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iOS/iPadOS 14 and VP9 support [Merged]

Perhaps a daft question but is there any real benefit to watching a YouTube resolution way in excess of your screen resolution?

For example, on the 11 Pro Max videos in 1440p will already exceed the available screen resolution so does watching a video in 4K add anything more?
Surely the downscaling from 4K would introduce more inaccuracies?

Cheers
 
Mac Rules said:
Perhaps a daft question but is there any real benefit to watching a YouTube resolution way in excess of your screen resolution?

For example, on the 11 Pro Max videos in 1440p will already exceed the available screen resolution so does watching a video in 4K add anything more?
Surely the downscaling from 4K would introduce more inaccuracies?

Cheers
Click to expand...
yes its called downscaling and it will look better than native, since youtube is streaming a video not at 100% quality that it was uploaded in via compression, higher resolution on youtube forces higher bitrate and downscaling which can make even 1080p screen watching 4k look much better than 1080p watching 1080p video
 
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AbielM16 said:
yes its called downscaling and it will look better than native, since youtube is streaming a video not at 100% quality that it was uploaded in via compression, higher resolution on youtube forces higher bitrate and downscaling which can make even 1080p screen watching 4k look much better than 1080p watching 1080p video
Click to expand...
Right but that doesn't really answer my question, the downscaling itself already forces the device to make a choice on which pixels to display and which to ignore.
Bitrate is a function of resolution as well as encoding/compression, so by naturally 2160 will have a higher bitrate if all all other factors are equal, in my example it doesn't mean you will necessarily see that difference.

The fundamental question is whether it is better to have slightly more pixels than necessary (i.e 1440) or way more (2160) when compression/encoding, etc are equal between different video resolutions.
 
Mac Rules said:
Right but that doesn't really answer my question, the downscaling itself already forces the device to make a choice on which pixels to display and which to ignore.
Bitrate is a function of resolution as well as encoding/compression, so by naturally 2160 will have a higher bitrate if all all other factors are equal, in my example it doesn't mean you will necessarily see that difference.

The fundamental question is whether it is better to have slightly more pixels than necessary (i.e 1440) or way more (2160) when compression/encoding, etc are equal between different video resolutions.
Click to expand...
www.premiumbeat.com

Is Downscaling 4K to 1080p Worth It After Online Compression?

There are a number of reasons why shooting 4K for 1080p is a good idea, but does online compression mean you're wasting your time?
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Have never had 4K YouTube on my iPad Air 3 before (I checked as late as late August) but today I got it. 😳
32C35A21-8901-4477-A75C-8C02EB61CB83.jpeg
 
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maxsquared said:
4K has disappeared on my 2019 iPad Pro. Anyone else experience this?
Click to expand...
10.5" iPad Pro 2017 here. With Costa Rica 4K in the YouTube app, I didn't have 4K in beta 7, and I don't have 4K in beta 8 either. Codec is showing as AVC1, up to 1080p60.

EDIT:

WTF?

I just re-entered the YouTube app by clicking on a search result from Safari, and now it's limiting me 720p. I exited YouTube and entered it again, and it was still 720p.

4619FD9E-EDB5-4D64-89B7-ED67EEBD0950.png


I had to kill and relaunch the YouTube app in order to get even 1080p back.
 
Last edited:
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EugW said:
10.5" iPad Pro 2017 here. With Costa Rica 4K in the YouTube app, I didn't have 4K in beta 7, and I don't have 4K in beta 8 either. Codec is showing as AVC1, up to 1080p60.

EDIT:

WTF?

I just re-entered the YouTube app by clicking on a search result from Safari, and now it's limiting me 720p. I exited YouTube and entered it again, and it was still 720p.

View attachment 951856

I had to kill and relaunch the YouTube app in order to get even 1080p back.
Click to expand...

I just checked this on the 11 Pro Max and it did show 2160p 60 HDR. Maybe restart the iPad? I am also running on Beta 8
 
hovscorpion12 said:
I just checked this on the 11 Pro Max and it did show 2160p 60 HDR. Maybe restart the iPad? I am also running on Beta 8
Click to expand...
I tried to restart still not working. Though I’ve tried a few things, it looks like Google is testing 4K based on user accounts, my main account as mentioned didn’t have 4K, but signed into another account and Costa Rica 4K is back.
 
Even if you don't benefit much from higher resolution videos, VP9 support is going to help improve battery life when watching YouTube on iOS.

With iOS 13 and prior, YouTube uses software decompression for VP9, which uses more battery and makes the device warm. With hardware VP9 it'll run cooler and the battery will last longer.
 
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zorinlynx said:
Even if you don't benefit much from higher resolution videos, VP9 support is going to help improve battery life when watching YouTube on iOS.

With iOS 13 and prior, YouTube uses software decompression for VP9, which uses more battery and makes the device warm. With hardware VP9 it'll run cooler and the battery will last longer.
Click to expand...

On laptop tops ye, but on iOS YouTube uses AVC1 and it is being natively optimised. Unless you are watching 4K, iOS battery life should be unchanged.
 
EPO75 said:
Costa Rica 4k HDR uses VP9 here on my iPad, so..
Click to expand...

Yes sure, that's because you are running iOS 14 and VP9 is supported.

The original poster mentioned iOS13 would software decompression VP9, so it would use more battery life, which is incorrect. YouTube encodes their video in VP9, AVC1 and AV1 format, and iOS13 or earlier which didn't support VP9 and AV1, so YouTube would serve the AVC1 format, and iOS13 supports AVC1 natively, so battery life shouldn't defer between running iOS13 or iOS14, unless you watch 4k.
 
Just a FYI but 4K enabled iOS/iPadOS YouTube app was updated 21 hours ago, version 15.37.4.

Wish they take some time with the tvOS Youtube app, that is the old 2.04.06 from April 29, 2020.
 
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Realityck said:
Just a FYI but 4K enabled iOS/iPadOS YouTube app was updated 21 hours ago, version 15.37.4.

Wish they take some time with the tvOS Youtube app, that is the old 2.04.06 from April 29, 2020.
Click to expand...
Thanks.

I just updated to 15.37.4 but I'm still only getting 1080p60 AVC1 on my iPad Pro 10.5 (A10X) with Costa Rica 4K. Rebooting didn't help either.
 
EugW said:
Thanks.

I just updated to 15.37.4 but I'm still only getting 1080p60 AVC1 on my iPad Pro 10.5 (A10X) with Costa Rica 4K. Rebooting didn't help either.
Click to expand...
This might still start working for you within 2 days. There were some similar observations with devs/PB testers discussing 4K not working with iOS 14/iPadOS beta 5 thru 7, then it started to work, not sure the steps involved. We even blamed google testing stuff. I myself had this happen. :)
 
Even when 4K support is working properly I assume not all 4K videos on YouTube will show as 4K on iOS?

I’m not sure why but I can see 4K options for some but not for others that are definitely 4K videos.
 
StevenB14 said:
Even when 4K support is working properly I assume not all 4K videos on YouTube will show as 4K on iOS?

I’m not sure why but I can see 4K options for some but not for others that are definitely 4K videos.
Click to expand...
i’m only getting 4k for HDR videos on iPhone 11 Pro. no 4k for any videos on iPad Pro 2018.
 
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