youtube resolution hobbling

[Eidolon]

This is an odd one. Google Digital code redeems that play via youtube used to play fine in their native resolutions.
But now, im finding that the vast majority of my purchased contents are now playing in limited resolutions.
The Lionsgate and 88Films titles still play fine at 1080 with no problems, but all other company films are playing at 720p on the playstation, or 480 on the Firestick.
Using the 'stats for nerds' disply, it shows that ther eis no good reason why this stuff isn't playing in 1080p still. Bandwith is more than adequate, other 1080p Youtube videos still play fine (as does 1080p in other apps), and the videos are still on youtube in 1080.
So why are they only playing in lower resolutions? Based on the differences between the ps4 and Firestick, this is something that's been done delibarely, someone somwhere has decided to limit res depending on the platform that's playing them, despite there being no problem with said devices being able to play in full HD.
I have checked with friends, and they've all found the same problem.
It's an extremely annoying problem that doesn't seem to have a resolution.

[Grimey]

This has been an ongoing issue for years. It seems even 4K movies play at 720p on Youtube because Google only plays in 4K via their Chromecast Ultra or select Sony and Samsung Android TVs. I have a Roku, and 4K movies on Youtube are also limited to 720p. Fortunately, I realized this a few years ago so I stopped buying movies which were not Movies Anywhere eligible from Google Play. If it's an MA movie, you can at least watch them in 4K on the apps for Apple TV, MoviesAnywhere, Amazon Prime, or Vudu.

To watch 4K Ultra High Definition (UHD) videos, you need a:

Compatible device:
4K Android TV models, like Sony Bravia or Nvidia Shield
Chromecast Ultra connected to a 4K TV
Chromecast with Google TV
Download speed of at least 15 Mbps

[Eidolon]

Originally Posted by Grimey

This has been an ongoing issue for years.

It seems to be getting worse. Despite the resolution limiting on apps, they still played in HD on my computer's web browser.
I've just loaded up Youtube on the computer, and they're resolution hobbled there as well now. So there doesn't appear to be anywhere to watch these in HD.
How is this even legal? If things are purchased under the pretence that they're in HD, then that's what they should be and stay.

I wonder how this applies, considering that Youtube are taking away the quality of the video at which it was purchased. https://www.which.co.uk/consumer-rig...d-aRtaE3n02nm8

[vonDubenshire]

I never use YouTube. It doesn't work well as backwards-compatible with the Google TV/Google Play account.

If you purchase a movie on YouTube, you may or may not have proper access to the movie in your Google library, only in YouTube.

Additionally, the feature I like most about Google is the Family Library. If you purchase anything on YouTube, it is not shareable and will never appear in the Family Library.

I always use Google Play because at least it will show up on YouTube.

As for the resolution issues across Google Play\TV and YouTube...

This comes down to two things:

1. the studio (WB, Lionsgate, Paramount, etc.) uploading the highest-resolution to both YouTube and Google Play, with the same meta-data on the back-end so they "link".
2. The rights\issues with YouTube being basically a separate entity from Google Play, which sometimes causes this issue.