[El Scorcho]

YouTube Gets Serious About High Definition With 1080p Support

November 12th, 2009 | by Barb Dybwad5

Although YouTube has been supporting videos in high definition for at least a year now, the resolution has heretofore topped out at 720p.

Without getting too far into the technical nitty gritty, 1080p is a higher resolution format made up of more vertical “lines,” resulting in a higher quality image. It’s also referred to as “full HD” or “true high-definition” because 1080p is currently the maximum resolution that anything supports (well, almost). Beginning next week, YouTube will be adding 1080p support to its video playback options.

Good news for videographers who’ve already uploaded 1080p quality video in the past, too — YouTube will be re-encoding your videos for you to allow playback at the proper true HD resolution.

Source: http://bit.ly/3M2YPP

[Sly Fox]

1080p won't be the top standard for too long. But I am glad to see digital providers stepping up.

[Hold My Own]

What's the point? The average computer screen is 20 in I'd say and on a screen that small you cant see a difference between 720 and 1080

[SuperJon]

I think more than the monitors, most people don't have the codecs and all of that to see HD footage.

[RubberMallet]

What's the point? The average computer screen is 20 in I'd say and on a screen that small you cant see a difference between 720 and 1080

depends on how far away you sit...i'm generally 1-2 ft from my monitor in which case it would be noticable...

[Rooster Cogburn]

1080p won't be the top standard for too long.

What make you say that?

[RubberMallet]

1080p won't be the top standard for too long. But I am glad to see digital providers stepping up.

not until they find a way to genetically change our vision. in a normal household, 1440p only becomes discernable from 1080p with a 70" screen. and at 8', 70" is ridiculous.

[Sly Fox]

You guys are limiting your concept of how video is delivered. You need to go to NAB next spring, Rooster. The 8k demos will blow your mind.

[RubberMallet]

you talking about 3d ready?

[Sly Fox]

That's a completely different beast than the resolution improvements.

[El Scorcho]

What's the point? The average computer screen is 20 in I'd say and on a screen that small you cant see a difference between 720 and 1080

The average now, yes. That's not very forward-thinking, though. A lot of people are watching Internet content on their big HDTV's and displays are only getting bigger as time goes on.

As for better than 1080p: We don't even have the technology to broadcast 1080p. Any new higher resolution applications that are being developed will see commercial use, but that's about it. As long as television dominates the video market, 1080p is going to be king. If broadcasting dies out, then who knows?

[phoenix]

YouTube is thinking beyond computer monitors. They're looking at set-top boxes (like Roku right now and Boxee soon). They may even be trying to work something with a box of their own, though that would be stupid. They want to put YouTube videos on plasma TVs in the living room, not just on LCD monitors in the office.