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.