All about How to Watch YouTube in HD, Search for HD content on YouTube, and How to Download them
I have been receiving quite a number of emails complaining that my previous post on Youtube HD has been hard to follow. I have also received other emails congratulating me that the hack, google search code as well the downloading script worked perfectly. Just for the benefit of the people who did not get it, I am reposting it, in a simple plain layman language, so that everyone can enjoy Youtube in its full HD beauty. So here it goes.
First things first, only a few of the zillions of videos on YouTube have HD enabled in them. This solely depends on the quality of the original video that has been uploaded. If the original video being uploaded is a 1080p or a 720p video (from a Blu-Ray or an HD TV rip, in simple terms a video with a large resolution), only then we could see the HD option for that video. e.g. The KungFu Panda OST- Kungfu Fighting. It is available in 3 options.
Option 1: The Low-Quality flv version which is suitable for viewing in low bandwidth internet. The buffering of this video would be much faster but the video quality is the most inferior. This is in most cases the default video quality for all Youtube videos.
Option 2: The High Quality mp4 version which is suitable for viewing in high bandwidth internet. The quality is much better than flv. It is available for most videos on Youtube which have been uploaded recently. You can make buffering Higher Quality versions of the Video as default, by changing the Playback Settings in your YouTube account. Just follow the steps below.
Go to your YouTube account page. On the left hand side of the page, click on a link called Playback Setup. Now, you will get 3 options to choose from- low quality for slow connections, high quality for faster connections, or let YouTube choose dynamically depending on runtime connection speed.
Alternatively, even for videos which do not have High-Q viewing enabled, a better picture and sound quality version (not necessarily better resolution) is available if the video URL is tweaked.
e.g. If the Kungfu Panda OST URL is :
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=u3aTU-IJ8c4,
just append it with &fmt=18, to look like
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=u3aTU-IJ8c4&fmt=18
This would make it stream the High-Q version.
Option 3: HD version. Like I said, HD is only available for a few videos, but the number is expected to increase as we see more HD content being uploaded. All the videos available for HD can be viewed in HD by clicking on the “watch in HD” link below the video. The mentioned Kungfu Panda OST -Kungfu Fighting has the link as well.
Alternatively, HD versions can be viewed directly by appending &fmt=22 in the video URL.
So if the original URL is :
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=u3aTU-IJ8c4,
then the HD version would be
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=u3aTU-IJ8c4&fmt=22
How to Search for HD content on YouTube and Download HD videos after the jump.
Search for HD content on YouTube
1. On Google: Type the following including the quotes in the Google Search Bar.
site:youtube.com “watch in normal quality watch in hd”
Depends on how much you do believe that Google can crawl on all the HD video pages. Because, all the pages on which HD is enabled, have “watch in HD” and “watch in normal quality” under the video link. So perfectly makes sense. To test, I ran the google search, and discovered a video which would all of you go berserk. Yes, it is the 720p High-Def rip of the chase scene from the movie Dark Knight. You have to see it to believe it. Here is the link ( YouTube HD ) Uploaded by some user called “suckonthiswarnorbros”. Donno what that means!!
2. On YouTube: You can search for HD videos on YouTube by searching with keywords like:
HD, 720p, 1080p etc.
How to Download YouTube videos in HD
As I said earlier, sites like ClipNabber, or KeepVid can only grab links of the low-Q flv and the High-Q mp4 files but not the HD versions of the videos. To download the HD files, this one has proved to be 100% successful for me. It is not any website or a software that you need to download. It is just a userscript, which you need to add as a Bookmark/ Favorite. The Link is given below.
What do you need to do with it?
a. For Internet Explorer: Just right click on the Link above , and choose to “Add to Favorites”. For convenience, you can add this to the Links, so that this bookmarklet shows on your Links Toolbar.
It will prompt you that the bookmark might be unsafe. Just say yes, coz it is absolutely safe.
b. For Chrome/ Safari: You cannot right click and add this to your bookmarks. Hence, you have to hold and drag this link to the bookmark toolbar.
c. For Firefox / Flock et al: Right click and choose to Bookmark this Link.
What next? When you are viewing an HD video on YouTube, just click on this link. You will see a new link appear right below the Embed address bar on the right side. as shown in the picture below. Right click- Save as.
Voila!! Done. Hope you liked this tutorial. If you found any part of this tutorial to be hard to follow, or objectionable or have any doubts or queries, please leave the comments, and I shall get back to you. Until next time, cheers!
P.S. For more HD content streaming online, try a YouTube alternative : www. vimeo.com
My Earlier posts on YouTube:
Search for HD videos on YouTube
How to Watch and Download Youtube Videos in HD
How to Watch and Download HQ videos on Youtube
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
umm, dude the HD download link doesn’ t work it’s blank…
The download link (bookmark) worked fine for me, rtfm.
Hi Man,
Thanks so much for this link it worked perfect for me! Amazing… So easy.
Thank you so much! It worked perfectly. You were truely great help.
it doesnt work for me, the “download as mp4″ link comes up when i enter that link you wrote, but it wants to say it by default as a text file, and whether i try to add my own filetype to it at the end of the filename or just leave it as a text file, the download finishes in literally 2 seconds and so i thought there would be something wrong, and it doesnt run at all
please please help
Hey, java script bookmarks to downlaod youtube-videos is a nice idea. Thanks! I took this idea and made some extensions. If you want, you can check my website (german, I hope you get along) to see it.
Thanks man. Link works! Nice job!
thanks for the great content posted here will always be visiting your blog
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