YouTube has apparently changed all videos on its site to play in widescreen format. Because most videos on the site were originally uploaded in a ratio closer to 4:3 (the standard size used on non-HD televisions), most videos are playing with horizontal black bars on the side. Some videos (like this one) are taking advantage of the full space, but are shrunk down to the normal size when they’re embedded elsewhere.
It seems that YouTube is either doing A/B testing or that the changes haven’t propagated to all servers (if that’s even possible) – hard refreshing on videos seems to alternate between the standard video player and the widescreen one. But it’s a widespread change, as hundreds of tweets are pouring in in about the switch to widescreen.
Widescreen YouTube videos have been spotted before now and could be enabled using a tag in the video’s URL, but this seems to be the first time that the feature is activated by default. The change may be related to YouTube’s recent announcement of full-length films from MGM, which pits it directly against Hulu.
YouTube is by no means the first video site to go widescreen – Blip.tv (my favorite YouTube alternative) has long had the feature. And as the comments point out, sites like Vimeo and SmugMug already offer video in HD.
Update: YouTube has written about the change on its blog.
Get ready for HD Tube!
ADVICE TO YOUTUBE’S MARKETING TEAM:
When uploaded videos have a 4:3 ratio, why not you use the empty black spaces for adversting? Just move the video to the right in player and you get a 160×360 space for a nice skycrapper banner. It’ll be less invasive than current lower-third ads. And since at least 80% of uploaded videos will remain on a 4:3 aspect ratio (because most cheap cams shoot in that format), then I see here a pretty decent monetizing opportunity.
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Note that this has NOTHING to do with HD. aspect ratio and resolution are 2 different things.
youtube just switched from 480×360 (4:3) to 640×360 (16:9) but it’s still a shitty resolution compared to HD as found on DailyMotion or Vimeo.
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Finally, I’ve noticed this new player’s got better too with its slider. Now it’s possible to pin-point a specific min:sec in the track, something that always was an issue when moving the slider forward (or backward) because the player’s slider was tied to keyframes.
Nice idea, but in my eyes youtube should not raped to a commercial side only. Google earns enough money with ads, and I expect negative effects when plastering youtube with ads, because people are searching for videos with mostly a non-purchase intention. Therefor Youtube could make a special commercial site as a subdomain buy.youtube.com, where people could see ads or the function of a product they are interested in. Exactly there would be ad’s linking to the shops awesome.
side note: thanks for fixing the comment feature for Opera Browsers!!!
I’ve not seen so here in India. May be the servers have not uploaded it. But is it possible really like that?
Would be waiting to see what comes next from them.
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Sampad
I predict that by the end of the year all major video hosts will be wide screen. And there’s a ton of pressure out there to do HD like SmugMug and Vimeo.
yep …HD guys, that will be something awesome
I agree with Robert – web video to TV is finally very close. Widescreen and HD are needed to make it a quality user experience.
I posted this before Techcrunch! How do I format my videos now? Any Tips?
simply post them in 640×360
You could film your videos using an HD camcorder like the new Flip Mino HD available on Amazon.com for $206.99 – http://tinyurl....m/BuyFlipMinoHD
Nice affiliate link
Yeah me too, don’t feel special. If you uploaded a video that was widescreen before YouTube would automatically letterbox it. Now if you look at those videos they should fill it up with no letterbox, assuming you have the right aspect in the first place.
I agree with Scoble. The should have selectable quality like the Wizzard player I use on my site. It automatically selects the quality based on your connection speed but you can click any quality you want…Low, High or HD. That is the wave of the future for sure.
You mean a link close to the video, something like “Watch in High Quality?”
Inconceeeeeeeivable.
Youtube is getting ready to really push. Their video id technology kicking in (giving content security) small test deals with CBS, etc which seem to be generating a fair amount of views and traditional ad views, now this. Be prepared to see them ramp up professional content in order to counter Hulu over the next year.
The annotations I spent hours adding to my vids are gone. I surely hope this is temporary!
I hope it’s permanent.
I was referring to the deletion of my annotations, not the wide screen, dimwit
So was I. Annotations are annoying as fuck.
