YouTube thinking big, in 1080p
We’re days away from 1080p HD displayed at full resolution on YouTube.
The amateur video giant has been supporting 720p “high def” for a while now, and while uploaders could get a 1080p video onto the servers, display rubbed up against that maximum output. No more, apparently.
YouTube’s HD mode will now offer 720p and 1080p, depending on the resolution of the source video file. (1080p is what you get from a Blu-ray.)
YouTube is even going back to re-encode 1080p files already uploaded to get them into proper resolution.
“For viewers with big monitors and a fast computer, try switching to 1080p to get the most out of the fullscreen experience,” a YouTube engineer suggested on the official YouTube blog. OK here, we go. (Don’t waste your time trying this on your iPod, which doesn’t do 720.)
A sample video of Pennie the Dog’s nose is offered as a 1080p preview. Kind of underwhelming, but get a load of this 1080p high definition test of some square in Maine put up by a consumer. Big and beautiful. To get the full 1080p (apparently), add this to the end of the URL string: &fmt=37
Terrific, but … here are the potential downsides: Eternal upload times (even at the 11-minute limit), constant buffering during viewing due to server slowness, and audio playback that’s the pits compared to the video. Everyone banging on the YouTube servers could share in the HD strain.
“How about making it so that videos load fast enough on NORMAL QUALITY first?” one crank commented on YouTube’s blog posting announcing the news.
YouTube is making the inevitable move to full 1080p support now, probably figuring enough people have full-HD home video cameras to justify the expense and hassle. The whole area of online video is one big Beta anyway — let’s enjoy the bumpy ride.
Now about that crappy audio …
iTunes 9, Blu-ray: talk of the town
“Blu-ray is just a bag of hurt. It’s great to watch the movies, but the licensing of the tech is so complex, we’re waiting till things settle down and Blu-ray takes off in the marketplace.”
– Steve Jobs, Oct. 14, 2008
The Apple chieftain’s decision to wait until Blu-ray “takes off” means we should be seeing some movement regarding the high definition format right about now. Blu-rays are consistently selling at the same rate as DVDs these days, at least on top-tier titles, and DVDs are feeling increasingly like the cheap seats.
Any speculation about Apple’s plans has to be viewed with skepticism, in part because there’s so much of it, but there is an alignment between a couple of unsourced pieces of info floating around out there.
Throw reports from Tech Crunch, Boy Genius Report and AppleInsider in a blender and your info-smoothie has it that iTunes 9 will contain support for the Blu-ray format, aligning with new iMacs that play the true high def format. This is all “rumor and speculation,” of course, but you have to wonder what is taking the tech colossus of Cupertino so long to get with the program.
True, Blu-ray remains shaky in some ways, with continuing annoyances on several fronts for consumers. HD DVD used to market itself against the Blu-ray camp with the proclamation that it was the only “market ready” format. Locked-down Blu-ray standards have been slow in coming and slower in adaptation. Up for some more of those serial firmware updates, anyone?
Watching a Blu-ray on a computer monitor seems a bit of a waste, but why not go for the best images and audio available in any format?
iTunes 9 won’t be touching down anytime soon — for the record we’re on 8.2.1 at this moment.
One of the immediate questions would be compatibility with Apple TV, the chronically dismissed box that gets video content from your computer to the TV monitor. That combo — iTunes to iMac to Apple TV to HD televisions — has bottom-line shifting implications, if it’s possible.
Duly disclaimed: I own Apple stock and I want it to go up.
iTunes Store gets serious about HD
The iTunes Store is open to all for high-definition business, starting with the highly anticipated videos “Quantum of Solace” and “Twilight.”
iTunes actually started selling high-def titles more than a year ago, but the proposition was too squirrelly for most of us to worry about — HD movies and TV shows were only available for rental, and then only if you used the Apple TV box to get them to a monitor.
You now can rent or download an HD movie and play it on your Mac or PC. That’s high-def* with an asterisk because the resolution is 720p, unlike Blu-rays at the full 1020p.
The latest hit HD movies will sell on iTunes for $19.99 (a bit of a price break over Blu-rays). The HD downloads also come with a standard def version for playing on iPods and iPhones. You’ll need the latest iTunes update, 8.1, Apple said in a press release on the high-definition movies.
HD rentals are $4.99. They’ll go live within a month after the Blu-rays street, Apple said.
“Customers have made HD content on iTunes a hit, with over 50 percent of TV programming being purchased in HD when available,” flacked Eddy Cue, Apple’s vice president of Internet Services.
The new Bond movie and the teen vampire romance are now on iTunes as pre-orders, with the actual files downloading next week. Step right up, quantities are unlimited.
The iTunes store has some HD movies up there now, but they’re mostly marginal entries such as “Bangkok Dangerous” and “Disaster Movie.” Anyone up for paying $20 for “Religuious”?
TV.com looking good with 1080p HD
CBS’ TV.com says it’s streaming high-definition video in 1080p resolution. The evidence, which looks quite good, can be found on the page Beta: True High Definition Video.
So far, the TV.com page only has a couple of clips — from “CSI,” “Survivor,” “The Pink Panther” and Letterman. But the text promises, “This is Blu-Ray DVD quality, right here on TV.com — and there’s about to be a whole lot more of it.”
Of course, most people still don’t have the capability of displaying true 1080p video on their computer monitors. If you have a good CRT monitor, you’re good. Owners of Sony “Full HD” laptops (such as the VAIO) seem to be getting the true 1080p experience. Some widescreen LCDs will deliver the full monty as well. (Check the manual.) I don’t know if computer-to-HD TV schemes work, but an HDMi chord would have to be in the loop. (Anyone?)
At any rate, the 1080p offerings on TV.com seemed a clear step up from the site’s regular HD offerings. (At least the clips didn’t have the ads.) The images were clean, with the sharpness way high, flirting with jagged. There was a satisfying 3D pop to everything.
I experienced some odd and annoying stuttering as the clips played, especially when the live-action survivors were running around. In the Letterman clip, with U2 butts-down for an interview, there was almost no stuttering.
Silicon Valley Insider had worse luck with the halting images: “Their HD videos looked more like HD slideshows.”
The vintage “Pink Panther” toon looked OK, but you wonder why they didn’t include a contemporary bit of animation for show-and-tell.
Check it out for yourself: This seems about as good as it gets in online video.
TV.com recently lost content from NBC and Fox as Hulu halted feeds to the CBS site, which seeks to display shows from all networks.
YouTube stretches out for HD content
YouTube’s slow dance with high-definition content has picked up a bit of speed with the introduction of an “HD”-only section and another wider video screen that looks quite good.
YouTube, you probably recall, played around with low-grade high-definition video before surprising users last month with a widescreen player used for all videos. That 16×9 screen measures about 640 pixels wide. Now, a wider version of the HD player automatically appears when selecting HD video, rolling out at 850 pixels wide over the 965 page.
Videos that appear to have HD-quality images tend to stutter a bit, even for those with decent bandwidth.
Here’s the latest super-popular “Where the Hell Is Matt” video that YouTube has been pushing as a demo for the new HD player. You’ll start out in standard, before clicking on “Watch in HD” at bottom right of the screen. Pretty impressive, especially if you’ve never caught Matt’s act.
