topic Re: YouTube 2.03.04 restricts resolution of 60p video to 720p in Android TV

YouTube 2.03.04 restricts resolution of 60p video to 720p

Kuschelmonschter — Tue, 10 Jul 2018 13:55:53 GMT

YouTube 2.0 introduced quite severe playback issues for high frame rate video. 60p video suffered from severe stuttering on Sony ATV starting at Full HD resolution already while YouTube 1.x played it buttery smooth up to 4K at much lower CPU usage. In YouTube 2.03.04, Google now restricts resolution of such video to 720p. That's how Google fixes issues. A good example of how significant this Android TV platform really is.

Re: YouTube 2.03.04 restricts resolution of 60p video to 720p

Risc0n — Tue, 10 Jul 2018 18:42:30 GMT

@Kuschelmonschter wrote:
YouTube 2.0 introduced quite severe playback issues for high frame rate video. 60p video suffered from severe stuttering on Sony ATV starting at Full HD resolution already while YouTube 1.x played it buttery smooth up to 4K at much lower CPU usage. In YouTube 2.03.04, Google now restricts resolution of such video to 720p. That's how Google fixes issues. A good example of how significant this Android TV platform really is.

Not on my XE90 it doesn't, assume you are talking about ATV1? The latest version runs a lot smoother than previous releases.

Re: YouTube 2.03.04 restricts resolution of 60p video to 720p

Kuschelmonschter — Tue, 10 Jul 2018 18:50:41 GMT

No. On ATV2..

Optimal resolution for The World in HDR is 720p60. If you check user reviews on Google Play, others are experiencing the same thing.

Re: YouTube 2.03.04 restricts resolution of 60p video to 720p

Risc0n — Tue, 10 Jul 2018 23:54:14 GMT

Re: YouTube 2.03.04 restricts resolution of 60p video to 720p

Kuschelmonschter — Wed, 11 Jul 2018 03:27:08 GMT

Can you check your YouTube App version?

Re: YouTube 2.03.04 restricts resolution of 60p video to 720p

dutchice — Wed, 11 Jul 2018 08:45:05 GMT

YouTube 2.03.04 has been so far the best revision ever by Google in playing back stutter free videos on ATVs. 4K@60p videos never have been this butter smooth before. That's how Google fixes issues. A good example of how significant this Android TV platform really is.

I suggest you try sharing your mobile internet connection if it is able to reach at least 40 mb/s speeds on 4G and test again.

The World in HDR

Re: YouTube 2.03.04 restricts resolution of 60p video to 720p

Kuschelmonschter — Wed, 11 Jul 2018 09:00:27 GMT

'Optimal Resolution' always shows the maximum supported by the respective video together with the hardware in use. Only 'Current Resolution' is limited by bandwidth. I had this kind of issue in the past already but then suddenly got fixed. Might be a regional thing. Can play the video at 2160p60 with Smart YouTube TV though.

That's how Google fixes issues. A good example of how significant this Android TV platform really is.

So where is HDR support which Sony demonstrated at CES2016? See here. Supported on Samsung and LG for months already.

Re: YouTube 2.03.04 restricts resolution of 60p video to 720p

stormyuk — Wed, 11 Jul 2018 09:39:22 GMT

@dutchice @Kuschelmonschter are you both on the same TV models?

I will check that video later on my XE90, the last few versions of Youtube have had very stuttery video 4K@60p on my XE90.

Re: YouTube 2.03.04 restricts resolution of 60p video to 720p

Kuschelmonschter — Wed, 11 Jul 2018 09:50:14 GMT

I think it depends on region rather than the TV model. But I can be wrong. @Risc0n already confirmed full resolution for XE90. I am currently testing on a XF90.

Re: YouTube 2.03.04 restricts resolution of 60p video to 720p

stormyuk — Wed, 11 Jul 2018 10:31:26 GMT

@Kuschelmonschter wrote:
I think it depends on region rather than the TV model. But I can be wrong. @Risc0n already confirmed full resolution for XE90. I am currently testing on a XF90.

Yeh, there has been talk about if the X1 Extreme vs X1 picture processor makes any difference to the Youtube performance or if its all down to the mediatek soc for network vs decoding the video.

But yes @Risc0n suggests the XE90 is ok (or better) with this version than the previous release. I will try later. Good news if it is improved, I wonder why you are seeing worse performance?

