The users of the desktop browser Mozilla has lost the ability to watch YouTube videos in 4K resolution. This fact drew the attention of the readers of the resource Reddit.
Now when viewing in Safari videos on the popular video sharing the maximum quality is 1080p. Options 1140p & 2160p disappeared from the available list. At the same time, while watching video in Google Chrome is the ability to switch to maximum quality.
Reddit users have expressed different assumptions, the most plausible explanation at Themcfly:
“On further investigation I found that YouTube stores the video on servers in different formats by encoding them with a codec VP9 or H264 old. The Safari is no support VP9 so it automatically loads the available version in H264 format (see the codec can by right clicking on the video). Chrome supports VP9 format, so it plays videos in 4K”.
Early for streaming YouTube is almost exclusively used long become the standard H. 264/AVC codec. But more recently, high resolution videos compressed using VP9, an open video codec developed by Google to reduce the bit rate while maintaining the video quality level with VP8 (outdoor analog H. 264).
The problem with VP9 is that it is not supported everywhere. The Android operating system and Chrome browser include the codec in the standard. But in Safari on Mac, iPhone and iPad don’t support playback of this video and in Cupertino do not say anything about possible support for VP9 in the future.
Apple and Google failed to promptly comment on the situation.
