Update 2: Rev2.org guess: “I’d like to think that Apple was testing the limits of the 3G network regarding video quality”. I completely agree.
Update: It looks like Apple “removed” this update suddenly after a few hours later. YouTube plays the low resolution and non-watchable videos again with 3G connection. I hope Apple lets it plays the high resolution in the future. It’s a stupid and non-sense decision to provide so-called optimized version on 3G.
No one can really understand why Apple provided blurry and low quality YouTube videos while connecting in 3G. It would be clear only we use the Wi-Fi. This is pretty stupid. People want to watch YouTube videos on-the-go. The low quality on 3G connection is unacceptable. It really downloads quickly, but we can’t accept that.
Up until iPhone 3.0 beta 4, we still need to tolerate the low quality videos experience. The YouTube subsitute apps like Truveo does not really solve the problem since the database is different. But, in iPhone 3.0 beta 5, the YouTube video is much clearer. It’s the high quality version, finally. The download speed is also acceptable. This is the true online video experience on the iPhone.
You can try it yourself by opening the YouTube app, and search “fray never say never”. Compare the quality with 2 pictures above.
well i don’t see the different here. 3gs with att network. but still watch youtube in low quality.
Tuan Tran,
It was having nice quality for a few hours, but it turns back to low quality. I don’t know why. Probably Apple is testing the network performance, and found that AT&T is so poor, then turns back to the low quality.