Microsoft has been promising YouTube playback with HDR support on Xbox since 2017, and after years of waiting, it’s finally arrived.
As Flat Panels HD discovered, Google has added HDR support for anyone accessing YouTube via their Xbox console. It uses Google’s VP9-2 video codec instead of the more recent—and royalty-free AV1 format, but the most point is it works now.
Google confirmed the maximum amount through its support site, stating, “YouTube is out there in 4K on Xbox One S, Xbox One X, Xbox Series S and Xbox Series X models. the utmost resolution for the first Xbox One console is 1080p. HDR playback is supported on Xbox One S, Xbox One X, Xbox Series S, and Xbox Series X models.”
No explanation has been offered on why it took goodbye to urge this work, especially seeing as how Xbox owners already enjoy HDR on Netflix and Prime Video streams. Nevertheless, if you’ve got an HDR-capable display attached to your Xbox, then enabling HDR streams on YouTube simply requires updating to the newest YouTube app via the Xbox store. look for “YouTube” to get the app, download it, and begin watching.
It’s been an extended time coming, but it’s like YouTube finally has HDR support on Xbox consoles. It doesn’t matter if you’re employing a console from this generation or the last, if you’re streaming YouTube on a TV that supports HDR, you ought to be ready to tap into HDR while you watch. this is often something that has apparently been within the works for a variety of years, but it’s here now eventually.
That’s consistent with Flat Panels HD, at least, which tested YouTube on both an Xbox One S from the previous generation and an Xbox Series X from the present generation. meaning HDR support is extremely likely available on Xbox One X and Xbox Series S also, despite the very fact that YouTube wasn’t tested on those two platforms.
If you’re using one among those consoles and you would like to verify that HDR support is up and running for you, you’ll get to toggle on the “stats for nerds” while using the app. There you’ll see that HDR is active using Google’s VP9-2 codec, which may be a rather important thing to stay in mind as Flat Panels HD notes that support for the AV1 codec isn’t live at this point. There’s no telling if Google plans to support AV1 videos within the Xbox YouTube app at some point in the future, except, for now, videos using that codec won’t play in HDR on Xbox consoles.
On Xbox One S, it seems that resolution and framerate are limited to 1440p60 while HDR is active. On Xbox Series X, however, resolution takes a raise to 4K60, which is precisely what we’d expect given Microsoft’s push for the console to support 4K resolution across the board.
So, if you’ve got an Xbox and an HDR capable display connected thereto, you’ll now take full advantage of your display’s capabilities while watching YouTube. We’ll see if the YouTube app is updated within the future to support the AV1 codec, so stay tuned for more.
