I recently posted some of my work on Vimeo.com and I am very impressed with the quality over Youtube. The video quality is great of course and the full-frame ability is really fun, but it’s the quality of the comments that really took me by surprise. It seems that Vimeo has become a place to post and discuss your work and your passions. Youtube however, has become a place to post Saturday Night Live clips and unedited digicam footage of last night’s party. Check out the video quality compared to Youtube on these two films of mine and compare the video quality. Also, click through and see the quality of the comments between the two.
Slow Motion Water Balloon Throwing. from Nick Campbell on Vimeo.
Notice how Vimeo keeps the skin tones looking warm, whereas Youtube has a tendency to blow out the skin tones and make everyone look too pink? Now that more people have hi-speed internet connection, it’s great to see the quality of video on the web get to a higher level.
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16 Comments
your exactly right with this one… I’ve been browsing Vimeo for a few weeks now as I have been messing with video lately, and the quality of the video has got me wanting a Canon 3 chipper and a DOF adapter. Great site by the way.
I agree as well, i’ve been using Vimeo for a bit now and have noticed a significant difference in the quality. Their HD support is also a plus. Kudos on your blog, also.
I also like the playback controls of Vimeo much better. And its priceless for me that you can customize the colors of the interface when you embed a video into a blog. Overall Vimeo looks much better than YouTube.
Thanks for this!
You’re right on with your verdict. It’s not even a close call.
I expect YouTube to come out with decent quality at some point, but for now Vimeo is way ahead. I did a similar test myself and threw in a Dailymotion upload as well. YouTube finished last of the three. http://www.fxtn.net/2008/06/27/comparison-of-video-sharing-sites/
Yep, it’s pretty easy to see the difference. Also, don’t forget that the sound quality it notably better with Vimeo as well. You can hear more crisp highs on the high-hats on the drums than you can with YT.
Totally agree with the posts above. BUT there is a significant point (for some) that has not been raised – AUDIENCE. There is a LOT more users on YouTube and therefore a LOT more potential customers, if your videos are a means of marketing your services.
hmm. i wonder why that is. somewhat myspace vs facebook. the quality of comments are on the other end of the spectrum from each other!
Old post, but I was trying to compare the two and just came across it. A very important point to note is that Vimeo doesn’t allow commercial videos of any kind, otherwise I would have been using it for my clients… oh well
nice, really nice!
Audio from Vimeo sounds much better too.
youtube however benefits from this lowered quality as it loads much faster.
Thank you so much for your site and such practical info as Vimeo vs. YouTube quality. You’re answering many of the quesitons that the teeming masses of tutorial sites and such aren’t. How to do practical things in a real design world, not designer fantasy land.
Here, the Vimeo sound skips constantly (even after loaded!!) while the YT audio streams fine. What’s going on? i’ve seen that alot on vimeo lately.
Thanks so much for posting this!
hahaha..
Who would have thought that throwing water balloons at peoples faces could look soooo cool..
Sweet slo-mo
This comparison was made in 2008.
I wonder if the result would be still the same if one would do the test now again.
Youtube introduced meanwhile new video-formats. (I don’t know if that also happened at vimeo?)
Anyway, the youtube video above uses youtubes “standard format” which is in terms of quality much worse than the “High Quality” format.
New Videos 4:3 videos, as in the test above, at youtube are stored 2 formats both, Standard and HQ. So it would be worth to do the test again.
btw. the youtube formats can be found here
(it’s in german but the important stuff are the numbers, you’ll get the picture)
http://www.vegasvideo.de/component/content/article/43-tutorials/95-youtube-formate.html