Newer content available on Youtube in 720p for free?

So I was watching some trailers and noticed that they were now available in HD and thought "Hey, that's cool that I don't have to go to some other places if I want a trailer to look good full-screen", and then I noticed that the recent Quick Looks were also available in 720p which I thought that they intentionally didn't do because HD was a members bonus.

I'm wondering if this is just a mistake or did some Top Men make then decision to allow everyone to have access to HD?

Yes! 720p on youtube for $0.00 a month!

Yeah they upgraded that about a week ago i think, wonder why.

I actually prefer the non-youtube player better for arbitrary reasons, but it doesn't give me much incentive to resubscribe when my year runs up. Weird decision.

I much prefer the youtube player for one reason - the mouse disappears when inactive!

I guess the new drive for premium content is what the guys are relying upon now for repeat membership, and it is working for me.

Yeah they upgraded that about a week ago i think, wonder why.

The 720p version is an improvement over the 360p but, as Dave and Vinny already stated in the last WM Radio Show, the bitrate and overall quality is still lower compared to the HD videos on the site.

What spurred the switch over to YouTube? Were the Amazon hosting bills becoming unreasonable? Anything to do with the hard drive shortage?

@NekuSakuraba said:

@CptChiken

Yeah they upgraded that about a week ago i think, wonder why.

People wouldn't shut up about it so WM listened to what people wanted. I wonder how far they will go with listening to their users though, listening to the community is one thing but losing money is another.

Pretty much every premium member on the WM Radio Show who either called in or commented on the podcast proclaimed their support behind giving HD to everyone, me included.

Charging for HD on the internet is over, no one does it anymore, except maybe pornsites, maybe.

@MonstroUK said:

What spurred the switch over to YouTube? Were the Amazon hosting bills becoming unreasonable? Anything to do with the hard drive shortage?

There was a lengthy article on this subject when the change happened.

@Swoxx said:

Charging for HD on the internet is over, no one does it anymore, except maybe pornsites, maybe.

This.

I mean when you watch Bonus Round, it's in 1080p. It looks absolutely gorgeous, some games on that look better than they do on my TV; it's PC footage obviously but still, a very nice eye candy.

@MonstroUK: It was becoming monstrously expensive to do all the video hosting themselves, streaming it out to everyone, so they made it so non-Premium members watched from YouTube, makes it cost less money and bandwidth.

Hard drives didn't play a factor as all the videos were archived anyway, and that hasn't changed.

@huntad said:

I actually prefer the non-youtube player better for arbitrary reasons, but it doesn't give me much incentive to resubscribe when my year runs up. Weird decision.

Having something in HD in this day and age should not be the big deciding factor especially when some of those vids are trailers for games (something that you can see in HD for free on other sites already). All the premium vids and stuff like that should be the reason ppl subscribe, as well as the simple urge to help out the the crew if one were so inclined.

@Swoxx said:

Charging for HD on the internet is over, no one does it anymore, except maybe pornsites, maybe.

To be fair you don't want to see porn in HD.

@Swoxx said:

@NekuSakuraba said:

@CptChiken

Yeah they upgraded that about a week ago i think, wonder why.

People wouldn't shut up about it so WM listened to what people wanted. I wonder how far they will go with listening to their users though, listening to the community is one thing but losing money is another.

Pretty much every premium member on the WM Radio Show who either called in or commented on the podcast proclaimed their support behind giving HD to everyone, me included.

Charging for HD on the internet is over, no one does it anymore, except maybe pornsites, maybe.

But what I mean is, what if something like that happened to member exclusive videos? I know it probably wont but if it did, how would Whiskey handle it? They need to make money somehow.

@Swoxx said:

@NekuSakuraba said:

@CptChiken

Yeah they upgraded that about a week ago i think, wonder why.

People wouldn't shut up about it so WM listened to what people wanted. I wonder how far they will go with listening to their users though, listening to the community is one thing but losing money is another.

Pretty much every premium member on the WM Radio Show who either called in or commented on the podcast proclaimed their support behind giving HD to everyone, me included.

