I just read on Mashable that Veoh, “at one point a quick growing rival to YouTube” (although is that ever possible?) has filed for bakruptcy.

http://mashable.com/2010/02/11/veoh-bankruptcy/

Vimeo converts well, keeping the 25 frame rate, but for some reason the videos still look jerky in the flash player on the webpage. If the mp4 is found in the brower cache, it plays perfectly in a media player like VLC – so why can’t it play well on the webpage?!

Things were going so well, but now I’ve got no way to share smooth playing video that I’ve got any confidence in. It’s a waiting game for me now, hoping that YouTube will pay some attention to their bugs :(

Though, what interesting is that other viable options are completely omitted from consideration. For example, why not to use services like Amazon S3?
http://aws.amazon.com/s3/

The cost of doing this is incredibly small. Perhaps you are aware of the fact that Smugmug, for example, keep all your stuff (video included) on Amazon S3 :)

There are plenty of non-branded video players out there – open source and not. So, why to pay from $50/month to $500/months for “hosting” where you can keep your stuff for the fraction of this? If you have a Web site, it makes perfect sense to use your own player and something like S3.

Obviously, youtube or vimeo or whatever provide additional services that go beyond video hosting. But then let’s be clear what we are talking about.

Although I appreciate this article is around 6 months old (an eternity in the OV space!), it and the comments left raise some interesting points.

YouTube is great for traffic but no strong when it comes to credibility. More and more businesses that want to stream video professionally seem to be rejecting the YouTube logo and the connotations that come with it. Hence the move to suppliers (like vzaar, fliqz, brightcove) that can offer unbranded players. It makes sense if you are paying for a service to sit inside your website that you don’t necessarily want to carry someone else’s brand.

Secondly, with the use of OV growing the commercial versus non commercial debate rises and we’ve seen this in respect to Vimeo. Great service – I agree with much of your review – but their policies on what constitutes commercial content is grey to say the least. As a result a number of businesses that have streamed video with Vimeo are now starting to see their videos removed. It’s not the greatest user experience for client or customer/viewer. We’d urge you to review the policies of the site. There are services, like vzaar, designed for businesses. If anything we try our best to avoid the consumer content. It’s not frankly part of our model.

The encoding times argument is one that should rapidly improve but at the same time I think users need to be patient. The technology is there but the demand (ie volume of uploads) is always going to be a factor. The onus at the moment I think is on the services to accurately message their users around the point of upload and encode so that fair expectations are set.

Lastly, I’d add that video duration is also a key factor and that many sites have limits that will always restrict users to some extent. Be sure to check out those that offer unlimited video duration. Consumers are now very comfortable with viewing pieces over 10 mins long.

http://vzaar.com

Jamie

Addition to upper post:

I also look at VideoPress. Their welcome and introducing video exceeds any competition on this test. It is superior to all. They accept all frame rate and it is free with no time limit, no week upload limit, but for 3GB total. Ideal for having one big great video, or a lot of small.
But it can be upgraded to 5, 15 and 25 GB total space, by 5, 14 and 25 US cents per day (what is $18,25, $51,1 and $91,25 per year). Costly or not, but quality is superior. It video loads super fast as well, faster then any of upper competitors.

But rather all interface and navigation, other than (ugly) YouTube, have some unpleasant nature: you must wait video to load completely if you want to navigate through it. Or another way: you can navigate only through that part which is already loaded. On Youtube I can go directly on some part of video and player starts to buffer at that point on. Realy usefull and great feature, (maybe) only to youtube.

Best regards, Mihael Tominšek

I hesitate to pay Vimeo the “plus”. But after this article, I’ll think even further. I used free Vimeo till now, because it was far better than YouTube (before HD era). But now, I can see very little left on Vimeo side.

By all upper examples,
the clear winner is YOUTUBE!
Second is VIMEO,
third is FACEBOOK,
forth is DAILYMOTION,

YOUTUBE – best choice!
Urestricted, unlimited, superior quality, most popular, widest audience! Same sharpnes/detail as Vimeo, but with out any blocking in picture. Ugly 2001 interface, but well known. Without question best choice and since I did not try it since HD era, I’ll do that for myself now, to compare my stuff. It is great to allow 1GB, but 10 minutes limit is pain for me, since most of my work is 12 min! Video processing for SD video was reasonably fast (last test in 2008).

VIMEO – best looking, outstanding interface, fastest video loading.
Only 3th place for video quality. It looks somehow sharper than all others, but when I put “printscreens” on top of each other in PhotoPaint it was clear that picture is not good at all. Heawy blocking is not present only on moving parts of video but also on still parts. Loosing a lot of details. Especialy grass and leaves, but also in all other parts of picture. It is funny how better is Youtube picture. Vimeo have also slowest video processing on planet. For SD movie (12min), it took 2 days (!!!) to process. Blocking could be not bitrate, but speed of encoding. In effort to cut down process time, they encode faster, not better. They claim PLUS would give way better encoding – but it is payable, and can’t be checked before. With 1GB limit per week it would be my best choice, since time isn’t limited. But 500MB is only for short clip testing and discussion with others about their camcorders, settings, tweaks, etc. I joined Vimeo mostly because of that.

FACEBOOK – best choice for FB members, for shure.
Quality level is somewhere on the 2nd place. Picture blocking level is between YouTube and Vimeo, but Vimeo is maybe more likable picture. So with that good quality, is perfect choice for FB users. Decent interface, but nothing more than that. I’ll try it, since I’m FB member too.

DAILYMOTION – stupid interface, quality picture.
Picture quality is compared to Vimeo by all aspect. Slow video loading, payback stops a lot. Realy stupid interface.

SMUGMUG is not prepared to playback a thing! Since it is expensive, it is out of question. Their website is not atractive to me. I think I should join them, to see some work of others – I hate that. Vimeo and YouTube is free to anyone for watching (unless some video is marked as private).

VIDDLER – where the heck quality went?
There is nice color rendering, but quality is on vacation, I think. Not an option.
As I see, Viddler is bad except good colors rendering. Worse than early 2001 youtube! I wouldn’t use it at all, since it have stupid interface, as well. Last option, to me (“no” option).

CONLUSION – what should I use?????

Money is no problem:
VIMEO PLUS (I believe their claims about ther superior 2-pass encoding with no waiting line).

I’m towing myself around for free – money is my big wish:
1a) VIMEO FREE for short clips for your websites: like wedding examples (you can put a link to see in HD at Vimeo, and you for shure will not make more than ONE wedding per week – so it is ideal for that).
2b) VIMEO FREE for long material, which must be in one peace, but quality is in second place (must fit in 500MB).
2) FACEBOOK for all members, who have wish to share HD videos. (I thing FB galleries could be shared even for non-members audience, now). I will test this and use, if convenient.
3) YOUTUBE – for broadcasting, for superior quality anf for a lot reasons.

I thing all 3 options should be used. Since my work is 12 minutes typical I still hesitate to VIMEO plus, but if quality with plus membership will not exceed YouTube free one, I’ll require money back. For all under 10min material I’ll use all 3 of them.

With best regards and 10x wery much for research.

XR on the other hand is completely free, beautifully laid out and far more professional. Check it out.

Thanks again!