1080p on YouTube over iPhone 5's cellular

[legendkiller]

Bought iPhone 5 from T-Mobile with unlimited data plan, how can I stream youtube videos as if I was connected to WiFi? On wifi I get high quality but on cellular I get low quality, is there an app or settings change that can watch youtube videos in high quality/HD?

 

[JD88]

I can't speak for the iPhone, but on the Android YouTube app, there is an option box that says "Allow High Quality Video on Mobile." I would look for something like that within the app itself.

 

[legendkiller]

I can't speak for the iPhone, but on the Android YouTube app, there is an option box that says "Allow High Quality Video on Mobile." I would look for something like that within the app itself.

No settings available to change resolution... Any more suggestion?

 

[JD88]

Give it an RKO?

 

[legendkiller]

I found an app on App Store called "McTube for YouTube" it has very interesting features that the stock youtube app doesn't have at all... I can play videos in background(sound only) and can stream up to 1080p on both cellular and wifi...

 

[JD88]

Sorry if that wasn't funny.. Yeah that sounds like a good bet. One thing to remember is that 1080p gobbles data pretty fast. Although T mobile says it's unlimited, you'll still get throttled after around 5 GB.

 

[legendkiller]

Sorry if that wasn't funny.. Yeah that sounds like a good bet. One thing to remember is that 1080p gobbles data pretty fast. Although T mobile says it's unlimited, you'll still get throttled after around 5 GB.

I went to visit L.A. And I was getting 2MB/s(download), but in Fresno, I get around 1MB/s(average but 1.5MB/s max)... I'm too far from the cellular tower in my house so I get like 2 bar most of the time which is enough for calls and slow videos(probably 10-75KB/s)

 

[legendkiller]

Also, does 1080p really shows 1080p on the iPhone 5 screen or does it reduces? Youtube(or most modern videos) fit the iPhone 5 screen perfectly but I'm not sure if the video get reduces lower from 1080p...

 

[jaguarskx]

Since the iPhone 5's screen solution is 1136x640 resolution, the video will be scaled down to fit the screen.

In other words, you are "wasting" bandwidth since you are better off streaming 720p (1280x720 resolution) video. That will also be scaled down.

 

[legendkiller]

Does scaling down mean the quality is lower than it should have been or is it like just get smaller without quality reduces?

 

[jaguarskx]

You do loose a little bit of quality when you down scale, but on a small screen it is very hard to tell. But it is a lot better than up scaling which can make the video look pretty bad depending on how much you are up scaling. It's always best to watch video at it's native resolution though.

On a small screen streaming 1080p or 720p and having it scale down should look virtually the same. Just test watching the same videos at 1080p and 720p. If both look just fine then simply stream video at 720p because it uses a lot less bandwidth and you are less likely to get stutters if there is a sudden drop in download speed.