YouTube announced that starting next week they will be adding support for full
1080p videos. "As resolution of consumer cameras increases, we want to make
sure YouTube is the best home on the web to showcase your content," the
announcement said. 
"For viewers with big
monitors and a fast computer, try switching to 1080p to get the most out of the
fullscreen experience."

Sounds great, right? But 1080p videos are going to take significantly
more bandwidth, and some are already complaining about buffering delays.
Another issue is that in an attempt to keep bandwidth down, YouTube appears to
be lowering the audio quality noticeably. They also limit the audio sampling to
44Khz @ 16 bit rather than 48Khz.

In our look at their sample video the quality was beautiful
but it was jerky with frequent pauses. To be fair, though, there were probably
lots of others like us trying to watch the only 1080p sample available right
now. Our numbers seemed to
indicate around 3.6mbps and 128kbps audio. There may be some pressure to
improve quality from their new partners at CBS, MGM, Sony, Lions Gate
Entertainment, and the BBC.     

This is a perfect opportunity to find out if your broadband
provider is really giving the advertised throughput. No word from YouTube on
whether they expect users to restrict 1080p to uploads of things we actually
want to see clearly.