Youtube, would you rather see a video in HD or SD?

[coldmeat]

It depends on what I'm watching. If I'm just watching some guy get kicked in the balls, I don't really care. But if I'm watching some science video I prefer HD.

 

[Parasitic]

Unless you're downloading them, SD is ok on youtube.

 

[Locut0s]

This depends entirely on the target audience and their connection speed.

For personal consumption I'd say HD all the way. But if it's for a company they may want to hit the lowest common denominator (ie people on dialup).

 

[BurnItDwn]

SD is just too low res and looks very horrible and blocky if I make it full screen. (1920x1200.) I'd rather deal with longer buffering than horrible blocky image.

 

[Gooberlx2]

I certainly prefer HD. Unfortunately, youtube at my house is always shitty....I think it's my sucky router, which lacks QoS.

 

[FelixDeCat]

HD is winning.

 

[meltdown75]

um, it's youtube. SD will do.

 

[BaboonGuy]

HD is winning.

For those that don't like HD, would you mind if it was uploaded in HD, and then you would play it without the HD button enabled? It's not quite the same as SD, actually it's like a slightly fuzzy higher resolution video.

 

[aircooled]

Whichever buffers faster than it plays.

 

[newnameman]

HD always.

 

[T9D]

...

 

[SunSamurai]

SD is plenty good for me.

Cool story, Grandpa.

 

[duragezic]

SD is fine if the video quality is good. Youtube is so slow lately that I watch videos in SD when I can. Heck I need to wait for that to buffer often.

One guy I watch, http://www.youtube.com/user/wranglerbarn, has such good quality that SD is all that is needed. Only significant difference with HD is the sound is better.

OTOH, when http://www.youtube.com/user/nutnfancy releases "High Skies Part 3", that's one I want to see in HD and will buffer for 15 min before playing.

 

[lizardboy]

Youtube has been slow as balls for years now, they should get SD streaming at a reasonable speed before moving to HD.

This x1000. I'm convinced Comcast must throttle YouTube, everything else I download is fine (usenet, torrents, etc.). But if I try to play an HD vid from YT it takes about a week to load.

 

[Red Squirrel]

HD. Bigger is better, right? Ironicly I find HD videos load faster too, which is kinda messed... With the regular videos before even HQ came out, lot of them just jam up in middle of loading and that ring thing just flashes.

 

[AkumaX]

if you upload 720p, it'll always provide an option for lower quality anyway

here's a short list off the top of my head for all the "&fmt" stuff

* &fmt=18 = ipod/iphone h264/aac->mp4-compatible quality - typically up to 480 vertical, meaning:
- 480x272 mp4 (widescreen) OR 480x360 mp4 (fullscreen)
* &fmt=22 = HD 720p h264/aac->mp4, up to 720 horizontal lines, meaning:
- 1280x720 mp4 (widescreen) OR 960x720 mp4 (full screen)
* &fmt=34 = h264/aac->flv container. i believe max vertical lines is 400, so
- 400x222 flv (widescreen) OR 400x300 flv (full screen)
* &fmt=35 = h264/aac->flv container, HQ. i believe max horizontal lines is 480, so
- 848x480 flv (widescreen) OR 640x480 flv (full screen)
* &fmt=37 = h264/aac->mp4 1080p (*NEW!* this week). 1920x1080p in mp4.
- example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5f-MYl-HzNw&fmt=37

use a downloadhelper firefox plugin to verify results

 

[Atomic Playboy]

Most Youtube videos are passable in SD. If there's lots of small, moving objects that the user will need to focus on, then I'd recommend HD. For example, I watch pool videos on Youtube, and in SD it is impossible to tell which ball is which. In HD, this problem is generally a lot less noticeable.

 

[TheVrolok]

HD

 

[BaboonGuy]

Thanks guys, HD it is. For the SD users, there is always the option not to turn on HD... which is only a bit worse than a regular SD vid.

 

[Sasiki]

Most of the time, SD. Youtube has been dirt slow the last few months for me.

Same here. 3mbit cable isn't blazing fast but it buffers way too much on SD videos.

 

[SunSamurai]

Same here. 3mbit cable isn't blazing fast but it buffers way too much on SD videos.

You can press the play button anytime youre ready to watch..