Staff Blog

by Julia Quinn
January 25th, 2010

Hello dear Vimeans!

It's been so long since we last spoke! I just rejoined the Vimeo team after spending a few months in Nepal for school.

Anyway, enough about me, first I'd like to introduce our featured user this week Malcolm Sutherland!


Malcolm hails from Montreal, Canada and is quite a talented artist and animator. Besides making videos, he has also written and illustrated a comic book. Make sure to check out his very popular animated short film The Astronomer's Dream .


You may also want to take a look at Paper People Jokes , a hilarious channel dedicated to jokes told through stop motion and construction paper. Brandon Ray is the mastermind behind these fun animations. You can even submit your own jokes for him to animate!



And just in case you feel the need for a little more animation in your life, check out this group devoted to the glory of Flash animation.

Have a happy week!

by Brad Dougherty
January 21st, 2010

We're rolling out a new beta test today: the HTML5 player!

What's the HTML5 player, you ask? Simply put, it's an alternative to our current Flash player that looks and works almost exactly the same way. What are the benefits?

• The player loads right away -- no more spinning butterfly thingy
• You can jump anywhere in the video, without having to wait for it to buffer
• Smoother, less jumpy playback (we hope)

That said, there are some drawbacks:

• It's a beta test -- it might be buggy!
• It only works for about 25% of you: you must be running the latest versions of Safari, Chrome, or IE with Chrome Frame installed.
• It cannot go full screen. Unfortunately this is a limitation of the browsers right now. We are working on adding at least full-window support in the next day or so.
• It only works on Vimeo.com right now, embed code will still be Flash.
• "Only" 90% of videos uploaded in the last year will work in the new player. All told, about 35% of all videos will still require the standard Flash player. In this case, Vimeo will automatically switch for you. It should just always work.

To enable the HTML5 player, click the "Switch to HTML5 player" link below any video. Enjoy!!!

One final note: those of you who have followed the development of HTML5 probably know video can be a contentious issue (for more on why, read here: http://diveintohtml5.org/video.html). Almost every thread on the internet about HTML5 devolves into some kind of flamewar. Please don't comment here extolling the virtues of open source or unencumbered codecs. We know, it's our job to know, and that conversation has been had a million times. If you really feel like you need to talk about it, please do so in the Feature Request forum. The simple fact is right now h264 allows us the most flexibility to display on many devices and many players with the same file. When that changes, so will we. That's all there is to it, thanks for your understanding!

by Stephen Niebauer
January 20th, 2010

Good afternoon sweet sweet Vimeo community!



For our featured user this week, I now introduce you to Jan van der Meer, a veteran Vimeo user from Zandvoort, Netherlands. He loves cultures and cameras, which you can see in his diverse collection of videos.

Make sure you check out his highly popular and delightful piece, "Khula Happy Zulu Singers St. Lucia South Africa". It's a real eye-catcher.



I've also got an extremely nostalgic and interesting group to point out, called Expired Films. This group shows films that were shot on film past its expiration or "process by" date, adding a very old and rustic feel to the look of them. These are great to watch after viewing too many high quality HD videos here on Vimeo.

We now make our journey to the open road, to point out the Road Trip channel. This channel is exactly like it sounds, showing videos produced by people who are hitting the road and documenting their travels. There are some really awesome pieces and trips on here, varying in destinations from all over the world.

Make sure you check out our Categories page for a great mix of Channels and Groups. You won't regret it.

Have a great week!
-Steve

by Blake Whitman
January 15th, 2010

Hello friends,

I have very exciting news for anyone with an HD video camera. As of 12:01am EST, we are now accepting submissions for an incredible new collaborative film making contest between Canon and Vimeo called "The Story Beyond the Still".

The contest is pretty simple. Vincent Laforet, photographer and film maker extraordinaire, was given a captivating still image by Canon to interpret into a 2-4 minute short film using the Canon 7D. Vincent created "The Cabbie", ending the powerful short film with an incredible still image of his own.

Now this is where YOU come in! Anyone who enters must use Vincent's final still image and interpret that still into the next chapter of the story and end his/her film with a still image as well. For each chapter, users will vote on a round of finalists selected by the amazing judges to determine the next chapter of the story. There will be 6 chapters after Vincent's, each beginning from the previous month's last still image. So if you don't win the first round, you can try five more times!

