YouTube's Best New Secrets
There's more to YouTube than funny cats and Gangnam Style. Here we reveal 13 clever ways to improve your viewing and your videos.
Watch videos blocked in your country
Four or five years ago, it was almost impossible to find a music video on YouTube UK, but media giants have gradually followed the BBC in seeing online streaming as an opportunity rather than a threat. However, YouTube's "This video is not available in your country" message still pops up occasionally, and there is now a way around it. Tweak the URL by removing 'watch?' and replacing the '=' with a forward slash. So instead of 'youtube.com/watch?v={number}, the URL should read 'youtube.com/v/{number}', to play wherever you are.
Control videos from your keyboard
There are lots of keyboard shortcuts you can use with YouTube, such as hitting the Space bar to play and pause, and jumping backwards and forwards five seconds with the left and right arrow keys. The up and down arrows let you control volume: pressing F takes you fullscreen and Esc takes you back again: the Home key restarts the video and End jumps to the end. You can also use the number keys to jump with more precision when a video is paused. Each number represents a percentage point in the video, so 0 is the beginning, 9 is 90 per cent and 5 is half way through.
Give any video a VHS filter
Here's a quick nostalgia fix. Add '&vhs=1' to the end of a video URL and click the tape that appears on the player toolbar. This will make the clip look like VHS, with added noise, picture distortion and other visual throwbacks to the days of analogue. Pause the video and see what happens! Hidden extras like this come and go from YouTube, so get the VHS treat while you can. Other recent Easter eggs include a recreation of the arcade game Snake and a screen-shaking tribute to the YouTube craze Harlem Shake. Keep an eye on the Google Operating System unofficial blog (googlesystem.blogspot.co.com) for more hidden treats.
Always view video subtitles
Many videos come with optional subtitles or captions, either provided by the video's creator or automatically added by YouTube. Captioned videos have a'=' (or 'cc') icon on the player toolbar Click the icon to enable or disable captions, and to translate them into English, if that option is available.
To search for videos with captions, click Filters when running a YouTube search and select 'CC (closed caption)'.
Compare your video load speed
If your videos keep freezing or take ages to buffer, YouTube MySpeed (www.youtube.com/my_speed) may explain why. It shows how well your video-load speed compares with the average internet speed over the last 30 days for your ISP, in your town, across your country and around the world. There's also a chart showing how those averages have changed over the past year. For technical information about a specific video stream, right-click the video while it's playing and select 'Stats for nerds' to open a box full of live statistics such as the video's resolution and frames per second.
Stream live events and channels
YouTube excels at triggering childhood memories with its digitised old clips, but it's also a great place for watching events happening right now. YouTube Live recently hosted its first live Wimbledon streams and a series Of live concerts from the Eden Project. Browse current and forthcoming live events in various categories, including a wealth of wildlife webcams, at www.youtube.com/live.
Watch videos blocked in your country
Four or five years ago, it was almost impossible to find a music video on YouTube UK, but media giants have gradually followed the BBC in seeing online streaming as an opportunity rather than a threat. However, YouTube's "This video is not available in your country" message still pops up occasionally, and there is now a way around it. Tweak the URL by removing 'watch?' and replacing the '=' with a forward slash. So instead of 'youtube.com/watch?v={number}, the URL should read 'youtube.com/v/{number}', to play wherever you are.
Control videos from your keyboard
There are lots of keyboard shortcuts you can use with YouTube, such as hitting the Space bar to play and pause, and jumping backwards and forwards five seconds with the left and right arrow keys. The up and down arrows let you control volume: pressing F takes you fullscreen and Esc takes you back again: the Home key restarts the video and End jumps to the end. You can also use the number keys to jump with more precision when a video is paused. Each number represents a percentage point in the video, so 0 is the beginning, 9 is 90 per cent and 5 is half way through.
Give any video a VHS filter
Here's a quick nostalgia fix. Add '&vhs=1' to the end of a video URL and click the tape that appears on the player toolbar. This will make the clip look like VHS, with added noise, picture distortion and other visual throwbacks to the days of analogue. Pause the video and see what happens! Hidden extras like this come and go from YouTube, so get the VHS treat while you can. Other recent Easter eggs include a recreation of the arcade game Snake and a screen-shaking tribute to the YouTube craze Harlem Shake. Keep an eye on the Google Operating System unofficial blog (googlesystem.blogspot.co.com) for more hidden treats.
