> So better "normal quality" for HD uploads AND/OR a "high quality"
> viewing option in addition to the "normal" and "HD" for HD uploads.

> One alternative to these solutions is to just do away with the
> "normal" option on HD uploads and only have "high quality" or "HD" for
> those vids.. People uploading in HD obviously want their vids to look
> good, but what many viewers see is the horrible "normal" quality which
> looks 100 times worse on the HD vids than on regular 'lower quality'
> uploads.

> I would love if this dreadful "normal" was not even possible on my
> vids.. HQ or HD should be the 2 options on HD uploads.

> Finally, switching video quality SHOULD restart the video. Most videos
> are not hours long, but rather minutes. Changing quality a few seconds
> into the video and having it pick up where it left off really destroys
> the continuity of many short films. It is not enough that we must beg
> viewers to watch in HD but now we must beg them to restart the video
> from the beginning after switching to HD? I am sure that I'm not alone
> in wanting people to view my entire video the way it was meant to be
> viewed, not just the last half.

> Having it so that if you are more than 5 minutes into the video it
> will pick up where you left off would be alright I guess.

> Your example of being halfway through an hour long video really
> doesn't make much sense.. Most of YT's content is less than 10
> minutes, and besides; who gets halfway through an hour long show and
> THEN decides to switch to high quality? Basing a change on that sort
> of extreme minority viewing experience when said change will be bad
> for the vast majority of YT content just seems silly to me.

> On Dec 19 2008, 6:30 am, YouTube Timmy wrote:

> > We have two developments that we would like to share with you: the
> > expansion of our HD player and a test of three new landing pages
> > designed to help you find the news, music and movies on YouTube that
> > matter most to you.

> > ------------------------------------------------------------------

> > ** HD on YouTube **

> > Starting today, if you click the "watch in HD" option below any HD-
> > enabled video, the video will automatically play in widescreen. As
> > part of this launch, we have created an HD Videos area where you can
> > browse videos uploaded in the HD format:http://www.youtube.com/browse?s=mphd&t=a&c=0&l=&b=0

> > In anticipation of your questions – including how to encode your
> > videos to take advantage of this new feature and how to avoid the
> > dreaded "windowboxing" – we have prepared an FAQ in the Help Center:http://www.google.com/support/youtube/bin/answer.py?answer=132460&top...

> > Hopefully you'll find any technical information you need there, but
> > feel free to post follow-up questions here or on the YouTube Blog:http://www.youtube.com/blog?entry=--fMNA_lkPM

> > ------------------------------------------------------------------

> > ** New Video Landing Pages **

> > News, music and movies are huge categories on YouTube and as a result
> > it can sometimes be tough to find exactly what you're hoping to watch.
> > In a bid to smooth your path to the perfect video, we are testing
> > three new video landing pages:http://www.youtube.com/news,http://www.youtube.com/music, andhttp://www.youtube.com/movies.

> > The news page will be populated with breaking stories from around the
> > world as well as news drawn from the Google News service; music will
> > feature rising videos alongside playlists dedicated to different
> > genres; movies will showcase some of the most popular short and full-
> > length movies on YouTube today. We'll keep a close eye on how these
> > pages perform with a view to rolling them out in other categories.

> > With these developments we are hoping to improve your viewing
> > experience and make it easier to find the content you want to watch.
> > Leave a comment here and let us know what you think…

> > Happy holidays and, as always, have fun watching!
> > The YouTube Team