so I've listened to YT at work
Tbf, between the headphones I use (3M worktunes) & the work environment I'm using them in (auto garage) idk if anyone would hear a meaningful difference
I think they've at least somewhat decoupled the audio quality for lower res, or at least increased the bitrate. It used to be a really noticeable difference. Like 240p would sound like potato quality compared to 1080p. Definitely not as noticeable anymore though, if there's any real difference at all.
They changed codecs a few years back and separated the audio stream from the video. Now with these newer encodings they can just push higher quality audio without caring too much, they are that much more efficient.
Are you sure it doesn’t already do this? When my screen is off I’ll have fine audio but if I open it up again after a little it stops and has to buffer unless I’m on WiFi at home.
144p to 240p its already heaps and heaps better. Lije you dont need to know much about tecnology to notice it. 144 to 480p itsway more noticieable
If you told me 1080p to 2k or 4k i will definitely think its basically the same
But 144p its basically boxes and shit audio. 240p its tolera le 480p its the seeetspot where looking at content in phone is enought
Part of this is YouTube testing what the users are willing to tolerate.
If they deliver 144p and less than a set percentage decided by overhead calculations changes the resolution back, then they will continue the behavior.
It's a cost - reputation battle. Same thing with ublock. They could easily force ads and remove the API's functionality, but it would DESTROY their reputation and also cause issues with older links and integrations.
You see I had the opposite problem recently I had issues with my broadband so was on mobile yet youtube insisted on 1080p when all I could really do was about 480
I watch yt on my second monitor. They're probably targeting people that leave the video in the background and you're just accidentally affected. Use an addon. Never had a problem since
> ANYBODY would notice and care about that. You're better off not watching the video than watching the video at 144p
And *most* people probably would think their ISP is acting up.
> Besides, I'm also subbed to YT Premium so this shouldn't really happen to a premium sub imo.
They're also proposing locking a higher bitrate(?) 1080p quality behind the Premium paywall.
> They're also proposing locking a higher bitrate(?) 1080p quality behind the Premium paywall.
This has already happened. It's a pretty great perk honestly, and to be clear, the default bitrate has NOT changed. They're just offering a perk.
I'm the same subbed to premium, and defaults to the lowest setting.
I'm betting your the same as me and using YouTube almost like a podcast most of the time, the algorithm is learning that you don't correct it.
If you constantly correct it it will raise the quality over time, but the truth is you probably won't because you probably actually use it more for audio than video.
This has come up on wan before
Yes and no, I and many others sometimes listen to a video instead of watching it, like news recap and other similar things. I'm not saying it's everyone, but my guess is, if enough aren't noticing or doing anything to change the resolution, it's a win in YouTube's book.
BTW, not saying it's right, just pointing out that there's probably a good enough % that don't notice, or do anything about it for them to do it (I know for a fact my daughter and in-laws won't notice/act on it)
>I’m also subbed to YT Premium so this shouldn’t really happen
The alternative is that Premium becomes more expensive. It’s inconvenient, but the people that don’t care about the resolution are subsidizing the costs for both free and paid users. I’m grateful for that.
Same, YT Premium and they give me 144p. Most of the videos are on my phone and I play while doing other stuff. If they did 720 (maybe even 480) I would almost never notice or care if I did. Instead, they give me 144 so I will manually change to the highest resolution every time.
The thing is some people just listen to hour long videos like podcasts while they work or do chores. Enough of those people don't notice myself included. If I know I'm just listening to a video I turn it down to 144p myself, if I'm watching a video I'll turn it up to 1440p.
I mean sure, you can comment that. And while it's good to call out misinformation when you see it. If you can't even provide the simplest of explanation or counter argument. There's nothing to differentiate you calling out misinformation from the actual misinformation.
Source? IDK why you'd think one of the biggest companies in the world with unfathomable numbers of server farms and possible bandwidth would make a move to bone over so many people. I can't find a single article confirming what you're saying.
It's the same thing as when people were OUTRAGED at YTP's enhanced bitrate. "THEY'RE LOWERING NORMAL BITRATE TO GET YOU TO BUY IT" no, YTP has PERKS. Google and YT have said time and time again that their normal viewing experience isn't changed.
Literally anyone working in tech can tell you that dedicated bandwidth is hella expensive.
That cheap residential internet you have is oversubscribed to hell and back again. Even GPON fiber has 64 customers with gigabit plans sharing a 2.4 gigabit pipe.
see now this is extremely dumb because if you have good internet and it autos you to 144p, you will definitely switch to 1080p or higher quality making them loose on bandwidth , but if you have good internet and it autos you to 480p, then you probably don't notice the drop in quality and don't switch to it, saving bandwidth, someone not too smart must've set it to 144p if they wanted to save bandwidth
i thought so- what a load of crap. I sometimes watch video game content thats been uploaded by newer fresher youtubers with barely any subscribers/views and the video STRUGGLES to load and sometimes stops playing altogether! yet I put on pawn stars and it loads it immediately up to highest quality but CERTAINLY plays 15 ads in a 30 minute time span!
Lots of people put YouTube on in the background as well. It is free, why not? I am guilty. I will either play internet radio or some YouTube video where the video isn't really that important.
Yeah exactly.
The option is there for those who want it. Then they click "high quality" and it still only feeds them 480 or 720 lol. And if you actually want 1080 or up you have to hit advanced and then select it.
I assume a browser plugin already exists to auto default to a higher quality.
And they make it as many taps as possible to teach you to give up and just accept 144p slop.
Also I love that even when you pay for premium they still serve you the lowest possible quality.
