Exams are over, coursework is done and the celebrations are a mere (and slightly fuzzy) memory, all of which means one thing… I can finally start writing again! What, no applause? Anyway, this is just a quick one whilst I’m winding things back up, Google Chrome extension “Auto HD for YouTube”. (Geek points to BE77Y [Euan, for the uninitiated] for finding this).

If you’re like me you always play YouTube videos at the highest quality available, but when first loaded a lower quality is always selected. Two clicks and a reload later and you’re laughing, but should that really be necessary? Not in my book at any rate, so what can be done about it?

If you’ve got a YouTube account there is a setting which sets video quality dependant on our bandwidth. Unfortunately, as with most YouTube account functionality, it works about as well as a (joke fail, please send hilarious saying to ben@icantmakeupmyownjokes.com), hence Auto HD. It does exactly as it says on the tin, setting any video that you watch to the highest quality, consistently!

I do have a couple of niggles, the main one being that you cannot select a specific quality level. Not everyone is lucky enough to have a 1080p screen, or the bandwidth to support it. In fact, playing it on a lower quality screen could actually look worse and will certainly slow your computer down. It would be nice (and dare I say fairly simple) to allow a user to select which level they want. My second, smaller problem, is that it doesn’t work within the channel pages, something I’m sure the developer can and will fix quickly. It’s only a pain if you hate the subscription box like me!

These are minor niggles, anything’s better than the alternative and they’ve made this for free so I cant really complain. If you use Chrome and appreciate the higher quality YouTube videos you should definitely check it out.

Use any other useful Chrome extensions? Let me know in the comments.