From version 1.8.1 onwards I’ve added support for Flash AS2 mode (ActionScript 2). Note that AS2 is officially deprecated by Youtube, but, it still works so you can use it.

Many of you already know that with the AS3 or HTML5 player, the parameter hd=1 does not force HD playback by default. The hd parameter is only available to the AS2 video player for now.

So…if you need to force HD playback by default in your videos, you can use the AS2 (Flash only) player in your site until Youtube releases a stable iFrame API (the iFrame API will allow us to choose a default playback quality per video) or enables the hd parameter for the AS3 & HTML5 players.

How to force hd?

Set the version parameter to 2 and the hd parameter to 1

Here’s an example of how to force AS2 mode and enable HD playback by default:

Here’s the shortcode used:

[youtube_sc video=Cj6ho1-G6tw version=2 hd=1 fs=1]