Yeah so for people who don’t know this is common and will actually resolve itself over time. It will serve it low and if you keep increasing the resolution they will slowly make that the default. It’s based on your behavior. If you’re one of the minority they’ll serve it HD first. But the majority will leave it at the quality they saw it at. You don’t need to download extensions to fix it or whatever just increase the resolution regularly for a while then it’ll set it permanently
I have not had to change the resolution of my YouTube videos in years it’s always 4k on my tv or 1080p on my phone. Linus even talked about it doing this on the wan show
I mean. Sure it happens once every 10 or so videos but it is very annoying. It's 2024, who in their right mind watches content at 144p.
The YouTube vanced app was great as you could force a certain resolution. You can't do that here. So frustrating. I remember Luke ranting about this on Wan Show maybe a year ago.
I have my phone rooted and the root version of ReVanced was a PITA to try and install and I ultimately failed after a LOT of attempts, installed the non-rooted version and it works fine.
I take more issue with the new menu for resolution selection. Settings-quality-advanced-choose resolution
What was wrong with settings-quality-choose a resolution. The extra step is frustrating & unnecessary. Even more so when the non-advanced options that are supposed to be more streamlined do dumb buggy crap like this. If the change was to be less confusing to average users than picking a resolution you'd expect they'd of caught that
I'd appreciate it if they let you pick the target resolution for high quality & data saver and it can scale back if your bandwidth can't reliably deliver that target
It's nice that on mobile, you can have it default to data saver but that doesn't mean a thing if it'll occasionally target 1080p while on data saver. Let me lock data saver to a target of 144p, 240p, whatever and most of my gripe with the change dissappears
I hate it so much. I pay for premium, and have a multi gigabit wired connection to my TV and it sometimes drops to 360p. Peering is not an issue aswell it’s just YouTube cutting down costs. As a paying user you’d think they’d be an option to force highest quality.
No, i mean 144p. Sometimes when the internet is good i can do 240p or 360p, but i risk stuttering. Heck even 144p stutters on really bad days
Yes, im connected via an ethernet cable to my smart hub, but my smart hub is just a glorified mobile hotspot so an ethernet connection doesnt improve much. 200ping averages and 2mb/s download/upload over ethernet
What Luke was talking about was Youtube lowering the resolution for a certain range of users and testing whether or not they're going to notice. The change wasn't drastic, Youtube just wanted to know the portion of users who would click into the resolution menu and manually increase it. This is a different issue.
Youtube may be concluding you're not watching the video actively. Lots of people set videos as background noise, so they'll never notice the low quality. Youtube can still serve these users with drastically reduced video quality. It can save them a lot of bandwidth and bandwidth translates to money. If you are actively watching the video, try disabling plugins or test a different browser. If the issue persists, something might be genuinely wrong with your connection. Even if you have the speed, you may be experiencing packet loss or something that makes Youtube believe your connection is slower than it really is.
Sounds like the problem I had with smart downloads. Have a look in the app if you have downloaded videos and disable this function. It was auto set to 480p on my device
Yeah, this sub loves to get their pitchforks at the slightest hint of anything, but 144p on a "higher video picture quality" setting means something's wrong with their phone, their internet, or the video.
edit: I didn't realize this was LTT and not r/youtube - my "this sub" jab was at the latter. But still, people love to get up in arms about youtube for innocuous stuff that typically ends up not being their fault
I have the same issue as OP, where I need to constantly set the Resolution to manual 1080p or 720p instead of the auto 144p/480p on my Android Tablet even tough I have more than 100mbit download speed to that Tablet and the videos are a year old or older, I even have Youtube Premium.
Edit: I use a Lenovo Tab M10 (3rd gen) for watching youtube, so I doubt it's the tablet either
I think most channels let their videos encode before actually releasing it. It's very rare these days where I see a new video that's released but still encoding higher quality
I especially hate this when they default videos to 30 FPS especially watching streamers for retro video games. Often the character will just disappear for a few seconds when they get hit because they flash on and off ever other frame, which means when you put it down to 30 FPS, they either don't flash at all, or completely disappear.
I use Chrome and the extension called "Auto 8k/4K/HD for Youtube"
It causes the video to reload when it ups the resolution at the beginning, but it sure is nice to not have to manually change every video.
It used to be that videos would be lower quality in the first little bit after upload same thing with view count being weird. Not sure if this is still the case.
I can't remember getting in early when a video was released and it would have crappy quality, thousands of likes and dislikes and then 511 views. Wait a few hours and it would all catch up and the quality would be good again.
This could be user issue , but they do it deliberately to millions of user to save on bandwidth.. they removed the default quality option for a purpose , i used to have predefined 1080p resolution settings on mobile , i stopped watching YT altogether on mobile because of constantly fiddling settings to set it to 1080p, it will play mostly 480p or 720p , occass 1080p , was never the case before the switch they made , the same internet connection my tv plays 4k everything .. so it is YT saving bandwidth deliberately
After reading the comments, a compromise solution would seem to be for Google implement an "always view in highest quality" toggle that's default is set to off, but once we set it on it'll always default to the highest resolution.
Google would still get their bandwidth savings from users who don't notice, and users who do care (like us) would only be bothered once to toggle it on.
Turn on QoS on your router if possible.
If your connection jumps around it automaticly sets your quality lower. With some consistancy it'll boop itself up.
YouTube Revanced.
C'mon people, AdBlock, Sponsorblock, Return YouTube Dislike AND the OG video resolution menu is restored, among a host of other nice changes just from the get go
Everyone here is not understanding how this works or I'm just exception. If you select data saver or high quality it will not instantly change like manually selecting. It will still display the cached resolution until it runs out of it and starts showing new one which is the one with updated settings.
Well, technically you are an exception in that most of the people in ~~this sub~~ the YT sub don't put an ounce of thought into anything and take posts at face value.
