Youtube and "high quality"

Laurence wrote on 5/24/2008, 6:21 AM

I just figured out how to get a little higher video from Youtube.

1/ sign up for a free "director's account"
2/ upload your video at 640x480
3/ add "&fmt=18" to the end of your video address when you want people to go to the "HQ" version instead of the SD one.

For example, here is a video at regular Youtube resolution:

and here is the same video at "HQ" resolution:

Looks much better don't you think?

Now if I can just figure out how to embed at the higher resolution....

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Comments

musicvid10 wrote on 5/26/2008, 8:22 PM

**The Vimeo version has had 31 plays total over three months. The Veoh has had 51 in the last four weeks. The Youtube, 149 in the last three days.**

As a Youtube newbie, I have to agree with Laurence on this. I put up my first low-res video with a rather obscure theme last week and it's getting 30+ hits a day.

Laurence's broad-appeal video does look a lot better on Vimeo, but without the impressions, what does it really matter?

fwiw, the Vimeo videos always stutter on playback on my 1.5 connection. Laurence's video runs smooth as silk on Youtube at default resolution. I think this is what most people notice first.

That being said, my crystal ball forecasts a blend between Youtube's mass appeal and Vimeo's superior quality in the foreseeable future . . .

Laurence wrote on 5/26/2008, 8:38 PM

To me the major difference in hits is this:

Youtube is linked to the Google search engine. Vimeo isn't. If somebody googles "backpacks" and "education", they will find the Youtube link but not the Vimeo link. Does anyone know a way to improve the odds of someone finding a Vimeo video through a Google search? That is exactly the type of thing I would like to know.

xberk wrote on 5/26/2008, 9:08 PM

Laurence some are missing your point. But no dispute here. Quality makes little diff if there is no eye balls to watch it. Vimeo cannot swim in the Google/YouTube pond and hope to get equal treatment. Your solution is to upload to ALL venues. I'm sure someone has a script to automate that process for an overnight BLAST!

For my amateur work I've gone to Vimeo because I invite my viewers. But anyone with sample reels to show should be doing it with Vimeo by invitation and with YouTube and whomever else for mass market promotion. There is no conflict that I can see. It's also good for the smaller guys like Vimeo to get the activity. This keeps their funding going with hopes they will become profitable in the future.

Thanks for the help guys. My stuff looks far better on Vimeo.

johnmeyer wrote on 5/26/2008, 9:51 PM

fwiw, the Vimeo videos always stutter on playback on my 1.5 connection.

I have the same experience. I checked my connection speed using DSL Reports and it showed 2,400 kbps.

[Edit] I just checked the vimeo version again, on the fastest computer I have, and it still plays with lots of hesitations and glitches (9:53 pm PDT, May 26, 2008). This was while playing in the default (small) window.