Monday, April 19, 2010

Improving video quality when using YouTube

Perhaps you are a video connoisseur like myself. If so, YouTube is probably one of your most visited websites; however, there are certain methods to utilize in order to improve video and sound performance.

Newer videos uploaded to YouTube allow users to choose between 360p, 480p, 720p and full High Definition (or 1080p). You may be asking yourself what do those numbers mean to me?

To clarify, 1080 represents 1, 080 lines of vertical resolution with 1920 pixels on each line (Clark, 2006, para. 5).

The following are links to the same video encoded in the aforementioned resolutions. *Please note the high quality versions require a broadband, or high speed, Internet connection in order to be properly viewed.
As the resolution increases, the quality of the video and sound improve. When viewing older videos, users may not be able to choose from these resolutions. However, I suggest manually adding the &fmt= codes at the end of an older video link.

For example, this is the first video ever uploaded to YouTube in 2005: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNQXAC9IVRw

Users do not have the option to alter the resolution; however, users can manually add &fmt=18 at the end of the video to view it in 480p: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNQXAC9IVRw&fmt=18

Furthermore, adding &fmt22 or &fmt=37 at the end of the link will not increase the resolution as the original source video was not recorded in either resolution.

Personally, I typically add the &fmt= codes to music videos to improve the song quality while web surfing.

Enjoy.


Bruckheimer, J.L. (Producer), & Bay, M.B. (Director). (1998). Armageddon [Motion picture]. United States: Touchstone Pictures.

Clark, B.L. (2006, March 13). What’s this 1080p stuff? [Web log post]. Gizmodo. Retrieved from http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/home-entertainment/tuning-fork-160103.php

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