The VideoLAN Forums

Despite my device being capable of playing YT videos in Full HD in a browser (MBP mid2012 9,1), VLC constantly picks up only 720p despite the videos offering the 1080p option. I tried to change setting in VLC's preferences to either "Best available" and "1080p" to no avail, still getting 720p.

I fail to understand how that's helpful aside from the fact that the linked thread confirms VLC can't stream 1080p by default in 2021. Inside this thread, a referenced link, in turn, to another thread addressing the subject of how one enables the use of youtube-dl (which I had already installed) doesn't solve the problem either because when I install youtube-dl.lua VLC refuses to play the URL at all. Since it's 10.7 and the issue likely lies within obsolete SSL protocols that 10.7 used to send the queries, setting additional parameters like environmental variables for youtube-dl to pass its traffic through a proxy translating the old generation SSL to the new one might be needed (I use such a proxy and am able to connect to modern cites and services), but this topic is nowhere to de discussed.

It's now 3.0.14. The change log boasted an impressive set of features such as 4K and 8K playback, but it still plays 720p YouTube Videos. Is this going to be addressed before VLC 4 becomes available for the public? It's 2021 and YouTube streaming quality is stuck in 2011.

The reverse-engineered YouTube API we use does not expose higher resolution content. So far, no volunteer worked on this, I'm afraid.