Official Blog
Video Quality Goes Up, Up, Up
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
When just $200 purchases a high-definition (HD) camera, you know the world is changing, and YouTube has changed with it. Thanks to more affordable equipment on the market, increasing bandwidth available to consumers, and better video codec support in web browsers, we have been improving our site to keep YouTube the best home for high resolution content. We
increased the file size limit to 2GB
, so you can upload bigger files straight from an HD camera. We also raised the resolution and quality of our standard video format, which makes all new YouTube videos look better, not just those uploaded in HD.
The average video resolution of files uploaded every day to YouTube has jumped nearly 30% in the last eight months (as shown in the graph below), which means that you are uploading increasingly better quality videos to the site. Earlier this year,
CNET crowned YouTube as the best site for HD
, and from our stats we can see users are sending us more: For every one thousand uploads in June, twice as many are from HD sources compared to samples of the same size in December, and this rate is increasing.
Another way to think about it is to look at the same video at different resolutions, to see the variation and evolution in quality. In honor of the 40th anniversary of the moon landing on Monday, we've chosen
a video from NASA's channel
to demonstrate this, with thumbnails shot at 1:12 in the video. (Click on an image to see full size.)
Standard Quality
(SQ)
High Quality (HQ)
High Definition (HD)
Nice, right? We'll do everything we can to continue providing you with the best quality video for maximum creativity, impact and enjoyment. After all, you are driving this transformation: by uploading more high-quality videos to the site, we've made it a priority to adapt with you.
For more about YouTube myths exposed (low video quality is Myth #2), click
here
to go to the
Biz Blog
, our partner and advertiser blog.
Posted by Billy Biggs, Software Engineer
Labels
3D
4k
accessibility
account info
activism
ads
africa
annotations
arts
awards
benefit
betas
bizblog
blogs
bulletins
buzz
captions
celebrity playlists
channels
chrome
citizen journalism
citizen reporting
citizentube
comedy
comments
community
community guidelines
contests
creator's corner
creators
curators
customization
dance
design
discovery
doodle
editor
education
embeds
entertainment
events
facebook
film
flagging
gaming
gmail
google
google tv
government
grants
groups
guidelines
hd
help center
holidays
homepage
howto
inspiration
investment
jobs
journalism
life in a day
live stream
marketing
meetups
mobile
moderator
movies
music
musicians wanted
news
nonprofits
open-source
partners
playlists
policy
politics
privacy
product update
quicklist
ratings
rentals
research
safety
science and technology
screening room
search
sharing
shows
social networks
sports
staff
stats and data
store
subscriptions
tags
test tube
travel
trends
tv
twitter
upload
vevo
video editing
video production
video volunteers
viral video
youtube api
youtube direct
Archive
2020
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2019
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2018
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2017
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2016
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2015
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2014
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2013
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2012
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2011
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2010
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2009
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2008
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2007
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2006
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2005
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Feed
Follow @youtube
Follow
Learn more in the
YouTube Help Center
.
Follow