Get Higher-Resolution YouTube Videos with a URL Hack
YouTube announced in November that they would be testing out encoding videos at higher resolutions (and with higher-quality audio encoding). Now it appears that a small sampling of uploaded videos can already be seen at their higher resolutions, simply by adding a little tag to the end of the video's URL. To get a (slightly noticeable) bump in resolution, try adding &fmt=6 to the end of the address line. The trick, according to YouTube watchers, seems to work primarily with newer videos, and bumps the resolution from 320x240 to 448x336. Add &fmt=18 to the end of the URL, and you might get an MP4-encoded version, with better audio and a 480x360 resolution.
View: AU Comments (0) | US Comments (21 comments)
There are currently no AU comments for this entry.
Awesome, all we need is a way to download the hi-rez file!
Kardboard
Hmm, not sure why the link didn't come out well. Posting it again:
[mytechieself.blogspot.com]
mskadu
Yes and for the fellow lazy-bones like myself, I've put together a bookmarklet to do this.
mskadu
Outstanding, one of the best posts I've found. This really helps out when trying to watch reviews of audio equipment and listening to rare performances.
Jarick
@ Gina Trapani: Thanks for noticing! (I respect your credentials.)
SFvidiot
@SFvidiot: That's a crazy big difference. Wow.
Gina Trapani
First time poster here. Just wanted to share my experience with this. I found that it is true, there are multiple resolutions happening over at YouTube. (Read through for happy ending.)
I shot video Friday night (Leap Day 29 FEB) of the band "Noise Choir" at a record release party in Memphis.
- camera: Panasonic Lumix LX2 STILL camera, shooting video at 15 fps, 8 bit 8 k mono sound, 1280 x 720 QuickTime Apple photo Jpeg compression (default for 16 x 9 video with this still cam.)
- video: To comply with YouTube video constraints (10 min or 100 MB) converted 5 min 1280 x 720 video from 345 MB to 55 MB 852 x 480 m4v (MPEG-4 video file) exported out of QuickTime player, Pro version.
- upload: Saturday March 1, first time to post video on YouTube, so I was just finding my way around. Noticed a funny thing when the video was live; the video seen on computer had visible digital artifacting on first 5 seconds, yet the same video seen on iPhone and Apple TV not only had no artifacts, it was higher quality too.
- conclusion: YouTube is still compressing Flash video for the web, and QuickTime H.264 video ("scalable hi-def") for Apple products.
Standard rez version:
+ Watch video
For higher rez version: search for "Noise Choir" at YouTube, add '&fmt=18' to the end of the given standard rez address. (Hi-rez video link won't embed on this page for some reason.)
Please compare the two videos in full screen mode to see the differences. Way less artifacts on the QuickTime version. Its squished too! (Rectangle forced into Square.)
Sorry for the long post, but we're all learning, yes?
SFvidiot
@longbourne: I think what's happening is it's looking for video's that don't exist.
Basically I think if you're looking for a higher resolution video (either with the URL trick or with the grease monkey script) and it isn't there it doesn't default back to the smaller video but instead gives you a 404 error. I'm not positive but that's just a quick observation. It may just be that the larger resolution thing is so new they're still getting everything setup (like checking if the file exists).
Another thing I noticed, I think it might not create the higher resolution files if the original video is low resolution. That or the script just isn't doing it for all the new videos yet.
ColinC
@ColinC: I installed that Greasemonkey script and all it did in my FireFox (2.0.11) was stop the videos from loading at all.
longbourne
Rad.
Myles
Third
Xanderificus
I'm hoping that this is included as a download option in the next Better YouTube Firefox extension update!
123fakestreet
I'm hoping the Better YouTube Firefox extension will add this as a download option in the next update!
123fakestreet
@Quentin: Second that emotion.
PotKettleBlack
@maggard: More directly, when's Better YouTube going tob be updated with it?
Quentin
Holy crap...the videos are radically sharper!
That_Bastid
that link is to the standard version, odd. i added the &fmt=18 when i posted.
Astroboy
I uploaded a vid in mp4 yest, and it looks great!!
+ Watch video
Astroboy
@maggard: At the bottom of the Google Operating System page ;)
[userscripts.org]
ColinC
So where is the Greasemonkey script for this? ;)
maggard
That ain't no small bump there. Even the first jump is double the pixels.
aphex242