do you need flash to watch youtube above 720p?

You don't need Flash at all to view most YouTube videos as they are switching to HTML 5.

Post a page that has HD options you can't view.

Those are 4K resolution files. Do you even have a display that can play them?

Only the new 5K iMac has that type of display.

How can the file show up in Chrome if you don't have a display capable of showing at 4 K?

4K YouTube files open at a much smaller size and when I click the full size button it expands to fill the screen. But it's scaled to fit the display settings and I don't get the full effect of 4K.

And I tested example from YouTube allegedly posted as 4K files. They open just fine in Safari but my display can't showcase them.

What are your current display settings?

I have a 1080 display and can view those files just fine.

Sorry but its all about your hardware. You can't play a 4K file at its intended display resolution.

I see absolutely no value in downloading the huge 5K sized files if your display can't show them at that size.

You can't even properly view a 1920X1080 file and it's scaled down to fit your screen. You would be better served by downloading the 720 size and "up-sampling" them to fit your display.

It is not about your hardware.. I have the mid 2014 MacBook Pro retina and I also get 720p on OS 10.9.5 but i get 4k in OS 10.10... I don't know why, i will just use Chrome, because there it is a visible difference between 720 and 4k for me and i don't wana get Yose again(battery drains too fast)

Hi

I have the same issue. There's no option in Safari for over 720p on youtube videos, in Mavericks. I have tested another mavericks mac and it also has the same issue. then I tested a os x 10.8.5 mac and its fine loading them, even 4k. QuicktimeKirk, It has nothing to do with screen resolution you can play a 4k video on an old macbook, but you just cant SEE it, and I'm on macbook retina anyway. Chrome works fine, firefox works fine and safari use to work fine until recently. Its strange because i have viewed 4k in safari after the date at which you posted the initial comment. and its been about 1 month since i noticed i cant get over 720p, and i keep everything up to date (except obviously upgrading to yosemite or el capitan). Has it got something to do with this new player youtube have made, the one with transparent boarders instead of the original grey/red bar and circle for the point of the video you are at. Thats the only thing i can think of which could cause these issues. maybe the code isn't written properly for safari in the new player thing.

Here are some screenshots of safari, chrome and firefox, each on the same video. Note safari is on private because I wanted to conduct a fair test and chrome and firefox are fresh downloads and i didn't want previous safari data to interfere with this. Also the apps on my dock are partially yosemite because i changed them, but I'm still on OSX 10.9.5 mavericks.

I wonder if possibly there is just a scroll bar missing in safari? i cant scroll and I've looked in settings. Anybody know how to get the old player? or how to make youtube enable 4k or whatever? anything plz!? I don't want el capitan yet because its terrible 2.5 star average review and my computer works fine on Mavericks, except for this recent issue because before 4k worked fine. 😟 so annoying!!!!!!!!

Also just found this http://forums.macrumors.com/threads/safari-9-youtube-1080p.1924782/

seems very relevant. I've tried this extension someone recommended but haven't had any luck yet. ClickToFlash is its name, bit complicated to me lol.

Got it, here's how to fix it! FINALLY!!

Anyone who needs is having this issue follow these steps, to load flash instead of the new glitches html5 on safari in mavericks. I don't know the specific issue with safari or html5 but using flash works fine after doing these steps:

1: Download this Safari extension ClickToFlash: https://extensions.apple.com/details/?id=com.hoyois.safari.clicktoflash-GY5KR723 9Q

2: Once download is complete, if a window on a page pops up with the settings proceed to step 3, if not keep reading. Click Safari on the top bar > go to Preferences > go to the Extensions tab > select ClickToFlash > then click the box to access the settings. now you're ready for the next step.

3: Use the settings window for ClickToFlash and copy all of the settings in these photos. the "conversion scripts lists" is using defaults btw, the list doesn't fit in photo.

A few of these settings can probably be changed like "initial behaviour" could be set to load or whatever. But this setup works like youtube use to. sometimes when clicking a youtube video it takes like half a sec to load flash.

Now go ahead, check your settings are correct with these 4k videos:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZjmjT5SLYs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNJdPyoqt8U

If this works then awesome, solved 😀! If it doesn't please do reply so we can see if the issue is different for gather more information on the glitch here. Good Luck!

Fantastic. I use the ClickToPlugin, but didn't know it could do that. Much appreciated. In the ClickToPlugin the only difference in settings from the ClickToFlash you mentioned is that for the Media Player I chose Plug-in.

What's odd is that we can get up to 2160p in Mountain Lion Safari 6.x.x but not in Mavericks Safari 9.x.x. Yet Firefox works fine on its own in Mavericks. I can't believe with all of their money Apple can't make it work. It's probably just another planned obsolescence trick to make people upgrade. They know what's best for us I guess. 😕

The ClickToPlugin is an upgrade version of ClickToFlash.

http://hoyois.github.io/safariextensions/clicktoplugin/

Thanks again. 😎