YouTube Goes Widescreen
Source: Tom's Guide | Keywords: Youtube, widescreen, google, wide, screen | Themes: The Internet, Digital Entertainment
YouTube today announced a new feature that will see the player appear in widescreen. While it seems like a great idea, the change has been met with mixed feelings.
Widescreen isn’t exactly brand new to YouTube, however what is new is that this feature is now activated by default. The company detailed in its official blog that the site would be expanding the width of the player to better reflect the quality of videos users are uploading. However, while the YouTube team is hopeful that this will provide a more powerful viewing experience, some users are rather miffed at the black bars appearing on either side of current 4:3 videos.
Most of the videos people have uploaded so far are in 4:3 and while YouTube has told users not to worry and assured them their 4:3 videos will play just fine. Yeah, they play fine, but YouTube forgot to mention the black panels on either side of the 4:3 videos and it’s not going unnoticed. Granted, it’s not something that will drive users away. It doesn’t affect viewing, but it’s just one of those things that some viewers find a little bit annoying.
Those unhappy with the black panels at the side are likely the same who complained about black bars at the top and bottom of letterboxed movies. While such claims against preserving original aspect ratio are just plain silly, there’s little reason why YouTube wouldn’t be able to format a 4:3 or 16:9 ratio depending on the video.
There could be a whole bunch of reasons why Google has decided to do this. Given the fact that the company just signed a deal with MGM to provide full length movies and another deal that will see them show full episodes of Star Trek and Beverly Hills 90210, it’s possible YouTube upgraded the format just to suit these new feature length clips, however it’s also possible that similar deals are on the way and this change is just paving the way. Watch this space.
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Miffed?
Tell those 4:3 users to get with the program and get a better display. Losers.
Cheers,
Why are people whining about it? It's not like they're missing any of the video.
I agree. Being "miffed" because the black bars are there is stupid. I mean, if it shrunk the 4:3 video by doing so, that'd be one thing. But not affecting it in any way? *sigh*
What loser still has a 4:3 monitor these days as cheap as widescreen panels are now. Im looking at 30 inch wide now from a 24". Get with the program people!
I love the new widescreen youtube. Everything seems so much better in widescreen.
Anyways, us widescreen lovers had to deal with letter boxes in the past, so what's the issue with letting the 4:3 lovers get the same black bar treatment for a while?
Did the vertical resolution increased?
Wow we truly are in the age of the whiner. Also why the hell is this news?
I mean if whiners got news like this, there would never be any actually news.
Well I guess as long as the aspect ratio stays the same & the videos are not all out of shape or size they have nothing to complain about but if the videos look all out of shape then yeah I guess the authors of these video would be upset. I tried the new youtube & all seems to be fine so no reason to complain I guess.
Anyone who prefers to see 4:3 videos stretched out when viewing them on a 16:9 monitor is an idiot.
What the hell, when you went to fullscreen all 4:3 youtube videos had black bars to the sides , and still do, and still look the friggin same, so whats the fuzz? , also ALOT of videos where already widescreen and now scale properly to the wide aspect, its SWEET! also new content looks awesome!
i'm confused. how could this be a problem.
do they mean that when watching a 4:3 video they want the old player?
it will be ugly to have two standards, i liked the way comments section widened.
I think the vertical resolution increased in addition to having wider format.
I still have an NEC 4:3 CRT,with a Resolution of 1600x1200.Probably the best displays for when it was made.Still is good.
22" wouldn't really be an improvement to me,so I'm obviously getting a 24" 1920x1200 resolution monitor...As for all the people using 16:9 on their monitors,I'm laughing at you right now.
this has NOTHING to do with your monitor's aspect ratio or size.
If the youtube player is 4:3, ALL widescreen content is cut or compressed or black barred.
If the youtube player is 16:9/10, ALL 4:3 content is stretched or black barred.
It will be like that in the small window, and nothing will change when you go full screen. Your monitor size and shape could affect the amount and size of the bars you see...but when viewing content that is not native to the player, there WILL be bars either way. This will be most horrific on videos that WERE widescreen...and had bars added to make it 4:3 for the old player. Now that its BACK in a widescreen frame, there are bars on all 4 sides.
...and yes...many, many videos will now be smaller on screen.
Get a clue and stop talking about who has what monitor.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-mxBDuRaZ8
...example of a video that had '4:3 bars' added before it was uploaded. There are a lot of these. They need two standards...and people need to stop adding the bars themselves.
On the bright side, at least there is a standard for all the videos in this situation...they all look like shit.
Ha ha, well black bars apply to old videos or incorrectly formatted video uploads. I used Moroz Video Capture, captured my Bioshock Gameplay and put it on the youtube on 11/25/2008 , so I guess I was the first one who got Bioshock in 1.77778 ration aspect ;-)