YouTube videos typically default to playing in 1080p for me, which isn't usually a problem. However, if the highest quality is 60fps, over half of the frames get dropped (pretty consistently for all 1080p@60fps videos).
Whenever I try to change the video quality settings, YouTube completely ignores the setting I've chosen and returns the video to 1080p. The quality will change to what I've selected, but after a few seconds of playback at the quality I selected (from what I can tell, it play whatever buffers within approx. the 1st second after I change the quality) it returns to 1080p. This happens in all player sizes, and even using extensions to override the default YouTube behavior doesn't fix it. I'm using Chrome 39.0, running on a Win 8.1 machine with hardware acceleration disabled (although the same thing happens when hardware acceleration is enabled).
Any insight about why this might be and how I can fix it? It's seriously hindering my ability to enjoy some videos.
EDIT: I've noticed that this doesn't always happen, it seems to be on a day-to-day basis. Some days I can change the quality settings on all videos without an issue, other days they get stuck as described above. I'm not sure what's causing the difference, but I'll be keeping an eye out to see if I can figure out the source of the problem. If I do, I'll update things over here.
Best Answer
There are two option available to play the youtube video and you need to select one
(i) Always choose the best quality for my connection and player size
(ii) I have a slow connection. Never play higher-quality video
This can be seen in the setting page by going to settings -> playback and it is applicable for globally.
If you have chosen the 1st option,then video would be played in hd mode.
There is choice in the playing video you have option to chose the pixel size.This is saved temporarily so if you refresh it would revert back to the default option and your selection would be unchecked so this is reason why it went back to 1080 p since you have select the 1st option.