Probably some really stupid simple answer I'm missing but just installed Ubuntu gnome on my laptop (first real journey into the mysterious land of linux) and I can't get youtube videos to play at anything higher than 360p. Everything else seems to be working so far otherwise. Any help is much appreciated, and hopefully I'll soon be able to help people instead of being the noob asking stupid questions.
Edit: I've got the dumbs, flashplayer makes things work better.
Why can't you watch videos in HD?
Is it because the option is not there? Is it because you click the option and it does nothing? Is it because it is just a black screen?
How does the problem manifest?
The videos play fine in 360p but when I hit the option button where I'd normally see all the different options I only see 360p so the other options are not there.
What browser are you using? Do you have flash player installed?
I had a similar problem when using Firefox. I believe the thing that fixed it was installing the flashplugin package. I had thought it came pre-installed on Ubuntu, but it might be worth checking to make sure it's installed (if you need instructions on how to do this, feel free to ask). Another thing you can try is to install Chromium and see if you get the same problem.
You could also try doing a system update. Sometimes these things are bugs that have been fixed recently.
If you are using Chromium/Chrome, you need to install the pepperflashplugin-nonfree from the Ubuntu Software Store. Should fix the issue.
I'm infected with the dumb.... I installed chrome and flashplayer, and it runs fine in both firefox and chrome.