I want to upload a video to the Vimeo website.

I have read the compression settings requested by Vimeo. They suggest H.264 640 x 480 with audio at 44.1Khz. I am a little confused which export to use from Liquid.

Can someone who has done this tell me the best to use? I am in PAL land and the original footage is 16:9 SD.

Vimeo accepts most formats. The last one I uploaded was a DivX AVI directly from Liquid. Give that a shot. I have also uploade mp4's from Liquid.

If you are planning to upload anything in HD I have got good results taking my interlaced Canon XH A1 footage and saving it using the Windows HD 720p preset. In fact people have asked me for the settings because they thought it looked so good.
Here's an example:
http://www.vimeo.com/745654

Thank you Lew and Richard.

I have only just registered for Vimeo, and have not upgraded to the Vimeo Plus at the moment.

So for the PAL SD 16:9 footage I want to upload, are you saying that I can use virtually use any export setting I want?

Do they (Vimeo) then re-compress it?

Vimeo does recompress the footage into flash format. Also, for 16:9 material, it needs to be in actual 16:9 pixel format and not anamorphic.

Hi Lew,

The footage was shot 16:9 on a Sony DVCAM A1. Is that anamorphic?

If so, what shall I do with the timeline export to get it right in Vimeo?

I want to enable a friend to view the footage online.

I'm not sure. That DVCam probably shoots both anamorphic and letterboxed. Most likely you shot anamorphic. In the past I have converted anamorphic to letterbox inside Liquid and posted the letterbox on Vimeo. Without going through the presets I don't offhand know which would be best to post in true 16x9 format. My HD posts to Vimeo from my Sony FX1 are true 16x9 and display correctly on Vimeo. You will have to do some experimenting on your own.

Yep, you're right, the upload was squeezed. I had to delete it and do what you suggested, to letterbox it in Liquid.

Do you know of any other video hosting website that takes the file as 16:9 from Liquid?

Vimeo takes 16:9 formats just fine. What you cannot do is send up an anamorphic video because that is actually just a 4:3 video with the data for 16:9 aspect ratio squeezed inside it. You need to make a custom preset that has 16:9 actual pixel aspect ratio as do HDV formats. Time for you to do a little math and create a custom format.

Thanks Lew,

Well the maths I did was for PAL, which is normally 720 x 576.

4:3 equates to 12:9, so 16:9 should be 960 x 576, I think!

Anamorphic lenses>to standard 35mm film.

Projection through anamorphic lenses from a standard 35mm film.

What anamorphic lenses does is to compress a wider field of view to a standard format so the more visual information can fit on a smaller aspect ratio.

Then in projection you need those lense to uncompress the image otherwise you will see what we have seen many times in TV sets the "Montiliani" figures.

What PD150/170 uses is a pseudo 16:9 which fits in the 4:3 aspect ratio thats why the maths doesn't fit.It's like a pseudo anamorphic.

720/576=1.25

1440/1080=1.33

1920/1080=1.77

See here.

Hello John,

hopefully you've got it sorted now, but I had exactly the same problem when I first uploaded to Vimeo. There is some helpfull advice on the FAQ section about uploading, and I solved my problem by exporting in DivX at the settings recommended in  the FAQ section and it worked fine.

 Cheers

Dave

John, follow this thread ... http://forums.pinnaclesys.com/forums/post/252993.aspx use the link in it to take you to a tutorial on using Liquid to prepare your files for Vimeo upload.

Hi Guy,

Thank you for your suggestion, but having looked at your workflow, I am not sure how that helps me with my timeline.

You talk about HD 720, but I am using SD PAL DVCAM footage (which is anamorphic, as Lew mentioned), which at the moment is on a 16:9 timeline. I am also using Vimeo and not Vimeo + at the moment.

I had to select a 4:3 timeline and letterbox the footage for upload.