Set Your Video Quality Once, On Every Stream
Picking the quality manually on every single video gets old fast. Previews sets the player to the quality you chose on every page load and every channel change - with a fallback for when your first choice is not available. Works on YouTube, Twitch, and Kick.
How do I make YouTube always play in 1080p or 4K?
Turn on Auto Set YouTube Player To Selected Quality in Previews and choose your resolution. Every video then loads at that quality instead of whatever YouTube's automatic setting decides. If a video does not offer your choice, a fallback quality you pick is used rather than dropping to the lowest available.
YouTube's Auto setting is the reason a 4K video so often opens at 480p and stays there. It guesses from early connection conditions and is slow to correct itself, so a momentary dip at the start of playback can leave the whole video looking soft. Choosing the quality explicitly removes the guesswork.
The fallback matters more than it sounds. Set 4K as your preference and most videos will not have it - without a fallback you end up back at whatever the player felt like choosing. With one, a 4K preference and a 1080p fallback means you get 4K when it exists and 1080p when it does not.
How do I keep Twitch on source quality?
Turn on Auto Set Twitch Player To Selected Quality and pick source, or whichever rendition you prefer. Previews applies it on every page load and every channel change, so hopping between streams no longer means re-opening the quality menu each time.
Twitch resets the quality selection more often than people expect - a new channel, a reload, or a stream that came back from an error can all land you back on automatic. Setting it once in Previews makes the choice stick across all of them.
This page's feature sets your quality when a stream starts. Prevent Quality Drops in Background stops Twitch lowering it again the moment you switch tabs. Together they mean the quality you picked is the quality you keep.
Does it work on Kick?
Yes. Auto Set Kick Player To Selected Quality works the same way as the Twitch and YouTube versions, with the same preferred-plus-fallback pair. Kick's own player has no memory of your quality choice between streams, so this is the only way to make it stick.
| Platform | Setting name | Preferred + fallback |
|---|---|---|
| YouTube | Auto Set YouTube Player To Selected Quality | Yes |
| Twitch | Auto Set Twitch Player To Selected Quality | Yes |
| Kick | Auto Set Kick Player To Selected Quality | Yes |
Where do I turn it on?
- Install Previews from the Chrome Web Store, Firefox Add-ons, or Edge Add-ons.
- Click the Previews icon in your browser's toolbar.
- Switch to the platform you want using the Twitch / YouTube / Kick tabs at the top.
- In the Player section, enable Auto Set Player To Selected Quality and choose your preferred and fallback qualities.
- Repeat for the other platforms if you want it everywhere - each has its own setting.
The same auto-quality logic is also available for hover previews, so the little preview windows do not burn bandwidth at full resolution. See Sidebar Previews and Directory Previews. On YouTube, Auto-Scroll Shorts is worth pairing with it if you watch Shorts hands-free.
Frequently asked questions
Why does YouTube keep playing my videos in low quality?
YouTube's Auto quality setting picks a resolution from the connection conditions when playback begins, and it is slow to raise it afterwards. A brief slowdown at the start can leave the whole video at 480p. Setting a fixed quality avoids the guess entirely.
What happens if the video does not have my chosen quality?
It uses the fallback quality you set. That is the point of having two settings - you can prefer 4K without every non-4K video dropping to something unwatchable.
Does this work on live streams as well as videos?
Yes. On Twitch and Kick it applies to live streams and VODs alike, and on YouTube it covers both live streams and regular videos.
Can I set a different quality on each platform?
Yes. Each platform has its own setting with its own preferred and fallback values, so you can run YouTube at 4K and Twitch at 720p if that suits your connection.
Will my quality still drop when I switch tabs?
On Twitch and Kick it can, because those players lower quality for background tabs separately. Turn on Prevent Quality Drops in Background as well to stop that.