Since my last survey, youtube has upped the ante by offering not only bigger uploads, but also the ability to switch between high quality and low quality. Obviously this is a reaction to two things: sites like vimeo, that offer "720p" pseudo high def, and the prevalence of the h264 codec, which means everyone is pretty much coding on the same page. For the first time, youtube put my video into letterbox widescreen without me making a special version with all kinds of funny settings, I uploaded exactly the same 720p, h264 widescreen file to both Vimeo and youtube.
You can see the results here for comparison, with the caveat that this was a very dark room (noticeable grain): youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcRhaf1i59k vimeo http://www.vimeo.com/1318410 Note that this is the *exact* same upload file. Without going into graphic detail, a couple of things jump out. First, Vimeo is still much better. This is because it is native widescreen, not chopped up widescreen. Second, it is higher resolution Third, the sound is just better, real stereo. The same 320kb audio track was uploaded to both sites, but vimeo is the only one that sounds bearable. youtube pumps up the bass and add a distinctly "am radio" sound to the mix. Notice also that there is a link in Vimeo to download the source file. In this case, that is the original, highdefinition 720p file. So if you download it and play it on VLC player, it will be double the resolution. With a 500 MB upload, you could watch it on your new 47 inch LCD, assuming that you were wise enough to buy the solar powered one to ease the strain on the environment. NB In this respect, Vimeo functions as an ftp server, where you can send this really big file to your friends! Some kudos to youtube for closing the gap, but there really is no comparison. On the other hand, my video with the most views has about 60,000 and in Vimeo it is like err umm 250. So youtube is the watering hole, but for lute it is pretty hard on the ears. dt >I'm also happy to report that the Vimeo site for lute video performances now >has 101 videos! > >http://www.vimeo.com/Francesco > >You don't need to log in to watch, and the sound and vision is better than >You-know-who-Tube. > >Rob MacKillop > >-- > >To get on or off this list see list information at >http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
