Irene's Kayaking Blog » Kevin H.

How to Embed Higher Quality Youtube Videos (and a Rodeo Hole Example)

Irene — Sun, 31 May 2009 05:05:25 +0000

I’ve been uploading some of the Rodeo Hole videos to Youtube and was pretty frustrated because the original quality is really good and the Youtube version ends up really grainy. In searching around online I found a cool trick that should work for most Youtube video formats (I think I read it won’t work for flv.)

When you’re embedding a Youtube video, you’ll get a higher quality version if you add the following code to the very end of the urls in the embed code that start with value=http://www.youtube.com:

&ap=%2526fmt%3D18

Insert it into the very end of the url, just before the last quotation mark. You need to do it twice since the link is in the embed code two times.

If you’re just linking directly to the video, you can add the following code at the end of the Youtube video link to get the higher quality version: &fmt=18

I’m pretty sure this works – here’s the first Rodeo Hole video in both quality formats for comparison.

This video has Brett, Kevin H., and people I don’t know.

Low Youtube Video Quality Version:

Higher Youtube Video Quality Version:

I’ve watched these at the same time and I definitely notice a difference. See what you think.

Wenatchee River Videos – Surfing Turkey Shoot on May 23, 2009

Irene — Thu, 28 May 2009 06:16:42 +0000

OK, the first bunch of surfing video series is ready after Memorial Day weekend in Leavenworth – which was awesome, by the way. There’s nothing nicer than kayaking down the Wenatchee River and getting out to bask in 80 degree weather at Riverside Park in Cashmere with a crew of river-happy rafters, kayakers and pooches.

I’ve still got two more sets of video to go through from Sunday – Rodeo Hole, which should be good, and another Turkey Shoot bunch from Sunday. In the meantime, here are the ones from Saturday.

This one has Brett, Butch V., Clea H., Becky D. and people I don’t know.

This one has Roger M., Clea H., Butch V., Brett and people I don’t know.

This one has Clea H., Brett, Roger M., Butch V., Kevin H. and people I don’t know.

This one has Brett, Lucy, Raina, Doug M., Roger M. and people I don’t know.

Surfing Turkey Shoot

Greg — Sun, 10 May 2009 16:32:57 +0000

By Greg Nicoll:

Here’s some video from Greg’s helmet camera of people ripping it up on Turkey Shoot.

Kayaking the Cispus River – April 2009

Irene — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 11:14:02 +0000

Michael Deckert led a trip on the Cispus River on April 18 2009, it was a real blast with something like 22 paddlers and great weather.

Here are some photos and a video of us fooling around on a surf wave. (I’ve tagged the people whose names I can remember.)

Photo by Michael Deckert

Photo by Roger Marchand

Here’s the video of people trying to pile onto a wave. Please keep in mind I’m trying to video and not drift downstream at the same time.

This was the trip where I punched the big hole, not realizing that a) it was quite so big, and b) 20 people were watching. Fortunately it turned out OK, even though I did feel bad after Kevin Hoffman worked the words “I was concerned” into the ensuing conversation about 6 times. Seeing as there was no one upstream to mop up after me he was right, I realize – but it was funny.

Speaking of which, if you ever have a beer with Kevin ask him about his days as a tree-topper in high school – I’ve worked on a bunch of fishing boats in the Bering Sea and heard a TON of wild stories but his are still seriously right up there.