Virtues of Vimeo

Karl151k

Karl151k

Well-known member
It seems like the only things I see on YouTube anymore are stupid political rants, Family Guy clips or someone telling me to "Leave Britney Spears alone!". I think YouTube has become a literal and figurative dumping ground for all the worst content on the internet. Sure, there are the occasional gems, which I usually find through this very forum, but they are few and far between.

Imagine my excitement when I stumbled upon Vimeo last month. At first I just thought it was a "High Definition" YouTube clone. But as I delved more into the site and it's 100% user-created content, I began to realize that it's much more than that. Just about every clip I watch is a new, creative idea. In one day of browsing it, I've seen more entertaining and, more importantly, ORIGINAL content than I've seen in the whole of my 2 years of YouTube viewership.

The community on Vimeo is a whole different game as well. Whereas YouTube allows users to rate videos with 1-5 stars, Vimeo simply offers you the option to click that you "like" a video. I believe that this a much better way of "rating" videos, and it's a lot more supportive to the content's creator. Vimeo's userbase is incredibly creative and knowledgeable as well. You seldom, if ever, see a disparaging remark on a video. Rather it's usually a kind word of encouragement, or simply an expression of amazement at the individual piece. Try finding that on YouTube!

Now I am finally getting to my point, which is simply this: I feel that Vimeo deserves recognition for providing this service and for free no less. They have been recently nominated for an Open Web Award, which is a distributed contest to find the best sites on the web. In this contest, they are in direct competition with YouTube. If you feel that it's warranted, you can cast a vote for Vimeo right here and now. (Rest assured that YouTube isn't going anywhere, regardless of the outcome of this contest.) If you have not yet tried Vimeo, check it out and see what you've been missing.
 
Any open & public site can fall victim to internet garbage... Just keep that in mind... I think they have a more aestetically pleasing design and player, however there's nothing drastically different about it's features that would promote only quality content... That's the first social network that it's ran through.

If web cam whores would have found it first then perhaps we'd have a different story.
 
It's funny you posted this because I was just about to post a similar topic.

I too discovered Vimeo last month and think it's incredible and far superior to YouTube in quality. Actually comparing the two is like comparing McDonalds to a 5-star restaurant. They both might fill you up but the experience is VERY different.

http://www.vimeo.com/401533

I would highly suggest to all you video producers to start using Vimeo for showing your portfolios. But if you've got a video of someone getting kicked in the groin, then YouTube or Break is still the place to go.

:)
 
I just clicked the link in your post, PK. Not sure why, but the streaming was horrid. It hiccuped, stuttered, and paused all the way through. I'd like to watch that clip but it was too painful waiting for the stream to catch up. I even paused it to allow it to buffer more. No good here. :huh:
 
Vimeo streams HD quality so depending on your connection you might need to let it download all the way before playing. It streams on my laptop, no problem. But I've seen it stutter on slower computers.
 
Terry_Lasater said:
I just clicked the link in your post, PK. Not sure why, but the streaming was horrid. It hiccuped, stuttered, and paused all the way through. I'd like to watch that clip but it was too painful waiting for the stream to catch up. I even paused it to allow it to buffer more. No good here. :huh:
Click to expand...

For what its worth - I just watched it and it played totally smoothly.
By the way PK - that macro stuff looks beautiful, especially the ants.
That little camera really is impressive.
(as are your talents...of course)

:)
 
Just move your mouse over the window playing the movie and click "HD off". That'll fix the playback stutter.
 
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