YouTube goes High Definition, Finally!

YouTube added the option “Watch in High Definition” around a year ago but it was merely a fake thing. The videos got clear a bit but they were nowhere near the real High Definition standard. Fooling the crowd for almost an year, YouTube finally enters the HD arena.

Just a week ago, YouTube converted the videos to Wide View. And now a new option is appearing on YouTube pages – “Watch in HD” instead of “Watch in High Definition”. And this time the quality of videos in HD mode are crispy, sharp and clear.

There is still no update on the Official YouTube Blog but we may soon hear the good news. By just searching on YouTube with HD, results in some high definition videos. Here are the two different screenshots of the same video, the first one is in the normal quality while the latter is in HD (High-Definition).

Normal View:

HD View:

The quality of the HD videos  is robust and it is really fun watching such clear videos over the net. Previously this quality was offered by the DivX but he problem was it required huge bandwidth for smooth streaming. The problem is not solved with YouTube yet or the other flash videos as its general that if the video resolution will increase it will always demand higher bandwidth.

There has been no particular stats but with my experience I can say a user will basically need a 512bps connection or higher for the smooth functioning of HD videos. Another factor is HD streaming will be difficult on mobile devices as getting this amount on speed can practically happen only using a WLAN or 3G. And its not required also until you are connecting your high-end devices to big screens like TV.

Hope to see more information about this change on the Official YouTube Blog soon.