Yesterday I turned on my Samsung Blueray player to tune into Pandora (which sounds amazing cranked through my A/V system). I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve used my Blueray player to watch a disc, but I’m constantly using the various web apps: Netflix, Hulu Plus, and especially Pandora.
As the machine was powering up, I was notified of a system update. I always install updates, and this was not exception. While I love the device, I’ve got to ding Samsung on how they handle these updates. The process itself is smooth and trouble-free, but there’s no information about what the update includes! After some poking around I discovered that a new app to play Vimeo videos was available.
I’ve been using Vimeo for a while now to post videos for SoCal Hiker as well as sharing how-to and usability screencasts. The Vimeo interface is much more pleasant experience than the cluttered crap on YouTube, and Vimeo allows longer videos. As a result, the quality of content on Vimeo is generally much higher than YouTube.
Even so, I’ve never really done much browsing or watching Vimeo stuff on my computer. I typically only watch something when I run across it in the search for something else, like this video tutorial on creating a tilt-shift video. But I was curious to see what this new Vimeo app would do, so I installed it and fired it up.
It’s freaking amazing. Seriously.
The user interface is clean, hi-def and beautiful. I checked out some of my own videos first (vanity rules), then browsed a few of the curated channels. This is where I was completely, unequivocally sold.
Here’s how it works…
First you select a channel that looks interesting. There’s a number of really nice ones, but the HD channel is a great starting point.
Once you’ve selected the channel, you’ll see a scrolling list of the videos contained in that channel. You can simply hit play or browse through and find something that piques your interest.
Since I was in discovery mode, I hit play and went back to my Saturday chores. I kept getting sucked back in. Without touching it, videos queue up and play one after another. The content ranged from a documentary from an urban adventurer illegally exploring the subway tunnels of NYC, to an innovative music video, to an artistic (and creepy) Japanese short film. It was terrific content, and I could easily see letting this just play for hours.
William Gibson said, “The future is already here – it’s just not very evenly distributed.” This is the future of television programming, and it’s here now.
You can find me here on Vimeo.
Watch The Third and The Seventh on Vimeo if you haven’t. You will be amazed at the CG.
That was amazing. Alex Roman is a very talented artist. For the first half I would’ve sworn is was live, not animated.
Have you watched the compositing breakdown video? It shows the flat-shaded wireframes for each of the shots. Blew my mind.