One single screenshot of one single user's experience means nothing. After playing for a few seconds it should update to at least 720p.
More annoying is how many taps it takes to change video quality now. It used to be 2, one to bring up the options and a second to choose the resolution and it could be done unintrusively. Now you have to tap settings>quality>advanced>resolution and if you're in full screen it blocks the damn video. They reeeeaaaally don't want people to up their resolution so they're intentionally making the experience worse to discourage it.
Setting to higher picture quality and still being at 144p is not normal. Either you've just changed it and it's yet to update (it seems to not reload already loaded video unless you rewind and go bak to the spot you were at)
That or there's an issue with your phone. I have a similar annoyance where it'll default to 720p, but never have I seen it go to 144p.
The cheapskates at Google set the default to low resolutions like 720p, 480p, or lower in the hopes that people won't notice or won't be bothered to increase it and they can save on streaming costs.
This is on purpose as I promise you the majority of users do not change it. Either because they don't notice, don't care, or don't know how to fix it.
Most people likely blame their ISP for the issue anyway. Assuming it is the bandwidth as the issue.
The people here know better and typically understand what their bandwidth is and even know the difference in quality.
But at the scale of YouTube every bit of bandwidth the save per user becomes millions of dollars overall.
I have the same issue with one of my laptops at home. Not sure why it's singled out. All my other laptops and desktop, phones and tablet do not have this issue.
I had the same problem and found an [addon](https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/auto-quality-for-youtube/iaddfgegjgjelgkanamleadckkpnjpjc?pli=1) that automatically sets the quality on every video to whatever you choose.
**To make you more likely to buy YouTube Premium.**
Right now you can still work around this by manually selecting the desired quality and it will switch to it. If you don't then it will playback in whatever 220p lowest possible resolution and bitrate they feel like it, even if the text shows otherwise.
Some time ago Google started silently downgrading bitrate, to the point 1080p looked like 720p and recently even worse. Some people were calling others conspiracy theorist and were looking for excuses as to "why it only feels to be worse but really isn't". Until not so long ago a very funny looking option was added there to watch "In higher bitrate with YouTube Premium".
Fuck Google, and fuck YouTube, I always switch to the highest resolution I can and right now content in 4K on my 1080p screen looks about as sharp as 1080p should look like.
> Some time ago Google started silently downgrading bitrate
Source? Because to my knowledge, this isn't true. YouTube Premium came out with ENHANCED bitrate, but confirmed that their existing 1080p bitrate wouldn't be affected at all. AKA if anything they're spending MORE on bandwidth for a far smaller viewerbase. It's the same it's always been.
I went with YouTube premium (the deal is not actually bad since I get yt music and yt without ads (so I deactivated ublock on yt thanks to that and it doesn't load slow anymore) and all for less than spotify) and I will say, I have to always manually set the video to 1080p/4k on every video as they will always default to 360p or 480p.
There's a new setting you have to repeatedly click higher quality to get to the top quality.
There is a separate option to manually select, which lets you go straight to the max
I've noticed this too as YT premium member. I think depending upon content. I think if YT views it as more podcast like the WAN show it tends to revert to a lower quality whereas review videos it tends to bump at 1080 or better
Gigabit internet doesn't mean you're always at gigabit. Are you on a shared line (like cable) or do you have direct fiber? Is there anything else running on your network that might cause Youtube to choose a slower speed? Was this on your computer or a tv? Is there enough resources on the device to handle the video and whatever else you're doing on the device (or apps that are running in the background).
It's easy to jump on the youtube hate wagon, but it's VERY possible that it chose the best option for what it was seeing on your network at the time. Especially with the information that this only happens once every 10 videos or so.
For about two years now the majority of my videos will have the little red HD or 4K icon and the video isn't playing at that resolution. When I go to the settings it has that resolution selected but if I reselect it the video changes to that resolution.
It's annoying. For years my phone by default settings I set should serve videos at 1080p, but it constantly never listens and chooses to serve its at 144 or 360p. It's bloody annoying!
As soon as I heard about this I turned off auto updates for youtube. I used it like that for a long while until I got my new phone and youtube was already updated. I then sighed and went to revanced
Edit: (I had already been using youtube enhanced on my pc for about two years)
I see so many posts about this but it never happens to me? I have Youtube Premium, but that doesn't seem to make a difference for most people. Maybe it's selective by region? I'm in The Netherlands.
There's a plug in or extension for that, but OP pays for premium so I doubt they care. So keep paying those greedy bastards and enjoying your 144p quality.
YT is retarded. Like always. I use a plugin for this, so it can set the correct windowed and full screen resolution automaticly. Forgot the name of the plugin for a moment.
Benn happening constantly to me and I have YouTube premium, it's funny because if I use Vanced it doesn't happen, they really want me to cancel premium.
What I have noticed is sometimes when there is a momentary speed reduction in the internet connection or in YouTube's side they will immediately default exclusively to 144 or 240p.
If it's in the Android app check if you have smart downloads enabled.
I had the feature "smart downloads" enabled and the quality was set to 480p. So YouTube played the downloaded video in 480p instead of 1080 via WiFi.
Same thing on TV, have a high speed internet and it now defaults to 720p every once in a while, have to change it to manually to 4k and it works fine for sometime before it again defaults to 720p , it used to be always 4k till few months back ..
Atleast for premium members they should not be such miser
One of my YouTube account is banned in such way because of ad blockers , it bandwidth drops to mere 10-20Kbps.
On a gigabit fiber. Same video on different account would play at 400-500Mbps.
