Talk:YouTube

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This is the talk page for discussing improvements to the YouTube article.
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Good article YouTube has been listed as one of the Engineering and technology good articles under the good article criteria. If you can improve it further, please do. If it no longer meets these criteria, you can delist it, or ask for a reassessment.
To-do list for YouTube: edit · history · watch · refresh
  • Create and develop a stats section toward the top of the article including referenced number of visitors to site and number of videos offered. It would also make sense to include stats of how many videos are banned or removed, how many comments are posted and possibly how many users have set up their own video channels because they are regular contributors.
  • add an entry on users "tagging" each other within youtube. but find source first
  • Tidy up the references. Citations should come after punctuation and are not alternatives for it.


Contents

[edit] High and standard quality videos - which format is YouTube using?

In March 2008 YouTube rolled out is high quality videos (see picture in the article). However, both of the videos in the picture shown in the article are H.263 encoded and the high quality video is not H.264/MPEG-4 AVC as stated at the launch. This may be because H.264 is supported only in the latest version of Adobe Flash Player 9, known as Moviestar. Since there are always plenty of computers without the latest plugins, H.263 represents a safer bet. Also, the sound in the HQ video in the picture is in mono (44100Hz 96kbps MP3 compared to 22050Hz 64kbps in a standard YouTube video). --♦IanMacM♦ (talk to me) 14:32, 26 April 2008 (UTC)

I have removed the part of the article saying that the high quality videos are in H.264/MPEG-4 AVC format with stereo sound. YouTube said that it would be using this format when it launched the HQ videos, but a look at the stream information of the current HQ videos shows that they are H.263 encoded with mono sound. --♦IanMacM♦ (talk to me) 17:21, 19 May 2008 (UTC)
After looking into this further, things have become clearer. YouTube's High Quality videos are available in two formats, &fmt=6 and &fmt=18. First, find a video that is available in High Quality, eg Watermelon Nights at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AexPuBei-Hk . At this web address, the video plays in the standard YouTube format: 320x240px, H.263 video, MP3 audio, 22050Hz mono. Adding &fmt=6 to the end of the web address will play the video as follows: 480x360px, H.263 video, MP3 audio, 44100Hz mono. Adding &fmt=18 to the end of the web address will play the video as follows: 480x360px, H.264 video (MPEG4-AVC), AAC audio, 44100Hz stereo.

One issue that I have run into is that selecting the "watch in high quality" option on the web page brings up the &fmt=6 version. This is despite having a fast connection and the latest Flash plugin which can handle H.264 videos. On its Video Playback Quality settings page [1], YouTube has three options:

  • Choose my video quality dynamically, based on the current connection speed.
  • I have a slow connection. Never play higher-quality video.
  • I have a fast connection. Always play higher quality video when it's available.

Even after choosing the third option, YouTube was still choosing the &fmt=6 version by default. The only way to get the H.264 version to play was to add &fmt=18 manually to the web address. This is a bit of a nuisance, and it would be interesting to hear how other users have been experiencing YouTube's High Quality videos.

To watch the &fmt=18 version, it is necessary to have the latest version of Adobe Flash Player 9 installed [2]. The best way to check whether the sound is in stereo is to listen on headphones, and the soundtrack of Watermelon Nights is in stereo provided that you are watching the &fmt=18 version. Incidentally, the file sizes of the different versions of Watermelon Nights on YouTube are as follows:

  • standard: 6.27MB
  • &fmt=6: 19.2MB
  • &fmt=18: 11.1MB

There is also a version of Watermelon Nights at http://www.channelfrederator.com/methminute39/episode/TMM_20071206 , with the following format: 480x360px, H.263 video, MP3 audio, 44100Hz stereo. The file size is 42.3MB due to the generous video bit rate of 2100kbps. This version has the best video quality.

Some of this will find its way into the article as time permits. --♦IanMacM♦ (talk to me) 13:42, 26 May 2008 (UTC)

I tried adding manually the &fmt=18 setting but it keeps showing me the standard version. And there is no "&fmt=xx" ending in my browser anyway, so i can only guess that i see the &fmt=6 version when i click the HQ option. Charea (talk) 14:48, 27 May 2008 (UTC)
The format codes should be added to the address given in the address bar of the browser, which is usually at the top of the screen. To save time, the full links to the High Quality versions are as follows:

If in doubt, try refreshing the page (often by pressing F5 on the keyboard). --♦IanMacM♦ (talk to me) 15:07, 27 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] The September 2007 copyright clean?

