Staff Blog / New HD Requirements

this would be nice.

I'll 2nd that. I'd really like have previous uploads converted to 30fps since I'm shooting 30fps progressive and I can see the frame rate conversion issues on the encode.

Send an email with the link to the video to help@vimeo.com.

I have a Canon HV20 but I have iMove 08 which can't upload to This website in HD now. any suggestions?

Download imovie 6, it is free to anyone who has ilife 08. download it at apple.com/support/downloads/imovieHD6.html

I didn't know that you can't upload to Vimeo in HD from iMovie '08. It seems that the more I find out about iMovie '08, the worse it sounds. It's a shame that Apple has released such a crock of shit.

Can you export at Full Quality from iMovie 08? If so, do that, then use iSquint to compress. It's free.

Sam, you can export HD in iMovie 08. What I'd do, is.. once done with editing, click. Share -> Export Using Quicktime. Make sure it says "Export: Quicktime Movie".. click "Options.." then for the video - settings: H.264, framerate:current, Data Rate: restrict to 5000kbps. Then put it on Faster Encode mode.
Filter: NONE
Size: Custom - 1280x720 (or 1920x1080)

For the sound: AAC, at 192kbps with best Quality.

This is the best solution for upload at a reasonable size. All the stuff on my profile, which is all HD, was done with this spec.

Also, SteveR... while I dont use iMovie for my editing .. i know for a fact iMovie 08 isnt a crock as much as people say. Its in many ways different than 06, but it does what it was designed to do much better now.. and that is... easily let you edit a movie, quickly, with a bit of flare, and not need to be a skilled editor to make it look nice. No more renders for each and every transition or title... no more themes (I hated those with a passion anyway)... no more huuuge projects with DV files since it only worked with miniDV and HDV cameras instead of hard drive ones, support for modern codecs like AVCHD etc.. and more. THe only thing it lacks is the audio tweak-ability that 06 had, and some of the pre-canned stuff. it does a much better job at everything else. and its a helluvalot quicker. What apple did was painfully start to separate those who really need Final Cut Express from those that used iMovie.

Maybe those using iMovie 08 will find this article "Making iMovie 08 work your way" helpful.3/17/08..
macworld.com/article/132477/2008/03/digitalvideo2504.html?t=230

Yes, clips below HD are resized to those dimensions.

Yes, it does cost. It costs quality. When you blow up a widescreen miniDV video to 720p, you should EXPECT degradation of quality. So no, it is not a solution to resize beyond the footage's natural capabilities, but to have Vimeo support your size.

Yeah, you're really not gaining anything by doing that. It would be nice if you wouldn't.

dalas,

No I wouldn't upload a SD file at 1280x720, but if I were to upload a 25 fps 704x396 2000 kbps .avi (Xvid), for example, when will that frame rate, size and approx. bit rate combination be encoded to .flv for "streamed" playback, in 16:9, on vimeo?

I've been encoding to H.264 with some of my 25 fps 720X576 (16:9) mpeg-2's in order to get reasonable playback with your .flv encoding and still have a useful downloadable mp4 orginal.

Seems to be balance, or perhaps compromise, between sizing and compressing the original for uploading and the resulting vimeo FLASH playback version of the same file...

Cheers, 4Moorhens2.

i think it resizes the player to 500 pixels so that it fits the vimeo layout. ive uploaded a widescreen video, and the player was the same width but a lot shorter. the idea is to keep the same aspect ratio, so you can probably still embed the clip at its native dimensions.

It's 640 on the page, 1280 at full screen. It's not downres'd. Upload at 1280 and you'll get 1280.

Those are already supported for SD.

Who will pay for it?

It stays 29fps. It's only capped at 30. So if you upload 24 it stays 24. If you upload 60 it becomes 30.

thank you, so i'll be fine here....

This has been mentioned before, and the answer is no. Sorry!

I would also like to see the option to stream the h264 files natively, as is possible with the latest versions of flash.

you can't really expect a free service to let you stream such high quality files. if you want to do that you have to setup your own system.

vimeo lets you download the original file directly on the site, which is already more than what most sites offer.

Hats off to those who stream original HD files as did Stage6. There are a couple sites emulating Stage6 that has just been launched. If you wish to test your original video stream, suggest to give them a try. Since these are startup sites, Vimeo's streaming is far superior, but once downloaded, their quality is higher.

How could their quality be higher on download if we let you download the original file?

my only guess is he meant that divx format is higher quality than flv. and actually vimeo does have some streaming issues as I have to often pause a clip to see it play smoothly. maybe because I live in Florida?

