As our internet bandwidth speed increases, streaming YouTube is now as fluid as liquid. We will no longer encounter pauses every few seconds in order for the video to finish buffering. The next improvement everybody want is video clarity. We want the highest video quality possible!

In YouTube, the video quality ranges from 240p to 1080p. Typically, videos are uploaded to a maximum quality of 720p, keeping the lower quality options as well, in case the internet connection isn’t great. According to YouTube video uploaders, the leap from 720p to 1080p isn’t necessary for most videos. Only some type of videos are uploaded in 1080p.

YouTube defaults the playback quality at 360p, unless

• 360p isn’t an option – which in this case, the video quality will be 240p
• You played the videos in full screen and you’ve checked the Always play HD on fullscreen (when available) option.
  

But, the ‘HD’ isn’t 1080p or highest quality HD. The ‘HD’ YouTube meant was 480p. If you want to watch YouTube videos in the highest possible quality simply because you have a fast internet connection, you need to download a plugin/extension like YouTube Options by Spoi. [Safari | Chrome | Opera].

I recommend using this tool because it not only allow you to play video in the highest possible quality, it does these things. These are not the only features, i am only highlighting the ones i think is very useful to me.

• BLOCK ADS – Albeit it’s one of the YouTube uploader’s source of revenue, it gets irritating to watch an ad before every video.
• Hide annotations – I don’t know about you but some annotations filled up the screen, prompting me to click the cross every time I see it..
• Replay video – This is useful if you want to listen to a song on repeat.
• Disable auto-play – Ever open multiple tabs and they all start to play all at a go? Nightmare adverted.
• Hide almost anything from Header, comments, descriptions to footer.
• Show download links to the video – Don’t really know whether this is considered ripping but I don’t use it anyway, if I want it i’ll stream it.
• Multiple Video Sizes

 This tool is a MUST HAVE if you use YouTube regularly.