Vimeo now does 1080P
 

Looks like Vimeo has started to work with folks wanting to upload 1080P material...

Here is the Vimeo forum where they are working out the initial bugs.. some of those videos look
very good at 1080P

Let's talk about 1080! in the Help Forum on Vimeo

and a nice example here ( don't forget that if you want to see this video in HD you have to click
the word " Vimeo " in the lower right side of the video and go to the vimeo site)

1080
 

Ray, your example doesn't play in 1080 on my PC, when i press "scaling" it shrinks at about 720 (on Vimeo, of course).
But this one is actually 1080, it doesn't shrink

I wish they would simply offer the same higher bitrate (that they use for 1080p) with 720p. At bitrates this low, it would probably look better. At low bitrates, doubling both the number of pixels and the bitrate does not necessarily improve quality (or actual resolved detail) over and above what you would get by using that same doubled bitrate with the lower number if pixels. I understand why they do it though. Folks buy lots of 1080p HDTVs for the same reason - 1080 just plains sounds like more than 720, even if it really is just crappy 1080.

You have to be a Vimeo Plus member for your videos to be made available in 1080p. Also, you have to go the video settings page and tick the 1080p box.

I think it is great. I uploaded a test video yesterday, and for online video the quality is fantastic. My only gripe is that even my Mac Pro gives stuttery playback when scaling is turned on. Admittedly it's a 1st gen MP, but even still it is more powerful than some of the more modern lesser specced machines that most people have. 1080p H264 video shouldn't really be a problem for it, and isn't usually.

Just goes to show how inefficient the OS X version of Flash is really.

Another blow for Vimeo not allowing basic members to upload 1080p, as opposed to YouTube where EVERY member can upload 1080p.

Still low quality 720p uploads from me then...

First, scrapping original file downloads and now 1080p is exclusive to Plus. It seems like Vimeo is pushing people to plus... >:(

From what I can tell the 1080p of Vimeo is superior to YouTube. At least for users who don't have BBC in their account name.

I don't have a problem paying for Vimeo. My only gripe with the Plus service is that they still levy the same restrictive way in which videos can be used (ie not allowed to use for commercial reasons or to embed on sites with adverts on them)

If I'm paying for a service I should be able to do those things. I don't like YouTube though because even if you delete your video they still keep it themselves and reserve the right to use it in promos etc. So once you upload to YouTube you pretty much lose control over your stuff.

That's okay with me as long as they allow me to post commercially. Remember Vimeo doesn't have advertising, and the bandwidth costs for such a site are huge. YouTube isn't profitable, so the Vimeo guys just have a way to make it work. The people who work for them need to earn a living. I think this whole thing about expecting everything on the internet to be free has simply got to stop.

Some young video producers don't have credit cards... There's no way they can get plus. Plus, some people uploading just need an account and don't want to upgrade to plus just for one video.

If free members get 1080p, at least to compromise just do a 1-pass encode so that it looks around the same as YouTube. Plus members would get 2-pass, getting superior quality.

So then they just have to use a free service until they can afford it. I'd like a Sony F35, but I can't afford one, so I have to work hard until I can.

If people only want to display one video for free at 1080p, then just use YouTube.

Thanks Cristian, that footage was one of my favorites... does anyone know if when you download a file from Vimeo, do you get the non compressed original version or do you get
the modified Vimeo version ???

Vimeo is a private company. They can do what they want. Frankly I think their free service is great asset. It shouldn't be difficult for anyone to come up with $59.95 a year if they want the extras.

Money is a hard thing though... that's a lesson of life.

Plus Members' videos will be the original uploaded file for an unlimited amount of time. Basic members' videos are only the original upload for 1 week, then it becomes the encoded file.

You don't need a credit card to pay for something by Visa. It's not easy to open a checking account anymore without getting a Visa check card, and even folks that don't have checking accounts can buy a prepaid Visa card.

Sure it is, but it costs more than that just to put gas in my truck.

A camcorder is either a business tool or a luxury item. Most of our readers creating HD video use camcorders costing at least a couple thousand dollars. If you can afford one, then surely you can afford a Vimeo Plus subscription... if I couldn't afford to put gas in my truck, then I wouldn't own one. I'd get rid of it for something more economical.

