How do I add an fmt=18 link that opens in the original tab or window

[waigy]

Hey Man

I'm a musician with currently six youtube videos of live performances, and it's important to me that they play with stereo sound.
I'm aware of the recent changes to youtube's processing and I've searched this forum recently about stereo sound but as yet haven't found the answer.
In the meantime I've added an annotation to each video which says "If you don't hear stereo sound go to "more info""
I've added a link in "more info" to the same video with &fmt=18 at the end of the address.
The link plays in stereo but in firefox it opens a new tab and in internet explorer it opens a new window, so whoever is watching the video has to close the last window or tab.
I'm sure this will put some people off watching my videos in stereo.
Is there any way that I can make the link open in the current window?
I have tried adding html code into the "more info" or "description box" before, but it doesn't seem to allow it.

Cheers Man

[DereX888]

Registered YT users, who selected "high quality" in settings, will automatically see your flash files in that quality.
For non-registered users there is nothing you can do about if they browse your files from within you tube, or if they use the embedded players from your or other webpages.
If you have your own (non-youtube) page, simply post links to your files with the &fmt=18
yup, it works - i.e. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=piDv8qfz9Jw&fmt=18 opens up "high quality" stereo version)

Anyways, most of people use crappy plastic speakers beside their monitors (a bit more than mere 1 foot apart) or even worse speakers on their laptops (less than 1 foot apart). On such there is almost no difference betwen mono and stereo flash files' sound at all, hence I'd say: "don't worry about it"

[manono]

Registered YT users, who selected "high quality" in settings, will automatically see your flash files in that quality.

There may be a way to get it to play the &fmt=18 stereo files, but that's not it. The high quality setting plays the ones with the &fmt=6 extension. It's high(er) quality H.263 video (not the H.264/MP4 video of the &fmt=18 addition to the URL), and still mono audio, unfortunately.

[NoBuddy]

There´s no way to add HTML text to the info box.
Actually you´re writing the link as text, YouTube makes the URL.
But maybe it will help, if you add a text with something like: right click on link and choose open in same window - or something like this.
Avoid, that people just click on the link the normal way. Maybe a few people will follow your instruction. Not a real solution, so far.

[DereX888]

Registered YT users, who selected "high quality" in settings, will automatically see your flash files in that quality.

There may be a way to get it to play the &fmt=18 stereo files, but that's not it. The high quality setting plays the ones with the &fmt=6 extension. It's high(er) quality H.263 video (not the H.264/MP4 video of the &fmt=18 addition to the URL), and still mono audio, unfortunately.

See, that has been explained in other thread (and it is probably correct):
For example I was never able to see this fmt=6 files. I only get standard or fmt=18. Someone said in other thread that it is probably because of bandwidth speed (and original files' quality of course). I have rather high speed connection (for crappy American standards) thus I never get to see fmt=6 versions, but people with slower speeds supposedly get fmt=6

There´s no way to add HTML text to the info box.
Actually you´re writing the link as text, YouTube makes the URL.
But maybe it will help, if you add a text with something like: right click on link and choose open in same window - or something like this.
Avoid, that people just click on the link the normal way. Maybe a few people will follow your instruction. Not a real solution, so far.

I was suggesting posting links to higher quality videos on your *other* webpage, like facebook's page of your band or whatever (not on youtube of course, it is impossible there - at least as of now). Simply instead of posting the youtube player's code, post just the links with &fmt=18, thats all. I suggested this to one of the garage bands, and on their facebook or myspace page they replaced all the youtube-generated player code with the "old school way" (picture of the video links to youtube page with the video in high quality version) and apparently it works for them that way.

[manono]

For example I was never able to see this fmt=6 files.

In that other thread I posted a link to a collection of all 3 videos, in case you didn't think that there was a fmt=6 version. There's something peculiar about that Star Wars trailer as I can't find a fmt=6 version of it, but for most recent YouTube videos there are the 3 versions, and it's the fmt=6 version that plays as the high quality version. To prove to yourself that they exist, you can take most recent vids on YouTube and post the URL into the newest version of KeepVid and it'll offer you all 3 versions for download. To convince yourself that it's the fmt=6 version that's the high quality version (and not the fmt=18 version), play a high quality version of some video, and then save it with VideoCacheView so you can confirm what it is using.

Someone said in other thread that it is probably because of bandwidth speed (and original files' quality of course). I have rather high speed connection (for crappy American standards) thus I never get to see fmt=6 versions, but people with slower speeds supposedly get fmt=6

I don't know if at 6MB/1MB (and American) I have good bandwidth speed or not, but I'd be willing to bet that has nothing to do with it. Why not? Because the H.263/FLV fmt=6 version has a considerably larger filesize than does the H.264/MP4 fmt=18 version. If download speed were the determining factor, you'd think the fastest would get the larger fmt=6 version.