To allow visitors to web pages embedded with YouTube video clip to view and watch the video in high quality mode, webmaster has to use the hack below to embed the code that will stream from high quality video source, which stream as a MP4 (H264 with AAC audio) and encoded at 480×360. Similar to the hack to watch high quality video on YouTube with &fmt=18 or &fmt=6 switch, publisher needs to append a switch to the YouTube embed code so that the Flash Player knows that it should play the video with high quality video streaming.
What’s the different between normal quality and high quality YouTube videos? Take a look at the 2 embedded YouTube video clips below, featuring sexy Mariah Carey singing Touch My Body, and you would amazed.
Video no longer available Normal quality version of YouTube video
Video no longer available High quality version of YouTube video
However, the default “&fmt=18” flag for URL address bar will not work on embed code. In YouTube embed code, add and append &ap=%2526fmt%3D18 to the end of video clip’s URL specified in “param value” and “embed src”. For example, for video above, the embed code will be as below:
Apend the &ap=%2526fmt%3D18 to the end of two instances of http://www.youtube.com/v/xxxxxxxxxxx&hl=en&rel=0 within the original quotation mark, where xxxxxxxxxxx represents the unique video ID. The high quality YouTube embed looks like below:
The best part of high quality video can be enlarged to the width of 480 with affecting the viewing quality as the streaming video is encoded in 480×360 resolution.
LK is a technology writer for Tech Journey with background of system and network administrator. He has be documenting his experiences in digital and technology world for over 15 years.Connect with LK through Tech Journey on Facebook, Twitter or Google+.
