YouTube Quality
 

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

about the quality
 

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..

about the quality link
 

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

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

YouTube - DV Kitchen Overview

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

There seems to be some good info here:

High Quality on Youtube

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

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

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."