High-definition video is creeping into our browsers. Today, Dailymotion began offering a smattering of videos in HD. There is nothing you’d actually want to watch—mostly a bunch of trailers for video games—other than to see what HD looks like on your computer screen. But be warned: you need two megabits-per-second download speeds to watch the streaming HD video without jitters. (I’ve got a T1 line, and I had problems).
Nevertheless, this is an important technical milestone. We are going to be seeing a lot more HD video on the Web, largely thanks to the H.264 codec in the latest Flash player. Dailymotion now joins Hulu, Veoh, and others in demonstrating what’s technically possible. But for most people, if they want to watch HD video, they still are going to have to buy a Blu-Ray DVD player.
Here is a Dailymotion clip in HD (if you don’t have the bandwidth to handle it, you will be prompted to watch a lower-quality stream, or just hit menu):