YouTube - MUST READ!!!

[bsmith1593]

I just noticed something about YouTube, and it has to do with the quality. YouTube is normally low quality, unless you make it better quality by using a couple of options. Now, you can add &fmt=18 to the end of your URL to make the video better quality, and the audio better quality. But I've noticed, if you actually go to the normal link and click "Watch Video in High Quality," the video quality will be better than that of &fmt=18, but the audio quality will not change to better (it gets a little better, but not much). So if you want to watch the video in as good quality as possible, you have to sacrifice audio quality, and if you want to hear it as good as possible, you have to sacrifice video quality. For videos, as in music videos and performances, I'd recommend clicking "Watch Video in High Quality," and for audio such as just songs in a slide show (aka: custom made videos with album music), I'd use the &fmt=18 method. Hope this helps!

You can experiment with this video to see what I'm talking about:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHRyYeF2SYs (Click "Watch Video in High Quality)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHRyYeF2SYs&fmt=18 (Compare with the method above)

Also, recently discovered with the help of m1l3yr0x, you will get the same results as clicking "Watch Video in High Quality" by adding &fmt=6 to the end of your YouTube URL. Hope that also helps :)

So basically, for your best results in YouTube quality, this is what you should do:
Music Videos/Episodes/Movies/Live Performances - Click "Watch Video in High Quality" or add &fmt=6 to the end of your URL.
Audio Videos (Uploaded Songs, Custom Slideshow Videos) - Add &fmt=18 to the end of your URL.

[MileyRox1174]

Ooh yeah I see the difference! The video is better quality both ways (mostly, I guess), but then if you add that "&fmt=18" to then end of the URL, it makes the audio better quality too! Thanks so much for posting this!

[SmileyMiley11]

Oh thanks I never knew that! ;)

[bsmith1593]

Ooh yeah I see the difference! The video is better quality both ways (mostly, I guess), but then if you add that "&fmt=18" to then end of the URL, it makes the audio better quality too! Thanks so much for posting this!
Yes, it does, but when you use that to make the audio higher quality, it makes the video a little less quality. So if you want the video as HQ as possible, use &fmt=6, if you want the audio as HQ as possible, use &fmt=18.
Oh thanks I never knew that! ;)
You're welcome!

[Marauder]

Cool!

[smileymiley91]

Yeah, but none of these methods work for older YouTube vids, simply coz going back, YouTube just had the one lower quality vid for each vid, but now they have the high quality vid option, as explained above...

it doesn't really make sense that they are retarding the quality of their vids on purpose though, sure you use less bandwidth, but there is not much difference, in bandwidth usage with flash vids anyway....

Seems strange to me... anyway :))

[Xo_Disney_Princess_oX]

Thank you so much!
I haven't actually noticed that before.

[bsmith1593]

Yeah, but none of these methods work for older YouTube vids, simply coz going back, YouTube just had the one lower quality vid for each vid, but now they have the high quality vid option, as explained above...

it doesn't really make sense that they are retarding the quality of their vids on purpose though, sure you use less bandwidth, but there is not much difference, in bandwidth usage with flash vids anyway....

Seems strange to me... anyway :))
Yeah, 'cause back then, YouTube didn't have high quality vids, it's a more recent thing, from maybe about a few months ago to now. And yeah, it doesn't make sense about YouTube doing that, they should just use the high quality version, instead of giving you the option to watch the high quality version.
Thank you so much!
I haven't actually noticed that before.
You're welcome!

[megdolphinlover]

WOW thats really cool THANKS!