Why does my Chromecast only stream in 480p when my internet is much faster? [closed]
Mia Lopez 
I had a first-generation Chromecast, which would play YouTube videos just fine, but defaulted to only playing them in 480p. I read that the second generation of Chromecast would offer better quality, so I bought a second-generation Chromecast and gave my old one away.
However, the problem remains. Videos from YouTube are only 480p, which look terrible on a 1080p monitor. Small text becomes unreadable, which is especially bad when watching gameplay. I found out when I pulled the cable from my Chromecast and have it restart, the first new video would be in 1080p, but all subsequent ones are in 480p.
My internet connection is 200Mbit downstream, so YouTube should have no problem streaming 1080p video. Why does it default to 480p? And how can I set YouTube to only stream in 1080p?
1 Answer
Don't own a Chromecast, but YoutubeTV has these quality setting on Roku at least. So I would assume they also are on Chromecast, as this article seems to show.
Click the Cast extension button in your browser toolbar and select Options
On the next screen choose a lower quality setting. On the original Chromecast, go for 480p. On the Chromecast 2, try 720p first before going all the way to the bottom.
Credit:How to improve Chromecast performance
Also somebody on reddit suggesting checking "stats for nerds" to see what quality its streaming at: enable stats for nerds and see what quality it's actually showing. if it's in 1080p already then the issue is the video
Also somebody suggested trying to use another app: Any other app is better. Youtube has multiple resolutions available, just like netflix, and both companies have decided not to let chromecast set the resolution manually(doable on a desktop and mobile for youtube and on desktop for netflix) The option still exists for some resolutions and has its own link. If your chromecast requests said link it gets 720p/480p(some people are trying to limit their bandwith use thats also only doable unofficially). You need to use web video caster or a similar app to find the links for each resolution and send them to chromecast. Sadly this isnt an option for youtube 1080p or higher/netflix due to DRM as those links are DRM protected.
Web video caster or a similar app if on Android.
Credit:Can I force youtube to 1080p when streaming to chromecast?
Alternative apps
What is reddit's opinion of Web Video Cast | Browser to TV (Chromecast/DLNA/+)?
The Best Way to Cast Movies from Android or iPhone to Your TV - How-To Geek
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