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canopic jug [soylentnews.org] writes:

Tom's Hardware is reporting that YouTube uses lower quality options on browsers running on Arm-based systems [tomshardware.com] and that misreporting the browser as running on an x86 CPU appears to be a work around.

Linux developer Hector Martin has discovered [social.treehouse.systems] that YouTube is "deliberately crippling Firefox on Asahi Linux." Martin, also known by the handle Marcan [github.com], says YouTube downgrades the video quality and resolutions served to Firefox users on Macs with Arm-based systems [tomshardware.com], at least when they're not running MacOS. This behavior is particularly galling as Arm-devices can be very powerful in 2023. Asahi Linux [asahilinux.org], for example, is a project responsible for porting “a polished Linux experience” to Apple Silicon (Arm CPU architecture) Macs.

Marcan confirmed his YouTube downgrade on Arm hunch by changing the browser user agent (UA) and doing some A/B testing. After changing the Firefox UA parameters from ‘aarch64’ to ‘x86_64’ he says "suddenly you get 4K and everything!"

Previously:
(2023) Youtube Is Reportedly Slowing Down Videos for Firefox Users [soylentnews.org]

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