Enable higher quality videos on Youtube

[Kaotik]

Yep, that's right, of course this requires more bandwidth, so the videos will load slower, but the difference is astonishing

And it's damn simple too:
Take a normal Youtube address, like this:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=CQzUsTFqtW0
Then add &fmt=6 after it, like this:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=CQzUsTFqtW0&fmt=6
And boom, it's a lot higher quality.
Not good enough? Well, there's even better quality, add &fmt=18 instead, like this:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=CQzUsTFqtW0&fmt=18
This should apparently be even faster to load than the Format 6, but more heavy too (Flash Video / h.263 vs MPEG4 / h.264)

There's additional format, fmt=17, but it's not higher quality, it's in fact even worse than the normal

Explanations of the formats above:
Normal, no tag:
320x240 @ 29.97 fps
Flash video (Sorenson h.263)
MP3 Audio (22.05KHz, mono)
FLV container

Format 6 tag:
448x298 @ 29.98fps
Flash video (Sorenson h.263)
MP3 Audio (44.1KHz, mono)
FLV Conatiner

Format 18 tag:
480x320 @ 29.97fps
MPEG-4 Video (H.264)
MPEG-4 (AAC) audio (44.1KHz, STEREO!)
mp4 container

Format 17 tag:
176x144 @ 12fps
MPEG-4 Video (simple profile)
MPEG-4 (AAC) audio (22.05KHz, mono)
3gp container

 

[I.S.T.]

Do all videos support this?

 

[Kaotik]

Do all videos support this?

At least the Format 18 should work on all, I believe 6 should too but not 100% sure.
Of course if someone uploads a video at resolution of 40x30 for example neither will do miracles, but nevertheless, there should be those higher quality versions of every video on youtube servers in addition to the normal one (and assumedly the lowest quality should be there too)

I've only tried it on few videos myself so far, but it has worked for all of 'em (haven't tried 6, but 18 yes)

 

[Anarchist4000]

18 seems to be quite a step up from the default. You can halfway tell what's going on in the videos now. 6 didn't seem to work for my but normal and 18 worked just fine although the video seemed shorter but might be site maintenance.

 

[I.S.T.]

After doing some testing, it does not work on each video(Looked up an episode of the new Transformers cartoon.). it will depend on if the original upload wasn't at a **** quality, I guess.

 

[thehulk]

Same options for google video when downloading using keepvid.

 

[_xxx_]

Cool, thanks! Never heard about this before.

 

[AlNom]

How did you find out about this?

 

[Bludd]

How did you find out about this?

Maybe from http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2008/03/youtube-tests-higher-resolution-videos.html?

 

[Kaotik]

Actually I found out about this on finnish forum, Muropaketti/MuroBBS, but I guess that's the very original source, or one of them.

For those who don't get the links working, make sure you have h.264 capable codec installed (I recommend latest ICL10 FFDSHOW build by CLSID).
There might be some other reasons too why they're not working, but on another forum some people report that they can't get 'em working on any video, not even the "skateboarding dog" one, which indicates that there might be some issues on somewhere else than youtube when they're not working

 

[vazel]

Glad to hear YouTube is eventually going to transition to a higher resolution h.264 format. Now if only they get rid of that stupid 10 minute video limit they would be perfect.

 

[Dresden]

Sweet deal, but that third format doesn't load at my office. I'm not really surprised though. I'm happy when "Word" opens on this archaic piece of crap.

 

[Vadi]

Well it didn't load for me either but now &fmt=6 works. &fmt=18 is worse quality.

 

[Kaotik]

Well it didn't load for me either but now &fmt=6 works. &fmt=18 is worse quality.

Then something is really, really wrong.
Here you can see how they're all in their native resolution and same packing as used by youtube
http://g.appleguru.org/youtubeformats.png
On tube they're all of course scaled to same size

 

[pcchen]

IIRC these H.264 formats are requested by Apple for iPhone and Apple TV, since they play only H.264.

 

[Vadi]

Then something is really, really wrong.
Here you can see how they're all in their native resolution and same packing as used by youtube
http://g.appleguru.org/youtubeformats.png
On tube they're all of course scaled to same size

I forgot to mention I get that on Linux using Konqueror. My Windows PC does get high quality with &fmt=18 but here &fmt=18 is the same as default.

 

[Kaotik]

I forgot to mention I get that on Linux using Konqueror. My Windows PC does get high quality with &fmt=18 but here &fmt=18 is the same as default.

Sounds like your Linux / Konqueror can't handle h.264 then?

 

[Vadi]

Sorry, I didn't see the best quality uses h.264. Yes, my Flash is too old.