After recently updating my PS3 firmware, I noticed that there was a new button in the menu – TV channels. The only option available at the moment seems to be YouTube. So, I downloaded the 22MB update and checked it out.
But for some reason, the new YouTube application ran at the wrong aspect ratio on my system. It was running in a 4:3 ratio instead of 16:9 HD ratio. My television is capable of Full-HD and I nominally had my PS3 configured to run at 1080i. Everything else seems to work fine including Bluray, games and normal video playback.
So, after a little investigation, turns out that the YouTube app runs at 720p and I had 720p disabled in my PS3 display settings. Enabling the 720p option in my display settings allowed the YouTube app to run correctly. It was odd, trying to watch 16:9 HD videos on a 16.9 TV with black horizontal bars.
So, I’ll start using the PS3 for streaming YouTube from now, on trial.
Technical Intercourse 