Watching YouTube in a Tesla in 1080p
By Lation, Model Y owner · Updated
YouTube in a Tesla can play in 1080p, but it often starts lower. In Tesla Theater, open the video's quality menu and choose 1080p; in early 2023 the app started every video at 360p. Gigaplay plays up to 1080p, in Park or while driving.
Why YouTube looks soft in a Tesla
- It starts low. Theater's YouTube is the website with the browser chrome hidden, and it has tended to begin at a low quality and step up slowly, or not at all.
- The connection. Premium Connectivity depends on cell signal. A phone hotspot or home Wi-Fi is usually faster.
- The screen is big. At 15 to 18.5 inches, low-resolution video looks blurrier than on a phone.
How to get 1080p
In Tesla Theater: play the video, tap the gear (or the three dots) in the player, open Quality and pick 1080p. Set it again for each video if it drops back.
In Gigaplay: Settings → Quality → 1080p, once, and every video plays in full HD when it's available. Auto matches the video to the size of the browser window, which in the car is often 720p. 480p saves data on a slow hotspot.
What 1080p means on each screen
| Car | Center screen | Resolution |
|---|---|---|
| Model 3, Model Y | 15.4 in | 1920 × 1200 |
| Model S, Model X (2021+) | 17 in | 2200 × 1300 |
| Cybertruck | 18.5 in | about 2650 × 1440 |
Screen sizes from Not a Tesla App. On the Model 3 and Y, 1080p fills the screen almost pixel for pixel, so there's little to gain from higher.
Older cars
Teslas with the Intel Atom media computer (most built before 2022) decode video more slowly than the newer AMD Ryzen cars. In a side-by-side test, YouTube dropped frames on Atom and played smoothly on Ryzen. If video stutters, 720p is the better choice. See Which Teslas work.
For comparison, Netflix in a Tesla tops out at 720p.