Is there a way to force HD (720p) on embedded youtube or vimeo (or other) videos?

Question

Previously, by adding "&hd=1" to a youtube URL would force HD. This has recently changed though. Is there any workaround to this either with the native youtube embedded player or with an alternate youtube video embed code?

Solution

The only way to do it on Vimeo is to check off the option "Default this video to HD when embedded" on your own video if you're a Plus or PRO member. The preference of the viewer always overrides that though. So the first time you see a Vimeo video, we will use the preference from the video owner, but if the viewer changes the HD/SD setting, that is the one that will stick for all videos.

Comments

[Admin]

I have checked the default to HD button, but my video only loads in HD some of the time when embedded. Why would this happen?

[Brad Dougherty]

Do you ever click to change the quality on any other videos? That would set a cookie to that specific quality, which all videos will use.

[Joey]

Hi Jonathan, for future answers, can you provide a full code example of how you achieved this? Code snippets don't help those without a deep knowledge of how parameters should be handled. Just a suggestion...