Simon, I have the same issue on my Macbook Pro as well which is second or third generation. Both YouTube and Vimeo seem to be very choppy when playing back 1080p. Vimeo is better but still not perfectly smooth. Downloading them and playing them in Quicktime works perfectly though. If anyone's found a solution to this is would be great.

maybe the problem is the Flash player from those sites?

Nice. I checked the box in the settings for 1080p and it does a fresh reconvert on the video.

This is the exact same file on both youtube and vimeo. Xdcam rendered out as a Blu ray .m2t. 25mbps if I remember right. I think the vimeo looks better. Less artifacts.

YouTube - 1080p video test Sony PMW-EX3 (Treasure Island las vegas)

Oh my god, that video looks jaw-dropping! Both in what has been shot, and the quality of the video online.

Are Vimeos bitrates actually higher for this material? In the past, they limited their bitrates to something like 3 MBits/second to accomodate that average broadband (DSL) line. The cool thing about thie service is that they do allow Plus users to distribute their video with a download link. I just wish they had a checkbox in their player to allow convenient playback of that original file in their player window when you use the Full screen option.

Does Vimeo respect the framerates you sent (i.e. 24P vs 30P) or does it convert to something uniform?

I suggest that you take a look at SmugMug who have been offering 1080p as part of their video hosting package for over a year. Their service for professionals (includes commercial use) costs $150 per year. They don't have any free service & they don't have the self-congratulatory 'community' & awful forum support software of Vimeo but they are damn good at hosting video. They started off hosting photos for professional photographers & have grown their service from there.

I have done a lot of research on the best way to deliver video online at a good price & SmugMug is far & away the best & easiest service that I have found. They offer many advantages over Vimeo e.g. multiple copies of your video are hosted in a variety of resolutions. A problem currently with Vimeo is that you must select either 1080p or 720p for your videos & many people have problems with playback of 1080p due to network issues. You cannot offer a choice.

Here are some of our recent videos hosted on SmugMug Video Hosting - Barkers Videos

Here is a video hosted on SmugMug embedded on a client's site Robert Camuto

Here are some unedited sample videos straight off a Canon 5D Mk II The 1080p bit rate is a little over 7Mbps & the 720p is 3.2Mbps

HD demos - Barkers Videos

Can people share their optimal settings/workflow to publish to Vimeo in 1080p? Which encoding program do you use, which bitrate (target/maximum) and in what file format do you upload the file to Vimeo? I am eager to find out how to achieve the highest quality.

YouTube operate at a loss & have Google's bottomless pockets funding them until they can figure out some way of making money out of their service. Vimeo want to stay in business so must charge what compared to all the other costs of video making is a very small amount.

You need to check that your network is fast enough for 1080p video. I don't know what bit rate Vimeo & Youube use for 1080p but if you check out my videos hosted on SmugMug the 1080p are a bit over 7Mbps & 720p 3.2Mbps HD demos - Barkers Videos

If you can play my videos OK which confirms your network connection is OK then it may be that you need to install the latest version of the Flash Player as SmugMug uses QuickTime when you view from a Mac.

They used to convert all HD video to 25p. (Yes, they converted to 25p that is not a typo). It did terrible things to my Canon 5D Mk II videos making them very twitchy & stuttery. I had to close my account & get a refund. I have heard that nowadays they honour the frame rates when between 24fps & 30fps but higher frame rates get downconverted.

Vimeo has a lot in common with DV Info Net: they're going after quality, not quantity. Just look at the difference not only in the worthiness and watch-ability of Vimeo clips over YouTube, but the class of comments as well. YouTube is a wasteland. Vimeo is actually worth what it costs.

And not to forget - although I am not a paying member - a very clean lay-out and a very easy process to make an account.

Nobody has an answer to this question?

One thing that might help is clicking the "Switch to HTML5 player" link in the lower right of the description area. On my iMac the CPU load of the HTML5 player is less than half of what the Flash player requires (about 9% versus 20-25% at 1080p full screen). The HTML5 video tag lets your browser play the video natively without relying on the Flash plugin, so it's much more efficient. Unfortunately it is only supported by modern web browsers, which is one reason why Vimeo and YouTube don't use it by default, and there is still some dissension among big tech companies about what video formats should be supported.