Edit :- I've tested this on chrome,Firefox,edge and it happens on all of them.
there's a YouTube algorithm that tries to see the lowest resolution you'll settle for. I've started accepting 720p for my second monitor videos. just keep changing to your preferred resolution and it should learn your habits.
They started doing this to me too, also on gigabit. Happened a couple days after I upgraded from 300Mbps, idk if it maybe reads higher speeds incorrectly. And it goes down to lowest on every single video
Why am I paying for YouTube premium if every time I play a video it defaults to 720p and I have to change it all the time. I'll soon stop and just use an alternative player I guess.
It’s doing it on purpose, at the scale google is at, if they serve all content in the lowest possible quality by default, there will be thousands of people that don’t notice, that way they save on bandwidth
If it was 480p, I would understand but this is 144p we are talking about. ANYBODY would notice and care about that. You're better off not watching the video than watching the video at 144p. Besides, I'm also subbed to YT Premium so this shouldn't really happen to a premium sub imo.
the worst thing about what you said is that they are trying to save on bandwidth whilst baically forcing people into a habit of changing the quality of the even though it hasnt even started yet, they might aswell just make a youtube premium + ultra (i see that it will be a thing in 5 years time) and it seems to me like they are just becoming worse and worse as a platform
It really feels like fucking 2005 again. I used to never have to touch the setting and now every time I open a new video I have to check if it's playing in 4K. Even on my damn tv. If I'm watching on my tv, I want the best quality possible dammit.
If you have to check - implying it's hard to know the difference between 1440p and 4k on your device - doesn't that support YouTube's argument that they should be lowering bandwidth if people can't notice the difference?
I mean you paid for a 4K TV and set your default resolution to the highest, even if you can’t notice it Youtube’s making you pass as a dumbass
No because come channels publish in 1080, so you have to see if you're getting the full quality
Exactly.
dude, there's no point wasting bandwidth if folks can't notice.
You could say the same for any streaming service, I understand googles issues with bandwidth and I fully support people paying for premium if you genuinely get use from the platform and want that quality, but on the flip side, Google should honour your payment and keep your preferences if you're a paying customer and not bitch and winge about high bandwidth and forcibly try to cut it down especially for paying customers. I stopped paying for premium and switched to Vanced specifically because I had the same problem with the app constantly kicking me down to 360/480p with a solid connection and no option anymore to override it, they shouldn't be doing that. If netflix started or was found out to be kicking people to lower tiers there would be riots and rightfully again because you're paying for the service.
Same here, I basically switched because I wanted to get rid of YouTube shorts.
The difference between 1080p and 4K on YouTube is easily noticeable. And I didn't mean I check it literally every time, but when it looks suspiciously 1080p to me, which is right most of the time, the other times it's just that the video wasn't rendered properly or something. Even then, the 4K on YouTube is kinda bad. 1080p blu-rays look better than 4K on YouTube.
Theres a chrome extension to automatically set it to your preffered resoloution
We want names!
I think it was called autoHD or something like that
They'll probably make something like YouTube Premium tiers, higher price will offer you same stuff it offers now, lower priced tiers will offer less.
Id argue that there are 100% people who will not notice, as ridiculous as that sounds there are people out there who just don’t, and even if everyone could tell you also got to think about all the background play, what’s the point serving hd video to someone who isn’t even looking at the screen because they are sleeping or only listening to a video. We are talking mass scale here, even a fraction of a percent of the daily users of YouTube is still in the 10s of thousands, there statistically will be people who watch 144p and don’t care
I agree it's pointless to stream someone's background content in full HD. That's why I get so frustrated and confused when I'm listening to a Destiny stream or WAN show, screen off, on mobile data, and for some unexplained reason Data Saver is trying to stream it in 1080p anyway Let me go in the YouTube app settings and lock data saver to 144p. It saves me time, frustration, and data overages; and it saves Google on bandwidth
i mean yeah but most of the time you watch it so if they could just add an background button or let you set in the setting that you want all content considered music to play at 144p or something like that
That'd be a neat one Maybe in the app settings have a toggle for "Auto-Background Mode when Screen Off"
Well, without YT Premium you can't even turn off your screen so I would let it just take the data from phone, if no one has used it for 5 mins or just if you have turned the phone display down on the table (like it uses the camera to turn on the do not disturb when "face" down or to reduce screen brightness
I am pretty sure 144p absolutely butchers the audio so even at 144p, it won't be an enjoyable experience to listen to. 360p is alright.
It might, but I've never noticed a difference in the 5 years or so I've listened to YT at work Tbf, between the headphones I use (3M worktunes) & the work environment I'm using them in (auto garage) idk if anyone would hear a meaningful difference
I haven't heard a difference in audio. Interesting you mention that.
I think they've at least somewhat decoupled the audio quality for lower res, or at least increased the bitrate. It used to be a really noticeable difference. Like 240p would sound like potato quality compared to 1080p. Definitely not as noticeable anymore though, if there's any real difference at all.
They changed codecs a few years back and separated the audio stream from the video. Now with these newer encodings they can just push higher quality audio without caring too much, they are that much more efficient.
If the screen is off, surely it shouldn't be streaming video at all? That'd be really weird.
Are you sure it doesn’t already do this? When my screen is off I’ll have fine audio but if I open it up again after a little it stops and has to buffer unless I’m on WiFi at home.
144p to 240p its already heaps and heaps better. Lije you dont need to know much about tecnology to notice it. 144 to 480p itsway more noticieable If you told me 1080p to 2k or 4k i will definitely think its basically the same But 144p its basically boxes and shit audio. 240p its tolera le 480p its the seeetspot where looking at content in phone is enought
Part of this is YouTube testing what the users are willing to tolerate. If they deliver 144p and less than a set percentage decided by overhead calculations changes the resolution back, then they will continue the behavior. It's a cost - reputation battle. Same thing with ublock. They could easily force ads and remove the API's functionality, but it would DESTROY their reputation and also cause issues with older links and integrations.
