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YouTube Slowly Going High Definition
Testing with different video delivery formats...
by Karl Bode Sunday 23-Nov-2008 tags: Video · business · bandwidth
According to Wired, YouTube is slowly but surely making the jump to offering high-definition content via a barely noticeable link at the bottom of some videos that allows visitors to view videos in high def. YouTube tells Wired they're tinkering with different delivery formats, and by adding the appendage "&fmt=22" to some existing content, users can view many videos in 720p. Previously, users could watch videos in higher 480x260 format by adding "&fmt=18" to the end of a YouTube video's url.

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brianiscool

join:2000-08-16
40303
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WoW

HD in a little box lol

Smith6612
Premium,MVM
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North Tonawanda, NY
kudos:21

Re: WoW

watch the video in full screen mode and see if the quality is better

swhitney2003
Premium
join:2003-06-13
NH

Re: WoW

said by Smith6612:

watch the video in full screen mode and see if the quality is better
It's not the best, but a lot better. Still has pixelation problems but hey, it is free and it's getting a lot better. The 720p is probably where there will be even less of a problem.

Note: I watched the above video with the &fmt=18, 1280x800 12.1" screen, so even with that low of resolution the problems were noticable. On my 21" 1600x1200 screen even more so.

Smith6612
Premium,MVM
join:2008-02-01
North Tonawanda, NY
kudos:21

Re: WoW

I watched a few videos on YouTube in 720p and they looked a lot better than the fmt=18 quality. I watched this on a 30" 2530x1600 computer monitor.

jazzy_

join:2004-01-27
Charleston, SC

Re: WoW

Yeah the YT 720p looks great on a 24" 1920x1200 monitor.

antdude
A Ninja Ant
Premium,VIP
join:2001-03-25
kudos:2

Re: WoW

Any good YT samples to watch?

Tzale
Proud Libertarian Conservative
Premium
join:2004-01-06
NYC Metro
said by brianiscool:

HD in a little box lol
Why must everyone complain? Especially the first person to post in a news thread?

YouTube rocks. I use it everyday, multiple times for various reasons.

-Tzale
--
Neoconservatives (G.W.B) are not true conservatives. A conservative believes in defending the Constitution. First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win. - RON PAUL 2008

LeftOfSanity
People Suck.

join:2005-11-06
Felton, DE

Re: WoW

Really?

I barely ever go there. Once a week maybe.

Tzale
Proud Libertarian Conservative
Premium
join:2004-01-06
NYC Metro

Re: WoW

said by LeftOfSanity:

Really?

I barely ever go there. Once a week maybe.
People are different....

In my opinion, the best sites on the internet are this site, wikipedia, youtube and google.... If you don't count gmail as part of google, then that is the fifth site I rely upon heavily.

-Tzale
--
Neoconservatives (G.W.B) are not true conservatives. A conservative believes in defending the Constitution. First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win. - RON PAUL 2008

Tenorguy

@rr.com

Re: WoW

BTW - that quote "first they ignore you...." is not from Ron Paul, its from Mahatma Ghandi. Do a search...

Tzale
Proud Libertarian Conservative
Premium
join:2004-01-06
NYC Metro

Re: WoW

said by Tenorguy :

BTW - that quote "first they ignore you...." is not from Ron Paul, its from Mahatma Ghandi. Do a search...
I know... Ron Paul 2008 was just a campaign slogan using that quote to express how I felt. I guess I should really take it down anyway.
--
Neoconservatives (G.W.B) are not true conservatives. A conservative believes in defending the Constitution. First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win. - RON PAUL 2008

sansri88
digital is here
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fwiw the video screen is now in 16:9, they don't stretch 4:3 vids but HD widescreen vids do fill up the whole thing.

swhitney2003
Premium
join:2003-06-13
NH

What about the tin can effect?

So, are they getting better audio going yet? I'm sick of the tin can effect where everything sounds hollow and 'tinny.' Nothing like hearing a hit classic rock song get destroyed by a youtube version where the audio is shot. Give me ATLEAST 128kbps stereo MP3 equivalent.

53059959
Temp banned from BBR more then anyone

join:2002-10-02
PwnZone

1 edit

Re: What about the tin can effect?

thats exactly what the "high quality" setting offers, is 128kbps stereo mp3 audio

this has been around on youtube for a while

unless this has changed, your video has to be above a certain size like 640x480 or something close to that to be upgraded to high quality, otherwise it stays normal quality

swhitney2003
Premium
join:2003-06-13
NH

Re: What about the tin can effect?

ah okay, thanks. thats good to know.

