# enhanced-h264ify

> Choose what video codec YouTube should play for you

Canonical page: [https://chrome-stats.com/d/enhanced-h264ify](https://chrome-stats.com/d/enhanced-h264ify)

## Overview

- **ID:** `enhanced-h264ify`
- **Platform:** Firefox
- **Type:** Firefox add-on
- **Status:** Available
- **Publisher:** Alex
- **Category:** photos-music-videos
- **Daily users:** 17,155
- **Weekly downloads:** 2,051
- **Rating:** 4.44 / 5 (118 ratings)
- **Version:** 2.2.1
- **Last updated:** 2024-05-30
- **First published:** 2019-04-07
- **Size:** 25 KB
- **Data as of:** 2026-09-14
- **Store listing:** [Firefox Add-ons Store](https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/enhanced-h264ify/)

## Description

**enhanced-h264ify** is a powerful Chrome extension that lets you control YouTube's video codec playback. Unlike the standard h264ify, this enhanced fork provides advanced features allowing you to manually block video codecs such as H264, VP8, VP9, AV1, and manage 60fps video playback. 

Designed especially for devices with hardware decoding support for H264 but limited or no support for VP8/VP9, this extension ensures smooth video streaming on YouTube by restricting playback to your preferred codecs. By default, it blocks all codecs except H264 and 60fps video formats. This makes it an ideal tool for optimizing video performance and reducing resource consumption on compatible devices. The extension works exclusively on YouTube and is open source on GitHub.

## Rankings

- #563 — Overall
- #80 — Photos, Music & Videos
- #5 — enhance
- #24 — choose
- #125 — marketing

## Permissions and access

### Permissions

- `storage`

### Content script matches

- `*.youtube.com`
- `*.youtube-nocookie.com`
- `*.youtu.be`

## Safety

- **Risk impact:** High risk impact
- **Risk likelihood:** Low risk likelihood

### Analysis details

- Request access to the following domains: youtube.com, youtube-nocookie.com, youtu.be
- This extension has medium user count. Unpopular extensions may not be stable or safe.

> Some risk analysis details are omitted from this free response. [Upgrade to view the full analysis](https://chrome-stats.com/pricing).

## Review summary

Pros: reduces CPU usage and heat when blocking AV1/VP8/VP9, enabling hardware-decoding (H.264/AVC1) on older machines; confirms codec blocking works; can lower RAM usage; simple to use. Cons: causes video playback failures (black screens, not loading) on many videos when codecs blocked; can break YouTube and livestreams; occasional stoppage after site changes; inconsistent across videos. Summary: widely helpful for aging hardware seeking lower CPU load and HW-accelerated playback, but reliability varies with sites and videos; users should be aware of potential breakages.

### Pros

- Significant CPU usage/temperature reductions when blocking AV1/VP8/VP9
- Improves performance on older hardware by enabling hardware-decoding (H.264/AVC1) and reducing CPU load
- Blocks AV1/VP9/VP8 (and Opus audio) as intended to force fallback to compatible codecs
- Reduces RAM usage on some systems
- Easy to use for background playback without fiddling with settings

### Cons

- Playback failures or black screens when blocking certain codecs (AV1/VP9/VP8) on many videos
- YouTube compatibility issues / site instability; videos may not load on YouTube
- Livestreams may break or become unusable
- Occasional stoppage or slowdown after changes to YouTube/website implementations
- Inconsistent effectiveness on some videos (some codecs remain in use)

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Source: [Chrome-Stats](https://chrome-stats.com/d/enhanced-h264ify)