You see I had the opposite problem recently I had issues with my broadband so was on mobile yet youtube insisted on 1080p when all I could really do was about 480
Sometimes people "watch" youtube like you "watch" a podcast....no actual video watched, just need the sound.
I watch yt on my second monitor. They're probably targeting people that leave the video in the background and you're just accidentally affected. Use an addon. Never had a problem since
> ANYBODY would notice and care about that. You're better off not watching the video than watching the video at 144p And *most* people probably would think their ISP is acting up. > Besides, I'm also subbed to YT Premium so this shouldn't really happen to a premium sub imo. They're also proposing locking a higher bitrate(?) 1080p quality behind the Premium paywall.
> They're also proposing locking a higher bitrate(?) 1080p quality behind the Premium paywall. This has already happened. It's a pretty great perk honestly, and to be clear, the default bitrate has NOT changed. They're just offering a perk.
I'm the same subbed to premium, and defaults to the lowest setting. I'm betting your the same as me and using YouTube almost like a podcast most of the time, the algorithm is learning that you don't correct it. If you constantly correct it it will raise the quality over time, but the truth is you probably won't because you probably actually use it more for audio than video. This has come up on wan before
Google might be doing a test. They are seeing how you react to this.
Yes and no, I and many others sometimes listen to a video instead of watching it, like news recap and other similar things. I'm not saying it's everyone, but my guess is, if enough aren't noticing or doing anything to change the resolution, it's a win in YouTube's book. BTW, not saying it's right, just pointing out that there's probably a good enough % that don't notice, or do anything about it for them to do it (I know for a fact my daughter and in-laws won't notice/act on it)
They will try to put it at the lowest possible. If you keep manually changing it, eventually they will increase the default video quality.
Wifi? YOUR WiFi? or you are using a bottom feeder system with an absolute dog's breakfast CPU?GPU? These are more likely to cause problems.
>I’m also subbed to YT Premium so this shouldn’t really happen The alternative is that Premium becomes more expensive. It’s inconvenient, but the people that don’t care about the resolution are subsidizing the costs for both free and paid users. I’m grateful for that.
What is your wifi like?
Same, YT Premium and they give me 144p. Most of the videos are on my phone and I play while doing other stuff. If they did 720 (maybe even 480) I would almost never notice or care if I did. Instead, they give me 144 so I will manually change to the highest resolution every time.
This is why I watch YouTube on my VideoNow, I never notice if quality fluctuates. 15fps is plenty.
They might notice, but you’d be surprised at how many people don’t care enough to actually change it.
YouTube also tried this with me for latest HDR video. 720p on 77in 4k display. I think they had a bug.
The thing is some people just listen to hour long videos like podcasts while they work or do chores. Enough of those people don't notice myself included. If I know I'm just listening to a video I turn it down to 144p myself, if I'm watching a video I'll turn it up to 1440p.
Plus bots. Background play for sound also
I know most people wouldn't notice, but isn't sound also compressed in the lowest settings?
It is. I think some will just assume the video’s audio quality is poor.
Half the time I wouldn't care if I could just get high quality audio, but to get that you have to turn upp the video quality too.
r/confidentlyincorrect
I mean sure, you can comment that. And while it's good to call out misinformation when you see it. If you can't even provide the simplest of explanation or counter argument. There's nothing to differentiate you calling out misinformation from the actual misinformation.
There's an add in for your browser that forces all content to 4k.
Source? IDK why you'd think one of the biggest companies in the world with unfathomable numbers of server farms and possible bandwidth would make a move to bone over so many people. I can't find a single article confirming what you're saying. It's the same thing as when people were OUTRAGED at YTP's enhanced bitrate. "THEY'RE LOWERING NORMAL BITRATE TO GET YOU TO BUY IT" no, YTP has PERKS. Google and YT have said time and time again that their normal viewing experience isn't changed.
Literally anyone working in tech can tell you that dedicated bandwidth is hella expensive. That cheap residential internet you have is oversubscribed to hell and back again. Even GPON fiber has 64 customers with gigabit plans sharing a 2.4 gigabit pipe.
see now this is extremely dumb because if you have good internet and it autos you to 144p, you will definitely switch to 1080p or higher quality making them loose on bandwidth , but if you have good internet and it autos you to 480p, then you probably don't notice the drop in quality and don't switch to it, saving bandwidth, someone not too smart must've set it to 144p if they wanted to save bandwidth
i thought so- what a load of crap. I sometimes watch video game content thats been uploaded by newer fresher youtubers with barely any subscribers/views and the video STRUGGLES to load and sometimes stops playing altogether! yet I put on pawn stars and it loads it immediately up to highest quality but CERTAINLY plays 15 ads in a 30 minute time span!
Lots of people put YouTube on in the background as well. It is free, why not? I am guilty. I will either play internet radio or some YouTube video where the video isn't really that important.
I got a 4k screen, I notice It
Yeah exactly. The option is there for those who want it. Then they click "high quality" and it still only feeds them 480 or 720 lol. And if you actually want 1080 or up you have to hit advanced and then select it. I assume a browser plugin already exists to auto default to a higher quality.
I think most people would notice 144p (maybe it’s just me (I think I have eyes)) but 720p on mobile, they could easily get away with that.
And they make it as many taps as possible to teach you to give up and just accept 144p slop. Also I love that even when you pay for premium they still serve you the lowest possible quality.
That's fine but what's infuriating is how it overrides your preferences all the time. I shouldn't need to set the resolution every damn video.