Smith6612
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The sound is much improved, going from 64kbps mono sound to at least 128kbps Stereo sound.

dvd536
as Mr. Pink as they come
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Phoenix, AZ
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said by swhitney2003:

So, are they getting better audio going yet? I'm sick of the tin can effect where everything sounds hollow and 'tinny.' Nothing like hearing a hit classic rock song get destroyed by a youtube version where the audio is shot. Give me ATLEAST 128kbps stereo MP3 equivalent.
Done on purpose to protect online music sales.
--
When I gez aju zavateh na nalechoo more new yonooz tonigh molinigh - Ken Lee

Romney2012
Defeat Obama 2012-Chg we can believe in
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4 edits

Can also make YouTube default to HD if video in that format

You can also make YouTube high def video your default - if you login to YouTube and have a profile. It will then show YouTube videos in high def for any videos that support that level of quality.

»www.kottke.org/08/11/high-qualit···deo-hack
Set your default viewing quality to high:
When you're logged in, go to Account / Playback Setup / Video Playback Quality and set the option to "I have a fast connection. Always play higher-quality video when it's available."
Example of a YouTube HD video:

»www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2O5n3qouIo


If you want to see it in HD, you may have to go to the youtube link and be logged in. The BBR embedded Youtube in this post might not be in HD.
--
My BLOG .. .. Internet News .. .. My Web Page
Ask yourself one question: 'Do I feel lucky?' Well, do ya punk?

swhitney2003
Premium
join:2003-06-13
NH

Re: Can also make YouTube default to HD if video in that format

You have to manually add &fmt=18 still. Looks good though

freeman

@rr.com

Re: Can also make YouTube default to HD if video in that format

What do u expect for something free lol.

Smith6612
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join:2008-02-01
North Tonawanda, NY
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For HD in the embedded players, you need to change the player's embed HTML for it to work. However when you do this, it messes up the player little bit and it prevents you from skipping or repeating a scene, and forces you to rewatch the video.

dadkins
Can you do Blu?
Premium,MVM
join:2003-09-26
Hercules, CA
kudos:18

1 edit

Look for this...

When the video starts, look for the small popup and link...

I still miss Stage6.

Smith6612
Premium,MVM
join:2008-02-01
North Tonawanda, NY
kudos:21

1 edit

Re: Look for this...

That may work, but it may not give the full HD/full HQ video. The fmt=18 or fmt=22 tricks work best. But if that does show, then yes you're right about looking for that. And long live Stage6!

MagMan
Life is simpler when you tell the truth.
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·AT&T Midwest
said by dadkins:

I still miss Stage6.
Amen to that.

Mactron
el Camino Real
Premium
join:2001-12-16
CM94sv

Re: Look for this...

said by MagMan:

said by dadkins:

I still miss Stage6.
Amen to that.
I'll third that.
--
If only the Verizon CSRs worked this well.

Pashune
Caps stifle innovation
Premium
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Gautier, MS

Re: Look for this...

There are many Stage6 alternatives out there but financially speaking, they struggle to stay alive... Well, at least the ones I've tried out.

supergirl

join:2007-03-20
Pensacola, FL

»www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gjjeP41LTc&fmt=18


HQ & HD

Smith6612
Premium,MVM
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What a suprise!

I posted the news about this on several forums last night, and I wake up this morning to find that DSLR has the news :P

TOPDAWG
Premium
join:2005-04-27
Midland, ON

Looks good

»jp.youtube.com/watch?v=JnYyjwVWeHk&fmt=22


this video looks great.

Tzale
Proud Libertarian Conservative
Premium
join:2004-01-06
NYC Metro

Re: Looks good

said by TOPDAWG:

(youtube clip)
video looks great.
simply stunning....

thanks for posting an example....

-tzale

destroyah

join:2005-04-20
Norwalk, CA
Both the OP and ED for Spice and Wolf, were very close to artifact free, so kudos to YouTube for testing this.

As others have already mentioned, if people upload their videos at high enough resolutions, then we can expect the general quality of YouTube to improve.
--
--20/20 FIOS ~ 19.6D--23.8U--

Fox McCloud
Crazy like a fox.

join:2006-07-23

3 edits
wow, amazing...glad YouTube is going in this direction.

I just hope they don't skip over SD (640x480) though.

I wonder what the audio stats are for &fmt=22?

I know with &fmt=18 the audio is 128 kilobit AAC (stereo) sampled at 44KHz--the video is h.264, 24 FPS, and the bit-rate is approximately 512 kilobits.

having 192 kilobit AAC (stereo) sampled at 48KHz, 30 FPS, and 700-1000 kilobit 640x480 would be pretty awesome, and would be a solid stepping stone for this new HD they're demoing

edit: if you have a YouTube account you can automatically set it to watch high quality videos when available...however, this isn't the most reliable--there's many times where I could watch a high quality video by appending "&fmt=18" to the end of a video and the automatic thing didn't pick it up, so don't count on the high quality automatically to catch everything.

edit: it appears that audio is still 44KHz stereo AAC, but it's now 232 Kbps....I can see people uploading Music to YouTube with a blank 1280x720 video just to upload the highest quality music they can for people to listen to.

