24 lines
1.6 KiB
Markdown
24 lines
1.6 KiB
Markdown
# Videos geoblocking
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## Geoblocking
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Sometimes you may notice that you cannot watch a video on Invidious. This is because YouTube is geoblocking, i.e. preventing access to videos based on your geographical location.
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If the `Proxy videos?` setting is enabled, Invidious will proxy videos through itself, so the stream will be routed like this:
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> YouTube → Invidious/server → Client/browser
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If a video is blocked where the instance is hosted, then the route would be this:
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> YouTube → Proxy server → Invidious/server → Client/browser
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The current system works by cycling through proxies in different regions, and finding one where the video is not blocked.
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The reason geoblocked videos may take a long time to load is because Invidious would have to cycle through all known proxy servers until it finds one that is able to play back the video.
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If the `Proxy videos?` setting is disabled, then the stream would be routed like this:
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> YouTube → Client/browser
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## Video quality and DASH
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On Invidious you often don't have the same quality options as on YouTube. This is because the audio and video streams are separated and Invidious currently can't sync them together.
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DASH is a streaming technique used by YouTube to provide resolutions higher than 720p by providing multiple files for a client to use depending on network and user preferences.
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You can enable DASH by selecting the appropriately named video quality in the settings or by appending `&quality=dash` to the end of a video's URL. With this option enabled, the stream is proxied through Invidious for you to then watch at a higher or automatic quality.
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