Not that I am old or anything :) , but video on the web just a short while ago use to be a joke. In college Real Media was the only way to watch streaming video online. There was Quicktime of course but you had to download the file before it played and that was fine to do. But just a reminder (late '90's and early 00's) high speed internet was just hitting the dorm rooms and Wi-Fi was still "magical". So Real Media was the only way to watch media when you clicked the button to play. Quicktime just was really there yet (many years before the streaming protocol and h.264 codec). Real Media's quality back then was pretty good, but when you look back on it now, it's pretty worthless. Plus if you try to reencode a .RM file back to Quicktime or something, it's even worse.
Then of course came Youtube. It brought video to the masses. But Youtube's quality hasn't been the greatest and it has really specialized in clips of copyrighted TV shows and funny stupid little videos. You sometimes see some ground breaking stuff- but it's hard to come by. And the comments on videos are really pretty bad. It's usually some irate 16yo who doesn't have a clue how to write a sentence with out cursing profusely.
I have recently been spending time at Vimeo- a website that is all about good design and quality video. They have there own "HD" section that has HD video. It's using the latest version of Flash player and the video comes out amazing. There is a full screen button if you want to watch it that way. I prefer the smaller size because you get the high quality video without the distraction of video taking up all of your screen.
Vimeo has actually been very inspiring lately, with a lot of really good content and tips and comments. When I go there I basically look for what is "recommended" and start browsing from there, or I'll find a Vimeo link from some video forum. Go and check it out!