Prizes for the contest are outstanding! Each chapter winner will receive their choice of either a 7D or a 5D Mark II, a choice of select Canon lenses, a one-year Vimeo Plus membership, and a trip at the end for each chapter winner to shoot a short film with Vincent Laforet himself!

For more information on the rules (which you should read very carefully), the judges (an impressive list!) and the prizes (unbelievable), please visit the contest page.

We are very excited to be partnering with Canon on this ground-breaking contest and we cannot wait to see the creative submissions to the contest! So tell all your friends!!

Love,

Vimeo

by Andrea Allen
January 11th, 2010

Greetings my fellow Vimeans,

I have awesome news to share. The Vimeo developers have been hard at work, making it possible for anyone who owns a smartphone to easily watch, like, and comment on your videos!

Plus users who own an iPhone, iPod Touch, Android, or Palm Pre can now go to our mobile site, vimeo.com/m and make mobile versions of their videos. After logging in, click "My Videos" then the "Generate Mobile Videos" button! (Please allow some time for your videos to bake in the transcoder ovens.)

For Plus users who don't have a smartphone, no worries! You can make mobile versions of your videos by going to any of your video's setting page and clicking the "Videos" tab. Then check the "Generate mobile versions of all my videos" box.

Once you choose to make mobile versions of your videos every new video you upload will get a mobile version and all of your existing videos will be queued up to be converted. For the next few days there will undoubtedly be a lot of demand to mobilize videos, so please allow for up to a day for everything to convert.

We are really excited to offer mobile support and hope everyone enjoys watching Vimeo videos on all these fun new devices. We will be adding even more mobile features in the coming months so stay tuned!

By the way, if you happen to run into a snag or need help with your mobile videos, please post to our Mobile Help thread in the Help Center.

by Blake Whitman
January 6th, 2010

Hey everyone,

We mentioned a few weeks ago that we are venturing to Las Vegas for the annual Consumer Electronic Show, or CES. Well, we’re here! Steve and I will be making fun daily video blog reports and tweeting all the cool new gadgets and gizmos we learn about from the industry.

CES is a massive tradeshow and we can’t possibly cover everything, but we’re going to try our darndest to get the inside scoop on all the new product announcements, gear and talk with the reps of all the various companies that the Vimeo community might be interested in learning about. We’ll be speaking with Adobe, Sony, Canon, Nikon, Panasonic, Samsung, JVC, Roku, Vizio, Western Digital, Boxee and many more companies. So if you have any specific questions you’d like us to ask directly to some of these companies, now’s your chance! Write your question below and we’ll try to get you guys some answers.

To stay updated on our vlogs and tweets, subscribe to our CES channel, and make sure you are following our Twitter feed.

And remember, what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas gets reported on and fed straight to you guys!

Stay tuned for more updates!

Blake and Steve

by Matt Schwarz
January 4th, 2010

Attention Vimeo! It's once again time to highlight the best and brightest of the Vimeo community!

This week I'd like you to meet a group of guys I've been following on Vimeo for a while. They are known as Neko Neko Films and have made some amazing original scripted videos which I always find to be hilarious!



Check out their most recent one, and watch for these dudes.

Next I'd like to shove some love back into a project that is almost as old as Vimeo itself, the What I Like About You group! All you have to do is make a video about 5 Vimeo users. Say what you like about them, show them the love. Then when your done, credit them and let them know they should return the favor. Remember, you can't spell "Vimeo" without "caring". Well maybe you can but that's not the point.



Finally I'd like to direct your eyeballs to Shoot for the Edit. This channel, created by Charlie McCarthy, is a compilation of amazing filming tips and techniques. Whether you are a beginner or a seasoned vet when it comes to movie making, this channel will help you take your skills to the next level.



Well I hope you enjoyed this collection of talent that I was able to scoop out of the bowl that is Vimeo. By the way, if you feel the need to search around and find some gems for yourself, try giving Categories a go. I'm sure you won't be disappointed.

That's all for me folks. Have a creative day!
Matt

by dalas verdugo
January 1st, 2010

As January sweeps across the globe, we wanted to say thank you for a great 2009, and let's get stoked for an even better 2010!

Every year Vimeo gets bigger and better, and 2010 will be no exception. We couldn't have made it this far without you guys, the best community on the Web. We'll work hard to bring new features and improvements to the site, and we think you're going to love what we have planned so far.

Let's do this!