Vimeo vs. YouTube

ramkuma

Well-known member
Any thoughts on Vimeo? I have given up trying to figure out how to get a clear copy of my work on YouTube. I have heard Vimeo has much better quality. (I have Vimeo blocked here at my work and I basically have to call out the National Guard to get it unblocked, so I want to get people's opinions before I make the request.)
 
Vimeo is way better then Youtube, upload the same 1080 file both and see, you can't upload 1080 to vimeo unless you become a member. I think Vimeo Plus is the way to go..
 
The ONLY drawback to Vimeo, is they do not technically allow you to post commercial work. I've seen people have difficulties with this. I'm using youtube, but I would prefer to use vimeo, and I may at some point. It would stink to only be able to upload music videos and art films, but never commercials/tours/completed promotional work.
 
I've been using a Blip.tv Pro account for a year for my TV show. It works pretty well and spools my show out to various platforms like YouTube and iTunes. The weird thing is that my show looks best on iTunes that I watch through Apple TV. I've uploaded 1080 files, but I've been shooting recently in 720/60p and my exports are now all 720, so, I don't know about 1080 really.

The Blip.tv pro account is $8 per month from what I remember (it comes out automatically each month using Paypal).
 
The ONLY drawback to Vimeo, is they do not technically allow you to post commercial work. I've seen people have difficulties with this. I'm using youtube, but I would prefer to use vimeo, and I may at some point. It would stink to only be able to upload music videos and art films, but never commercials/tours/completed promotional work.


How long can the videos be that you post on Vimeo?
 
What kind of stream are you uploading to YouTube?

What kind of stream are you uploading to YouTube?

Vimeo is way better then Youtube, upload the same 1080 file both and see, you can't upload 1080 to vimeo unless you become a member. I think Vimeo Plus is the way to go..

What settings are you using to upload to YouTube? I usually export an H.264 file with variable bit rate targeting 12 Mbs and max of 18 Mbs, 1080p at 29.97 fps, high profile, level 4.2. It is a big file, and the result as seen on YouTube is slightly degraded from what it looks like on my screen locally. (Big surprise.) Still, it is not bad; and Vimeo does not seem noticably better. Am I missing something?
 
I usually export an H.264 file with variable bit rate targeting 12 Mbs and max of 18 Mbs, 1080p at 29.97 fps, high profile, level 4.2. It is a big file, and the result as seen on YouTube is slightly degraded from what it looks like on my screen locally. (Big surprise.) Still, it is not bad; and Vimeo does not seem noticably better. Am I missing something?


Oh my. I don't know what any of the techical stuff means in your reply, or how to achieve it. All I know is that the file I uploaded is a WMV file.
 
Vimeo has no runtime restrictions, but it has filesize limitations of 5GB per week of HD content.

Youtube has no filesize limitations, but it has runtime limitations of 15min per clip, so longer productions have to be segmented.

My preset that I use compress to for both Vimeo and Youtube is:
1280x720
Square Pixel 1:1 ratio
H.264 MOV
5000kbps bitrate
Linear PCM audio

I don't upload 1080... it gets chewed up pretty badly by either hosting service, and 720p looks damn good on either.
 
I prefer Vimeo between the two for the control of my content and my viewer's experience. On Youtube, they are driven to related content that isn't mine... on Vimeo, they're driven to my other videos.
 
Well, yet again I'm going to come in as the guy who disagrees with everyone. And I do so as someone who had a Vimeo Plus membership from when it started to about a month or so ago.

Currently, YouTube quality (only talking in terms of video quality here) is significantly ahead of Vimeo. I can upload almost any very high bitrate to YouTube and whatever transcoding they do results in a very clean (relative to online video) delivery. YouTube's current 1080 playback absolutely trounces Vimeo (only talking in terms of video quality here).

With current Vimeo anything encoded above 6Mbps results in stuttering. Vimeo compression is far more noticeable (to an uneducated viewer) than 1080 YouTube.

Vimeo also has reliability issues. Wrong time of the day and viewing a Vimeo video is extremely unpleasant. This can happen with YouTube, but recently (as in the past year) that doesn't happen.

Of course, Vimeo aims to be more of a "community" for "filmmakers," and YouTube has replaced New Jersey as the "armpit of the nation." So, depending on your audience, Vimeo may have advantages.

But -- in terms of image quality -- as it stands at the moment -- higher resolution YouTube significantly beats Vimeo.
 
Well, yet again I'm going to come in as the guy who disagrees with everyone. And I do so as someone who had a Vimeo Plus membership from when it started to about a month or so ago.

Currently, YouTube quality (only talking in terms of video quality here) is significantly ahead of Vimeo. I can upload almost any very high bitrate to YouTube and whatever transcoding they do results in a very clean (relative to online video) delivery. YouTube's current 1080 playback absolutely trounces Vimeo (only talking in terms of video quality here).

With current Vimeo anything encoded above 6Mbps results in stuttering. Vimeo compression is far more noticeable (to an uneducated viewer) than 1080 YouTube.

Vimeo also has reliability issues. Wrong time of the day and viewing a Vimeo video is extremely unpleasant. This can happen with YouTube, but recently (as in the past year) that doesn't happen.

Of course, Vimeo aims to be more of a "community" for "filmmakers," and YouTube has replaced New Jersey as the "armpit of the nation." So, depending on your audience, Vimeo may have advantages.

But -- in terms of image quality -- as it stands at the moment -- higher resolution YouTube significantly beats Vimeo.


That's odd. I've had the exact opposite experience. I usually export h.264 720p @ 15-20mbps, 3.2 profile (i think), and while the quality is decent, the playback gets to be sluggish during parts. I've found this to be the case regardless of whether stream compatibility was set to 'none' or 'ipod'.

That said, it used to be alot better. Not sure what I've done different.

Vimeo, on the other hand, plays smooth as can be, and recompresses my source files alot better to my eyes. Haven't really experimented with 1080p though.
 
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