Post your 4K to Vimeo - not YouTube.

dronie · Jan 11, 2015

For a while Vimeo has been the best choice for the serious videographer, while YouTube is great for "how-to" tutorials, unboxing and cute cat videos.

Vimeo has always been better at encoding video (especially for PRO users) than YT, but starting this month, the gap is now expanding even further. From Vimeo's staff blog:

"While downloads of 4K source files were always available, we're transcoding in 4K now and allowing downloads of those transcodes. In other words, PRO users upload in 4K and we transcode the video into 4K - and the 4K videos you upload now will be ready when we enable 4K playback on-site."

So if you are serious about your 4K (UHD and HD) video, use Vimeo. And forget all about trying to show what the quality of your hd vid is like on Facebook - they don't give a **** about your photos/video and compresses them to death leaving users with the most terrible quality.

And on Vimeo you don't need to waste minutes on waiting to click "Skip this Ad" - There are none...!

Maybe you don't have a 4K monitor yet, but 4K gives you the better edition options (cropping, stabilizing etc.) AND your files are future proof, so a 1080p project can easily be upgraded to a 4K project in a few years when it's more relevant.

Can't wait to watch a bunch of high quality 4K aerials on my iMac 5K. What do you think?

dronie · Jan 11, 2015

PS: You can read more about how it works (and download 4K source files) in this post from Philip Bloom.

lrwskyfilms · Jan 11, 2015

Thx for the info, I'll upload a couple now and see the difference, cheers Mark

Disappointed that you can only upload 1HD video a week unless you pay!

lrwskyfilms · Jan 11, 2015

Tried that, videos not in HD and looks worst than YTube.

Quadpilot · Jan 11, 2015

lrwskyfilms said:
Tried that, videos not in HD and looks worst than YTube.

You have to be a pro or plus member, I think.

thumpinhard · Jan 12, 2015

i am on vimeo,but the cost is quite high. i only pay for a month after i get a lot of videos i need downloaded and then i let it lapse after that.. i can play them etc. without paying a fat bill every month,
vimeo is also faster to download and way better for professional quality video..but not as popular yet due to cost.

Anticipate · Jan 13, 2015

a) Vimeo doesn't stream 4K (easily). b) Us Pro users have limits on how much we can upload in a week and some of these properly encoded 4K videos are huge.

Hence, YouTube.

For paid work though and anything short, I agree- Vimeo is the way to go.

catware · Jan 13, 2015

Isn't Vimeo Pro $60/yr, i.e. $5/mo? That's not very much money compared to what will be spent on replacement batteries, props, etc. for this hobby over the course of a year...

robdigphot · Jan 13, 2015

This video clip was uploaded to vimeo as 4K and now streams in 4K

jonathnsmith · Jan 13, 2015

I'm probably one of the only people that actually prefers youtube to video. In terms of quality YouTube doesn't even remotely touch Vimeo. However speed and mobile have been more important to me. Its typically faster to upload a video to youtube and it typically loads quicker both on a regular computer and a phone. Vimeo has been too slow in comparison for me to use.

Anticipate · Jan 14, 2015

catware said:
Isn't Vimeo Pro $60/yr, i.e. $5/mo? That's not very much money compared to what will be spent on replacement batteries, props, etc. for this hobby over the course of a year...

It's actually $199 a year, and we use that storage space (mostly) for clients. So we need to conserve it. (And we are not an aerials company.)

catware · Jan 14, 2015

Vimeo Plus is $60/yr, which allows 5GB/wk of HD uploading. Vimeo Pro is $199/yr, and allows 20GB/wk of HD uploading. Are there other difference regarding 4k? I can't find any mention of it on their website.