YouTube Update (02-16-2009)

Well, they've changed stuff again, and for the better! The normal quality videos are now improved significantly, thus the "watch in high quality" link only appears if for some reason the HQ version ends up being significantly better than the normal one.

Big improvement: resolution. Previously, the normal quality video was 320x240 of 4:3, and 320x180 for widescreen, both of which look really yucky when scaled up to the 640x360 player size. And when the widescreen player first came out, the "HQ" version of the widescreen movies was only 480x270 scaled up to be 640x360. Now, you can upload a video in 480x360, or 640x360 widescreen, and it will stay that way! This is especially helpful when you're uploading something you want to stay in its native resolution, like screen capture. Of course, you can still use other sizes like 640x480, 852x480, and 720x404.

Another annoying thing that has been fixed is the unforgiving bitrate requirement to get an HQ video. It used to be all or nothing. If you were successful, you'd get a 480x360 4:3 video, if not you'd be stuck with plain old 320x240. This was especially annoying with videos that had many repeated frames. For example, if you wanted to upload music with a still image, you'd get stuck with low quality, since the extremely compressible nonmoving video wouldn't make the required bitrate. Of course I had an ingenious workaround, but it was a huge pain in the buttocks. Now, even if you don't get the link, you'll get a "normal quality" video that's still in pretty high quality.

So in conclusion, the low quality videos aren't nearly as bad as they used to be, and in many cases they're as good as the "high quality" videos have been in the past.

We're almost to the point where we can trust YouTube with our videos, meaning as long as your video is produced well, you can upload, and set your mind at ease. And that's where my tutorials will be focusing in the coming months: producing higher quality videos. That production knowledge can be applied to DVD's, internet video, and whatever you do. And we'll be past the days when advice I give you today may be irrelevant tomorrow. I'm really liking the direction Google is taking YouTube.