Vimeo "Adaptive Streaming" ??

[Noa Put]

I guess it's google's way to convince vimeo users to switch to youtube :)

[Roger Van Duyn]

Originally Posted by Noa Put

Could you share how? That's one of the reasons why I have not switched to youtube yet.

Another disadvantage in using vimeo videos is how bad they seem to be in appearing in google. I have some older vimeo videos that are not private and even when entering the full title description in google they are nowhere to be found.

Hi Noa. I really like your work. As for your question, here's a coding example from my site, which is a WordPress template based site. In the Wordpress editor for a given page on my site, I make the switch from the visual view to the text view. It reveals the embed code for the video, and lets me modify it

<iframe src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/hRhQ83Ud7Eo?rel=0" width="640" height="360" frameborder="0"></iframe>

The key command you are interested in is the rel=0 switch right after the name of the video.

I'm not a web site developer, but I did some online searching and found out about the rel=0 switch that turns off playing other related videos when the player finishes playing my video.

I basically kept searching YouTube help topics and WordPress help topics until I found what I thought I needed. Then I did a little experimentation until everything looked the way I like it when the embedded video plays from my site.

Once I got the first video to play like I wanted it, I just cut and pasted multiple copies of that line of code, and changed the video ID (hRhQ83Ud7Eo) to the video ID of whichever video on my site I wanted next.

I haven't updated my site in quite a while, but the Portfolio Page of my little site is basically just several lines like the above example pasted one after the other, with whatever text descriptions I added too.

I hope this helps. Someone who is a lot better at web sites than me can probably explain it better than I can too. I'm just glad I got it working. If I had the finances, I'd hire a web guy to do a site for me. As it is, I have a one person business and do a lot by trial and error myself until things work out.

[Noa Put]

Thx Roger! Much appreciated. I have been using wordpress since version 2.3 so know my way around it. In 2 weeks time I have a wedding where I am going to try to embed the trailer like you described, then I also can follow up how it ranks in google.

[Steven Davis]

Just ran across this, http://wistia.com/ Not sure how much it would be different since I haven't fully investigated it, but they do offer a free tryout.

[Noa Put]

I find Wistia pretty expensive but maybe you get what you pay for. Their free option though might be interesting to use as it allows 25 videos which would be sufficient for me.

[Steven Davis]

If Vimeo goes completely south, (that's bad as we say in America) then I might give youtube a whirl. I've always been leary of youtubes non professional look though. I could be wrong.

[Noa Put]

Vimeo is more for the "artistic" people while I associate youtube more with teenagers that like to insult and videos with violent and disturbing content + lets not forget that google gets the rights to your videos as well. Only if you want your videos to get noticed it still is the place to be.

[Noa Put]

I have tried videopress by wordpress today, it almost looked like it could become a replacement for vimeo but it had one big shortcoming which even the wordpress helpdesk didn't understand why that was, the thumbnail or the image that appears on your video before you press play is of a very low resolution and it's dimmed as well, basically looks like crap, too bad because everything else was very promising, even helpdesk was very helpful in trying to find a solution.

I have had several email conversations with vimeo about my bad default playback resolution, they said my videos (which are on their servers for months now) where not included yet in their adaptive streaming so they should play in a higher quality yet they don't...

I have another site now where I a few days ago uploaded a new video so that should be included in their adaptive streaming and I just checked and it defaults at 360p on my desktop pc with a fast internet connection, getting so fed up with this. I now included a message on the frame my clients see before they hit play, I mention they need to click the HD button for better playback quality, what a joke.

[Steven Davis]

Originally Posted by Noa Put

I have tried videopress by wordpress today, it almost looked like it could become a replacement for vimeo but it had one big shortcoming which even the wordpress helpdesk didn't understand why that was, the thumbnail or the image that appears on your video before you press play is of a very low resolution and it's dimmed as well, basically looks like crap, too bad because everything else was very promising, even helpdesk was very helpful in trying to find a solution.

I have had several email conversations with vimeo about my bad default playback resolution, they said my videos (which are on their servers for months now) where not included yet in their adaptive streaming so they should play in a higher quality yet they don't...

