Vimeo: 1080p video coming by end of the month
Video service Vimeo will soon get 1080p video, but there's a catch: you've got to be a paying plus user to watch the full HD videos.
New York-based video service Vimeo announced Wednesday it will roll out 1080p video (also known as "full HD") to its members by the end of this month.
In order to upload 1080p clips, users will have to be members of Vimeo's paid Plus service, which costs $10 a month, or $60 a year. Though anyone can view a 1080p video regardless of whether they're a free or paid Plus user.
The company also announced that it has expanded its recently introduced mobile offerings, letting users pick which of their videos they want to be viewable on phones that can play back streaming media (like the iPhone and Android handsets). However, just as with the upcoming 1080p feature, users must be Plus subscribers to be able to set this as a viewing option.
While the move to 1080p is big for Vimeo (literally), it's a few months behind video juggernaut YouTube, whichintroduced the feature in November. And unlike Vimeo, YouTube offers both mobile viewing and 1080p uploading to all its users without requiring a paid subscription service. Though worth noting is that Vimeo was one of the first online video providers to offer HD video playback on the Web, long before YouTube and many others caught up.
Correction 8:40 a.m. PST January 7: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that users must be Vimeo Plus members to view 1080p content.