Always view video subtitles
Many videos come with optional subtitles or captions, either provided by the video's creator or automatically added by YouTube. Captioned videos have a'=' (or 'cc') icon on the player toolbar Click the icon to enable or disable captions, and to translate them into English, if that option is available.
To search for videos with captions, click Filters when running a YouTube search and select 'CC (closed caption)'.
Compare your video load speed
If your videos keep freezing or take ages to buffer, YouTube MySpeed (www.youtube.com/my_speed) may explain why. It shows how well your video-load speed compares with the average internet speed over the last 30 days for your ISP, in your town, across your country and around the world. There's also a chart showing how those averages have changed over the past year. For technical information about a specific video stream, right-click the video while it's playing and select 'Stats for nerds' to open a box full of live statistics such as the video's resolution and frames per second.
Stream live events and channels
YouTube excels at triggering childhood memories with its digitised old clips, but it's also a great place for watching events happening right now. YouTube Live recently hosted its first live Wimbledon streams and a series Of live concerts from the Eden Project. Browse current and forthcoming live events in various categories, including a wealth of wildlife webcams, at www.youtube.com/live.
Stop videos playing automatically
YouTube clicks the play button automatically when you open a video page. This is probably good for ad revenue, but its annoying to have a video start playing before its finished buffering or if you've opened lots of video tabs at once. To take control the play button, install Stop Autoplay for Chrome (http://bit.ly/13r0EEQ) or Firefox (http://mzl.la/15qEerw). Restart your browser for the add-on to start working.
Beautify your uploaded videos
YouTube has plenty of hidden gems for video creators. YouTube Editor (www.youtube.com/editor) has evolved into a timeline-based video editor loaded with the kind of tools that you find in paid-for software, except that it lets you edit videos after you've uploaded them. You can combine, trim and rotate videos, insert transitions, stabilise shaky videos and add effects including colour corrections and lighting filters. To edit videos, upload them to YouTube and go to www.youtube.com/editor, where all the tools can be dragged into the editor.
Blur people's faces in videos
You can also edit your videos by clicking the Edit button on the video Page or in Video Manager. This opens a page where you'll find some of the tools from YouTube Editor, along with tools for adding annotations and captions. Click Enhancements. Additional Features to access the new Blur All Faces tool, which automatically blurs the features of everyone in your video to protect their privacy. The tool relies on face-detection software that doesn't always work perfectly, so it can leave some faces un-blurred. So if privacy is your top priority, change the video's privacy settings to Private or Unlisted.
See video ratings in search results
Install YouTube Ratings Preview for Chrome (http://bit.ly/1cg781m) and Firefox (http://mzl.la/12XdYSr), and you'll wonder how you ever lived without it. It's very simple: the green and red line that indicates the proportion of users who have liked and disliked a video now appears below its thumbnail in search results and in the Suggestions column. It's a brilliant idea that turns YouTube from hit-and-miss into hit-hit-hit.
Download YouTube videos to keep forever
You'll find plenty of Firefox add-ons for downloading YouTube videos (such as http://mzl.la/11psF3a) and a few for Chrome (try http://bit.ly/17OrrQ3). But there's an easier way: add the letters 'ss' before 'youtube' in the URL and press Enter to open the video in SaveFrom.net, along with a list of video-format links. Click a format to download the video. YTPodcaster extends your options by letting you enter a YouTube username to download all their recent videos at once. ListenToYouTube lets you grab an MP3 of the audio from a YouTube video.
Play videos in slow motion
YouTube Editor lets you run your uploaded videos in slow motion, but you can also slow down or speed up other people's videos while you're watching them. In YouTube, scroll to the bottom of the page and click 'Try Something new'. This takes you to TestTube (www.youtube.com/testtube), where you can try out new tools such as Feather (see our Google Hacks feature in Issue 318). Click the 'Try it out' link for HTML5 Video and click 'Join the HTML5 trial'. Now, when you open a video page and click the cog icon, you have the option to speed up the clip or slow it down.
Create an instant playlist
If you've just discovered a favourite new band or singer, don't rush out and buy everything they've ever recorded. Instead, type their name into YouTube Disco to open an instant playlist of that artist's top 100 songs on YouTube. As well being a great way to explore music by someone you like, it's a quick way to line up background music.
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