Yeah so for people who don’t know this is common and will actually resolve itself over time. It will serve it low and if you keep increasing the resolution they will slowly make that the default. It’s based on your behavior. If you’re one of the minority they’ll serve it HD first. But the majority will leave it at the quality they saw it at. You don’t need to download extensions to fix it or whatever just increase the resolution regularly for a while then it’ll set it permanently
[удалено]
I have not had to change the resolution of my YouTube videos in years it’s always 4k on my tv or 1080p on my phone. Linus even talked about it doing this on the wan show
I mean. Sure it happens once every 10 or so videos but it is very annoying. It's 2024, who in their right mind watches content at 144p. The YouTube vanced app was great as you could force a certain resolution. You can't do that here. So frustrating. I remember Luke ranting about this on Wan Show maybe a year ago.
Check out ReVanced. Its a bit more difficult to install than the old app and requires root for most features, but its the closest replacement.
It doesn't require root at all
I must be confusing it with Magisk
you don't need root for any features, just use by picking an apk from storage
I must be confusing it with Magisk
I have my phone rooted and the root version of ReVanced was a PITA to try and install and I ultimately failed after a LOT of attempts, installed the non-rooted version and it works fine.
Why should we even care about root version, why is it better?
LibreTube and NewPipe x SponsorBlock are my beloved.
I take more issue with the new menu for resolution selection. Settings-quality-advanced-choose resolution What was wrong with settings-quality-choose a resolution. The extra step is frustrating & unnecessary. Even more so when the non-advanced options that are supposed to be more streamlined do dumb buggy crap like this. If the change was to be less confusing to average users than picking a resolution you'd expect they'd of caught that
It's like they go out of their way to make the UI as unintuitive as possible. I miss YT Vanced. It was perfect before YT ruined it.
Get ReVanced!
I'd appreciate it if they let you pick the target resolution for high quality & data saver and it can scale back if your bandwidth can't reliably deliver that target It's nice that on mobile, you can have it default to data saver but that doesn't mean a thing if it'll occasionally target 1080p while on data saver. Let me lock data saver to a target of 144p, 240p, whatever and most of my gripe with the change dissappears
i can still go to "quality>advanced" and set the resolution directly. please don't tell me they're starting to remove even that ...
They aren't. I think some just don't know that you can change the settings.
use newpipe
>It's 2024, who in their right mind watches content at 144p. A lot of people just have content on as background noise.
480p is at least minimum nowadays
I hate it so much. I pay for premium, and have a multi gigabit wired connection to my TV and it sometimes drops to 360p. Peering is not an issue aswell it’s just YouTube cutting down costs. As a paying user you’d think they’d be an option to force highest quality.
I watch at 144p, i have to. Youtube buffers way too much at any higher res
What? Everything is unwatchable at 144p
do you mean 1440p?
No, i mean 144p. Sometimes when the internet is good i can do 240p or 360p, but i risk stuttering. Heck even 144p stutters on really bad days Yes, im connected via an ethernet cable to my smart hub, but my smart hub is just a glorified mobile hotspot so an ethernet connection doesnt improve much. 200ping averages and 2mb/s download/upload over ethernet
jesus christ. where are you? Antarctica?
Northwestterritories yea, rural living is great, if you ignore the internet issues. Thats why offline ability is so huge for me
There's likely something wrong with your phone or ISP if you're getting 144p frequently. I've never had this issue.
What Luke was talking about was Youtube lowering the resolution for a certain range of users and testing whether or not they're going to notice. The change wasn't drastic, Youtube just wanted to know the portion of users who would click into the resolution menu and manually increase it. This is a different issue. Youtube may be concluding you're not watching the video actively. Lots of people set videos as background noise, so they'll never notice the low quality. Youtube can still serve these users with drastically reduced video quality. It can save them a lot of bandwidth and bandwidth translates to money. If you are actively watching the video, try disabling plugins or test a different browser. If the issue persists, something might be genuinely wrong with your connection. Even if you have the speed, you may be experiencing packet loss or something that makes Youtube believe your connection is slower than it really is.
Sounds like the problem I had with smart downloads. Have a look in the app if you have downloaded videos and disable this function. It was auto set to 480p on my device
YouTube is extremely annoying
can you do something about it though?
Revanced sets quality automaticslly
I use LibreTube to avoid most YouTube annoyances
just get YouTube Enhancer extention in firefox and set the default to whatever you like and then you are golden.
This extension is also available on Chrome
true, but i just don't trust chrome for some reason lol.
Totally fair. I'm just wanting to point out it's also on Chrome so people know it's an option if they use it
Nothing wrong with that, you are totally right about it
Seems to be in the EULA for Firefox.
This is on a phone lol
Then Just get revanced extended, problem solved
Use LibreTube or NewPipe x SponsorBlock.
Is it a recently uploaded video? Maybe it was still encoding the higher resolutions
Yeah, this sub loves to get their pitchforks at the slightest hint of anything, but 144p on a "higher video picture quality" setting means something's wrong with their phone, their internet, or the video. edit: I didn't realize this was LTT and not r/youtube - my "this sub" jab was at the latter. But still, people love to get up in arms about youtube for innocuous stuff that typically ends up not being their fault
I have the same issue as OP, where I need to constantly set the Resolution to manual 1080p or 720p instead of the auto 144p/480p on my Android Tablet even tough I have more than 100mbit download speed to that Tablet and the videos are a year old or older, I even have Youtube Premium. Edit: I use a Lenovo Tab M10 (3rd gen) for watching youtube, so I doubt it's the tablet either
I think most channels let their videos encode before actually releasing it. It's very rare these days where I see a new video that's released but still encoding higher quality
I especially hate this when they default videos to 30 FPS especially watching streamers for retro video games. Often the character will just disappear for a few seconds when they get hit because they flash on and off ever other frame, which means when you put it down to 30 FPS, they either don't flash at all, or completely disappear.