Hello Dalas and C Son

Apologize Dalas, I should have been a little more explicit and yeah C Son that assumption is correct. Regarding the DivX startup sites I mentioned, their streaming is slow, but I was referring to the full DivX quality once the stream is complete (or downwloaded) to the client side computer.

Sorry guys for the alternate definition of 'download', but since the topic was about the option of streaming original DivX videos I didn't think of further clarification:

[quote:= ]
"Hey Vimeo staff, you've heard the saying "If you build it they will come". How about HQ, HD streaming of original DivX files." [/quote]

This was specific to streaming original HD 1080p DivX files that can be ported directly into a DivX compatible video device, TV, DVD player, etc. It would most definitely give Vimeo the ultimate edge over other streaming sites. Especially now since there are very many thousands out there with DivX videos who are now looking for a high quality streaming home since the closing of Stage6.

Since converting the original videos to flash format doesn't encourage DivX purists to post to this site, how about reconsidering and enable DivX's web player for uploaded DivX files. Their free web player has a neat configurable screen dimmer along with other sweet features as well.

divx.com/divx/windows/webplayer/

And I have to give you guys two thumbs up for enabling download of original video files.

I completely agree; even if a clip is not HD, it would be nice to have larger clips embedded at the bigger 640px size on the site.

16:9

There are too many situations where we need the dimensions of the video to be consistent for this to be realistic. Situations you haven't even thought of!

I don't see where is the problem Justin. I am a developer myself, and I can't see the problem. You can certainly have an algorithm with a matrix to figure out how to re-encode and at what bitrate and at what res to show it in windowed mode.

Honestly, it's not that hard.

Pretty arrogant line, developer. Read my reply again, I already told you the problem.

Why? Because you said that the size has to be "consistent"? What does this even mean? Each video has its own resolution, and different aspect ratio, from beginning to end. There are no videos that start at 720p and finish being 480p. So I really don't get your problem. There are ways to build provisions on how to re-encode for all situations.

I think what Justin is talking about is they have a lot of code written that expects the standard SD size, like embedding code. It's not too elegant to have 2 file versions of HD video, but it works.

But you already had HD "treatment" at lower resolutions using the dual file approach. Why not just keep it at 30fps? You took one step forward with 30 fps, and 2 steps backward by degrading the quality of all but pure 720p video.

There's a saying in business that the customer is always right. Calling a customer, particularly this one, arrogant is pretty arrogant. She makes the best HD video on your site! When I tell people how good the quality on Vimeo is compared to other sites, I send them to Eugenia's videos. And if she starts telling people to go to Blip.tv, they will!

I do think we should try to avoid any nastiness in our conversations.

I like you dalas and this is a great train of thought and should be encouraged

Nothing changes for you, it plays at 25fps.

Great!

Actually, it does change for you. Instead of Vimeo playing your 25fps video at 24fps, dropping 1 frame per second, it now plays it correctly at 25 fps. It will be smooth now! That's a big improvement.

Double great!

Send me an email with a link to the video. help@vimeo.com

ahah, me too !

Me too. I thought it was a strange loophole. If that's what you could call it. And since no one (at least from what I could see in the forums) said anything otherwise, I did it but only to my best clips. I saw other folks examples and was impressed, tried it for myself and thought what the heck. I just wanted that extra bit of resolution which this cheat method seemed to give to my SD clips.

If a pro account materializes, will it enable SD clips to either be in its native resolution and at up to 30fps? Or do we even need a pro account to have this kind of resolution?

If HD is being presented at such an amazing quality can the SD stuff be pushed up even more? Or is that asking for too much?

In a perfect world, you're right. In this world, we're doing the best we can.

I totally agree. Videos under 720p just end up youtube-like. Also, non 16/9 720p videos end up lowres, which forces me to letterbox them 16/9 (from 16/10 content)

:'(

Calling them "youtube-like" is an extreme exaggeration.

There's bandwidth and processing time to be gained, and we need our videos to be a predictable size for a variety of reasons. Quality lovers, how well do you trust Flash's video scaling?

We'll always make the quality as good as we are able to.

720p is true HD. The HD standard has 2-3 resolutions officially, and this is one of them.

I was wondering if you could help me with this new 30fps thing now. what should i change in imovie when exporting, also in the de-interlacer program...thanksNick

You shouldn't have to change anything.

Cool Thanks!

Anything higher than standard-def TV is considered "High Definition". HDTV is a different standard, and has 2 definitions with 2 possible frame rates each.

Either way 720p is true HD. Its what Fox Sports uses for example.

Yea 720p is true HD. I have heard the US Government has made 720p there HD standard.

I also found this quote "For HD, NASA is a 720p shop"

1080i isn't true 1080p, which in turn isn't true Full Aperture 4K...