use vimeo plus to host videos on website, give up hosting vids directly?

[Josh Bass]

So I have a personal website with my short films, as well as videos on another page showcasing my best videography/DP work.

I've been hosting the files directly thus far. That is, they're files I encode myself (generally MOV), upload to the server, and link to with a "play" button created with an HTML snippet (site is made with Iweb '08). I proof 'em, I know they work, but it may not be the best way these days.

Someone in another thread mentioned using Vimeo Plus (I'm assuming. . .mentioned the $50 paid account, it's actually $60, but it must be plus, not pro, 'cause pro is $200/year) to host and embed the videos on one's site, since ISPs are not set up to stream HD video and can't compete with Youtube and Vimeo in that regard.

What do you guys think? I have no proof that people are giving up on my site for lack of ease of watching the videos, but for $60/year it couldn't hurt to do something that would be guaranteed to work, and furthermore (at least in theory) is friendly to smart phones, Ipads. etc. Sometimes I put up files that are not meant to be public (I just upload it to the proper sever directory without putting a link on the site, and then give out that file name/address to the parties intended to see it), with VPlus I guess I could just password protect these.

I did come across some blog post entitled "Why vimeo plus sucks" or something simliar, saying that you were not allowed to host videos "for commercial purposes" on the plus account. I don't know if either the short films or the videography demo samples count as "commercial" under the Vimeo TOS. I suppose the one actual commercial I have might, even though it's not an ad for my product.

[Les Wilson]

Functionally, a Vimeo Plus account will do what you describe. There are other advantages to Vimeo beyond it's hosting such as it's social network. Your videos can be tagged and organized into Vimeo's groups and channels. So you may get viewers watching your video when they find it on Vimeo as well as those watching from your site.

Technically, Vimeo doesn't stream. Ditto YouTube. Real streaming uses the RTSP protocol and is designed to ensure end to end playback without pausing. Vimeo, YouTube etc use pseudo streaming which is done over HTTP. What you are getting is the content management web pages for uploading and all the other things for managing your content (password protection, embedding, CC licensing, thumbnails, etc), their Flash and HTML 5 players, mobile support, etc. The recent redesign of these pages is usually what people complain about in terms of their design.

I'm not a lawyer but I think the Commercial aspect would be more along the lines of they don't want you selling videos hosted on Vimeo (like a pay per view scheme or download....).

[Josh Bass]

You may have to elaborate on the social network/groups/etc. aspect. I have quite a few things on there already and the same videos get a lot less traffic than they do on Youtube (not that they get much there either).

I was actually talking about keeping my website, but taking out the video links as they are, and putting in embedded vimeo links instead, rather than using vimeo itself as my video site (if that makes sense). So people will still go to different pages on joshbass.com, but instead of watching a video hosted on my server, they'll be watching one originating from Vimeo. Are you saying this doesn't work?

As for commercial purposes, heh heh, heh heh, well, the several places I've got my short films in ppv distribution NOW aren't making any money, heh heh, so I don't think that Vimeo has to worry, heh heh wheeze.

[Les Wilson]

Sorry I was not clear. Yes. What you want to do is called (in Vimeo) "Embedding" (not to be confused with the HTML "embed" tag you are currently using). That's what happens here on DVinfo when you paste a Vimeo link into a post.

I used to do it the way you are doing it but then converted to use Vimeo. Vimeo Plus gives you some control over how much of the Vimeo Player controls and information is displayed on the embedded video (including color). Attached is a screen shot of an example where much of the default Vimeo player's clutter stuff is stripped away.

The Social network aspect of Vimeo is simply that beyond tagging, you can also put your videos in Vimeo Categories, Groups and Channels. For example, there's one for Documentary Films and another for Music Videos. Viewers can drill into these and view the collection sorted in a couple ways. I find it superior to YouTube. It is more intentional IMHO. YMMV. There also isn't a 10 minute limit and Vimeo gives you a dozen thumbnails and controls to replace it with whatever you want.

[Les Wilson]

Somehow attachment got dropped.

[Josh Bass]

That sounds very cool.

Maybe me being a moron and not organizing them that way on vimeo is why they have no views.

So would you say the "plus" is worth it over free/basic?

And to your knowledge, does this stuff automatically play nice with smart phones, etc.?

[Les Wilson]

IMHO the plus is worth it over free but I think you should research it as it may have changed since I looked. Playing nice on smartphones is a key advantage over what you are doing now encoding them and hosting them yourself.

[Josh Bass]

I'll take another look. I think it's $60 now, not $50.

As for smart phones, I actually got an ifolios version of my site a year or so ago. It's wordpress-based design that is necessarily simpler than my "real" site, but uses youtube embedding to play the videos and includes some code you put into your index to detect when the hit is coming from a mobile device. I guess I wouldn't mind that site being made obsolete though, since it is very limiting.

[Paul Mailath]

I was using plus and now Pro - all my video's are hosted on vimeo and I just link to them, much simpler than uploading & hosting yourself. I use the portfolio function on Vimeo and link to the entire page

[Josh Bass]

Thanks. I'll take another look and start small, if at all, with Plus.

[Josh Bass]

So, I was about to lay down some lettuce on a Vimeo Plus account, when I decided to read the FAQ. Came across this worrisome little nugget:


"Vimeo Plus is intended for individuals who want more features than a Basic (free) account, however Vimeo Plus users may not upload videos that are commercial in nature, or that are intended to sell or promote a product or service."

Isn't that exactly what I'd be doing by using it for my videography/camerawork samples?

[Josh Bass]

Ok, never mind.

If anyone's interested, here's what they told me:

"Exceptions to the Commercial rule are made for independent production companies (such as yourself) to promote the work they have created."

So I guess it's all good. I'm'a get to plussin' it up later.

[Mark Williams]

Josh, I think you will really like "plus". No waiting in line for processing, HD embedding and I think the encoding is better than the free version.

[Josh Bass]

Ok homeslices, I be plussin' it up yo.


I guess I don't really understand the differences between channels, groups and albums. Can anyone assist?

[Les Wilson]

Albums are collections of videos (yours or others) that you create so as to organize videos in ways that are meaningful to you (e.g you may have an album of music videos you like): https://vimeo.com/help/faq/albums
Groups are collections other people created that you can put your videos into (e.g. there is a group for Documentaries and another for Music Videos): https://vimeo.com/help/faq/groups
Channels are collections that you create that you can put your videos into and others can subscribe to (e.g. you may create a channel for all your demo reels): https://vimeo.com/help/faq/channels