So anyone who spends too much time on the Internet knows about YouTube and if you spend too much time on YouTube you should know about all the controversy--the blocking, the spamming, the censorship and the legal issues.
Well though I'm not sure if its illegal, you now can watch any video you want in high quality! Just paste this code at the end of any YouTube video URL address and it will be played in a higher quality. → CODE: &fmt=18
Why? Well here's Wikipedia's answer...
"A standard quality YouTube video has a picture 320 pixels wide by 240 pixels high, and uses the Sorenson Spark H.263 video codec.....In March 2008, YouTube launched a feature which allowed some of its videos to be viewed in 'High Quality' format. This format offers the possibility of better video definition (480x360 pixels instead of the standard 320x240 pixels) for any video uploaded after this date. YouTube decides which videos are capable of this improved quality based on the standard of the original upload. Users can choose "always show me higher quality when available" on their video quality settings page in their account pages to switch automatically to the better quality. YouTube's high quality videos are available in two versions, both of which have a picture size of 480 x 360 pixels. By adding &fmt=6 to the web address of a video, it is played using the H.263 codec with mono sound, and by adding &fmt=18 it is played using the H.264/MPEG-4 AVC codec with stereo AAC sound. Asked why YouTube did not choose HD format, the site answered : "Our general philosophy is to make sure that as many people as possible can access YouTube and that videos start quickly and play smoothly. That's one reason why you don't see us racing to call this 'Super Duper YouTube HD,' because most people don't want to wait a long time for videos to play."
Standard and high quality videos, YouTube -- Wikipedia.com
All in all because people lack the patience YouTube will stick with the crappy picture but you can bypass that by adding the code. Yep, freedom still rings.
PS> In more controversy news, this video by Cut Chemist has been seen more then 80 million times on YouTube but isn't ranked, I wonder why? Anyways, its still a great song.
Cut Chemist feat. Hymnal "What's the Altitude" Music Video