Even so, it's a huge leap forward for video on the web and I can't wait until it gets widespread support.

Sadly that seems rather unlikely. HTML5 is still only a draft standard. Apple with Safari supports the <video> tag well but Microsoft does not support it all in Internet Explorer. Google Chrome supports HTML5 video (unsurprising as they own YouTube). Both Opera & Firefox only support the HTML5 <video> tag with the open source Ogg video CODEC & not H.264 MPEG video that the other browsers do.

Flash on the Mac is a resource hog & using Quicktime for video playback is vastly superior to using the Flash Player even when the same H.264 MPEG4 video files are being played.

Just export to H.264 and no lower than a bit rate of 8. Obviously the more the better.

You are right to be pessimistic about HTML5's video tag, but there is so much enthusiasm for it in the web developer community that viable implementations have started to emerge. For example, web designers can use the <video> tag, which will be supported by the roughly 50% of visitors who use a non-IE browser. The <video> tag can take multiple source files (one in Ogg format, another in MP4/H.264) and the browser will detect and choose the file type that it supports. If a visitor arrives using Internet Explorer, a script can replace the <video> content with a flash player that plays the MP4 version of the file.

I've done some demos of this technique and others have already started implementing it in the wild. Users of modern browsers get their open standards and better performance, users of IE still get their video via flash, and everybody's happy!

It's far from perfect, but it's progress. Internet Explorer will continue to hold things back, but that's all the more reason why anyone who can switch to a standards-compliant browser (Firefox, Safari, Opera, Chrome, etc.) should do so and start using HTML5 video wherever it is offered.

Don't give up hope! Let your voice be heard! Vote with your mouse!

OK, stepping off soapbox now...

Except the web developer who now needs to produce two versions of each video file & muck about with extra coding rather than just embedding a simple Flash player:-)

Touché. : )

I used to really like Vimeo for hosting video, but it's go so slow recently that most of my customers are complaining about the load times - 1080p can only make it worse.

I always found vimeo to be much more stable when it comes to load times. Youtube is so hit and miss.

I use 8bit highest quality H.264 in my 720p (25frame PAL) coded with Procoder 3 and send it too Vimeo. I have paid for my account so I get 2 passes of encoding instead of one when you have a free account.

Filmed with Panasonic HPX171 and HPX301 edit with Cineform Prospect HD and Premiere Pro CS3.

(This is in Swedish thought)

Hi Mikael, very impressive video and though I couldn't understand the narrative :) it looks to be a great location .. thanks for posting.

You might be using one I can't really tell but for outdoor scenes like that a B+W 502 gray graduated ND filter works wonders. It reduces exposure 2 stops at the upper half of the scene bringing out detail on the lower half.

B+W 502 Graduated ND filter

I leave mine on all the time outdoors.

Cheers.

Thanks Allan

I know Swedish is hard to understand some times (ha ha ha) I think this will come in English soon (I hope) so you fellows could understand the spoken words. It's sooooo beautiful place, you should try to go there some day!!!

The music is played and written by me thought.

I don't use the B+W 502 gray graduated ND filter but I will for sure buy one, it's a sweet product.

The picture on the "potato", "children who throw snow", "waitress who related to herring in jars" and the "family outside in the snow" is shot with HPX301 in AVC-Intra 100 in 25fps in 720p and this make such a difference. The rest is shot in DVCPRO HD 1440 scaled down with Cineform Prospect HD to 720p.

Best Regards
Mikael
Six String Studio

IE9 will support HTML5
 

Microsoft general manager for Internet Explorer Dean Hachamovitch noted this his company is throwing its weight behind the H.264 standard promoted by Apple for future HTML5 video content:

The future of the web is HTML5. Microsoft is deeply engaged in the HTML5 process with the W3C. HTML5 will be very important in advancing rich, interactive web applications and site design. The HTML5 specification describes video support without specifying a particular video format. We think H.264 is an excellent format. In its HTML5 support, IE9 will support playback of H.264 video only.

This is taken from http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/201...ml5-video.aspx