1312627 - Limit YouTube resolutions to the maximum screen size

Status: RESOLVED INVALID

(Core :: Audio/Video: Playback, defect)

Description

[Gerald Squelart (he/him) (not at Mozilla since 2022-09-15)]

YouTube requests whether we can display videos at different size&framerates, this is currently used in bug 1176218 and WIP bug 1259212.

We could also use that information, and the known screen size(s), to prevent trying to play resolutions that are vastly larger than what could actually be displayed.

Note to self: We may still want to allow one resolution that is higher than any display, as it should be a bit better than a smaller size that would need to be stretched. This might not be trivial/possible though, as each MediaSource.isTypeSupported() call is done from a script, without obvious clues that they relate to each other; and sometimes the requests are not even ordered from smallest to biggest! TBC...

Also, the checks are done only once, before the video starts loading, which means that if the user starts to play a video on a low-resolution screen then plugs in a higher-resolution screen, we won't offer better resolutions until the webpage is refreshed. Is that acceptable?

Comment 1

[Jean-Yves Avenard [:jya]]

while I can understand the rationale behind it, I think it falls into the category of attempting to outsmart the user and preventing them from being stupid should they wish to do so.

YouTube already limits the resolution actually chose during playback to a size that is lesser than the viewing panel. So a video with a resolution greater than the screen dimension, will never be played unless the user choose something different. So it's the user wish to play greater resolution.

We've had multiple bugs in the past where users complained that Firefox only offered XX resolutions while Chrome offered much more. Even though those resolutions were of no benefit to the user.

And finally, there are many scenarios where the screen resolution could change mid-way. Plugging an external screen as you mentioned, in a VM resizing the screen etc...

I think we should only limit to resolutions that we can't physically play: that is where the GPU would crash or hang or whatever.

Comment 2

[Gerald Squelart (he/him) (not at Mozilla since 2022-09-15)]

Good points, thank you Jean-Yves.
(At least we'll have a record of this idea now.)

Unless I hear otherwise soon, I'll close this bug as WONTFIX...

Comment 3

[Gerald Squelart (he/him) (not at Mozilla since 2022-09-15)]

Ok, after discussing with Anthony, it seems there was some misunderstanding, as that was not what he intended! (I'll open another bug with his suggestion).

So I'll just close this bug as "invalid", because we don't want to limit resolutions based on the (current) screen sizes. Websites can already query that, and can decide what to do, so we (the browser) shouldn't disallow resolutions that the user may still want anyway.