Merge improvement/player-drop-hd-experiment: drop HD flash, clean notes (v0.36.4)

VERSION

@@ -1 +1 @@
-0.36.3
+0.36.4

frontend/src/components/PlayerModal.tsx

@@ -20,14 +20,6 @@ import { useBackToClose } from "../lib/history";
 // How close to the end (seconds) counts as "finished" → auto-mark watched.
 const FINISH_MARGIN = 10;
 
-// One-time HD-unlock (see attemptHdUnlock). YouTube hard-caps a windowed embed to ~360p and only a
-// real fullscreen lifts the cap; the lift then persists for the whole page session. So on the first
-// video opened we briefly flash the player to fullscreen and back to coax YouTube past the cap once.
-// Cap the flash at this many ms, but exit as soon as we see the quality actually rise.
-const HD_UNLOCK_MAX_MS = 2500;
-// Module-scoped so the flash happens only ONCE per page session (the unlock persists afterwards).
-let hdUnlockDone = false;
-
 // Persistent playback settings (stored in users.preferences). Auto-advance = what plays when a
 // video ends; loop = whether it repeats the current video ("one"), wraps the list at its ends
 // ("all"), or neither ("off"). Both apply to any queued player (feed or playlist).
@@ -132,9 +124,6 @@ export default function PlayerModal({
   // modal adjusts volume (not just the small player area).
   const dialogRef = useRef<HTMLDivElement | null>(null);
   const volTimerRef = useRef<number | undefined>(undefined);
-  // HD-unlock flash bookkeeping (see attemptHdUnlock / finishHdUnlock).
-  const unlockTimerRef = useRef<number | undefined>(undefined);
-  const unlockingRef = useRef(false);
   // Volume level to flash in the on-player overlay (null = hidden). Auto-fades after a moment.
   const [volumeUi, setVolumeUi] = useState<number | null>(null);
   // When the user interacts with YouTube's own controls (gear/seek/CC), focus moves into the
@@ -157,32 +146,6 @@ export default function PlayerModal({
     if (document.fullscreenElement) document.exitFullscreen?.();
     else el.requestFullscreen?.();
   };
-  // End the HD-unlock flash: exit fullscreen (if we're still in it) and mark the session unlocked so
-  // it never flashes again. Called either when YouTube's quality is seen to rise or on the max timeout.
-  const finishHdUnlock = () => {
-    if (!unlockingRef.current) return;
-    unlockingRef.current = false;
-    window.clearTimeout(unlockTimerRef.current);
-    hdUnlockDone = true;
-    if (document.fullscreenElement) document.exitFullscreen?.().catch(() => {});
-  };
-  // Coax YouTube past its windowed 360p cap: on the first opened video, briefly enter fullscreen so
-  // YouTube lifts the cap (which then persists for the session), then exit back to the small player.
-  // Needs live user activation (the modal-open click) — silently retried on the next click if it's
-  // already expired, and a no-op once the session is unlocked. Best-effort; can't be forced further.
-  const attemptHdUnlock = () => {
-    if (hdUnlockDone || unlockingRef.current) return;
-    const el = stageRef.current;
-    if (!el || !el.requestFullscreen || document.fullscreenElement) return;
-    el.requestFullscreen()
-      .then(() => {
-        unlockingRef.current = true;
-        unlockTimerRef.current = window.setTimeout(finishHdUnlock, HD_UNLOCK_MAX_MS);
-      })
-      .catch(() => {
-        /* no user activation yet / fullscreen blocked — leave hdUnlockDone false to retry on a click */
-      });
-  };
   const flashVolume = (level: number) => {
     setVolumeUi(level);
     window.clearTimeout(volTimerRef.current);
@@ -525,24 +488,18 @@ export default function PlayerModal({
           playsinline: 1,
           // Best-effort HD hint. The IFrame API's setPlaybackQuality/suggestedQuality are hard no-ops
           // now (YouTube removed them), and the undocumented `vq` URL param is only occasionally
-          // honoured — kept because it's harmless. YouTube hard-caps an embed's max quality by the
+          // honoured — kept because it's harmless. NOTE: YouTube hard-caps an embed's max quality by
-          // player's on-screen size; a windowed embed is stuck ~360p and only true fullscreen lifts
+          // the player's on-screen size; a windowed embed is stuck ~360p and only true fullscreen
-          // the cap (then it persists for the session). A CSS transform-scale trick does NOT fool it;
+          // lifts the cap (after which the higher pick persists for the session). We can't beat that
-          // we instead do a one-time fullscreen flash on open (see attemptHdUnlock) to lift the cap.
+          // programmatically — a CSS transform-scale trick was tried and does NOT fool the cap.
           vq: "hd1080",
         },
         events: {
-          // Keep keyboard focus on the modal, not the iframe, so shortcuts work right away, and try
+          // Keep keyboard focus on the modal, not the iframe, so shortcuts work right away.
-          // the one-time HD-unlock flash while the modal-open click is still a live user activation.
+          onReady: () => focusModal(),
-          onReady: () => {
-            focusModal();
-            attemptHdUnlock();
-          },
           onStateChange: (e: any) => {
-            // 1 === playing → sync the navigated-to video's title/author for display, and retry the
+            // 1 === playing → sync the navigated-to video's title/author for display.
-            // HD-unlock (a second chance at the flash right as playback begins).
             if (e?.data === 1) {
-              attemptHdUnlock();
               const p = playerRef.current;
               const d = p && typeof p.getVideoData === "function" ? p.getVideoData() : null;
               if (d) setLiveData({ title: d.title, author: d.author });
@@ -556,15 +513,6 @@ export default function PlayerModal({
               advanceOnEnd();
             }
           },
-          // While the HD-unlock flash is running, exit fullscreen as soon as YouTube's quality is
-          // seen to rise (no need to hold the flash the full timeout). onPlaybackQualityChange is one
-          // of the few still-live quality signals; e.data is a label ("hd1080"/"hd720"/"large"/…).
-          onPlaybackQualityChange: (e: any) => {
-            const q = String(e?.data || "");
-            if (unlockingRef.current && (q === "hd1080" || q === "hd720" || q === "large" || q === "highres")) {
-              finishHdUnlock();
-            }
-          },
           // The embed couldn't play this video (embedding disabled, removed, private…).
           // Surface our own message + an "Open on YouTube" escape hatch.
           onError: (e: any) => setPlayerError(typeof e?.data === "number" ? e.data : -1),
@@ -578,12 +526,6 @@ export default function PlayerModal({
     return () => {
       cancelled = true;
       window.clearInterval(timer);
-      // If the modal closes / advances mid-flash, don't leave the player stuck in fullscreen.
-      window.clearTimeout(unlockTimerRef.current);
-      if (unlockingRef.current) {
-        unlockingRef.current = false;
-        if (document.fullscreenElement) document.exitFullscreen?.().catch(() => {});
-      }
       // Final flush, then refresh the feed + playlists so resume bars reflect this session.
       Promise.resolve(persist()).finally(() => {
         qc.invalidateQueries({ queryKey: ["feed"] });
@@ -651,7 +593,6 @@ export default function PlayerModal({
             <div
               onClick={() => {
                 focusModal();
-                attemptHdUnlock(); // fallback: a real click is a fresh user activation for the flash
                 togglePlay();
               }}
               title={t("player.shortcutsHint")}

