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Why doesn’t the video player have a HD option?

B

Bladery

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Apr 12, 2015
415
113
Hey guys,

this is driving me crazy for ages!
I always want to watch videos in HD where possible.
Why didn’t Apple simply implement a HD button?

Now, every time I want to watch a YouTube movie, I need to open the app and/or some people need to install it in the first place.

Maybe if we all give feedback they will think about it.
 
Bladery said:
Hey guys,

this is driving me crazy for ages!
I always want to watch videos in HD where possible.
Why didn’t Apple simply implement a HD button?

Now, every time I want to watch a YouTube movie, I need to open the app and/or some people need to install it in the first place.

Maybe if we all give feedback they will think about it.
Click to expand...

Apple doesn't control how YouTube plays video on their website. Google does.
 
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YouTube was just an example. It’s related to every website.

If I go to my Mac, I can see another video player where I can chose HD.
 
apple has nothing to do with that.

it's all the people who make the web site, and how they decide to code them.
 
Yun0 said:
then use the app? its far better still anyway..

suggesting to apple is always an idea too.
Click to expand...

Well sometimes you can’t enter the app, whether it is an app you don’t have, or you’re in another app that has SVC or its own in app browser and you can’t open to YouTube from there.
 
waw74 said:
apple has nothing to do with that.

it's all the people who make the web site, and how they decide to code them.
Click to expand...
Of course they have! They just made a new video player interface which can be seen pretty
Much everywhere when you watch a videos
 
Bladery said:
Of course they have! They just made a new video player interface which can be seen pretty
Much everywhere when you watch a videos
Click to expand...
As you can see, there are not many people here knowing what are you referring to. I think it is better to post a few screenshots of your HD button on Mac.
Also, Apple alone cannot do much about it. If video source does not have HD support, nothing will happen from Apple side.
 
Try holding the reload button in the URL bar, and select "Request Desktop Site". Does that change anything?
 
HD is standard now. We don't need an option. Simply referring it to HD means you're trapped in 2005
 
OP there are lots of websites that have their own video player with HD buttons etc.

If the website isn't designed with their own video player it will use apple's default one.

This player can't have an HD button because each website will work differently, for example, the path where the SD and HD videos are. How is Apple meant to know that and generalise it for every site? It would only work if there was a standard for 'request HD content' that all websites had to implement for their videos and as far as I know there isnt.

Therefore Apple supports basic and generalisable video player OR it allows websites to have their own custom playback with their own HD buttons etc.
 
Bladery said:
YouTube was just an example. It’s related to every website.

If I go to my Mac, I can see another video player where I can chose HD.
Click to expand...

That's because they chose to code the website that way. Every website detects if you are using Windows, Mac, iOS, Android or whatever OS and what browser you are using. Then the WEBSITE decides how to display the website and videos to your device. Apple is not in charge of the whole internet and can't control how other websites decide to send video streams when they detect you are using an iPhone. That's up to each website to decide.
 
No need to a button. Safari / HLS will always automatically play HD if it's available from the content provider and there is enough bandwidth. If google have made the decision to remove HD quality stream from the HLS set-level playlist, then speak to google.
 
I understand what he's talking about.

If I'm reading a webpage in Safari who have an embedded Youtube video on it, most of the times it doesn't play at its best image quality. Sometimes it's 480p, or something like that. If I then open the video directly in the Youtube app, I have the option to go 1080p and sometimes 4K. So yeah, an "HD button" would be useful sometimes.

I admit that iOS/Safari selects the best quality available most of the times, but it doesn't always do that. At home I have 40Mbps speed and my cellular 4G reaches 125Mbps, and even with these speeds, the Youtube app sometimes launches videos in 480p or 720p... You won't tell me that these speeds aren't good enough, do you?
 
On 4G the telecom can actually decide if they cap the youtube stuff, tmobile netherlands offered an unlimited account, but then YT is 720p. The normal account on 4g with traffic limit lets me set it to 1080p, on wifi i can set the same video to 1440p.
My sister's on another dutch telecom, and they can't get past 480p, everything is capped (can't wait for her to move away from it) putting in another sim, and she watches it in 1080p on 4g+.

You can change the quality of a youtube video inside the app with the 3 dots thingy top right > quality > and select highest, on wifi.. on mobile a lot of telecom show me: 'cannnot be changed during mobile playback' app OR website.
 
Squillace said:
I understand what he's talking about.

If I'm reading a webpage in Safari who have an embedded Youtube video on it, most of the times it doesn't play at its best image quality. Sometimes it's 480p, or something like that. If I then open the video directly in the Youtube app, I have the option to go 1080p and sometimes 4K. So yeah, an "HD button" would be useful sometimes.

I admit that iOS/Safari selects the best quality available most of the times, but it doesn't always do that. At home I have 40Mbps speed and my cellular 4G reaches 125Mbps, and even with these speeds, the Youtube app sometimes launches videos in 480p or 720p... You won't tell me that these speeds aren't good enough, do you?
Click to expand...

This! Thank you!
 
The reason the iPhone does not stream 4K is because the screen is not 4K. Why not read the HLS spec rather than just moaning because you don't like the answers here. Multiple people have explained how it works but you still want the button anyway....ok. I also already explained why YouTube in safari does not play HD, please reread my post and contact google about it.
 
magicMac said:
The reason the iPhone does not stream 4K is because the screen is not 4K. Why not read the HLS spec rather than just moaning because you don't like the answers here. Multiple people have explained how it works but you still want the button anyway....ok. I also already explained why YouTube in safari does not play HD, please reread my post and contact google about it.
Click to expand...

Clairly you didn't read my comment.
 
Bladery said:
Apparently he didn't.
I don't even know how anyone cannot understand what we're talking about?
Like this is a really annoying problem!
Click to expand...
I read the comment just fine but you’re not reading what anyone else is writing. You also haven’t read the HLS spec at all or ever setup a HLS stream before. It actually works perfectly when the set level playlist is setup correctly. The mobile web based YouTube does not include all the same quality levels as the app, that’s pretty well known. The proof is many other websites using HLS which stream HD automatically just fine. I have news for you, a HD button is not coming.

https://developer.apple.com/library...45-CH1-DECIDEONYOURVARIANTS-ABILITY_TO_SWITCH

Please also take note of “Select Device based on Device Resolution”. Why do you think iOS would automatically stream 4K when the display is not 4K, other than waste bandwidth what do you hope to achieve ?

HLS is is a pretty simple protocol and works perfectly when the web developer has configured the playlist correctly. The browser is monitoring the speed the segements are downloading to select the quality level of the next segment. If your internet is not fast enough or there is no HD stream in the master set-level playlist then it won’t stream HD. The order of the quality levels in the playlist and the metadata about the bitrate is important as well (see “don’t under report datarate in master playlist”). You can watch a HLS stream on an internet connection with varying speed and it will automatically adapt on a segment by segment (normally 10 second) basis no problem.

If you download the m3u8 playlist on mobile YouTube when the agent string is iOS safari, google do not deliver a playlist with a HD stream at all. As said already (for the fourth time), you need to take that up with google.
 
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