YouTube in High Resolution

Thomas Baekdal recently wrote a post with the same title, and it interested me. I have known that sooner or later YouTube would put up some better quality videos, as they have Google’s deep pockets backing them, but what Thomas has shown is that YouTube is already doing so, at least on certain videos.

YouTube has long been the place to watch low-quality videos. While most other video sites allow you to see videos in high-quality, YouTube has stubbornly stuck with its abysmal 320×240. But there is actually a way to boost the quality.

All you need to do is to add “&fmt=6″ to the end of the URL.

He links to two trailers that are the same other than the extra bit of code he mentions, and the one with the fmt=6 is definitely of higher quality. I was shocked at the improvement, and never really noticed how muddy most YouTube videos were until I saw how high quality they could be.

I wonder how long until every video being uploaded will have this higher quality option, or when will this new higher quality version become the normal one we all see? Definitely an interesting post to check out on Baekdal.com.

Share and Enjoy

  • StumbleUpon
  • Reddit
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • TwitThis

Related posts:

YouTube Quick Capture: Record Videos Directly into YouTube
Viacom demands YouTube pull down videos
YouTube HD Coming Soon
Analyst predicts YouTube.com’s crash
Is YouTube going WideScreen?

Hope you like that post!

Forever Geek is a resource for all things geek. You can stay tuned by having the latest FG news delivered to you for free via RSS.