frontend/src/lib/releaseNotes.ts

@@ -15,19 +15,10 @@ export interface ReleaseEntry {
 
 export const RELEASE_NOTES: ReleaseEntry[] = [
   {
-    version: "0.36.3",
+    version: "0.36.4",
     date: "2026-07-10",
-    summary: "Experimental: the player tries to unlock higher video quality automatically.",
+    chores: [
-    features: [
+      "Internal in-app player cleanup.",
-      "The in-app player now tries to lift YouTube's windowed quality limit for you. YouTube caps a small embedded player to a low resolution and only real fullscreen unlocks HD — so on the first video you open in a session, the player briefly flashes to fullscreen and back to trigger that unlock, which then sticks for the rest of the session. You may notice a short flash on that first video; later videos won't flash. (It's still bandwidth-dependent, and can be reverted if it doesn't help on your setup.)",
-    ],
-  },
-  {
-    version: "0.36.2",
-    date: "2026-07-10",
-    summary: "Player's YouTube controls back to normal size (a quality experiment was reverted).",
-    fixes: [
-      "Reverted an experiment that tried to raise video quality in the small (windowed) player: it only shrank YouTube's on-screen controls without actually improving quality, because YouTube caps an embedded player's quality by its on-screen size. Tip for the sharpest picture: switch the player to fullscreen once — YouTube then keeps the higher quality even after you return to the small player.",
     ],
   },
   {
@@ -41,9 +32,8 @@ export const RELEASE_NOTES: ReleaseEntry[] = [
   {
     version: "0.36.0",
     date: "2026-07-10",
-    summary: "Sharper in-app playback and full access to YouTube's own player menu.",
+    summary: "Full access to YouTube's own player menu in the in-app player.",
     features: [
-      "The in-app player is now larger and asks YouTube for higher quality, so videos look sharper than the old low-resolution default. (For the maximum your connection allows, go fullscreen.)",
       "You can now open and navigate YouTube's own player menu — Quality, Speed, Captions and More options — all the way down. When you use YouTube's built-in controls, the app's click-to-play and scroll-for-volume shortcuts briefly step aside (a small badge shows this), and they return the moment you move the pointer off the video.",
     ],
   },