Vimeo launches HD streaming video player

Online video site Vimeo has just launched a new "high definition" video player. Essentially, if you upload a video with a 1280x720 (also known as 720p) resolution, Vimeo will transcode that video and play it back at its native resolution.

Now, this doesn't mean you're seeing the same video quality you'd get from an HDTV signal or a Blu-Ray or HD-DVD disc. Vimeo's still compressing the heck out of your video in order to stream it across the internet. But the end result is a video that plays back at a much higher bitrate than anything you'll find on YouTube.

You can definitely tell the difference between Vimeo's HD videos and their standard definition videos. While you're watching any high definition video, you can click a button to turn HD off and you'll get a lower-resolution version. We'd have included an HD video in this post, but right now there's no way to embed an HD quality video, so you'll just have to check out Vimeo's HD site and browse through the small collection of user-submitted videos.

[via Kottke]

Tags: hd, hdtv, high-definition, online-video, vimeo