8 Mar 2008

Youtube's Higher Resolution Video

I noticed this article about Youtube testing high-resolution version of their video's. Apparently, adding a &fmt=18 at the end of the youtube URL shows a higher resolution video. In short, a normal video link would look like the following:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=exMfl5vKlG0

All you need to so is change it as follows:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=exMfl5vKlG0&fmt=18

And you should be able to see the video in higher resolution. Neat!

If you are using Firefox (which is a good idea in any case), there is already a greasemonkey plugin script that can do that for you automatically. But i am one of those who don't like Greasemonkey, so I've come up with my own Bookmarklet to do this quickly and easily:

Youtube: Switch to High-Resolution

To use this, follow the instructions below:

Internet Explorer Users:
  1. Right click on the link above and select "Add to Favorites..."
  2. Internet Explorer should (rightly) should you a security alert saying "You are adding a favorite that may not be safe. Do you want to continue?". That's because this "favorite" (or bookmark as i like to call it) contains some code. Click on the button titled "Yes".
  3. In the next box (titled "Add favorite") click on the button titled "Ok" and you are set!
  4. Next time you are trying to watch a video on youtube.com, select "Youtube: Switch to High-Resolution" from under the Favorites menu.
Firefox Users (yay for you!):
  1. Right-cilck on the link and select "Bookmark this link"
  2. In the next box, click on the button titled "Ok"
- Or -
  1. Make sure the "Bookmarks Toolbar" is checked under View → Toolbars.
  2. Drag the link on your bookmarks toolbar
And the next time you are on a youtube video, select the bookmark (from under the "Bookmarks" menu) or click the button. Both should be titled Youtube: Switch to High-Resolution.

Please feel free to post any problems, questions as comments. Needless to say, feel free to look at the code