They force AV1 and VP9 via software decoding even if your hardware doesn't support it. Youtube been using VP9 for a decade, even without HW support at the time.

They force AV1 and VP9 via software decoding even if your hardware doesn't support it. Youtube been using VP9 for a decade, even without HW support at the time. Netflix uses AV1 when on mobile data, even if the HW doesn't support as well (for TVs, it need HW decoding). The only way to not use VP9 on Youtube is if you don't have the codec installed, which is super rare because the codec is open.