Playback YouTube Videos in High Definition (HD) mode of 720p – feature made available by Google

Friday, November 21, 2008, 5:34
Technology
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Great news for the webmasters and bloggers – Google has launched a new amazing feature in terms of YouTube Videos. You can now embed and play YouTube Videos in High Definition Mode of 720p. Google has actually made this available for all its users – all you have to do is simply add ‘&fmt=22’ to the URL of the video or to the link location.

For the purpose of embedding a High Definition YouTube video with high resolution on any external website or blog, all you need to do is simply add or append as required the code: &ap=%2526fmt%3D22 at the end of the movie parameter value and embed the source in the YouTube embedded code. The only issue is that, not all of the videos that are uploaded to YouTube are of High Definition viewing quality. In that case, the source code of the videos that are uploaded must be encoded in a High Definition and high-resolution format, if you want this feature to work.

You must be aware of Vimeo – the first site to share video to support the consumer’s High Definition (HD) playback. It uses 720p resolution at 24fps (that is frames per second) Flash Video. On the other hand, YouTube playbacks 720p High Definition (HD) videos using H.264/MPEG-4 AVC codec in 1280 x 720 resolution. Moreover, it features high quality two audio channels AAC stereo sound at 232kbit/s 44100Hz monaural, which is equivalent to CD quality.

The High Definition (HD) YouTube seems to provide better picture quality than Vimeo. Although, YouTube is offering its users to set YouTube in order to play high quality videos that are available, but it does not support auto playing of High Definition (HD) format. It can play videos of high quality with a maximum picture size of 480 x 360 pixels and the encoded audio in bit rate being upto 120kbit/s at 44100Hz monaural equivalent to FM quality.