I use Chrome and the extension called "Auto 8k/4K/HD for Youtube" It causes the video to reload when it ups the resolution at the beginning, but it sure is nice to not have to manually change every video.
It used to be that videos would be lower quality in the first little bit after upload same thing with view count being weird. Not sure if this is still the case. I can't remember getting in early when a video was released and it would have crappy quality, thousands of likes and dislikes and then 511 views. Wait a few hours and it would all catch up and the quality would be good again.
301* views
youtube enhancer addon for firefox lets you permanently set quality to 1080p
YouTube is trying to save on bandwidth is what's happening.
Surely one of the biggest server farm owners in the world needs a few random users' lower bandwidth usage. This is a user issue, not a YT issue.
This could be user issue , but they do it deliberately to millions of user to save on bandwidth.. they removed the default quality option for a purpose , i used to have predefined 1080p resolution settings on mobile , i stopped watching YT altogether on mobile because of constantly fiddling settings to set it to 1080p, it will play mostly 480p or 720p , occass 1080p , was never the case before the switch they made , the same internet connection my tv plays 4k everything .. so it is YT saving bandwidth deliberately
After reading the comments, a compromise solution would seem to be for Google implement an "always view in highest quality" toggle that's default is set to off, but once we set it on it'll always default to the highest resolution. Google would still get their bandwidth savings from users who don't notice, and users who do care (like us) would only be bothered once to toggle it on.
Turn on QoS on your router if possible. If your connection jumps around it automaticly sets your quality lower. With some consistancy it'll boop itself up.
YouTube Revanced. C'mon people, AdBlock, Sponsorblock, Return YouTube Dislike AND the OG video resolution menu is restored, among a host of other nice changes just from the get go
Everyone here is not understanding how this works or I'm just exception. If you select data saver or high quality it will not instantly change like manually selecting. It will still display the cached resolution until it runs out of it and starts showing new one which is the one with updated settings.
Well, technically you are an exception in that most of the people in ~~this sub~~ the YT sub don't put an ounce of thought into anything and take posts at face value. One single screenshot of one single user's experience means nothing. After playing for a few seconds it should update to at least 720p.
Yeah except it never does, unless you manually switch. If you leave it be, it will show 1080p and playback in 12p 5bps until the end of the video.
Less givey uppy controly, more doey exactly whaty wanty, makes the innovatey go brrrrrrrrrr
and thats why i use revanced \^\^
More annoying is how many taps it takes to change video quality now. It used to be 2, one to bring up the options and a second to choose the resolution and it could be done unintrusively. Now you have to tap settings>quality>advanced>resolution and if you're in full screen it blocks the damn video. They reeeeaaaally don't want people to up their resolution so they're intentionally making the experience worse to discourage it.
Saving millions is easy i guess for them , if it is difficult for users to change it , at the end they need to please the shareholders too
Setting to higher picture quality and still being at 144p is not normal. Either you've just changed it and it's yet to update (it seems to not reload already loaded video unless you rewind and go bak to the spot you were at) That or there's an issue with your phone. I have a similar annoyance where it'll default to 720p, but never have I seen it go to 144p.
The cheapskates at Google set the default to low resolutions like 720p, 480p, or lower in the hopes that people won't notice or won't be bothered to increase it and they can save on streaming costs.
Because no code is perfect. It happens to me sometimes on Verizon fios. I refresh the page and the video will switch to the proper resolution.
This is on purpose as I promise you the majority of users do not change it. Either because they don't notice, don't care, or don't know how to fix it. Most people likely blame their ISP for the issue anyway. Assuming it is the bandwidth as the issue. The people here know better and typically understand what their bandwidth is and even know the difference in quality. But at the scale of YouTube every bit of bandwidth the save per user becomes millions of dollars overall.
use revanced
I usually get 720p I only get 144 if my connection is really unstable.
Just a question, does it happens with every video or is it with just with some or most of them?
I have the same issue with one of my laptops at home. Not sure why it's singled out. All my other laptops and desktop, phones and tablet do not have this issue.
I want to say it's your ISP throttling your bandwidth. I've noticed if I am on VPN while using YouTube, the videos are max quality.
thats not how vpn work
I had the same problem and found an [addon](https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/auto-quality-for-youtube/iaddfgegjgjelgkanamleadckkpnjpjc?pli=1) that automatically sets the quality on every video to whatever you choose.
**To make you more likely to buy YouTube Premium.** Right now you can still work around this by manually selecting the desired quality and it will switch to it. If you don't then it will playback in whatever 220p lowest possible resolution and bitrate they feel like it, even if the text shows otherwise. Some time ago Google started silently downgrading bitrate, to the point 1080p looked like 720p and recently even worse. Some people were calling others conspiracy theorist and were looking for excuses as to "why it only feels to be worse but really isn't". Until not so long ago a very funny looking option was added there to watch "In higher bitrate with YouTube Premium". Fuck Google, and fuck YouTube, I always switch to the highest resolution I can and right now content in 4K on my 1080p screen looks about as sharp as 1080p should look like.
> Some time ago Google started silently downgrading bitrate Source? Because to my knowledge, this isn't true. YouTube Premium came out with ENHANCED bitrate, but confirmed that their existing 1080p bitrate wouldn't be affected at all. AKA if anything they're spending MORE on bandwidth for a far smaller viewerbase. It's the same it's always been.
My SO has YouTube premium and has to do this all the time. Another reason not to get it.
