News: As Tech Crunch reported, CBS has launched a new video player with a few 2-minute videos of shows in high definition. The site is called "CBS labs," which complements the already existing CBS video on its own site and on YouTube. The HD videos are streamed on CBS (not progressively downloaded like YouTube), which means you can expect a few more seconds delay occasionally when watching the vids.
Analysis: The CBS site is a modest start to HD. Only a few video clips and no embedding yet. But this is obviously a step in the right direction. HD is the wave of the future. hulu is already experimenting with HD on its site, too, and FOX on Demand already presents some of its shows in High Def. As reported this week, YouTube has slowly begun improving the definition of its videos -- but only selectively, and not yet in high def. The files for HD are much larger than the standard video files, as anyone with a HD camera will attest. Whoever can corner the market for HD video sharing -- doing what YouTube does, but for HD videos -- will be the NEXT BIG video site online. HD cameras are still expensive today (close to double the standard video cameras), but that price will come down. Also, as more and more amateur creators become more serious about their productions (as we are already seeing), the progression to HD cameras will be too much for video sites like YouTube to ignore.
