Vimeo’s player is getting a bit of an overhaul.
Not only will the company be rolling out 4K streaming over the next few months to all users, but they’re also enabling adaptive bitrate streaming, which means that the player will adapt and change the resolution of the video based on the internet connection you’re viewing from (or you can select the resolution you want). While rival YouTube has done this for years, and has even started 8K streaming, it’s nice to see the company catching up and starting to get into the 4K streaming game. Vimeo did start to experiment with 4K downloads and some 4K streaming starting at the beginning of 2015, but only for select users.
Another advantage of this 4K rollout is that Vimeo On Demand, their VOD service, will also get 4K streaming in addition to the 4K downloads that are already available. Here are more details from Variety on the Vimeo 4K plans: