Hi-res video in 3 months

YouTube has announced it would begin testing a new hiqh-quality format for its videos with a new player and that it would deliver higher-quality videos to all users within three months. Following the delivery of a new multi-file uploader last week, The company's co-founder Steve Chen said that the company was exploring a new player that would detect the speed of the viewer's internet connection and deliver higher-quality video at the user's request, according to a CNET report. Speaking at the NewTeeVee Live conference this week, Chen did, however, note that YouTube's goal "is to make the site's vast library of content available to everyone and that requires a fairly low-bitrate stream."

The report notes that the higher-quality video will change the YouTube viewing experience by requiring some delay to buffer the video stream and thus the Google subsidiary is rolling out test.

On stage, the YouTube exec admitted that until now, the current resolution of YouTube videos has been "good enough" for the site up, but confirmed that in YouTube's internal archive, all video is stored at the native resolution in which it was sent in; however, a large portion of the video content is uploaded at low-quality (320x240), so the higher quality streaming option doesn't make sense, the report noted.

Along with the launch of Apple's iPhone in June, the company delivered about 10,000 videos in the advanced H.264 video format, citing the desire for both higher video quality and longer battery life on mobile devices. YouTube said it would be adding more each week until its full catalog of videos was available -- both to iPhone and AppleTV users-- in the "fall." The newly encoded H.264 videos are expected to be available via Adobe's Flash player --updated in August -- via the Web portal.

By Electronista Staff