How do I stop Youtube dropping the video quality?

Quartz · 16 Oct 2020 at 17:49

Youtube seems to like dropping the video quality from 1080p to 360p when I have 80 Mb/s bandwidth. Manually changing the quality setting back fixes the immediate problem but I'd like to stop it happening in the first place. My browser is Chrome. 64 bit, Windows 10 and Chrome are fully updated. Extensions are Lastpass, Privacy Badger, Privacy pass, Google Arts & Culture, Google docs offline, and uBlock Origin.

It's been happening for a month or two now. There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to when it happens and it doesn't always happen.

Any suggestions?

MrRockliffe · 16 Oct 2020 at 17:52

Is this when the video starts? They do this on purpose at the moment save on bandwidth - especially on mobiles, where the difference isn’t so obvious

DaleTheWhale · 16 Oct 2020 at 18:43

I've noticed this when I'm on another tab and go back to the YouTube tab which makes sense but thought was strange, but beyond that it normally plays ball.

Quartz · 16 Oct 2020 at 19:48

MrRockliffe said:
Is this when the video starts? They do this on purpose at the moment save on bandwidth - especially on mobiles, where the difference isn’t so obvious

Good question. I should have clarified. The videos generally start at 1080p then drop down after some random time.

And I'm on wired LAN, not wifi.

MrRockliffe · 16 Oct 2020 at 20:01

Quartz said:
Good question. I should have clarified. The videos generally start at 1080p then drop down after some random time.

And I'm on wired LAN, not wifi.

In which case, strange. Have you tried Firefox/Edge?

MarcLister · 16 Oct 2020 at 21:53

I use the Firefox version of Enhancer for YouTube. You can select up to resolutions to use which I set to 1440p, 1080p, 780p and 480p although I guess I could just set it to 1440p and 1080p. I had the same issues as the OP and got fed up being on a wired LAN fast Broadband connection and found Enhancer for YouTube always plays videos at 1440p, assuming of course it is available at that resolution. Failing that 1080p is loaded.

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/enhancer-for-youtube/ponfpcnoihfmfllpaingbgckeeldkhle