We all know that the video quality at Youtube sucks, especially when you watch at less than 720p. But that’s actually a blessing in disguise for people with slow internet connections. Something not very rare in India. Services like Vimeo offer much better video quality.
But, video quality isn’t the only thing Vimeo scores in. It’s also the quality of comments. Most YouTube comments are off topic, full of hate, anger, and other things. While at Vimeo, they generally are constructive. Vimeo is for video what flickr is for photos. For people seriously into the profession. Whereas YouTube is for mass consumption. For people. Like you and me. People who will not talk about how cinematographically Justin Beiber’s music video ‘Baby’ has been shot. In a way, its not really a commenting system. It’s an open forum, a topicless forum, with conversations sometimes starting from the video [ sometimes ], and then heading off to all directions possible, or not possible. Sometimes you have to read 30-40 comments to understand how the topic being discussed is related to the videos. This, of course, is a best case scenario.
What can you do about it? Should you switch to Vimeo? The simple answer is no. Primary reason being, YouTube has a larger audience. And it’s not bad. In fact it is what it need to be, a way to keep users engaged to the site. It’s exactly what the world’s second largest search engine [ yes ] needs, to maintain that position.
But if you actually want some feedback on your video shooting/editing skills, try Vimeo. You might be surprised by the meaningful comments, a lot less in quantity.
All you can do is, make good use of all the hate on YouTube. This experiment lets you do just that. Go to the link, then search for ‘Justin Beiber’. Then try ‘Cats’. Yes, you are on the right track! YouTube Insult Generator.
Apart from the quality, the way YouTube handles comments also sucks, but more on that later. Enjoy these!
The Longest Way 1.0 – one year walk/beard grow time lapse by Christoph Rehage on Vimeo.
The Longest Way 1.0 – one year walk/beard grow time lapse from Christoph Rehage on Vimeo.
Time Lapse by manhattancoffee on YouTube.
[ EDIT ] I found this xkcd comic –
Leave a Reply