Control playback resolution

Set the resolutions that Mux delivers to the video player. Use playback modifiers to lower delivery cost, save bandwidth, or offer quality tiers to your viewers.

You can control the resolutions that Mux delivers to the video player. Use this guide when you want to cap the resolution of a stream or select a single rendition. For example, you can limit playback to 720p to lower delivery cost on a free plan.

Default playback URL

The default playback URL will contain all available resolutions of your video. The resolutions available will depend on the video source file.

By default if the source file contains 1080p or higher, then the highest resolution provided by Mux will be 1080p. If the source file is lower than 1080p, the highest resolution available will be the resolution of the source.

You can also stream 4K content using Mux Video, which will be delivered at higher resolutions including 2.5K and 4K. For more details see the guide to streaming 4K videos.

Use the default playback URL for most use cases. The video player will determine the best resolution based on the available bandwidth of the viewer.

Using playback modifiers to manipulate playback resolution

Mux exposes a set of playback modifiers, which give you extra control over the available resolutions of your content.

Specify maximum resolution

The playback URL below with the max_resolution query parameter modifies the resolutions available for the player to choose from.

The max_resolution parameter can be set to 270p, 360p, 480p, 540p, 720p, 1080p, 1440p, or 2160p. You may want to do this in order to reduce your delivery costs, or build a feature to your product where only certain viewers get lower resolution video.

Please note that not all resolutions are available for all assets. If you specify a max resolution that is not available for the asset, Mux will limit the resolution to the highest resolution available below the one you specified. For example, if you specify max_resolution=1080p but the highest resolution available for the asset is 720p, then the manifest will be capped at 720p.

Specify minimum resolution

The playback URL below with the min_resolution query parameter modifies the resolutions available for the player to choose from.

The min_resolution parameter can be set to 270p, 360p, 480p, 540p, 720p, 1080p, 1440p, or 2160p. You may want to use this to omit the lowest quality renditions from the HLS manifest when the visual quality of your content is critical to the delivery, for example in live streams where detailed screen share content is present.

Please note that not all resolutions are available for all assets. If you specify a min resolution that is not available for the asset, Mux will limit the resolution to the next highest resolution available below the one you specified. For example, if you specify max_resolution=270p but the lowest resolution available for the asset is 360p, then the manifest will start at 360p.

Specify rendition order

By default the top resolution in the playlist is one of the middle resolutions. Many players will start with the first one listed so this default behavior strikes a balance by giving the player something that's not too low in terms of quality but also not too high in terms of bandwidth.

You may want to change this behavior by specifying rendition_order=desc which will sort the list of renditions from highest (highest quality, most bandwidth) to lowest (lowest quality, least bandwidth). Players that start with the first rendition in the list will now attempt to start playback with the highest resolution. The tradeoff is that users on slow connections will experience increased startup time.

Usage with signed URLs

If you are using signed Playback IDs according to the Secure video playback guide then your playback modifiers must be encoded in the token that you generate on your server. See the modify playback behaviour guide about embedding extra params in your JWT.

Using playback modifiers in Mux Player

Mux Player supports min_resolution, max_resolution and rendition_order as attributes on the web component and props on the React component.

For example to set the max_resolution= parameter with Mux Player, you can set max-resolution="720p" attribute (maxResolution="720p" in React). When setting this attribute Mux Player will internally add it on as a query parameter on the streaming URL.

As with all playback modifiers, if you're using signed URLs, your parameters should be encoded in the playback-token attribute (tokens.playback in React).

When using AVPlayer on iOS

Set the playback modifier by appending a URLQueryItem to the playback URL. Initialize AVPlayer using the URL itself as shown in an example below using max_resolution or initialize with an AVPlayerItem constructed with the URL.