Amen, Steven. 99.98% of annotations are worse than useless.
I have to agree with Austin and Steven, I always turn it off. Very annoying.
With Silverlight Streaming (http://silverlight.live.com) we do HQ (1.4 Mbps/sec) 5GB free* storage — looks great coming off the CDN.
-Angus
*see the terms of service dev.live.com/terms
At Silverlight, even our comments require an EULA…
To take full advantage of the above widescreen video of course:
http://www.yout...=dir&fmt=18
I saw this for the first time about about 2 weeks ago, and I’ve seen it ever since.
It also adds the benefit to 4:3 ratio videos of a darker contrast viewing area, something that enhances the video for the viewer.
so by spring 2009 HD will be reality on youtube? …or we should wait until porn sites go HD then we know when youtube will be HD
If the highest-margin industry (porn) can’t make the business case, youtube ain’t gonna be able to either. Unless they just throw cash at it, M$ style.
Yeah, Hulu should throw in the towel. Genius.
I just tried it out and it seems that pretty much all of the video’s are switched over. looks good on some, stretches others. HD definitely has to be the main reason for the switch.
I’ve read about artists hating it went they see their videos on YouTube because of the low quality. More and more blogs I read are leveraging video syndication properties such as DailyMotion just so they can have their production seen in high quality. Sucks overall though because their reach is so much smaller compared to YouTube.
Wow. Google Operating System pointed out that Google was testing out even higher quality video’s a couple days ago, and now this.
Here’s the example vid they linked to, for those interested:
http://www.yout...wruY&fmt=22
Widescreen plus great quality equals win.
It’s about time. I assume the aspect ratio is 16:9 we are talking about with the new widescreen format.
My TV can’t resize itself, but it’s ridiculous to have black bars on a video player inside a web page when you have Google’s resources. Something doesn’t feel right about the recent decisions the folks at Google/YouTube are making.
i agree each page should load the player according to detected video format. nothing complicatd.
haha,i thought it’s another problem on youtube until i saw this article.whew! go HD!
There’s an error in youtube’s CrunchBase data:
YouTube got acquired by Google for $1.65B not $340B!!!
Google is making our lives more fun. Buy some Google Love Here.
blip is our favorite youtube alternative?
He said ‘his’ not ‘our’…
This a great move, considering they’re streaming full length movies now. HD all the way!
Ill definitely try to use this new quality in one of my videos. I agree that the black bars to the left and right of the lower quality videos is annoying, but maybe thats a down the road kind of thing. Though with YouTube, down the road, is way down the damn road.
This is really good news for You tube users,widening the you tube video much more convenient for users
Maybe its just me, but there is some serious buffering issues with this new HD and Wide Screen video. All in all, its a step in the right direction, and I’m excited to see where its headed – full movies, etc.
Finally YouTube is catching on. The Internet is moving to the HDTV. PCTVCables.com
If I can embed the widescreen player to my blog, that would be even better…
I guess they want to catch up with Hulu
Nat
http://www.workersinc.com
I really don’t like this idea. Either it should be implemented as soon as Youtube got popular or after google acquisition. The empty space is really annoying for me.
This could be big as anything that enhance the user experience will pay off, by doing this Youtube can maintain its market share and put others like blip.tv in a more defensive position.
Finally, my HD camera is now Web friendly. I also thought this Blu-ray promo was cool in WideScreen:
http://www.yout...h?v=Q115PGYmjQs
Watch it in “high quality”
This is not bad at all, and for us who use the API like the video site at http://tvradionet.com just gonna have to alter the video players to match to this new changes, a lot of people have been complaining about this, but anyone who have an HD TV know that this is the future of video and Im glad that YouTube is finally taking the bout too.
I like this wide one
Great! Now we need it in out embed players.. huge potential!
I blog about it in Spanish: http://www.lawe...-de-43-169.html
On Clipland.com, videos in the “Community Videos” section were widescreen from day 1, and they get transcoded cleveryl with dynamic letterboxing/pillarboxing – I don’t know how/if YouTube handles these cases on the backend…
@Flüge: I dont belive that Youtube is only comercial site, I hve a lot of Fun with, and millions of others also.
I love youtube