Resolution limits not working on certain videos

[nahuhh]

Checklist

• I am using the latest version.
• I checked, but didn't find any duplicates of this issue in the repo.
• I have read the contribution guidelines given at https://github.com/TeamNewPipe/NewPipe/blob/HEAD/.github/CONTRIBUTING.md.
• This issue contains only one bug. I will open one issue for every bug report I want to file.

Steps to reproduce the bug

1. Set all resolution limits to 144p, 240p etc.
2. Set format to webm Watch this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOUBwOdAdnU

Actual behaviour

Video plays in 1080p mp4

Expected behavior

Video plays in the lowest available quality
And/or
Prompts/warns before playing

Screenshots/Screen recordings

Logs

Device info

• Android version/Custom ROM version: 8.1.0 stock
• Device model: BlackBerry Keyone

[opusforlife2]

@nahuhh Could you try setting the limit to 360p?

@wb9688 That's another DASH video.

[nahuhh]

Changed it to 360p + mpeg4 and same problem

[opusforlife2]

To be clear, you're talking about the "Limit resolution on mobile data" setting and not the default resolution settings, right?

[nahuhh]

Sort of.
It appears to be not specific to the limits but to how they are handled.
If either are below the lowest available limit, it plays 1080, which should never be the case.

I think what may be happening here, is usually "default" is set high and if unavailable, it plays a lower quality stream. Default imo, should only play a lower quality stream if a higher one is not available. And if on mobile data, default setting shouldnt be active, but it is and it has an effect

If "default" is set to 360p AND "mobile data" is set to 360p, the video plays 360p.

If I change either to 240p, it starts playing 1080p.

• The lowest available quality on this video is 360p.

• tested using the mobile network (no Wi-Fi)

• Mobile limit under 360, default over:
  Default: 1080, mobile limit: 240p = 1080
  D 720, m 240 = 1080
  D 360, m 240 = 1080

• Mobile limit over 360, default under:
  D 240, m 360 = 1080
  D 240, m 720 = 1080
  D 240, m 1080 = 1080

• Both over 360 = respects the lower of the 2
  D 360, m 360 = 360
  D 720, m 360 = 360
  D 1080, m 360 = 360
  D 360, m 720 = 360
  D 720, m 720 = 720

Looks like webm vs mpeg4 makes no difference.

So, the problem looks to be that:
When the lowest available quality is higher than lowest limit, it falls back onto the highest quality stream (in this case 1080) instead of the lowest quality available.

[nahuhh]

I said "when the resolution isn't available" assuming that the lowest available was 360p.

I just checked the videos in YouTube Vanced and it appears that 144p and 240p ARE in fact, available.

Not sure why the lower resolutions don't appear in newpipe

[opusforlife2]

Thank you for the analysis, @nahuhh! I love a good testing session (actually, I hate it, but it is needed).

Not sure why the lower resolutions don't appear in newpipe

This video is an example of a DASH video, which Newpipe can't handle yet, so it removes all the unplayable streams since 0.20.0. What you're left with is the playable ones (360p and 1080p).

[pokegamer5547]

I'm having similar to this issue. My default is 240p and limit is 360p. But some videos go upto 720p(with only option to switch to either 720p or 360p in player settings) directly upon loading even with the limit is set to 360p.

[goyalyashpal]

also, quoting similar thing mentioning what goes on behind behind the ui:

It's not a bug because each quality has an unique stream URL so NewPipe let you choose a quality. Also, I think it is useful in order to reduce data and when the default quality isn't available in the streams of a content.
- @ TiA4f8R at #5975 (comment)

[gdroidaan]

I noticed this bug too. It happens in all these cases (video doesn't adjust to):

• Default resolution
• Default popup resolution
• Limit resolution when using mobile data

Tested on NewPipe version 0.21.5

This was also reported (duplicate) in:

#6084

#6198

[nicoursi]

Now that DASH is supported this bug affects only peertube videos because It is VERY rare to find missing resolutions on YouTube streams.

I hope this will be solved soon.

[js290]

I'm seeing this problem in 0.26.1 with youtube live streams over mobile data. With default video format set to MPEG-4, it seems to want to stream at the configured default resolution over mobile data.