YouTube announced that all videos on their web site will now be in the wider format HD format, 16:9 ratio. The YouTube player is now 960 pixels wide, as opposed to the standard format of 4:3 ratio. 4:3 aspect ratio videos will continue to play in the wider format, but YouTube has added black borders to the right and left of the video, to fill that space.

YouTube has a help document describing how to upload better quality videos. It includes using MPEG4 (Divx, Xvid) format with MP3 audio and a video resolution of 480×360 or higher with a frame rate of 24fps or higher.

Below is an embedded version of me covering the news on video. Note, the default embed code still uses the old 4:3 aspect ratio. Why not give the new format or at least an option for it in the “customize” section?

Here is the default embed code, converting my 19:6 ratio to a 4:3:

Here is when I use code by a third party to make it in HD format (via News.com):

More coverage on this news at Techmeme.

Related Topics: Google: YouTube & Video

About The Author: Barry Schwartz is Search Engine Land's News Editor and owns RustyBrick, a NY based web consulting firm. He also runs Search Engine Roundtable, a popular search blog on very advanced SEM topics. Barry's personal blog is named Cartoon Barry and he can be followed on Twitter here. For more background information on Barry, see his full bio over here. See more articles by Barry Schwartz