YouTube also shies away from the less efficient H.264 for high resolution streaming due to bandwidth costs.Īpple could fix this by supporting VP9 of course, but for reasons known only to them – they haven’t in the past few years and show no sign of doing so. This fee is likely the reason why YouTube hasn’t come to an agreement to use H.265 and instead uses the older VP9 format. The H.265 codec supported by Safari is more efficient than VP9 but carries a licensing fee. This problem cannot be laid entirely at Apple’s door.
Anything but the earliest 4K videos which used H.264 now maxes out at 1440p or 1080p on a typical Mac OS device running Safari. Thus, the platform has been streaming 4K and 8K using only VP9 for the past few years. Even more unfortunately, YouTube chose only to support VP9 and not the superior H.265. When high efficiency video codecs came along to replace the common H.264 streaming format, unfortunately Apple chose not support VP9 and went for H.265 only. Why this has come about – and why it still isn’t fixed after 3 years Until Apple and Google stops ripping off their customers with silly codec wars, here is a solution I’ve found to get 4K YouTube videos working again in Safari. (TVs without HDR just ignore the extra HDR data.Try and watch any new 4K video, trailer or camera test on YouTube in Safari – you will see 1080p or 1440p max! Many broadcasters favor the HLG format for consumers who use antennas because it doesn't require metadata, so both standard and HDR programming can be combined into a single signal that's compatible with both standard and HDR sets. Dubbed "Next Gen TV" by the industry, these new, more robust signals are now available in only a few markets it will likely take several years for the transition to be complete. HLG-and 4K broadcasts-should get a boost over the next year or two as a new over-the-air standard, called ATSC 3.0, rolls out. Of the two services, DirecTV has been more aggressive, with three dedicated 4K channels, while Dish has only one.
These satellite services only use the HLG HDR format-not HDR10-so your 4K TV needs to support it. There may even be some regular HD content with HDR from cable in the future.īoth DirecTV and Dish satellite services offer 4K content, including some with HDR, mainly sports and live events, via dedicated 4K channels. And you may start to see some of the bigger cable companies testing 4K with HDR over the next 12 to 18 months.
However, there are now some set-top boxes from cable companies, including Altice (Optimum) and Comcast (Xfinity), that support 4K via apps and streaming. Most broadcast TV doesn’t yet support 4K, let alone HDR. But if your TV also supports Dolby Vision or HDR10+, it's worth checking out a video service that provides content that uses it. To be clear, if your TV does a great job with HDR-any kind of HDR-you'll benefit from watching any HDR show. HLG is yet another HDR format, and it's the one broadcasters are likely to use (With the basic HDR10, the brightness level is set for the entire show.) Only certain televisions and streaming players support one, or both, of those more advanced formats. Both enable a TV to adjust brightness on a scene-by-scene basis.
Many movies and TV series also take advantage of Dolby Vision, and a few now support an even newer format, HDR10+. This is also the format broadcasters are likely to use as they shift to a new over-the-air broadcast standard dubbed "Next-Gen TV" over the next few years.) (One exception is HDR content that comes from a satellite, which uses a format called HLG. All HDR movies and other video contain HDR10 data, and all HDR-compatible TVs and streaming players can make use of it. If your television supports one of the more sophisticated formats, it's worth seeking out some movies and TV shows that will really take advantage of it. However, there's one HDR wrinkle worth knowing about, depending on the kind of TV you own.