--
"True Patriotism is more closely linked with dissent than it is to conformity and a blind desire for safety and security...I accept the definition of patriotism as that effort to resist abusive state power." -Ron Paul
Done_Posting
Shoot to kill
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Toledo, OH
Yes, many thanks for posting a working example. In full screen on my little 1280x800 laptop, this looked close to stuff I shoot in 720p with my Xacti HD1000! I would absolutely love to be able to upload straight to YouTube without having to transcode...

- Tate

--
Happiness is an OC-768 in your basement...

BF69
Premium
join:2004-07-28
Camden, TN
said by TOPDAWG:

(youtube clip)
video looks great.
Looks good, but I'm not sure if I'd call 2.5 Mbps "HD". Technically that's not even SD quality. I mean a 480p DVD has bit rate of 8 Mbps. Maybe I'm missing something.
tmc8080

join:2004-04-24
Brooklyn, NY
Reviews:
·Optimum Online
·Verizon FiOS

divx 6 and h.264 HD

divx 6 or h.264 HD are the only ways to go.. they are already defacto HD codecs.. youtube will just have to choose between these two... choosing and obscure codec could have them in a position backing an hd-dvd style format which will leave a vacuum for other content hosting/streaming sites to fill the void and get it right.

TwoCpus4me

join:2003-10-16

Or

You can ditch youtube, and use Vimeo which already is HD and much higher quality than youtube.
duck9191

join:2005-01-09
Smiths Creek, MI

Re: Or

but with vimeo you can only upload 500meg or and 1 hd video per week unless you upgrade. i usually only upload 1 or 2 hd videos per week but its a pain waiting a week. sooner or later ill upgrade my account i guess.

i tried to upload a hd video to youtube last night, same one i put up on vimeo and its still only low quality. when i use the &fm=22 it goes to the original version. so i guess its only working for some videos right now.

TOPDAWG
Premium
join:2005-04-27
Midland, ON

h

I wonder how long once all videos are like this will studios start to sue even more. They already hate youtube but god if I can watch a show on there with the bad video quality but if you can make it HD it would not be so bad to watch something.
cornelius785

join:2006-10-26
Worcester, MA

this is good news

i'm impressed by the quality of the videos.

it'll be interesting to see if the ISPs start doing more of ther complaining and anti-net neutrality stuff. i know people don't live on youtube, but the increased quality brings and increased bandwidth usage.

it's crossed my mind that there was also net-neutrality reason for doing this now, but that could be considered a conspiracy theory.

wwdubbia

join:2002-06-03
Clinton, NY

Vimeo is where it's at

Check out the HD stuff over at Vimeo.com and YouTube looks like it's stuck in 2002.

fireflier
Coffee. . .Need Coffee
Premium
join:2001-05-25
Limbo

Why bother?

In time we'll all be capped so tightly that watching more than three YouTube HD videos in a month will cost an extra $10.
--
Tradition: Just because you've always done it that way doesn't mean it's not incredibly stupid. --despair.com

meowBB

join:2002-01-21
Hayward, CA

Re: Why bother?

Exactly!
Kord

join:2006-10-27

Not HD

I just don't think they should claim the label HD. That is a standard by which TV is broadcast compared to SDTV. What they are doing here is just allowing higher resolution formats of data stream.
--
I haven't failed, I've found 10,000 ways that don't work.
papi4baby

join:2008-01-19
Callaway, MD

Woo hoo

I'll be the first.

YAY CAPS.

Guspaz
Guspaz
Premium,MVM
join:2001-11-05
Montreal, QC
kudos:16

Ugh

I guess we're finally starting to see the fruits of the Google buyout; they're now able to take advantage of the fact that they have effectively unlimited bandwidth wheras before the cost of bandwidth was drowning YouTube in debt.

Anyhow, Flash video is already insanely CPU intensive, mostly due to the lack of hardware accelerated overlay support. For example, I can't fullscreen higher quality Flash video because my CPU (a 2.16GHz Core 2 Duo) apparently isn't fast enough.

Pushing Flash video to higher resolutions will only make this worse. I really wish Flash would add support for OpenGL and/or Direct3D as an output layer for video, this would solve so many of these problems.

Viper007Bond
Premium
join:2002-09-26
Portland, OR

1 edit

Re: Ugh

said by Guspaz:

Anyhow, Flash video is already insanely CPU intensive, mostly due to the lack of hardware accelerated overlay support. For example, I can't fullscreen higher quality Flash video because my CPU (a 2.16GHz Core 2 Duo) apparently isn't fast enough.
Odd, my not-too-much-faster 2.66GHz C2D that's also doing other things like Folding@Home on my GPU (uses ~10% CPU) as well as other things (20% load on average while doing nothing) can play this new format video fullscreen at 1920x1200 perfectly smooth. All the controls react perfectly, etc.

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