Hi-Res with One Click

YouTube now offers some videos in multiple resolutions. If you're watching a multiformat video on the YouTube site itself, you can call up different resolutions by adding a format code to the end of the URL. Adding "&fmt=6" bumps the resolution from 320x240 to 448x336 and doubles the audio sample rate from 22.05 to 44.1kHz. And adding "&fmt=18" (iPod mode) raises it to 480x360 with stereo sound. This mode also uses h.264 encoding for better video quality.

If you're signed in to YouTube, you can specify that it always serve you the highest-quality videos. But Tech Recipes offers another approach: drag this bookmarklet — YouTube Hi-Res — to your browser toolbar. Whenever you click it, the bookmarklet will add "&fmt=18" to the page's URL for you.

Wired explains how to add the format codes to the standard YouTube embedding code. Note that the hi-res videos take longer to load and are more prone to stalling during playback. —David Battino