YouTube video streams epic fail!

[Gornot]

I really don't have the patience any more, and don't know who to blame first: Google or Adobe.

It happens across all web browsers, all variety of operating systems and Adobe Flash versions I've tried in any and all circumstances (and believe me, I tried them all!)
Loading up a video always plays the 360p stream by default, which suites me just fine. When clicking the full-screen button, the stream changes to 480p. So I have to change it back and watch as the whole stream needs to be re-cached even if it previously fully loaded (only happens the first time I click the full-screen button, of course). Page refreshes don't help me get back the previously fully loaded 360p stream, and if I try to click the full-screen button before the stream buffers, it doesn't change 360p to 480p; it changes to 720p!

And yet I can't seem to find people proclaiming a public lynch on whichever idiot let this slide ever since the "new" YouTube player was rolled out! What-the-hell?!

Please, anyone, please tell me this isn't the sound of my mind blowing to pieces and there is something I could do about it. A script, a life? xD
I use YouTube at least 20 times a day, seriously; if I could I'd give it up a long time ago, but I can't.
Perhaps I should also mention that I don't have an account on the site because Google forces linking their IDs with YouTube accounts, even when connecting with Facebook, lol, and I ain't using anything Google "account-related" even if it costs me my life.

 

[Johnathan Lyman]

Before I start, disclaimer: I use Gmail, Google Docs, Google Calendar, Google Checkout, Google Maps, Google Books, Google Android, Google Earth.

No, I don't think you're losing your mind. If you can provide a link to a video that you are experiencing it, that would be great. Since I have 20mbps broadband, I always aim for the starts on my youtube quality so without actually watching for it, I might miss it.

Turns out that is how YouTube works. Unless you have an 800x600 resolution monitor, a 360p video will indeed look like crap, thus the automatic bump to 480p. Some videos are published with HD quality options and the publisher can choose to have ht HD 720p version display at full screen. Welcome to the era of HD video, friend. It's just how it's going to be.

Who could you blame? No one. YouTube is keeping up with higher quality content available on it's site and my guess is the full-screen-720p-automatic feature was added by request. It makes sense to me.

 

[Gornot]

It happens across the website, no matter which video I'm playing (as long as it has HD streams). I can't provide any particular example because they're all examples lol
I can understand YouTube pushing HD since the whole US has sick internet speeds, but here in Europe it's not always like that.
Having no one to blame just makes me an idiot now, but if the YouTube player has a stream switcher, why would it force higher quality automatically? *sarcasm on* What, they scared I'd die if I don't see Lady Gaga gluing telephones to her head in detail in order to forever preserve such a treasured memory in my mind? *sarcasm off*

Since I use all major browsers on my PC completely at random, is there perhaps a Greasemonkey script (or can it be done) to force the player not to change the video streams upon clicking the full-screen button.

 

[Johnathan Lyman]

Maybe something from this list might help: 20+ Greasemonkey Scripts for Improving Your YouTube Experience

 

[Gornot]

Gah, I knew I read that article somewhere but I couldn't remember which browser it was, and couldn't bother to look through all their histories, lol
Thanks for the link, I think I might just replace the player with this alternative FlowPlayer or something... Whatever keeps me away from this ugly "glitch".