How to Embed and Play 720p HD (High Definition) YouTube Videos (&fmt=22 Code Hack)
It’s possible to embed high quality YouTube video clips on external website for direct viewing or playback of visitors. But to many disappointment and dismay, the so called “higher quality” (and declared as HD by many other websites) is simply not good and not high resolution enough. Now, Google has made available YouTube video play back in High Definition (HD) mode of 720p by just adding &fmt=22 to the video URL or link location.
As such, for webmasters and bloggers who embed YouTube hosted videos, now it’s time to start embed a real true HD videos for the real exhilarating enjoyment when watching and viewing the playing video clip.
To embed a HD quality YouTube video with high definition resolution on external website or blog, simply add or append &ap=%2526fmt%3D22 code (instead of &ap=%2526fmt%3D18 to display just higher quality 480×360 video clip) to the end of movie parameter value and embed source in the YouTube embed code. For example, we take a look at original embed code for “Where the Hell is Matt? (2008)” YouTube hosted video clip that available in HD format.
<object width=”425″ height=”344″><param name=”movie” value=”http://www.youtube.com/v/zlfKdbWwruY&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0″></param><param name=”allowFullScreen” value=”true”></param><param name=”allowscriptaccess” value=”always”></param><embed src=”http://www.youtube.com/v/zlfKdbWwruY&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0″ type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” allowscriptaccess=”always” allowfullscreen=”true” width=”425″ height=”344″></embed></object>
By appending &ap=%2526fmt%3D22 HD hack switch, the embed code will become like the following:
<object width=”425″ height=”344″><param name=”movie” value=”http://www.youtube.com/v/zlfKdbWwruY&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0&ap=%2526fmt%3D22“></param><param name=”allowFullScreen” value=”true”></param><param name=”allowscriptaccess” value=”always”></param><embed src=”http://www.youtube.com/v/zlfKdbWwruY&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0&ap=%2526fmt%3D22” type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” allowscriptaccess=”always” allowfullscreen=”true” width=”425″ height=”344″></embed></object>
The only caveat emptor is that not all (actually is most) videos uploaded to YouTube is not available in such very high quality HD viewing quality. The uploaded source videos must be encoded in HD quality resolution in order for the YouTube HD trick to work. Good news is that, the HD YouTube appears to have even better picture quality than Vimeo, the first video sharing site to support consumer HD (High Definition) playback, using the 720p resolution at 24 fps (frame per second) Flash video. YouTube plays back 720p HD video using H.264/MPEG-4 AVC codec in 1280×720 resolution with high-quality AAC two audio channels stereo sound at 232 kbit/s 44100 Hz monaural (near CD quality).
Note that although YouTube currently has the option to allow users to set YouTube to always play higher quality video when available, it’s not currently support auto play the HD format. It will play video in high quality mode with maximum picture size of 480 x 360 pixels with audio encoded in bit rate of up to 120 kbit/s at 44100 Hz monaural (FM quality).
Take a look at the Matt Dancing video in different YouTube supported resolutions below. Watch and view the video in full screen and listen carefully to the sound effect to get a feel of what HD really means.
Update: Hack to Embed Video Code to AutoPlay in HD
Standard normal quality YouTube video.
High quality YouTube video.
HD (720p high definition) YouTube video.
Tip: HD YouTube supports up to maximum picture size of 1280 x 720. So users can embed the video of bigger size by changing the width and height values in the embed code.
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Entries (RSS)
June 27th, 2009 16:03
[...] in the past but only through appending video URLs with some inscrutable code (&fmt=22) that was publicized by a few blogs. Now, it’s slightly simpler: add &hd=1 to any YouTube URL to play in HD (if [...]
June 27th, 2009 07:15
[...] in the past but only through appending video URLs with some inscrutable code (&fmt=22) that was publicized by a few blogs. Now, it’s slightly simpler: add &hd=1 to any YouTube URL to play in HD [...]
April 3rd, 2009 08:12
hey,
The only problem I have with HQ embedding is that the little icon in the video doesn’t actually show that it is HQ or HD, which i just annoying, because visitors will always hit the button for better quality, not realizing that it doesn’t do anything. Does anyone know if there is a way to get around this???
Thanks guys!
February 28th, 2009 18:34
I think this stopped working today (2009-Feb-28).
We need an update version of this.
February 23rd, 2009 22:29
Hello! Just what I was looking for, but it seems like YouTube have changed their embeddinglink. As it’s not like the one you are using..
January 13th, 2009 01:12
[...] such, for webmasters and bloggers who embed YouTube hosted videos, now it’s time to start embed a real true HD videos [...]
January 6th, 2009 04:30
Thanks, I’ve been struggling with trying to upload higher quality videos. We’ve been disappointed with the quality after YouTube recompresses, but this little trick worked like a charm. You can check out the video here:
http://www.mhelpdesk.com/Watch_Video.html
December 31st, 2008 00:46
i assume this must have worked previously… but, it doesn’t work now, at least for me
the high-quality clips on this page do not play.
December 30th, 2008 01:12
[...] used a bit of the information found at My Digital Life to help me do a lot of [...]
December 21st, 2008 00:42
[...] at the end of the movie parameter code. Let’s see an example provided by Mydigitallife. What follows is a code which lets you embed a video in your blog. The first unmodified code lets [...]
December 10th, 2008 15:52
Thank you it worked!
December 5th, 2008 01:13
[...] appear to be 3 options on *some* youtube videos (normal, high, hd 720p), read more about it here: How to Embed and Play 720p HD (High Definition) YouTube Videos (&fmt=22 Code Hack) My Digital L… __________________ 2005-12 E60 M5 :: Silverstone :: Silverstone Full Perforated Delimited :: [...]
November 23rd, 2008 20:35
[...] Sorry the video embed didn’t work You can see an example here: My Digital Life jQuery(document).ready(function(){ jQuery(’.comment-replyto’).click(function(){ var text = [...]
November 22nd, 2008 02:51
[...] Vimeo’s HD (apparently) embed. You can read an article on how to embed and play YouTube HD here. Additionally you can read an article here on how you play back videos on YouTube’s site in [...]
November 20th, 2008 15:52
Oh.. very nice tip!
November 20th, 2008 15:21
[...] For webmasters or bloggers, use the HD code to embed HD YouTube video clip on your sites. [...]