Vimeo Starts Adaptive Streaming on the Web, iOS and Apple TV, Rolls Out 4K
Vimeo is getting ready to go 4K: The IAC-owned video platform started to roll out adaptive bitrate streaming across its service Thursday, which will allow it to stream videos with a resolution of up to 4K video to its viewers. “We launched 4K upload support for PRO members last year, and now, as we start to see more widespread adoption of 4K-enabled screens in the market, we’re excited to roll out adaptive streaming across Vimeo,” said Vimeo CEO Andrew Pile.
Vimeo will initially make 4K and adaptive bitrate streaming available to a subset of its users, but will extend it to everyone in early Q1 of 2016. 4K playback will be supported on Vimeo.com as well as on Vimeo’s player embedded on third-party websites, and the company is also making adaptive bitrate streaming available on iOS and Apple TV at launch. Support for Amazon TV, Roku and Android will be added in the coming months, the company said.
One interesting aspect of making 4K available across Vimeo is that this also includes Vimeo On Demand, the company’s premium VOD platform that allows creators to rent or sell their videos as well as offer viewers subscription packages. Some Vimeo On Demand creators, including the documentary “A Film About Coffee,” have already been available as 4K downloads. In the coming weeks, this and other premium titles will be made available for streaming in 4K as well.
Correction: 8:45am: A previous version of this post stated that Vimeo was bringing 4K streaming to Apple TV. However, the company is only extending adaptive bitrate streaming to the device, since current-generation Apple TVs don’t support 4K video playback.
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