Why I like Vimeo for online video
Recently, I took part in a frivolous experiment with seven other people that involved eating only seven ingredients for seven days. It was a nice escape from my usual routine and the reason I haven’t updated this blog much lately (I did my own blogging on the 7vs7 challenge).
The process also introduced me to the online video service Vimeo. For producers, I think it rocks. Here’s why:
- Much cleaner interface than YouTube.
- Eyeball-friendly stats on your videos.
- Exceedingly simple upload and tagging system.
- Embeds that are just as easy as YouTube.
Anyway, the 7vs7 gang made ample use of this tool. I had the most fun with the one just below, which I shot with my Sony point and shoot and edited in iMovie. The soundtrack is from Mr. Dick Dale. Feel free to check out the rest of my stuff.
I like Vimeo because of the numerous features it provides, like channels, groups, albums, etc. The embedding tool offers a lot of easy customization of the player too. I hate to use the “web 2.0″ moniker, but Vimeo *does* do web 2.0 right.
There are some issues though, like numerous bugs. For example, there were a bunch of people I couldn’t, for whatever reason, add as moderators to the 7vs7 channel. The 500mb upload limit, while rarely a big deal, could be a roadblock for some. And sometimes the video conversion is dead slow, or flat out doesn’t work.
A good alternative, if you don’t need many features, is blip.tv. It also has no upload limit.
I confess I’ve been lucky in my dealings with Vimeo. Power users — say those who have a podcast — might indeed find the 500 MB limit cumbersome.