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| Android TV owners can now stream YouTube in 8K resolution |
The YouTube app for Android TV (version 2.12.08) now supports 8K streaming on Android TVs 10 and later.
Currently, many creators offer 8K content on the YouTube platform, but most platform viewers cannot access compatible devices to stream content with this resolution.
Also, not many people have a TV that supports 8K and cannot play videos in this resolution. Because the YouTube Android TV app does not support 8K streaming.
However, with the recent update of the YouTube app on Android TV, limiting support for 8K streaming, this situation is about to change.
The changelog shows that the update supports 8K streams for a limited number of devices, but does not specify exactly which models are currently supported.
If you have a supported device, you will see a new 8K setting in the Video Quality option under Supported Videos.
In addition to the limited support for 8K streaming, the latest app update brings another big change, namely support for Cast Connect.
With Cast Connect, users can use the TV remote control to control streaming media content to Android TV without needing to use the device that is playing the media content.
This makes the streaming experience on Android TV platforms much smoother.
The changelog includes support for 8K streaming, support for Cast Connect, and support for AV1 HDR playback.
Except for Android TV which supports 8K and search for 8K videos on YouTube, you cannot use this feature unless the Android TV platform is running the latest version.
If you are using such high definition online content, the upcoming H.266 video codec should help increase the bitrate in favor of the quality.
Multifunctional Video Codec (also known as H.266) is the future video codec and video compression standard which was completed on July 6, 2020.