Remember when all of those family guy, futurama and simpsons videos were deleted? Is that mentioned? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.170.143.13 (Talk) (talk)

[edit] Banned in Turkey again

From "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blocking_of_YouTube": "On May 05, 2008, YouTube was blocked again by Telekomünikasyon İletişim Başkanlığı, according to the order of Ankara 11. Sulh Ceza Mahkemesi, April 24, 2008 of 2008/468."

And i can confirm because i am in tukey and when i try to visit YouTube i get these: "BU SİTEYE ERİŞİM ENGELLENMİŞTİR Ankara 11. Sulh Ceza Mahkemesi, 24/04/2008 tarih ve 2008/468 nolu kararı gereği bu siteye erişim TELEKOMÜNİKASYON İLETİŞİM BAŞKANLIĞI'nca engellenmiştir. Access to this web site is banned by "TELEKOMÜNİKASYON İLETİŞİM BAŞKANLIĞI" according to the order of: Ankara 11. Sulh Ceza Mahkemesi, 24/04/2008 of 2008/468. Ankara 5. Sulh Ceza Mahkemesi, 30/04/2008 tarih ve 2008/599 nolu kararı gereği bu siteye erişim TELEKOMÜNİKASYON İLETİŞİM BAŞKANLIĞI'nca engellenmiştir. Access to this web site is banned by "TELEKOMÜNİKASYON İLETİŞİM BAŞKANLIĞI" according to the order of: Ankara 5. Sulh Ceza Mahkemesi, 30/04/2008 of 2008/599 ." thanks --MacApp (talk) 13:41, 9 May 2008 (UTC)

screenshots? Altonbr (talk) 13:56, 9 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] YouTube ripping tools

I just incidentally discovered that Real Player offers its own Ripping tool and can play .flv files too. It must've surreptitiously come in an update because it wasn't there via a small box the last time I visited YouTube. I guess it's worth mentioning.

Thanks,

-Alan 24.184.184.177 (talk) 03:47, 18 May 2008 (UTC)

There are numerous downloading tools for YouTube videos but due to the need to avoid advertising and long lists of spam links, the article does not mention any by name. RealPlayer 11 (launched in November 2007) has a tool for downloading and playing FLV files, not only from YouTube. There are also online tools, eg this one. There are also standalone FLV players, see Flash Video. --♦IanMacM♦ (talk to me) 18:30, 22 May 2008 (UTC)

It may be worth noting in the article that YouTube videos can be downloaded for offline use and played on an FLV player. However, there are so many tools for doing this that the external links section has become a spam magnet in the past. What is needed is a form of words which mentions the ability to download videos without getting into a situation where individual products are advertised. --♦IanMacM♦ (talk to me) 20:50, 22 May 2008 (UTC)

One interesting point is that the use of downloading tools appears to contravene rule 4C of YouTube's terms of service, which states:

You agree not to access User Submissions (defined below) or YouTube Content through any technology or means other than the video playback pages of the Website itself, the YouTube Embeddable Player, or other explicitly authorized means YouTube may designate.

However, since there is (at the time of writing) no DRM preventing the downloading and playing of YouTube's FLV files, it remains a popular way of watching YouTube videos while not connected to the Internet. --♦IanMacM♦ (talk to me) 13:22, 24 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Article sequestration

For what purpose are the articles Social impact of YouTube and Criticism of YouTube sequestered away with only a 'Main article' template? The whole purpose of the template is to point out that what follows is a summary of a larger article. There are no summaries at all, and these aspects are simply left out of the article completely. Surely that alone disqualifies this as a good article. Richard001 (talk) 09:11, 23 May 2008 (UTC)

This is a fair point and it would be helpful to have a paragraph giving an overview of these areas. --♦IanMacM♦ (talk to me) 09:20, 23 May 2008 (UTC)
I have added {{summarize}} templates to highlight the problem. If either had a decent lead section (which seem to be getting worse and worse on Wikipedia) summarizing would be relatively easy; I might even attempt it myself if that was the case. Hopefully there is someone here who feels some attachment to or responsibility for the article, otherwise it will be going to GAR in a week or so. Richard001 (talk) 10:44, 23 May 2008 (UTC)

Y Done. --♦IanMacM♦ (talk to me) 09:24, 25 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] utube.com

utube.com does not point to youtube munchman | talk; 06:54, 28 May 2008 (UTC)

This is true, www.utube.com does not redirect to www.youtube.com. The article does not claim this, although it did say that utube.com is a copycat video sharing site, which is not currently true. Due to the need to avoid WP:RECENTISM, any statements in the article should be checked to make sure that they are not out of date. --♦IanMacM♦ (talk to me) 11:11, 29 May 2008 (UTC)


