YouTube on Friday announced support for so-called "4K" video, a format four times the size of today's 1080p HDTVs. The Google site also announced a grants program to invest in innovative filmmakers.

Google's YouTube on Friday announced support for so-called "4K" video, a format four times the size of today's 1080p HDTVs.

Although the number of videos provided by YouTube in the new format will undoubtedly be fairly small, YouTube said that the company wanted to support films with the highest video quality available.

"To give some perspective on the size of 4K, the ideal screen size for a 4K video is 25 feet; IMAX movies are projected through two 2k resolution projectors," Ramesh Sarukkai, a YouTube engineer said in a blog post scheduled to go live later on Friday.

But don't expect to be able to access them on dialup: the 4K (4,096-by-3,072) videos will also require "super-fast broadband" to download, YouTube said. Videos shot in 4K can be accessed in their native format by selecting the "original" format in the video playback options.

Largely confined to the digital cinema, 4K will eventually come to the home on the back as well as . According to Wikipedia, about 98 percent of digital cinemas use 2K projectors.

YouTube has had a busy week; earlier, the site launched , plus , a relatively .

The company also announced a grants program, where YouTube will invest $5 million in content creators that the company sees as creative and resourceful.

"We have over 10,000 partners, and 94 of Ad Age's top 100 advertisers have run campaigns on YouTube and the Google Display Network. We've made great progress in the last five years. But we think we can do better," George Strompolos, a partner development manager for Youtube, announced in a blog post. "That's why today we are announcing the YouTube Partner Grants program that will invest five million dollars across select new and emerging YouTube partners. Our goal is to catalyze the creation of new ideas and production models from some of our most innovative and original content partners for the benefit and advancement of the entire industry."

The grants will serve as an advance against the partner's future YouTube revenue share, YouTube said. Partners will be selected based on video views, subscribers, growth rate, audience engagement and production expertise, and then invited to join. The funds may be used to invest in better production equipment, marketing, or to hire more staff.