Youtube player goes widescreen (16:9 aspect) by default

[Full of Win]

http://www.youtube.com/blog?entry=0i22UDAOfj8

From their blog...

Over the years we've heard a lot of feedback from you about what you'd like to change about YouTube, and the size of our video player is always top of mind. That's why today we're excited to announce a bigger YouTube player.

We're expanding the width of the page to 960 pixels to better reflect the quality of the videos you create and the screens that you use to watch them. This new, wider player is in a widescreen aspect ratio which we hope will provide you with a cleaner, more powerful viewing experience. And don't worry, your 4:3 aspect ratio videos will play just fine in this new player.

As always, we welcome your feedback and encourage you to share your thoughts with us on this exciting, new change happening for all videos on YouTube.

Have fun watching!
The YouTube Team

 

[EricNau]

I like it - the videos seem much larger.

 

[SnowLeopard2008]

yea, before the videos had such bad quality...

 

[themoonisdown09]

I noticed this last night when I went to watch a commercial on YouTube. I like it.

 

[SactoGuy18]

I believe there's a reason for this change: the very strong possibility that YouTube may soon be hosting widescreen programming from the broadcast and cable companies.

 

[Tom B.]

An excellent change. Hopefully this will convince more people to cease filming anything in archaic 4:3 and join the rest of us here in the 21st century.

 

[iDAG]

A much welcomed change in format. That was really my only problem with YouTube in the first place...

 

[XianPalin]

I like it. My only problem is that I'm so used to the other sites (hulu, etc) that use widescreen all using a "newer" skin / feel to the app, with stuff like chapter markers, etc on the progress bar. Since it's widescreen but still has the Youtube classic look to it, it feels like less of a step forward. However, I understand that it'd probably alienate a lot of people if they suddenly changed the skin as well as the screen size.