[edit] "Interactive" Videos

Recently, a video belonging to YouTube user "werneroi" was featured. This video, along with a few others of his, have "interactive" features, which are essentially links to other videos placed on the video window (i.e. "click on this pocket to see a flying credit card" is one). Should something about these be added? 216.236.163.21 (talk) 16:06, 4 June 2008 (UTC)

This seems to be referring to the feature for annotating YouTube videos, which is currently on beta test (see [3]). This allows speech bubbles with links to be added to videos. This may be worth a mention in the article. There is a demo of the annotations feature at [4]. --♦IanMacM♦ (talk to me) 16:37, 4 June 2008 (UTC)

I added a section on annotations. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Qelery (talk • contribs) 18:27, 4 June 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Undo

I just looked up utube.com and found out it is an active address. So I apparently misread something or something...And then I deleted the part that said it was an inactive address. And then I messed it up:(... I then tried to restore it but that didn't work. So don't say I vandalized anything. But can someone fix it? Please?Wikimichael22 (talk) 23:31, 5 June 2008 (UTC)

At the moment www.utube.com is showing a basic placeholder page rather than giving a HTTP 404 error, so it has been described as inactive. --♦IanMacM♦ (talk to me) 06:44, 6 June 2008 (UTC)

Thank you so much for whoever fixed my mistake (my apoligies).Wikimichael22 (talk) 02:42, 8 June 2008 (UTC)

[edit] YouTube logo in infobox

The logo has been reverted to the previous SVG version. While this has good quality graphics, it lacks the "Broadcast Yourself" slogan which is the registered trademark of YouTube. The previous version was added because someone on the talk page said that this should be included. What is needed is a good quality version which includes the words "Broadcast Yourself." --♦IanMacM♦ (talk to me) 06:44, 6 June 2008 (UTC)

A better quality PNG version of the current YouTube logo has been added to the infobox. As of June 2008, the YouTube logo is usually displayed with the words "Broadcast Yourself" in grey letters underneath, and the article should acknowledge this. If the SVG version of the logo at [5] could be edited to include the words "Broadcast Yourself™", it could be used again. --♦IanMacM♦ (talk to me) 08:42, 6 June 2008 (UTC)

[edit] New parameters

It seems quite recently YouTube modified it's standard Width-to-Height Paramaters slightly. The width has remained unchanged at 425 px, however the height has been reduced by 11 px from 355 to 344. I can only guess to attain a better aspect ratio for some or even most videos, it might be trying to have more widescreen-like dimensions, I don't know. And btw, is it worth mentioning that once you embed a YouTube video, as with any other Flash Video site, you can change the dimensions to be whatever you want? Thanks again, -Alan 24.184.184.177 (talk) 14:50, 8 June 2008 (UTC)

This seems to refer to the dimensions of embedded YouTube videos, which are 425 x 344px by default, although a person with basic knowledge of HTML could change these values. Since it is a fairly small change, it is not really notable enough for the article. --♦IanMacM♦ (talk to me) 16:36, 8 June 2008 (UTC)

[edit] partner videos

i do think this is a very interesting topic link. I cant find enough information on it though but i do think it deserves inclusion.--86.158.200.43 (talk) 21:50, 8 June 2008 (UTC)

[edit] "Limited to ten minutes"

The technical details section claims Youtube videos cannot be more than 10 minutes longer. Here is a video that is over 58 minutes long, so that's straightfowardly false. Could a registered user please correct this? If after a certain point in time changes to the site made it impossible to add new longer videos I'd understand, although I'd still thinking a better wording could be suitable. 129.67.53.232 (talk) 22:22, 11 June 2008 (UTC)

The statement that uploaded videos are limited to ten minutes is currently correct and verified in the YouTube help section at [6]. This is what it says:

You can no longer upload videos longer than ten minutes regardless of what type of account you have. Users who had previously been allowed to upload longer content still retain this ability, so you may occasionally see videos that are longer than ten minutes. You can, however, easily change your account type to Director, Comedian, Musician or Guru, which offer a variety of other features like the ability to add a custom logo, tour date information and links to other websites.

The ten minute limit was introduced during the early history of YouTube in March 2006 [7] because people were uploading hour long TV shows in one chunk. The article is intended to show that the current rules impose a ten minute limit, so it is not strictly misleading. However, it may be worth mentioning in the article that a longer limit once existed. --♦IanMacM♦ (talk to me) 06:08, 12 June 2008 (UTC)

Especially since this limit not only once did not apply, but still does not apply to sufficiently old users! 129.67.53.232 (talk) 07:14, 12 June 2008 (UTC)
Y Done. --♦IanMacM♦ (talk to me) 08:30, 12 June 2008 (UTC)