I have another site now where I a few days ago uploaded a new video so that should be included in their adaptive streaming and I just checked and it defaults at 360p on my desktop pc with a fast internet connection, getting so fed up with this. I now included a message on the frame my clients see before they hit play, I mention they need to click the HD button for better playback quality, what a joke.

Vimeo told me that you can force the video to do HD through a check box, but I guess that's not true. I agree, this is nuts, they are video streaming service. I can only guess that they are struggling financially and can't keep their servers up to date. I have some room on my web host, but man I hate coding anymore.

[Chip Gallo]

Vimeo outsources distribution to a Content Delivery Network, near as I can tell. I am thinking that wherever their front-end servers (like the gui, account management, etc.) are, they are also managed by someone else. Performance issues and the like are still a black eye for them, but it shouldn't be due to the age of the infrastructure that they are running on.

I will head on over to their support forum again to see what the buzz is there about this.

thanks,
Chip

[Gary Huff]

Odd, the annual "I'm so gunna leave Vimeo!" thread was started early this year...

[Noa Put]

Originally Posted by Steven Davis

Vimeo told me that you can force the video to do HD through a check box, but I guess that's not true

I am back to a plus account and don't see that option anymore, not sure how this now is for pro accounts; I"m still looking for a better alternative, I tried Wistia as well recently as they allow a limited amount of video to upload for free and tested it on a free wordpress account to see how the embed videos played, after a few testruns the video locked up and didn't load anymore, not sure what that was but have not found the time yet to do further testing.

[Roger Van Duyn]

In earlier posts in this thread I mentioned how I switched from Vimeo Plus to a free YouTube Channel. There were some issues at first. In one of those threads, I mentioned how to turn off the YouTube nextplay and suggested play stuff when embedding your YouTube videos to your website.

Another issue was the video thumbnails. Once my YouTube channel reached a certain number of views, custom thumbnails became available to me in the free account. So now I usually use a photograph or a graphic I create as the image for the thumbnail.

Another feature I like is the closed captioning. It's not too bad, at least for short videos, but you do need to get in their and edit the test some. But it's better than having to type in a whole transcript. You can also drag and drop, at least on a Windows system, from other applications. I've only used it as a test on one wedding, but it's useful for some of the corporate stuff I shoot also.

Edit: I also like YouTube's unlisted feature. I upload proxies with timecode for my corporate clients to review. These videos are hidden from search. Practically every device plays YouTube videos. Clients view on their tablets and phones. Very convenient for the client.

Finally, there's streaming now available. I get a lot of inquiries about that. My standard answer to the inquiries is you need really high bandwidth (upload, not download speed), and up to now, it's been something for the future for the clients that have asked me. However, 20gb, 50gb, and even 100 gb upload speeds are starting to appear in certain areas here (Lakeland Florida) area. So, digging into the YouTube help a bit more. Don't know why YouTube isn't more popular for pros. It has the tools...

Now, I'm not a YouTube fanboy, but all the stuff I've mentioned hasn't cost me a dime. Vimeo gave me substandard service and I had to pay monthly. And again, no buffering problem for me in this area at least on YouTube. Vimeo almost always had to buffer when I still used them. Maybe they've fixed it, but they've lost me as a customer until they at least match what their biggest competitor gives for free. And there is a lot available for those free YouTube channels.

[Noa Put]

I still have youtube on my list but am searching and testing other solutions first, if nothing worth while will come up I will try youtube. The main reason that holds me back right now is that I read somewhere that and this is a quote from a text I found:

"YouTube always allows the owners to retain ownership of their work. But what they require in their terms of service is that you grant to YouTube a non-exclusive, worldwide, perpetual license to freely sub-license, re-distribute, re-publish, monetize, and whatever they may want to do with your video.
(Source: http://www.reelseo.com/youtube-copyright-ownership/#ixzz40Kwx6HbN)"

and this is the part I don't like that much because I would like to have control over where may work may be used and I am not sure in what ways youtube could use someones work.

[Gary Huff]

Originally Posted by Roger Van Duyn

Now, I'm not a YouTube fanboy, but all the stuff I've mentioned hasn't cost me a dime. Vimeo gave me substandard service and I had to pay monthly. And again, no buffering problem for me in this area at least on YouTube.

And yet your YouTube links are streaming for me at 360p, which seems to be the point of contention here, so how exactly is that "better"?