Now that Hulu is out, YouTube is facing quite a competition, only in the United States for now, but they’re not going to just stand and watch. YouTube announced on Thursday on its official blog that users are given the option to watch some of the videos in higher quality, by simply opting from their account page from “always show me higher quality when available” or “never show me higher quality”.

There is a little catch to that, of course: users must have a fast connection if they opt for higher quality videos, but the feature however is said to apply to all eligible videos on YouTube. Users with fast connections will be the ones to experience YouTube’s initiative, while other users might want to stick to the classic view, otherwise they might encounter some bumps in the road while trying to play a video.

On its blog, the YouTube team said: “We want to help everyone understand that YouTube will continue to evolve with the videos you're creating. We're especially excited about offering this upgrade in video quality to our community of filmmakers and animators, who have been requesting this feature for some time. As more of you guys produce great-looking videos, we want to make sure they can be seen in all their glory. So we’ll continue to increase quality behind the scenes and make tweaks to support your uploads.”

 Better quality but not HD? The YouTube team also had an explanation for that: the web site has a wide range of viewers who hate waiting too long for a video to play, and as they want as many people as possible to access the site, they opt for the version where videos play smooth and quickly, rather than make their users wait a long time for videos to play.