I have a friend that is trying to post some video that was taken with my camera. XL2,16:9, .mp4 files.

The quality he is getting when he uploads is horrible and I have seen several discussions on here about the subject. However, I never could find a resolution to the problem.

Here is an example of one of the files. I have seen where there is a "high quality" button but I can't find out to enable it for the viewer.

YouTube - NLG 6yr old flag football (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fXYPIQXIoQ)

I think its very good(by youtube standard) and I have the high quality version.
quality must be set in your youtube account, so when high quality is available it play automatically. Or add: &fmt=18
in the url, you will also hear a difference in the sound.
Only thing this video needs is a bit more contrast

For what ever reason. I did not get that link at first but now the "High Quality" button is there..

the high quality link usually come after a few minutes, or even hours(rare)
if it does't show it means that your video will not have high quality switch.
I always do a video of 10 seconds before sending large files to know if my setting brings HQ. and sometime with the same setting it don't show, youtube mysteries!

Do a search on Google...there is a piece of code you can add to the video to make it default to high quality...it includes something like '&nbsp' to some string of code.

With this video, with this link you get the crappy version:

YouTube - DV Kitchen Overview (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hX2YYBGTwG8)

and with this link, you get the still crappy but much better "high quality" version:

YouTube - DV Kitchen Overview (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hX2YYBGTwG8&fmt=18)

So I think it is the:

&fmt=18

that makes the difference. If you compare the word "screencast" and especially the main title you'll see a big difference.

Of course, if you want to compare to the real version, it is here:

DV Kitchen at DVcreators.net (http://dvcreators.net/dv-kitchen/)

There seems to be some good info here:

High Quality on Youtube (http://blog.jimmyr.com/High_Quality_on_Youtube_11_2008.php)

With this video, with this link you get the crappy version:

YouTube - DV Kitchen Overview (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hX2YYBGTwG8)

and with this link, you get the still crappy but much better "high quality" version:

YouTube - DV Kitchen Overview (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hX2YYBGTwG8&fmt=18)

So I think it is the:

&fmt=18

that makes the difference. If you compare the word "screencast" and especially the main title you'll see a big difference.

The &fmt=18 was the original 'secret' method of getting the high quality version. Nowadays, there will often be a clickable link at the lower right of the video saying, "Watch in high quality". Also, as someone else posted, you can now set a preference in your Youtube account if you have one to serve up the high quality version automatically if it exists.

That's my understanding of it anyway.

-gb-

If you are looking to enable the 'high quality' feature on your uploads, you have to send youtube a specific quality/format. The details are listed in this video:

YouTube - How to Get "Watch in High Quality" on Your YouTube Videos (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLtTNE61iik)

basically 600kbps or better with h264, xvid or divx. At least 480x360.

You can see all of our college videos here have that option - YouTube - washtenawcc's Channel (http://www.youtube.com/washtenawcc)

As far as watching the high quality videos of others, under your account settings in youtube, goto video playback quality and set it to "I have a fast connection. Always play higher-quality video when it's available."