YouTube has updated their standard web player from the 4:3 aspect ratio to a widescreen format. (All 4:3 videos display vertical black bars on the sides.) YouTube moving this direction is notable since it is the best known and most popular of the online video sites. And along with YouTube’s move towards full-length films (so far, just from MGM), this will allow them to compete more in the Hulu space while maintaining their dominance over other video sharing sites that offer widescreen playback such as Vimeo, Viddler, and Blip.tv.
Check out more of Brent’s reflections on tech, gadgets, software and media at Geek Tonic.
I like the 960 pixels across on their website. The embeddable videos are still 425px – which is fine, since my content area (this column) is officially 420px wide. However, it still looks to be 4:3. Not sure how long they’ve been planning this, but a 16:9 video I submitted in July entirely fills the new player. Though some have lost the watch in high quality mode. Which makes me wonder how large the ‘new’ high quality mode goes…
At least they’re not showing the older 4:3 videos in stretch-o-vision! (And, you probably meant vertical black bars.)
That’s all on me. My ‘edit’ wasn’t very helpful (and has been fixed). Sorry, Brent!