The VideoLAN Forums

HLS (HTTP Live Streams), i.e. german tv-channels- addresses taken from mediathekview, are always played in the lowest bitrate. Same address played in for example kodi is played in the highest available bitrate. This behavior occurs on Linux and Android. Former Versions of VLC two about years ago played the links fine.

Try VLC 3.0 preversions. HLS is pretty broken in 2.2 and earlier.

Confirmed. Problem solved in 3.0.
Thank you and the whole team for vlc !