Issue with Video Resolution Options in FreeTube

[aryaritesh08]

Hello FreeTube Team,

I’ve encountered an issue with the video resolution options after a recent update. Previously, there was an option to select 720p videos without specifying 60fps, which was ideal for my setup as my PC struggles with 60fps videos. However, after updating to the latest version, this option is no longer available. The only choices now are 720p60 and 1080p60.

Details:

Previous Functionality: The ability to select 720p without 60fps.
Current Issue: Only 720p60 and 1080p60 are available.
Device Specs: My PC struggles with 60fps videos, making the 720p60 option unsuitable.
Could you please investigate this issue or guide me on how to get the previous resolution options back? Additionally, could you provide insight into why this change was made? Understanding the reason behind this alteration might help in finding a suitable workaround.

Thank you!

Additional Information:

FreeTube Version: v0.21.3 Beta
Operating System: Windows 10 pro

[absidue]

Unfortunately that is a known side effect of the workaround we had to use to get videos to play again. At the moment FreeTube pretends to be an iPhone and YouTube doesn't offer 720p 30fps streams to iPhones on 60fps videos.

There is nothing you can do from your side to get that stream back, well you could downgrade to an older version of FreeTube from before that workaround was added, but then the videos won't play, so there is no point in doing that.

[aryaritesh08]

Thanks for the clarification!
I’m curious to understand how this feature functioned previously. Did YouTube offer 30fps videos before, or was this handled differently within FreeTube? Also, I’d like to know if there are any plans to reintroduce this feature in a future update. Is there a chance we might see this option return?

[absidue]

FreeTube used to pretend to be the YouTube website for which YouTube does provide 720p 30fps on 60 fps videos, but then YouTube introduced changes that broke video playback in FreeTube (and various other 3rd party YouTube clients and downloaders). Which is why FreeTube had to switch to pretending to be an iPhone.