J. Stephen McDonald |
July 14th, 2008 12:53 AM |
Vimeo Uploading-----Slow for Everyone, Like All Hosting Websites
I converted an HDV clip using the Streamclip program that was set for 2-pass, 720p and every other option that would supposedly improve the encoded quality for uploading to Vimeo. The encoding was at 10 Mbps. This took about 3 hours, for just 3 minutes of video. I converted the same clip, using Windows Movie Maker, set on its 720p publishing mode, with 5.9 Mbps. I watched both these converted clips many times on a 1,680 X 1,050 LCD monitor and could not see one whit of difference in quality. They both handled motion quite well, the audio sounded good and there were few compression artifacts. The main difference was that the WMM version took only 3 minutes to render and it was all automatic. When uploaded to Vimeo, they both looked the same when played directly from their website (equally bad), due to their down-conversion to a 1.6 Mbps .flv file. The solution to this, is to allow your videos to be downloaded by registered Vimeo subscribers and to actively encourage them to do so, by putting a note about the option on your description. This way, they get to view your full uploaded quality, that may have a bit-rate 3 to 5 times higher. There is a checkbox on your Vimeo uploading page to allow each video to be downloaded. The RealPlayer download offered in the upper right corner of the window, is even more compressed than the Vimeo playback and is of little use.
There seems no purpose in using the program I tried, for rendering the video, when it takes 60 times longer than the simple method offered on WMM of either 720p at 5.9 Mbps or 1080p at 7.8 Mbps. However, sometimes Vimeo will dump an upload of 1080p, without explanation, after a couple hours of waiting patiently. My 720p uploads are usually accepted. In any case, your own uploading speed is not the only bottleneck that causes such long waits for the process to be completed, but Vimeo's limited capacity to receive and process plays an equal part. My connection can upload at 2 to 3 Mbps, but Vimeo seems to receive them no faster than about .25 Mbps (250 Kbps) and then there's the long conversion time.
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