Incidently is HDR working now or do we still need to cast from a phone to get HDR and does that impact performance?

Re: YouTube 2.03.04 restricts resolution of 60p video to 720p

Kuschelmonschter — Wed, 11 Jul 2018 10:40:57 GMT

Yeh, there has been talk about if the X1 Extreme vs X1 picture processor makes any difference to the Youtube performance or if its all down to the mediatek soc for network vs decoding the video.

Image processor has no influence. Big difference of those YouTube videos vs. Amazon/Netflix is that they are 60p. If you download those videos with youtube-dl, they play fine in Kodi for example. And since the image processor (X1 vs. X1 Extreme) works on uncrompressed video, operations are the same no matter which app you use, whether video is VP9 or HEVC a.s.o.

I wonder why you are seeing worse performance?

I am not exactly experiencing worse performance. YouTube app just tells me that the best I can get with the TV is 720p60. As for 30p video, it goes all the way up to the full 2160p.

Incidently is HDR working now or do we still need to cast from a phone to get HDR?

Not working for me. YouTube app plays stream 302 (720p60 VP9) rather than 334 (720p60 VP9.2 HDR).

Re: YouTube 2.03.04 restricts resolution of 60p video to 720p

stormyuk — Fri, 13 Jul 2018 12:54:44 GMT

Well this is interesting, if I play on the TV that World in HDR video plays great, the odd dropped frame but nothing serious, it can even play a video that's pumping down 60Mbps @60fps

The problem comes when casting, when casting from a phone or tablet you get the bonus of HDR on my XE90. Trouble is it's very choppy and plays the videos looking better but stuttering bad. Hmmm. No HDR it is then.

Re: YouTube 2.03.04 restricts resolution of 60p video to 720p

marcinor — Sat, 14 Jul 2018 08:35:22 GMT

Hello. Can you check on 49xe9005 the following video from the link works smoothly in 2160p 60 fps
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STSdb0BzEN8&t=17s

Re: YouTube 2.03.04 restricts resolution of 60p video to 720p

stormyuk — Tue, 17 Jul 2018 11:55:02 GMT

@marcinor wrote:

Hello. Can you check on 49xe9005 the following video from the link works smoothly in 2160p 60 fps
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STSdb0BzEN8&t=17s

I will have a look, my guess is without HDR it will be great, with HDR (via cast) it will be awful. I will have a look though and let you know.

Re: YouTube 2.03.04 restricts resolution of 60p video to 720p

marcinor — Wed, 18 Jul 2018 06:44:55 GMT

ok I am waiting to let you know

Re: YouTube 2.03.04 restricts resolution of 60p video to 720p

Kuschelmonschter — Thu, 19 Jul 2018 06:36:36 GMT

I am still stuck at 720p60. If you read on reddit, this issue has plagued people on several occasions over the course of time. The problem has come and gone. It looks to be a regional server-side thing. So probably the app has received some update while software on some servers does not yet support it.

Totally forgot that I can actually uninstall the latest 2.03.04 update from the Play Store and test with the stock version of YouTube. Will do so in the evening.

Re: YouTube 2.03.04 restricts resolution of 60p video to 720p

Kuschelmonschter — Thu, 19 Jul 2018 14:13:08 GMT

I just uninstalled the YouTube updates and am now on stock version 2.02.08. Now it goes all the way up to 2160p60 again (but stutters like crazy).

I then cleared data and cache and reinstalled 2.03.04 and boom... back to 720p60 max.

Since it works for you, I still assume that it is an incompatibility between client version 2.03.04 and the server I am connecting to.

Re: YouTube 2.03.04 restricts resolution of 60p video to 720p

marcinor — Thu, 19 Jul 2018 15:05:27 GMT

how can you, check out a movie 4k hdr 60 fps, does it cut and run smoothly?

Re: YouTube 2.03.04 restricts resolution of 60p video to 720p

Kuschelmonschter — Thu, 26 Jul 2018 17:13:31 GMT

Updated to 2.03.06 which just got released. Guess what? 4K@60fps is back...

CPU usage is down quite a bit. Playback only exhibits occasional stutters.

Re: YouTube 2.03.04 restricts resolution of 60p video to 720p

marcinor — Thu, 26 Jul 2018 17:38:32 GMT

At my place it cuts even more, and after that the voice search microphone icon in the youtube application has disappeared 😞