YouTube Goes 16:9 Widescreen, It's About Change

Late last night Mashable reported that YouTube changed from the standard 4:3 player to an aspect ratio off 16:9. Since the majority of videos on YouTube are 4:3 the result is the annoying pillar box effect displaying the black bars (mattes or masking) on the sides of the image.

The YouTube blog says, Bigger Isn't Always Better... But in This Case, We Believe It Is, "We're expanding the width of the page to 960 pixels to better reflect the quality of the videos you create and the screens that you use to watch them. This new, wider player is in a widescreen aspect ratio which we hope will provide you with a cleaner, more powerful viewing experience. And don't worry, your 4:3 aspect ratio videos will play just fine in this new player."

This image below shows a 16:9 video in the new default player:


The majority of feedback on the blog post was negative with most people outraged pleading that this new feature be an option and not a default while many others embraced it saying it's about time. This change follows on the heels of the recent HD hack that enables a higher quality viewing at 720p. YouTube may be gearing up for more professionally produced higher quality content created in 16:9 like full-length films from MGM in an effort to compete directly with Hulu.

Other sites like Blip.tv, Vimeo, DailyMotion and SmugMug have already offered video in the HD aspect ratio. Aspect ratio and quality are different. See YouTube's help document on how to upload better quality videos but keep in mind that you'll want to transition to the widescreen format if you want your videos to fill the player.

YouTube High Quality Gets Higher in 720p

Last week Ben Homer of Online Video Watch pointed to a post by Jason Kottke about a YouTube hack for an even higher quality video in 720p. YouTube had previously introduced the current "watch in high quality" option, by adding &fmt=18 (format 18) to the end of the YouTube video's url, which offered a transcoded mp4 version encoded using H.264 with stereo AAC sound at 480x360 with bitrates up to 850K. This was earlier in the year and I posted about it here.

Today the word is officially out they now offer full 720p. This format is similar to what's available DailyMotion and Vimeo.

The Google System blog says:
"If you add "&fmt=22", some YouTube videos are now available at an even higher quality, which makes the full screen view a very useful option. Compare:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlfKdbWwruY (standard format - mono, resolution: 320x180)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlfKdbWwruY&fmt=18 (stereo, resolution: 480x270) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlfKdbWwruY&fmt=22 (new format - stereo, resolution: 1280x720)

To embed a higher quality version of a video, replace "http://www.youtube.com/v/VIDEO_ID" with "http://www.youtube.com/v/VIDEO_ID&ap=%2526fmt%3D18" or "http://www.youtube.com/v/VIDEO_ID&ap=%2526fmt%3D22" in YouTube's embeddable code."

CNET has a good article which Josh Lowensohn tested this with one of his own videos.

Here's the popular "Where the Hell is Matt" video in both the new 720p and standard format,
Update: Unless you have at least fast internet connection (2.5 Mbps or higher) you'll have to wait a long time to view this video.

• The Wired HowTo wiki has great information on Watch Higher Quality YouTube Videos .
• The Video Help forums has some interesting discussions and has spotted some videos available in HD, and there are a number of hacks for downloading
• The YouTube specs for uploading the HQ mode are at a resolution of 480x360 or higher. Check out Jimmy Ruska's Blog for the full specs.