Youtube has already dabbled with offering a selection of videos in high definition. But previously the HD content was shown in 720p resolution, now YouTube have announced that users can upload and watch content in full 1080p HD resolution at 50 fps (frames per second). A selection of 1080p test videos are on the site for anyone that has a fast pc/broadband connection.

A year ago Youtube introduced 720p videos. Since then the number of full HD camcorders has grown and much more of YouTube’s content has been uploaded as 1080p, though it wasn’t viewable as such. The Google owned site is planning to re-encode all of this previously created videos so that viewers will be able to take advantage of its original resolution.

YouTube is not be the first video sharing website to offer full HD, but it will almost certainly be the one that brings HD to the publics attention. YouTube has recently become eager to present commercial content and compete with the likes of Hulu, a joint venture of three major broadcast networks. Last spring, YouTube began to offer some premium content from Hollywood; the term “premium” should be used loosely, however, since the pickings have been slim. In September, the Wall Street Journal reported [subscription required] that YouTube was in serious talks with major film studios to stream movies on a rental basis.

The increase in quality is around 30% in picture density from the previous 720p hd streams. Company product manager Hunter Walk announced the news at the NewTeeVee Live conference in San Francisco.

The move to 1080p should support those initiatives. It is possible that YouTube could stream videos in Blu-ray quality for paid content. For regular users, full HD meana you can show your granny falling over on a big screen without losing quality. There is a downside though of course. At present YouTube are still limiting user-generated content to 10 minutes in length. Although because of the enormous video size that needs uploading, the current 2GB file-size limit may be increased.

Im just going to video my wife falling over.

Watch the Youtube HD Test Video

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