YouTube has started to convert some of its videos into a higher quality with links on some videos saying “Watch this video in higher quality.” but here is how you get them to play by default.

This option has not been implemented on many accounts but the how to is already present in the youtube help pages. You need a YouTube account to be able to do this.

1. Go to your Account page.
2. Under “Manage My Videos” click the “HQ Video Playback Setting” link.
3. Select the playback setting that makes sense for you.
4. Click the “Save” button.

You can find some more details about how to get your videos converter to a HD format and the comparison of the new videos over at this link.