Charging for HD on the internet is over, no one does it anymore, except maybe pornsites, maybe.

But what I mean is, what if something like that happened to member exclusive videos? I know it probably wont but if it did, how would Whiskey handle it? They need to make money somehow.

@NekuSakuraba: I think that's very unlikely since as you said, they need to make money. That would remove all value with premium and just make it a donation system. HD videos isn't the same thing, not many premium members saw it as something they needed exclusively as an incentive to keep being a member. Which is why they went through with it. Had the response from premium members been "I'm fucking cancelling if you make HD free" They probably wouldn't have done it. But since there was a overwhelming agreement both from free and premium members to make HD free, they did it.

@Mr_Skeleton said:

@Swoxx said:

Charging for HD on the internet is over, no one does it anymore, except maybe pornsites, maybe.

To be fair you don't want to see porn in HD.

HD porn is the best kind of porn.

@Swoxx said:

Charging for HD on the internet is over, no one does it anymore, except maybe pornsites, maybe.

But what I mean is, what if something like that happened to member exclusive videos? I know it probably wont but if it did, how would Whiskey handle it? They need to make money somehow.

It's2011,people.ApparentlyWMjustgotthenotification.

(brokenspacebarftl)

EDIT:WMiskindalikeapornsitewhenyouthinkaboutit...lotsofmoustaches.

@StaticFalconar said:

@huntad said:

I actually prefer the non-youtube player better for arbitrary reasons, but it doesn't give me much incentive to resubscribe when my year runs up. Weird decision.

Having something in HD in this day and age should not be the big deciding factor especially when some of those vids are trailers for games (something that you can see in HD for free on other sites already). All the premium vids and stuff like that should be the reason ppl subscribe, as well as the simple urge to help out the the crew if one were so inclined.

I think people can subscribe for whatever they feel like subscribing for. When you use should so much in your sentences, it makes you come off as someone trying to tell people what to do. And telling anyone what they should be doing with their money is being a mom. Are you tryin' to be my mom? :)

As a paid member I'm fine with this as long as the exclusive content keeps rolling. I want more "Random PC Game" and "Load Your Last Save!"

As a paid member I'm fine with this as long as the exclusive content keeps rolling. I want more "Random PC Game" and "Load Your Last Save!"

I prefer the YouTube player so making 720p available through it is nice.

@wasteguru said:

As a paid member I'm fine with this as long as the exclusive content keeps rolling. I want more "Random PC Game" and "Load Your Last Save!"

Yeah it really pisses me off how little Vinny there is on Giant Bomb these days. Two months ago it was brilliant, but Jeff has insisted on pummeling Vinny with video workload to the point where he had to take a vacation and has no time to appear on Giant Bomb, even though he is - by far - the best one of the bunch.

@Vexxan said:

I prefer the YouTube player so making 720p available through it is nice.

Very nice. And since YouTube apps are on almost anything we can watch Giant Bomb videos in HD almost anywhere!

@huntad said:

@StaticFalconar said:

@huntad said:

I actually prefer the non-youtube player better for arbitrary reasons, but it doesn't give me much incentive to resubscribe when my year runs up. Weird decision.

Having something in HD in this day and age should not be the big deciding factor especially when some of those vids are trailers for games (something that you can see in HD for free on other sites already). All the premium vids and stuff like that should be the reason ppl subscribe, as well as the simple urge to help out the the crew if one were so inclined.

I think people can subscribe for whatever they feel like subscribing for. When you use should so much in your sentences, it makes you come off as someone trying to tell people what to do. And telling anyone what they should be doing with their money is being a mom. Are you tryin' to be my mom? :)

Go clean your room so you can earn your allowance to subscribe.

They're finally providing the decent and standard 720p to non-subscribers? Great news.

Oh, good. Nice to see they listened. In late 2011, this is an expectation as far as I'm concerned. And this has definitely not affected me re-upping my sub next year.

I thought it was pretty shitty of them when 360p was the highest option but this is awesome. I would have been happy with 480p.