YouTube Coming To Apple TV, YouTube Adding H.264

While the jury is still out on whether anyone actually needs an Apple TV, the iTunes streaming device is getting a new feature: YouTube. Sometime in the middle of this month, a software update to the device will add wireless YouTube streaming. While YouTube will be added to the device this month, the entire YouTube catalog will not be available until the fall. Why?
Apparently, Google is re-encoding every single YouTube video into H.264 format, which will allow playback on devices that do not support Flash and Flash Video, like the Apple TV, the iPhone, and many other portable devices. That’s amazing news for everyone, even those who don’t own an Apple TV, because it should mean the ability to download YouTube videos, probably in higher quality, and without any sort of hack. It’s a big move for YouTube, and I can’t wait to see the […]

Original post by Nathan Weinberg