Mon Mar 10, 2008 11:11AM EDT
See Comments (11)
Any YouTube fans out there tired of its low-resolution videos? Personally, I'm still waiting for that high-resolution player the company promised some time ago. Many YouTube competitors, such as Blip.tv, have been offering high-definition content for some time so I'm puzzled by YouTube's late entrance into the HD arena, since the company is already talking about streaming live video.
Back in November Steven Chen said the company was testing a player that detects a viewer's connection in order to serve up high-quality videos, but if you can't wait until that's launched, there are a few things you can do.
Apparently YouTube stores videos in their native resolution, so by appending a few extra characters to the end of the URL, you can access high-quality videos instantly. I tested it, and it worked, so here it goes:
Example:
Regular video (320x240): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBfZ0WvZxF0
High-quality video (448x336): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBfZ0WvZxF0&fmt=6
Higher-quality video (480x360): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBfZ0WvZxF0&fmt=18
I'm not sure if this will work for all the videos on YouTube, but it works fine with newer videos. If you don't think you can remember those characters, you can download a Firefox script that automatically does this for you. Give it a try.
Related:
YouTube to Stream High-Quality Videos Soon
YouTube to stream video this year, maybe
Join in the discussion. Here you'll see the comments in the order they were posted.
this metro92242 i have used you tube for some time but i have dile up and cant get proper vidio shoud i quit trying or is there better way. metro92242@yahoo.com thank you.
hey is there a script for safari??
All the videos I post are 1024x768. How can the viewers take all that in? (YouTube user name - gunlawssuck) It looks great on my pc.
ok very wierd...... the second one came out the clearest!! why is that?? the 18 was not clear at all!
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1 Posted by nolo_8 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 7:40PM EDT Report Abuse
thanks for the firefox script!