YouTube misbehaving again (forcing 360p quality)
  • Paladin of the Pegasos
    Paladin of the Pegasos
    koszer
    Posts: 1246 from 2004/2/8
    From: Poland
    I've stumbled upon a number of YouTube videos that don't give me an option to choose the video quality (the only option being 360p). I'm sure they exist in higher quality, because I've successfully tested them in a Win browser (namely: the newest Chrome). What seems to be the problem and how to avoid it?

    Here's a list of things that I've tried so far:
    - spoofing as different browser
    - enabling OWB to use all kind of video codecs (in OWB Prefs/Media)
    - logging in and out of YouTube
    - deleting cookies
    - spoofing using the alternate method (setting the newest possible Chrome/Win user-agent as env variable when starting OWB)

    And here's an example video I've been talking about.

    There are more people in Poland with the same OWB problem (zukow somehow doesn't but we don't yet know why he's the only exception).
  • »27.09.18 - 12:18
    Profile
  • ASiegel
    Posts: 1369 from 2003/2/15
    From: Central Europe
    Quote:

    koszer wrote:
    (zukow somehow doesn't but we don't yet know why he's the only exception).

    Being part of the development team, chances are he is running a newer version of Odyssey than you are.
  • »27.09.18 - 16:21
    Profile
  • Paladin of the Pegasos
    Paladin of the Pegasos
    koszer
    Posts: 1246 from 2004/2/8
    From: Poland
    He claims he's using the last public JIT version of OWB.
    Can you confirm the video acts the same in your case?
  • »27.09.18 - 16:47
    Profile
  • Priest of the Order of the Butterfly
    Priest of the Order of the Butterfly
    KennyR
    Posts: 868 from 2003/3/4
    From: #AmigaZeux, Gu...
    Google changed something some weeks back that broke a lot of third party tools and scripts.

    Google don't like you not to use the API they provide. They want you to use Chrome, or the bloated official app on Android, and watch their ads, and be tracked across the internet, and be a happy little consumer they can buy and sell.

    [ Edited by KennyR 27.09.2018 - 22:14 ]
  • »27.09.18 - 21:13
    Profile
  • jPV
  • Yokemate of Keyboards
    Yokemate of Keyboards
    jPV
    Posts: 2021 from 2003/2/24
    From: po-RNO
    I can't seem to get other options either... and if you click the "Quality -> Missing options?", you get this kind of info:

    Quote:


    YouTube videos missing quality options on this browser
    YouTube videos are available in many formats and resolutions. However, some browsers do not support newer video formats or quality options. This means these browsers may only have one or two video formats to choose from. We recommend upgrading your browser or operating system for the best viewing experience.

    Below are some browser and operating system combinations that support YouTube's high-quality video formats:

    Google Chrome (all operating systems)
    MS Edge 
    Safari on Mac OS X 10.10 or newer
    Firefox on Windows 7 or newer and on Mac OS X 10.10 or newer
    Note: All resolutions may not be available on newly uploaded videos.



    It would sound that it'd need some feature from the browser we don't have and spoofing wouldn't be enough, but why it would work for zukow... I wonder if he has some suitable settings saved in LocalStorage for example? Or how about having more exact string of a supported browser in ENV:OWB_USER_AGENT? Or could Youtube measure the speed of the machine or network connection somehow before giving the options? At least zukow has about the fastest MorphOS computer ever :)
  • »28.09.18 - 05:35
    Profile Visit Website
  • MorphOS Developer
    zukow
    Posts: 642 from 2005/2/9
    From: Poland
    No, i don't have the fastest, i have the best one :)
  • »28.09.18 - 07:51
    Profile Visit Website
  • ASiegel
    Posts: 1369 from 2003/2/15
    From: Central Europe
    Quote:

    koszer wrote:
    He claims he's using the last public JIT version of OWB.
    Can you confirm the video acts the same in your case?

    It absolutely does not. I only see 360P as an option on MorphOS.

    I tested the same video with leopard-webkit on MacOS 10.5 (PowerPC) and was able to play in 720P.

    Based on what I was able to quickly research, Google are using AAC or AAC+ to encode audio for higher quality versions of H.264/MP4 YouTube videos. (360P versions use plain 128kbps MP3 audio.) For older YouTube videos, 720P versions might also use different audio codecs so it can happen that some older video files work in higher resolutions but newer ones do not.

    AAC / AAC+ is likely not an issue even on older versions of MacOS as leopard-webkit utilizes Apple's Quicktime codecs.

    As for zukow, as he mentions on PPA that the video runs slow for him, it is possible that YouTube is playing the VP8 version, which uses Opus rather than AAC / AAC+. This would explain the difference in behaviour (h.264 vs VP8).

    I did a quick test and while a plain AAC audio file appeared to play fine, Odyssey did not play an AAC+ (also referred to as "HE-AAC") audio file. Perhaps this is the issue right there.
  • »28.09.18 - 10:56
    Profile
  • Order of the Butterfly
    Order of the Butterfly
    Korni
    Posts: 471 from 2006/2/23
    From: the Planet of ...
    On ppa.pl I mentioned a "youtube links" script for selecting file formats.

    This video is available as MP4 (video+audio) only for 360p version. Youtube selector lists 360p here only. With a script you can select other formats, though they will be played by OWB, not youtube html5 player.

    M4V and VP9 are video only. Audio is in a separate file - M4A, VOR, OPUS. OWB can play M4V or VP9 files fine, but for audio - only M4A works.
    http://korni.ppa.pl/modkowypaczek/ | My Rifle, My Bunny, and Me
  • »28.09.18 - 12:00
    Profile Visit Website
  • ASiegel
    Posts: 1369 from 2003/2/15
    From: Central Europe
    Well, I downloaded the original high definition Google encoded video file. It uses AAC LC and plays just fine when I load it directly into Odyssey.
  • »28.09.18 - 12:32
    Profile
  • Order of the Butterfly
    Order of the Butterfly
    Korni
    Posts: 471 from 2006/2/23
    From: the Planet of ...
    Quote:

    ASiegel wrote:
    Well, I downloaded the original high definition Google encoded video file. It uses AAC LC and plays just fine when I load it directly into Odyssey.



    Link?
    http://korni.ppa.pl/modkowypaczek/ | My Rifle, My Bunny, and Me
  • »28.09.18 - 12:51
    Profile Visit Website
  • Priest of the Order of the Butterfly
    Priest of the Order of the Butterfly
    KennyR
    Posts: 868 from 2003/3/4
    From: #AmigaZeux, Gu...
    I'm with Korni on this one. 720p and up videos on youtube are split into seperate audio and video. You can't play them without muxing first.

    [ Edited by KennyR 28.09.2018 - 21:04 ]
  • »28.09.18 - 20:03
    Profile
  • Order of the Butterfly
    Order of the Butterfly
    Korni
    Posts: 471 from 2006/2/23
    From: the Planet of ...
    Some 720p are MP4 audio+video though.
    http://korni.ppa.pl/modkowypaczek/ | My Rifle, My Bunny, and Me
  • »28.09.18 - 20:29
    Profile Visit Website