iMac 27" can only display videos in 720p...?

[YellowForklift]

Hi all,

Sorry if this question has been asked for the umpteenth time - I tried searching but found nothing...

Anyway, I've just received my 27" iMac (2013 model), and, wanting to witness the beauty of the screen, went straight to googling for some 1080p videos.
...only to discover that the iMac apparently cannot display videos in 1080p??

As an example, when viewing this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p74VWuBJSS0 the highest setting I'm allowed to get is 720p, which honestly bums me out quite a lot because of this big, beautiful screen! The same goes for videos said to support the native 1440p resolution: At https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p56_y43UuEk my max is 720p as well!

I've dug up a bit of information on the internet, but nothing very solid about this. Which makes me wonder if it's just me doing something wrong?

I'm hoping that some of the knowledgable and, occasionally, kind people of the MR forums might shine some light on this issue. If there's a problem, I got 14 days to return it!

 

[bennibeef]

Well, Youtube is giving options based on your Internet connection. Maybe your connection is too slow to support 1080p? I dont know if they dont even display the 1080p option but even my 2011 Macbook is giving me 1080p on your linked videos but I have a beefy internet connection I dont know if I would not get the option with a slower one.


I say your iMac is capable of doing this, some YT video which are already 4k I can load on youtube with my 2011 Macbook but well, dont get displayed as 4k because I dont have enough pixels on the LCD haha... but I can load it!

 

[McGiord]

Are you sure yo are selecting the right resolution in the youtube gear?

I can play them on my 27" iMac without any issues, only that after clicking the first time and clinking to get them in full screen I have to click again to the desired resolution.

What is the internet connection speed that you have? Could this be the limiting factor?

 

[jwhazel]

Anyway, I've just received my 27" iMac (2013 model), and, wanting to witness the beauty of the screen, went straight to googling for some 1080p videos.

My guess is that a.) you're using safari b.) you haven't yet installed Flash Player. Safari doesn't support Media Source Extensions (yet), so >720p is only supported in the flash player. Alternatively you can install Chrome if you want >720p without using Flash.

FWIW, those two streams you linked to are so horribly compressed by youtube, I can't tell the difference between 720 and 1080 or even 720 and 1440 on the second one.

 

[aliensporebomb]

Sigh

Figured it out! Not your iMac's fault.

It's Safari using the Youtube HTML5 extension by default instead of Flash.

I've heard some stories about Google's servers being overloaded (with people viewing thousands of videos a day limiting them to 720p would save them some bandwidth versus 1080).

The same video plays in 1080 fine in Firefox, plays fine in Opera, plays fine in Chrome.

Anyway, try this in Safari:
https://www.youtube.com/html5

If the box at the bottom says "Use the default player" click on the box until it says "Request the HTML5 player" and then try it.

I can then play videos in 1080 in Safari.

This one plays (that's me - so sorry for offending the ear):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KYoDX2EZf4

 

[macthefork]

...This one plays (that's me - so sorry for offending the ear):

Looks like you "play" pretty well, too. No offending the ear, here... Nice...

 

[YellowForklift]

Thank you guys! It was indeed a question of Flash. Hopefully, someday Safari'll be able to do >720p without Flash

 

[AlexBerkman]

Thank you guys! It was indeed a question of Flash. Hopefully, someday Safari'll be able to do >720p without Flash

It can, go to safari extensions and get clicktoflash then you can get it to run 1080 by setting it up to run HTLM5 player instead of flash...you're just some tweeks away