After weeks of trialling its new HD capabilities YouTube has officially launched its high-def channel.
Users clicking on the newly added "watch in HD" option will automatically see the videos play in widescreen (16:9 aspect).
YouTube originally announced its intention to go widescreen in November following the video sharing giant’s recent decision to start hosting full-length Hollywood movies.
As well as boosting HD content, YouTube plans to add filtering options, including the ability to search HD videos.
The Google-owned company will also be adding three new landing pages – youtube.com/music, youtube.com/news and youtube.com/movies – with a view to simplifying categorization and search.
With competition intensifying as the likes of Hulu showing high definition videos, the improvements suggest YouTube is responding well to the challenge.
The changes come just as Warner Music is pulling all its music videos off YouTube because of Google’s refusal to pay more money.
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