T-Mobile-YouTube incorrectly throttles 1080p high bandwidth videos on youtube.com in browser for ALL T-Mobile customers (Verizon, computer)

[wfgarnett3]

T-Mobile and/or YouTube incorrectly throttles 1080p high bandwidth videos on youtube.com in the web browser for ALL T-Mobile customers.

If you are a T-Mobile customer you can see this for yourself right now -- on your cell phone or tethered computer navigate in your web browser to youtube.com (do not use the YouTube app).

Search for any VEVO music video (since they use more than 1.5 mbps bandwidth).

Play the video in the browser, and change the resolution to 1080p - the video will freeze and buffer continously since the stream is capped at 1.5mbps.

I am working with T-Mobile's Office of the President and their engineers where I discovered the issue and I did calls with them and testing at home and in store with multiple devices to confirm.

Hopefully T-Mobile and/or YouTube resolves this soon.

Can I get T-Mobile customers to reply to this thread and confirm they see this issue?

Thanks.

William F. Garnett III

[markjames68]

I get buffering on my iPad so I can confirm it.

[wfgarnett3]

Thanks for confirming!

All - one note - make sure Wi-Fi is off when you test this out.

[wfgarnett3]

One more note - make sure any video optimization settings (like Data Maximizer and Binge On) are turned OFF -- reply if you get buffering at 1080p in browser (not app) for youtube.com

[wfgarnett3]

Here are the images from one my tests in December 11 with USB tethered desktop on T-Mobile (Data Maximizer is OFF on Simply Prepaid 10 GB plan).

Image 1 is Saturday Night video (non-VEVO) that only runs at 1.5 mbps anyway so doesn't stutter in 1080p.

https://imgur.com/a/vA6TzrT

Image 2 is a VEVO music video at 1080p and stutters since Ctrl+Alt+Delete shows only 1.5 mbps is being sent to the computer (regardless of the full 100 mbps of 4G LTE is available)

https://imgur.com/a/BvSwqmK

[dontaskwhy]

OP, you should reach out to T-mobile and/or YouTube directly.

[dontaskwhy]

OP, I noticed your same question in the Cnet forum. No responses there yet. You could try at the Howard Forums site (do an internet search as I didn't want to post a link here).

[Mr5150]

There are a number of reasons i stick with Verizon and don't switch to a cut rate company. Now I have one more reason

[wfgarnett3]

Originally Posted by dontaskwhy

OP, I noticed your same question in the Cnet forum. No responses there yet. You could try at the Howard Forums site (do an internet search as I didn't want to post a link here).

Thanks for the suggestion "dontaskwhy" - I did just that!

Here is my post from howardforums so some T-Mobile Android city-data users can try on their cell phones and reply back in this thread what happens for them.


-------

Reply back the area of the country you live in (can list state or region only if you want for privacy), the plan you are on, the Android model phone you are using (please no Apple iPhone users), and state whether is stutters or not in the web browser in step 8 and verify the YouTube app itself in step 14 plays OK.

Thanks for the help everyone!

Testing Steps

1. Verify first that Wi-Fi is OFF on your cell phone - if not turn it off so the top of the screen shows LTE and the cell signal with no Wi-Fi connection.
2. Log into My T-Mobile and if there are video optimizations available (Data Maximizer, Binge On, etc) make sure they are OFF and HD is enabled.
3. Open the web browser on your phone -- Google Chrome or Samsung browser.
4. Type in web address for YouTube (howardforums is not allowing me to type the web address since I am a new poster)
5. Search for Karmin Hello - the first result should have this at the end of the URL: 0_I0DBUA_GI
6. Play the video (ads may play first).
7. As soon as the video starts click the wheel icon (settings) and change quality to 1080p and click "Stats for Nerds" and click OK.
8. The video will either play fine or the video will stutter and freeze throughout.
9. If the video plays fine the Stats for Nerds Connection Speed should be high.
10. If the video stutters the Stats for Nerds Connection Speed should be near 1500 kbps showing the video is being starved for bandwidth.
11. Close web browser.
12. Open YouTube app on phone.
13. Search for same exact video.
14. Play it at 1080p - the video should not stutter at all.

[wfgarnett3]

Can I get just ONE City-Data user who is a T-Mobile Android customer who lives in the suburbs of Philadelphia (on the Pennsylvania side) and has a plan that supports HD video (and any optimizations turned off) to do the below test steps on their personal cell phone and post their screenshot links to this thread? (so all the city-data users can see this truly is happening in the Philly area as I reported when I verified at multiple suburban Philadelphia stores)?

Here are my latest tests done right now on my cell phone - it still is happening.

Screenshot 1 is web browser on T-Mobile - stuttering

Screenshot 2 is YouTube app on T-Mobile - no stuttering

Screenshot 3 is web browser on AT&T - no stuttering

Screenshot 4 is YouTube app on AT&T - no stuttering

https://imgur.com/a/VhR9V53

https://imgur.com/a/yJ2i7bb

https://imgur.com/a/FXlQ85F

https://imgur.com/a/OO2X6TH

-------

Testing Steps

1. Verify first that Wi-Fi is OFF on your cell phone - if not turn it off so the top of the screen shows LTE and the cell signal with no Wi-Fi connection.

2. Log into my.t-mobile.com and if there are video optimizations available (Data Maximizer, Binge On, etc) make sure they are OFF and HD is enabled.

3. Open the web browser on your phone -- Google Chrome or Samsung browser.

4. Type in web address youtube.com

5. Search for Karmin Hello - the first result's URL should end with v=0_I0DBUA_GI

6. Play the video (ads may play first).

7. As soon as the video starts click the wheel icon (settings) and change quality to 1080p and click "Stats for Nerds" and click OK.

8. The video will either play fine or the video will stutter and freeze throughout.

9. If the video plays fine the Stats for Nerds Connection Speed should be high.

10. If the video stutters the Stats for Nerds Connection Speed should be near 1500 kbps showing the video is being starved for bandwidth.

11. Close web browser.

12. Open YouTube app on phone.

13. Search for same exact video.

14. Play it at 1080p - the video should not stutter at all.