Should I host video on my site or vimeo ?

[Tim Kay]

My website is in its final stages before going live and I just finished editing my reel videos that I want to put up showcasing my work. The questions is it better to host them on my website or embed in vimeos ? Does one look more professional then the other ?

Main advantages of Vimeo is ability to go full screen, and I believe it will load fast then hosting myself. Own website advantage is that there's no branding, independent of another site.

Thanks for the feedback

[David Seguin]

I'm probably the last person that should give advice on this, but I'll still give you my opinion and you can make of it what you will.

The first thing I would think of is whether it would cost you extra to host videos on your own site, and if so, how much? Another thing to consider is that if you add a slate with your website address at the end of your reels, people who come accross your work on vimeo might decide to check out your site.
Personally, I don't think vimeo makes you look that much less professional. Many people put their work up on Vimeo. Youtube on the other hand would be slightly different considering it's aimed towards less serious audiences.

[Steve Kalle]

I am in a similar situation in that 'my' website is about to go live New Cicero TV - Home Page. Technically, its not 'my' site but I am responsible for 98% of its video content, and I take pride in the viewer's experience. As you will see in my recent thread http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/open-dv-...te-advice.html , I am very upset with the web design company and their requirement of a low bitrate and 'streaming' service. Needless to say, I should have used our Pro vimeo account for a few reasons:

EDIT: Vimeo calls it their 'Plus' account.

1) Vimeo is a 'Progressive Download' so someone with a slower internet speed can hit play, then pause and wait for it to download, which provides a better user experience. Our web designer's hosting only provides Streaming so there is only a few seconds of buffering.

2) Vimeo allows the viewer to select non-HD or HD, which gives the viewer choices.

3) Vimeo allows viewer comments, which I think can be turned off.

4) Vimeo's Pro account is only $60-70 per year, and it allows you to customize exactly what metadata someone sees when the video is embedded within your site.

5) With Vimeo, it shows what website the video was played from and some other data related to where people found the video.

6) Over at the Cow, they have a section for people to show their reels and most are hosted on Vimeo.

7) Vimeo has Flash and is adding HTML5 which means Apple users will be able to view the videos.

FYI, I do not work for Vimeo but I really like their services.

The image shows some of the stats/data for one of my videos.

[Daniel J. Brant]

I'm in much the same boat, Tim. I'm just about to launch a website for a low-budget web series and have pretty much settled on imbedding Vimeo for a number of reasons.

Firstly, like Steve pointed out, it's a progressive download and not only is that a better experience for viewers regardless of bandwidth but it's also what viewers expect to see. People don't have much patience, but stuttering and start-stop streaming video is an instant click-away for most viewers. If they want to watch the video, they'll wait for it to buffer a bit no problem.

Secondly, it looks a bit more professional. Youtube is so iconic and the home of everything from webcam film reviews to lol-cat material and inane retarded videos that it doesn't really set off the right impression. Vimeo, while recognisable, isn't known for that sort of video culture and sets a better tone.

Thirdly, the recent addition of HTML5 means ipad/iphone users can view Vimeo content, which is a growing user group you can't afford to alienate.

We'd toyed with the idea of hosting things ourselves, but the cost would far outway the relative gains and frankly, most users wouldn't bat an eyelid. Vimeo also allows for longer videos- our series is made up of half hour episodes. I'm still unsure if Joe Public would watch a 30min video- I know a lot of people who would but this was and is still a concern for me- but the alternative of chopping the episodes into <11min chunks for Youtube just doesn't sit right for immersive viewing. Just for the record, I also looked at using Exposure Room (which does seem to offer a higher quality option) but for some reason videos just don't play smooth from them on slower internet connections.

Whichever way you go, don't forget to watermark your video. Progressive download means that viewers have a cached version of the video even if they're not aware of it, so it's best to protect your material somewhat.

[Roger Van Duyn]

Another vote for Vimeo. I use it. The plus account is a really good value. The statistics feature is useful too.

[Tim Kay]

So I just made my website live today (woo hoo), and had a technical question that I called up my service provider and while on the phone asked them the same question and the response was that in deed it's probably better to go with Vimeo, so I did. Videos load really fast, more control for user, i'm happy with the vimeo route