HD restrictions; Google's witch hunt on alternative web browsers?

[テクニカル諏訪子]

Like with many other changes Google imposes on YouTube, this one makes no sense at all.
It appears that they're now serving high quality videos exclusively to users of Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Safari (Mac OS X 10.10 or newer), and Firefox (Windows 7 or newer and Mac OS X 10.10 or newer), which makes absolutely no sense.

As taken from here:
YouTube videos missing quality options on this browser - YouTube Help

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.

However, I'm using Chromium, which is the very base of Google Chrome, maintained by Google, and even gets features implemented before they get into Google Chrome.
Yet it appears that Chromium "can't support newer video formats", which already sounds like a total lie to me.
Like how I figured out my newly uploaded 720p recorded video is only available in 360p, even long after uploading it.

The only question here is, what is Google trying to achieve with this move in the first place?

 

[Demon_Skeith]

What they are doing makes sense actually. They got videos running at higher quality so why make something not work appear on outdated browsers.

As for Chromium, it is not a google based product. From what I can see its actually a fanbase made browser that google borrowed their code to develop their own chrome browser.

 

[テクニカル諏訪子]

What they are doing makes sense actually. They got videos running at higher quality so why make something not work appear on outdated browsers.

That's actually the part that makes no sense, because there are a big number of browsers that still get well maintained, but get no spotlight.

Examples include qutebrowser (a graphical browser that's been fully operated by Vim-like keybindings, no mouse-friendly UI) and Brave (made by the founder of Firefox and it's meant to ensure privacy online).
And of course there's Opera, a browser that lost its popularity due to the whole Chrome vs Firefox concurrence.

As for Chromium, it is not a google based product. From what I can see its actually a fanbase made browser that google borrowed their code to develop their own chrome browser.

Maybe I should rephrase that: Chromium is not made by Google, but Google does back the Chromium project a lot (which makes sense, since they use it as a base for Google Chrome).
I believe Google is actually known for their involvement with the Chromium project.

 

[froggyboy604]

Maybe YouTube is making only 360P available to prevent people from using Alternative non-mainstream web browsers and Chromium based web browser and third-party Chromium extensions to download/pirate HD and higher resolution versions of the videos on YouTube.

 

[テクニカル諏訪子]

Here's the catch: Google Chrome IS Chromium based.
And Chromium extensions are just Google Chrome extensions, no differences in any aspect in this regard.

If I would like to download/pirate YouTube videos, I could just use the command line tool called "youtube-dl", which is free and open source, is really fast, and can even download videos in batches or even download entire playlists if I want to.

So my question to you is: would it make any sense to fight piracy by locking people out of something?
In fact, it only encourages that!

For example, there's only 1 anime serie I'm currently following, which is Dragonball Super.
I can watch it on TV, which is nice.
But there are moments I want to watch the same episode again later on, which is not an option on a default TV.

There are websites like Funimation and Crunchy Roll that offer episodes legally (though with subtitles, but better than nothing), which I can't access because Crunchy Roll provides almost no content due to my geographical location, and Funimation doesn't even let me into their site in the first place.

So what options do you have left that work?
Exactly! Piracy!

 

[froggyboy604]

The official Chrome web store does not let add-on developers publish YouTube video downloader extensions or web apps, so most average users will have a harder time downloading YouTube videos at HD video quality settings.

Google Play Movies uses YouTube to let people rent movies, so the movie studios maybe less likely to use YT to rent movies if the average user can easily use a YT downloader add-on to download movies.

 

[Demon_Skeith]

That's actually the part that makes no sense, because there are a big number of browsers that still get well maintained, but get no spotlight.

Examples include qutebrowser (a graphical browser that's been fully operated by Vim-like keybindings, no mouse-friendly UI) and Brave (made by the founder of Firefox and it's meant to ensure privacy online).
And of course there's Opera, a browser that lost its popularity due to the whole Chrome vs Firefox concurrence.


Maybe I should rephrase that: Chromium is not made by Google, but Google does back the Chromium project a lot (which makes sense, since they use it as a base for Google Chrome).
I believe Google is actually known for their involvement with the Chromium project.

Odd then they wouldn't support it but perhaps google finds it too much of a hassle to support so many browsers?

 

[テクニカル諏訪子]

Web standards are there for a reason, in case you didn't know yet.
But I've checked the same video again a couple hours after I posted, and the options 480p and 720p60 magically appeared on the very same browser.

 

[froggyboy604]

Web standards are there for a reason, in case you didn't know yet.
But I've checked the same video again a couple hours after I posted, and the options 480p and 720p60 magically appeared on the very same browser.

I think it takes more time for HD video files to be publish in HD quality on YouTube. Maybe YouTube make HD videos available for viewing faster on popular mainstream web browsers like Chrome before less popular web browsers to reduce website slowdown problems, or it is a software bug in YouTube which make HD video show up slower on less popular web browsers.