I don’t know why they don’t make this more accessible to users, but I found how to directly link to high quality videos on youtube.
Linking
Attach “&fmt=18” to the end of the video’s URL.
Normal link: youtube.com/watch?v=9XfVAcexWLc
High quality link: youtube.com/watch?v=9XfVAcexWLc&fmt=18
Embedding
Attach “&ap=%2526fmt%3D18” to the end of the video’s URL within the coding.
<object width=”425” height=”344”><param name=”movie” value=”http://www.youtube.com/v/9XfVAcexWLc&ap=%2526fmt%3D18“></param><param name=”allowFullScreen” value=”true”></param><param name=”allowscriptaccess” value=”always”></param><embed src=”http://www.youtube.com/v/9XfVAcexWLc&ap=%2526fmt%3D18” type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” allowscriptaccess=”always” allowfullscreen=”true” width=”425” height=”344”></embed></object>
