4K HDR YouTube now works on iPadOS 15 Safari!

[Stuey3D]

Just installed iPadOS 15 on my 2018 12.9“ iPad Pro and I have now discovered that 4K HDR YouTube now works in Safari which is AWESOME! As it previously topped out at 1080p and I hate YouTubes app so this is great for me.

 

[Stuey3D]

Well they give with one hand and take with the other, so whilst we have gained 4K HDR, we’ve lost the ability to go picture in picture. Saying that I’d take 4K HDR over Picture in Picture for the little I used that feature.

 

[Stuey3D]

Ok Picture in Picture does work, just not when the quality is set to 4K. I switched back to the video and the quality had dropped to 1440p and when I went back to full screen the Picture in Picture icon was present and working.

 

[Stuey3D]

This also appears to be new, I don’t think I’ve seen this before where the Channel Name is the Artist and the Title is the Title and the thumbnail is present in the control centre controls.

All in all it seems that YouTube on Safari is drastically improved all round.

 

[Stuey3D]

It appears 4K is now working in the mini player too, guess it was just software hiccups preventing it working before.

 

[Stuey3D]

Well some odd issues with audio have manifested today, videos will play with now audio and in the control centre the mini player shows nothing playing, toggling between video quality settings restores the audio and control centre. Mobile website also works, but you are limited to 720p on that.

I’ve even reset Safari data and that didn’t fix it, odd how it was working perfect last night though.

 

[Ninja Dom]

Is it still working for you?

I've just installed macOS Monterey on my M1 Mac. Youtube does NOT play any content in HDR in Safari. But it does in Google Chrome. Disappointing.

 

[Stuey3D]

Is it still working for you?

I've just installed macOS Monterey on my M1 Mac. Youtube does NOT play any content in HDR in Safari. But it does in Google Chrome. Disappointing.

Yup still working on iPadOS 15.1

 

[SpecMode]

Is it still working for you?

I've just installed macOS Monterey on my M1 Mac. Youtube does NOT play any content in HDR in Safari. But it does in Google Chrome. Disappointing.

Interesting; just tried this on my M1 MacBook Air running 12.0.1, and Safari plays 4k HDR just fine (ignoring that it's not actually playing on an HDR-capable display, but that's neither here nor there...).

I do have a couple 'experimental' features enabled in the Develop menu that I'm not sure are enabled by default (HDR Media Capabilities and VP9 decoder) — you can enable the Develop menu using the checkbox at the bottom of the Advanced tab in Safari preferences ("Show Develop menu in menu bar"), then enable those features from the menu if they aren't already checked.

 

[Ninja Dom]

Interesting; just tried this on my M1 MacBook Air running 12.0.1, and Safari plays 4k HDR just fine (ignoring that it's not actually playing on an HDR-capable display, but that's neither here nor there...).

View attachment 1878467

I do have a couple 'experimental' features enabled in the Develop menu that I'm not sure are enabled by default (HDR Media Capabilities and VP9 decoder) — you can enable the Develop menu using the checkbox at the bottom of the Advanced tab in Safari preferences ("Show Develop menu in menu bar"), then enable those features from the menu if they aren't already checked.

View attachment 1878472

This is odd.

I have the same Experimental Features turned on. HDR Media Capabilities and VP9 Decoder, both turned on. I don't get HDR on YouTube in Safari. In Chrome, yes. But not in Safari.

I'm using an M1 Mac mini hooked up to an HDR display with HDR turned on in both the display and Display Preferences in macOS Monterey.

I can notice the difference when playing the same HDR video in YouTube between Safari & Chrome.