Written by Chris Albrecht
Posted Friday, December 5, 2008 at 10:04 AM PT

 

YouTube Switches on HD

The Internet is abuzz this morning with news that YouTube has added “HD-quality” video to its site. Not to be confused with the “higher-quality” stuff they’ve had before, this is supposedly the real deal.

Reports had surfaced a few weeks back that YouTube was stealthily launching this higher and deffer service on select videos such as the Where the Hell is Matt world dance jam. Techcrunch writes today that to see it for yourself, instead of hunting around, just visit YouTube and do a search for “HD” and a bunch of videos will pop up. One NTV commenter gave us a link to his work that shows just how good the new HD option is. See screen grabs below.

YouTube NOT in HD youtube-not_hd-2

YouTube in HD youtube_in_hd

While other sites that have HD options like Vimeo and Dailymotion aren’t much of a threat to YouTube’s dominance in the online video market, the writing was on the wall. Grainy, crappy versions of clips weren’t going to cut it in a high-definition world, especially as web video starts migrating to the television.

And what a difference a year makes. At NewTeeVee Live 2007, YouTube co-founder Steve Chen said that higher-quality video was not as important as having as many people as possible watching video. Maybe YouTube feels that 344 million uniques a month is enough, because in recent months they’ve reversed that stance, offering “higher quality” at first, then widescreen.

The new, polished look goes well with the new, polished professional content YouTube’s been getting from the studios.

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Comments & Trackbacks

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    YouTube ups video quality to 720p - CyberTheater on December 5th, 2008 at 1:54 pm - Permalink

  2. I like that YouTube has added HD option, when I uploaded a clip on Tuesday, it had the option already.

    However I don’t like that it’s not the default option. Even with my settings set to Hi-Rez, I still get the low rez version which looks like crap.

    If I want people to see it, I’d rather it be defalulted on HD, but there doesn’t seem to be that option. I guess I’ll have to wait.

    Dennis on December 5th, 2008 at 2:55 pm - Permalink

  3. [...] NewTeeVee] [Artículo en [...]

    YouTube finalmente funciona en HD. « Tecnología y Heavy Metal. on December 5th, 2008 at 4:48 pm - Permalink

  4. Great. Now watch on your HDTV. PCTVCables.com

    pctvcables.com on December 5th, 2008 at 6:03 pm - Permalink

  5. [...] YouTube also went HD today for videos that are high enough [...]

    Facebook Video Goes HD and Embeddable « NewTeeVee on December 5th, 2008 at 7:49 pm - Permalink

  6. I posted a detailed codec quality specifications comparison for all the Online video sites that now provide the free HD Flash streaming feature: http://techvideoblog.com/reviews/online-video-sites-hd-quality-comparison/

    Charbax on December 6th, 2008 at 12:11 am - Permalink

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  9. [...] Read full article here Posted by bdeleon Filed in Distrubution [...]

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  10. [...] Read full article here This entry was posted in Distribution. Bookmark the permalink. Post a comment or leave a trackback: Trackback URL. « Order iPhone online, pick-up in store? [...]

    Distribution - YouTube goes HD on December 7th, 2008 at 11:08 am - Permalink

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  16. Good news.
    i like HD video,and I have found a way to download HD video,
    http://www.download-streaming-video.com/youtube-downloader/#137

    Now i can view HD video on my pc.

    blueangle on April 16th, 2009 at 7:17 pm - Permalink

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