Apple Event: May 7th at 7 am PT
There is, frustratingly, still no VP9 codec support for Safari. Videos streamed through Safari appear to support 1080p at maximum despite 1440p and 2160p support being available.
Searching through this community reveals a query raised over 4 years ago (Jun 2015) with the same issue.
Why is there still no VP9 codec or 4k payback on Safari in 2019?
MacBook Pro 15”, macOS 10.15
Google claimed in a developer article on their website that will refrain from encoding in H264 in favor of VP9 codec. Their VP9 codec is said to be more downstream efficient and/or friendly. This move also means that will make some significant room on their server storage as they don’t need to keep several encoded variants of the same video.
Meanwhile, other third party web browsers like Firefox for example, embraced the VP9 codec and 4K video streaming seems to be working great, if your IP’s download speed is no less that 15 mb/s.
In conclusion it appears “someone” doesn’t want to shake hands in making a deal favorable for the end user. Suggesting you would rather adopt whatever lets you enjoy your 4K streaming content w/o fuss.
Google claimed in a developer article on their website that will refrain from encoding in H264 in favor of VP9 codec. Their VP9 codec is said to be more downstream efficient and/or friendly. This move also means that will make some significant room on their server storage as they don’t need to keep several encoded variants of the same video.
Meanwhile, other third party web browsers like Firefox for example, embraced the VP9 codec and 4K video streaming seems to be working great, if your IP’s download speed is no less that 15 mb/s.
In conclusion it appears “someone” doesn’t want to shake hands in making a deal favorable for the end user. Suggesting you would rather adopt whatever lets you enjoy your 4K streaming content w/o fuss.
I have been communicating for a few days now with YouTube purchase support, since I've noticed sudden playback change from UHD to HD on my preferred web browser, Safari. I guess the change took some time to catch on. I noticed that Firefox will not play any of my movie purchases even in HD, but in SD (480p). On the other hand, Safari won't play any YouTube UHD video content anymore, but Firefox will, even in 8K. See video player setting screenshot below in Firefox:
This the latest, most important part of the conversation from purchase support that I got today. They've been nice and supportive in explaining the compatibility issues to me; so, there is a workaround to this:
"...
There are some devices that you will only enjoy watching the movie on it's highest quality. HD will always be available to watch on:
• The latest version of the YouTube mobile app
• Select 2013 and newer smart TV models
• Android TV
• Chromecast
• Apple TV
• Xbox One and Xbox 360
• PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 3
• Roku
Therefore, it will not work on the quality you paid for or you want on your computer.
...
"
Regards.
What you said makes sense. Definitely seem as if one party aren't wanting to play ball with the other. I'd like to use Safari exclusively, but little issues like this drive me away to Firefox or Brave.
Still no support for VP9 and 4k content on Safari
