YouTube Intros Higher Quality Videos

April 25, 2008 – 4:04 pm

YouTube is one of the top five time-wasters of all time. You can navigate to the site with a specific purpose and find yourself watching random videos for hours. One of the biggest complaints about the video sharing site is its mediocre video resolution of 320×240. This lack of quality is especially evident when expanding to a full screen viewing environment. Good news, complainers: the Tube has recently added a higher quality viewing option.

The option for watching in higher quality is not available for all videos. It seems to only work for newer uploads; those added since the infrastructure change went into effect. Clicking the high quality link reloads the clip in high-res version for your viewing pleasure.

So, how do they look?

In the default YouTube viewing space, the small increase in resolution substantially increases quality. Upon expanding to full screen, the difference is less noticeable. In my informal tests, the speed difference was negligible, although those on slow connections could possibly run into increased load times.

Someday, high-definition content will the be norm, and YouTubeHD will rule the internet video landscape. The large majority of internet connections today are not quick enough to support incredibly high resolution video clips. Until then, you’ll just have to make due with slightly higher quality videos by clicking that little link for every video you can.

Tags: the ultimate time-waster, Web, youtube