Video playback in Windows 11 can be optimized for battery life and network bandwidth. This is useful when you are on a metered network or running low on battery and need to save power.
Here is how to change these settings:
Access Windows Settings (Win key + I) and click on Apps.Â
This opens the Video playback settings. From here, to save the network bandwidth when playing videos, toggle the Save network bandwidth option to on.
From Battery options, for conserving power when on battery, choose Optimize for battery life. Then, enable the option Play video at a lower resolution when on battery.
To turn it off and optimize video playback for quality (which is the default setting), enable it again from Battery options > Optimize for video quality.
You can change these settings and preview how the video playback will be from the preview screen at the top of these settings.
All done.