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

> ** 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