Did Youtube eliminate ability to link to highest quality version?

[sdsumike619]

I have a site that links from image thumbnails to youtube videos in a lightbox popup. All I need to do is provide the youtube URL. I remember in past years, you could add an &fmt=18 or 22 to the end of the URL so it would automatically play the higher quality version. That does not seem to work anymore and I haven't been able to find any recent info on the subject.. Did youtube completely eliminate the ability to do this?

[poisondeathray]

It's been "&hd=1" (without the quotes) the last few years, but I think it might only work for 720p version

[poisondeathray]

eg. avengers trailer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOrNdBpGMv8

adding "&hd=1" only shows 720p version, even though 1080p version is available
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOrNdBpGMv8&hd=1

[sdsumike619]

Ahh I see, yeah you're right, you can't used the &hd=1 for videos that only have up to 480P available.. Guess they want to conserve their bandwidth with all those videos.. Why make 720P available though and not 480P? Weird...

[El Heggunte]

Why make 720P available though and not 480P? Weird...

Much like Yahoo! Answers, YouTube is an ANTI-social network, and as a consequence, it has to be designed/managed by trollish pseudo-programmers. For example, you don't know UserXYZ has blocked you, until you press the POST button for the comment textbox --- how smart is that? Also, your videos can be deleted in no-time if a bunch of assh0les decides to mass-report them as "inappropriate".

[sdsumike619]

Or the default search result listing in the format called "relevance" which no one can make any sense of... I might just use Vimeo for these videos instead of Youtube if I can't get Youtube to auto play the higher resolution version.

[poisondeathray]

Another option is to upscale to 720p and use &hd=1

Youtube is one case where upscaling actually makes a visible quality difference (only because of the way it allocates bitrate)

(or were you talking about 1080p version ? )

[sdsumike619]

I cannot upscale because these videos are already on Youtube, and unlike Vimeo, you can't simply update/replace a video on Youtube without losing your views, ratings and comments....

[_Al_]

guys , 2000GB traffic, 200GB data, you pay ~$100 for two years, this is about the same for lots of providers, to make web site with some text and videos is quite simple, there are ready to use players with tons of plugins (jwplayer) , you play videos with custom parameters, whatever you wish

i think lots of people forget about this possibility, or think it is difficult, it is really not - as oppose like it was before, especially if you are picky about quality , just initial set up is some work of course, but then you just add stuff ...

[sdsumike619]

Yes, I know it can be done with locally hosted videos, and I agree the quality is better, however, the one thing you didn't mention is how much free advertising Youtube provides. I get a ton of sales and referring clicks from Youtube. Sure, they could improve some things, but it's still the #1 site for video. Silly to ignore that....

[_Al_]

... and don't forget stupid remarks underneath of that video if you do not turn discussion off ,
but sure, if you want to push it everywhere you post it there ...

[poisondeathray]

I know you're asking for 480p version, but just for completeness , you apparently can do 1080p through popup:

http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=eOrNdBpGMv8&vq=hd1080

http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=VIDEO_ID&vq=hd1080