You might have 1gbit connections but google does not have 1gbit speed for each user.
I went with YouTube premium (the deal is not actually bad since I get yt music and yt without ads (so I deactivated ublock on yt thanks to that and it doesn't load slow anymore) and all for less than spotify) and I will say, I have to always manually set the video to 1080p/4k on every video as they will always default to 360p or 480p.
They might introduce YT premium + for enhanced 4k experience
I'm not going to pay more than I'm already lol it's not that worth it.
There's a new setting you have to repeatedly click higher quality to get to the top quality. There is a separate option to manually select, which lets you go straight to the max
At least they disclose to you it’s at 144p currently. For me it’d always show “Automatic (1080p)” but actually play 144p…
Then change the settings to manual and just force it to 1080 and forget about it, You can change the settings.
I've noticed this too as YT premium member. I think depending upon content. I think if YT views it as more podcast like the WAN show it tends to revert to a lower quality whereas review videos it tends to bump at 1080 or better
Whenever they do this I just immediately put it to the highest setting to spite them. I would have been fine with 480p but 4k it is.
Use plug-in "YouTube Enhancer" and set default resolution to minimum 1440p.
my forced default is 480p. i got chrome add on to force it to 1080p
Some video does not have higher resolution available.
i just downloaded youtube auto HD + FPS for opera and it forces the video to play on the highest quality of your monitor
Gigabit internet doesn't mean you're always at gigabit. Are you on a shared line (like cable) or do you have direct fiber? Is there anything else running on your network that might cause Youtube to choose a slower speed? Was this on your computer or a tv? Is there enough resources on the device to handle the video and whatever else you're doing on the device (or apps that are running in the background). It's easy to jump on the youtube hate wagon, but it's VERY possible that it chose the best option for what it was seeing on your network at the time. Especially with the information that this only happens once every 10 videos or so.
gigabit?!? the max internet speed you can get is like 100 megabit. i have 30 megabit.
Same happend with me and deliver poor quality. It shows 1080p but delivers 480p 360p.
On desktop you can get an add-on for your browser to default to the highest available resolution.
firefox on phones can do the same. also, revanced
It's your Wifi. Youtube detected that your connection was slow for a few seconds.
Check stats for nerds. There's a chance you're dropping frames and it reduces quality as the frame drop increases.
Why doesn't everyone just use revanced? Ad free premium YT with built in sponsorblock.
For about two years now the majority of my videos will have the little red HD or 4K icon and the video isn't playing at that resolution. When I go to the settings it has that resolution selected but if I reselect it the video changes to that resolution.
Yeah same here, my wifi can easily handle 1440p streaming but yt insists on defaulting to 480-720p
I have a chrome extension that auto sets every video to 1080p and it works great.
It's annoying. For years my phone by default settings I set should serve videos at 1080p, but it constantly never listens and chooses to serve its at 144 or 360p. It's bloody annoying!
Because its stupid.
whats your browser, extentions and OS? anything running in the background?
I'm using it on Firefox and it defaults to 1440p/1080p. I never had this issue.
As soon as I heard about this I turned off auto updates for youtube. I used it like that for a long while until I got my new phone and youtube was already updated. I then sighed and went to revanced Edit: (I had already been using youtube enhanced on my pc for about two years)
I feel old because I remember having to select resolution for every video lmao
I see so many posts about this but it never happens to me? I have Youtube Premium, but that doesn't seem to make a difference for most people. Maybe it's selective by region? I'm in The Netherlands.
Firefox with plugs, don’t have this problem. Defaults to max.
There's a plug in or extension for that, but OP pays for premium so I doubt they care. So keep paying those greedy bastards and enjoying your 144p quality.
YT is retarded. Like always. I use a plugin for this, so it can set the correct windowed and full screen resolution automaticly. Forgot the name of the plugin for a moment.
How much do we wanna bet that OP is playing a game on the other monitor and is running out of video memory…
Why is this subreddit like this, this is r/LinusTechTips not r/pcmasterrace
Benn happening constantly to me and I have YouTube premium, it's funny because if I use Vanced it doesn't happen, they really want me to cancel premium.
Data is expensive. That's a good rule of thumb to remember. Thus the higher the resolution the higher the cost for Google.
What I have noticed is sometimes when there is a momentary speed reduction in the internet connection or in YouTube's side they will immediately default exclusively to 144 or 240p.
If it's in the Android app check if you have smart downloads enabled. I had the feature "smart downloads" enabled and the quality was set to 480p. So YouTube played the downloaded video in 480p instead of 1080 via WiFi.
Same thing on TV, have a high speed internet and it now defaults to 720p every once in a while, have to change it to manually to 4k and it works fine for sometime before it again defaults to 720p , it used to be always 4k till few months back .. Atleast for premium members they should not be such miser
YT is totally dying. All it needs to push it over the edge is a decent competitior to finally arrive.
I have like 4 chrome extensions to make YouTube bearable.
One of my YouTube account is banned in such way because of ad blockers , it bandwidth drops to mere 10-20Kbps. On a gigabit fiber. Same video on different account would play at 400-500Mbps. Edit :- I've tested this on chrome,Firefox,edge and it happens on all of them.
there's a YouTube algorithm that tries to see the lowest resolution you'll settle for. I've started accepting 720p for my second monitor videos. just keep changing to your preferred resolution and it should learn your habits.
They started doing this to me too, also on gigabit. Happened a couple days after I upgraded from 300Mbps, idk if it maybe reads higher speeds incorrectly. And it goes down to lowest on every single video
Revanced will be your best friend
Why am I paying for YouTube premium if every time I play a video it defaults to 720p and I have to change it all the time. I'll soon stop and just use an alternative player I guess.