Greetings. It appears that YouTube has switched their standard video display window from 4:3 aspect ratio to 16:9 widescreen. As anyone can tell you who has ever worked to try make sure that a 16:9 image displayed reasonably in YouTube's previous 4:3 window -- not as straightforward as you might think -- this should be a welcome development, as was "high quality" video mode (if you know how to trigger it).

Of course, videos previously encoded 4:3 will now display black side panels, just like your home HDTV when showing standard definition fare -- assuming you're using the proper TV display mode and don't select the painful "distort the image to fill the screen" setting. (Note to History Channel: stretching most of your standard definition shows feeding on your "History HD" channel looks seriously awful.)

--Lauren--