YouTube getting ready for full length, wide-screen movies?

It was reported a couple weeks ago that Google is finalizing a deal that will allow users to stream full length movies on YouTube from some film studios. There are two things that Google needs to address in order to make this a success -- support for higher quality videos, and a 16:9 video player.

It's true that Google has been giving us higher quality video than what was previously available, but not nearly what it needs to be for some people. In addition to the sub-par video quality, YouTube's default player had a 4:3 aspect ratio. Watching a lower quality format in 4:3 is just wrong.

Today Google launched their 16:9 wide-screen video player on YouTube. Videos that were recorded in 4:3 give you those annoying black bars on the side of the video, but as time goes on, this will become less and less of an issue -- capturing video in wide-screen format is pretty much standard on newer recording devices.