Chromium browser on Android and fullscreen scaling issues
September 29, 2021 7:22 AM Subscribe
18:9 screen + Android + Chromium + Youtube desktop version + Fullscreen = Pain + Fail. Why? How fix?
I'm trying to watch Youtube videos in fullscreen on an Android device using a Chromium based browser (Kiwi browser.) I am using the desktop version of YT because it has a mute button, as I want to continue listening to music playing in the background, and Android is apparently too braindead to let more than one app play music. There is no mute button on the mobile site so playing a video takes over the audio and stops whatever was playing in the background.
Watching 16:9 content on my 18:9 screen in landscape orientation, when I fullscreen, Youtube does the dumbest possible thing and cuts off the top and bottom of the video, scaling to fit the width rather than the height. Why? Who would ever want that? Is there a Chromium flag I can set to get the proper 'fit' scaling with vertical black bars, or a user-script/extension I can install? (Kiwi browser allows extensions, unlike Chrome, so this is an option.) Also, there is an incredibly annoying delay of several seconds of complete blackness when switching into fullscreen, is there any way to fix that?
Using the mobile version of the site in the same browser does the proper scaling and there's no delay when entering fullscreen. I sure would like to just use that, but *grits teeth* there's no f'ing mute button or volume control of any kind. Also, the mobile version of the site doesn't seem to go above 720p, when a higher resolution is definitely available. (Although sometimes it does, it is very non-obvious how this works.) Deskop site always supports 1440p and 4k.
I realize I can use the 'site permission' browser feature to block audio in the mobile site, but this is quite clunky as sometimes I do want audio.
I've tried all kinds of pinch-zoom gestures, but they are not recognized in the desktop version of the site, which interprets them as double-clicking to fast-forward or rewind, or just ignored. I have the Chromium option of 'always allow zooming' enabled, but it apparently does not apply to fullscreen.
I've confirmed that it works this way in Chrome proper too as well, so it's got nothing to do with Kiwi browser specifically.
I can almost get what I want by using a YT browser extension to hide the stupid YT floating search bar and then use theater mode, which gives a near-fullscreen effect, but the Android notification bar is still there at the top of the screen. Is there any way to hide that?
Firefox for Android, bless its heart, does work properly when doing fullscreen on the desktop YT, and I may just have to return to that, but I was hoping for a Chromium based browser, given that I despise how Mozilla's idiot management has run Firefox into the ground. Also Firefox does not seem to handle proper 60fps playback without microjank and stutter, whereas Chromium is glassy smooth.
None of this has anything to do with the Youtube app, which I have zero interest whatsoever in using.
I've tried googling for solutions, but the results are swamped with people talking about the Youtube app, or people talking about the mobile site, or fullscreening the browser in general (i.e. F11), or a million other things that don't apply to my situation.
This is so annoying. Every single thing I try to do on Android is like this, it will almost but not quite work.
TL;DR Summary:
- Can someone tell me either how to get a mute button in mobile YT or fullscreen working properly in desktop YT?
I'm trying to watch Youtube videos in fullscreen on an Android device using a Chromium based browser (Kiwi browser.) I am using the desktop version of YT because it has a mute button, as I want to continue listening to music playing in the background, and Android is apparently too braindead to let more than one app play music. There is no mute button on the mobile site so playing a video takes over the audio and stops whatever was playing in the background.
Watching 16:9 content on my 18:9 screen in landscape orientation, when I fullscreen, Youtube does the dumbest possible thing and cuts off the top and bottom of the video, scaling to fit the width rather than the height. Why? Who would ever want that? Is there a Chromium flag I can set to get the proper 'fit' scaling with vertical black bars, or a user-script/extension I can install? (Kiwi browser allows extensions, unlike Chrome, so this is an option.) Also, there is an incredibly annoying delay of several seconds of complete blackness when switching into fullscreen, is there any way to fix that?
Using the mobile version of the site in the same browser does the proper scaling and there's no delay when entering fullscreen. I sure would like to just use that, but *grits teeth* there's no f'ing mute button or volume control of any kind. Also, the mobile version of the site doesn't seem to go above 720p, when a higher resolution is definitely available. (Although sometimes it does, it is very non-obvious how this works.) Deskop site always supports 1440p and 4k.
I realize I can use the 'site permission' browser feature to block audio in the mobile site, but this is quite clunky as sometimes I do want audio.
I've tried all kinds of pinch-zoom gestures, but they are not recognized in the desktop version of the site, which interprets them as double-clicking to fast-forward or rewind, or just ignored. I have the Chromium option of 'always allow zooming' enabled, but it apparently does not apply to fullscreen.
I've confirmed that it works this way in Chrome proper too as well, so it's got nothing to do with Kiwi browser specifically.
I can almost get what I want by using a YT browser extension to hide the stupid YT floating search bar and then use theater mode, which gives a near-fullscreen effect, but the Android notification bar is still there at the top of the screen. Is there any way to hide that?
Firefox for Android, bless its heart, does work properly when doing fullscreen on the desktop YT, and I may just have to return to that, but I was hoping for a Chromium based browser, given that I despise how Mozilla's idiot management has run Firefox into the ground. Also Firefox does not seem to handle proper 60fps playback without microjank and stutter, whereas Chromium is glassy smooth.
None of this has anything to do with the Youtube app, which I have zero interest whatsoever in using.
I've tried googling for solutions, but the results are swamped with people talking about the Youtube app, or people talking about the mobile site, or fullscreening the browser in general (i.e. F11), or a million other things that don't apply to my situation.
This is so annoying. Every single thing I try to do on Android is like this, it will almost but not quite work.
TL;DR Summary:
- Can someone tell me either how to get a mute button in mobile YT or fullscreen working properly in desktop YT?
This thread is closed to new comments.
I use a different, different youtube frontend called Invidious. It's an instanced web thing, so I use it across multiple machines and in Firefox mobile. I run my own inside my house, but here's the main public instance.
On android, I redirect all youtube app traffic to my Invidious using this app, UntrackMe. It acts as an "open with app" for multiple link types.
posted by Snijglau at 9:41 AM on September 29, 2021