Staff Blog / Introducing Couch Mode... get comfy!
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by Ryan Hefner
October 26th, 2010Hey Everybody!
We know that you already like Vimeo, but what about couches? TVs? Wouldn't it be great to watch Vimeo from your couch... on your TV!? We thought so too, and today we are happy to announce the launch of Couch Mode. Couch Mode is a special new section of Vimeo that allows you to watch collections of videos (such as Staff Picks, your inbox, your videos, etc.) completely uninterrupted like a TV channel. Just press play and grab the popcorn.
That's not all. You can still do many of things you already do on the site today: like clips, add them to your Watch Later playlist, and get more information about videos and other users. We're extremely excited about the potential!
Couch Mode is optimized for Google TV and will be available in the Spotlight section soon. Don't have a Google TV? No worries, Couch Mode will work on your desktop too. However, we use a lot of HTML5 and CSS3 technology for this (no Flash!), so at the moment it will only work on Chrome and Safari.
You can navigate around using either the mouse or the keyboard via arrow and return keys. Hitting escape at anytime will bring you back to the currently playing video and clear any overlays. Of course, we also recommend hooking your computer up to the biggest screen you can find!
Let us know what you think!
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It looks awesome, thanks!
Little bit buggy still (crashed my Safari in first 10min) but I know you will make it work :)
Thanks for this again!
Edit: Please add volume control, some of us like to listen to our music and play vimeo videos, its really fun :)
You can get fullscreen if you use Chrome since it has a fullscreen view. As far as the volume goes, we wrote this with the intention that you would use your TV/receiver/computer to manage the volume. We'll keep that request in mind though, since a number of people have brought it up.
Thanks for the feedback,
Ryan
++
But I'm sure Vimeo knows that its added-value lies as much in its awesome content (i.e. the videos themselves) created by its users as in its awesome user-created channels and groups that actually bring order in that, otherwise chaotically heterogeneous (concerning genre), video-mass. A categorization function that is fundamental in orienting users towards the sub-communities they are more interested in (e.g. videoart, animation, CGI, fiction and so on), allowing them to find like-minded people to exchange views with and get feedback from. Which is eventually the reason why we love Vimeo and what makes it stand out in the crowd.
I'm sure Vimeo recognizes that user-created channels and groups are the heart of its lively community and of its offer, so I'm confidently looking forward to seeing this awesome new function work for all user-created channels and groups!
I just joined a few canon t2i groups, will I be able to watch the videos on those channels consecutively without having to click each video or is this new couchmode thing only for the staff channel?
thanks
We are exploring ways of incorporating all channels, groups and more into Couch Mode, but for now it is limited to just the HD Channel and Staff Picks.
We'll post an update once Channel and Group navigation support have been added.
Thanks,
Ryan
In Chrome, go to View > Enter Full Screen
Love the idea of couch mode.. the name is perfect btw :D
Thanks,
At the moment, the only channels supported are Staff Picks and HD. We will be rolling out more sections in the future and will keep this request in mind!
Especially 'Video Painting'
make it happen!! :) :)
Thanks.
In any case, thanks Vimeo for a really cool feature, even if for the moment I can only rock it on my computer. :)
Please? A podcast to subscribe to?
Request1: Share options for Twit, Tumbl, Twatter, Titter, etc
2: Channel Couch mode (mentioned above, 2nded)
This is how I plan to spend my lunch hour for the foreseeable future. Thanks dawgs. -AQ
I hope Couch Mode continues to evolve, and create a new way to watch videos.
Thank you for the new things that you bring us!
Yeah, we want that as well! We are going to continue to evolve Couch Mode and that is definitely on the list of things to include.
We'll post some more updates as new features are added.
Thanks,
Ryan
Yeah, we think so as well. We'll post an update once that has been added.
Thanks,
Ryan
Also wondering if we can get vimeo on the xbox too ala netflix somehow using the watch later list. thanks!
Look forward to trying it out
Just make the controls panel disappear more quickly. It's staying for way too long.
Besides that: GREAT!
And now, please make your album player widget a HTML thingy! Thanks! :)
1. There is no Search function. This makes the app losing half its appeal right away.
2. It's very obvious that you developed this application at a PC monitor at work, rather than actually testing it on a real living room setup: you don't take overscan into account!!! This makes your "sign in" at the top, and arrow button at the bottom to NOT be visible in many TVs! You have to give a bit more room around your UI.
3. Now, you're probably thinking, "put your darn TV into native/dot-by-dot mode, so there is no overscan". The problem is: a. The majority of TVs don't support dot-by-dot, and b. When a new video is loading automatically, Vimeo goes OUT of its dot-by-dot mode! This can be either your fault, or GoogleTV's, I can't tell. Bottomline is, even if we have a dot-by-dot mode and we enable it, after a new video starts playing, we're losing that mode because the resolution changes somehow! I checked the videos I was playing while testing this problem, and they were all 720p, so I really don't understand why the resolution must change at all and force my TV out of its native scan mode (my GoogleTV is set to 1080p btw in its settings).
4. When I click on the timeline, I DON'T want the video to restart playing from the beginning. If I click on the place in the timeline where it hasn't buffered yet, do NOTHING. If I click on the blue part of the timeline, which is the part that was already played, then just go to that point in time. Right now, no matter what I do, it starts playing from the beginning, and it's very annoying.
5. On the Description view, when I click the big PLAY button, while the video is already playing, it should just get me to the playing screen. NOT restart the video from the beginning! Take clues from Apple's iPod UI. When a song is already playing and you re-click it, it doesn't start from the beginning. It's what makes the iPod a better experience to other players.
6. Another clue that you didn't test this in a real living room TV setup, is the fact that your description text is IMPOSSIBLE to read on my Pioneer 1080p 50" plasma TV (a TV with one of the deepest blacks ever created), from just 2 meters away, and set in dot-by-dot (which is slightly crispier). Even with my glasses on, I had trouble reading that text. It's really at the border of what's readable by normal people on a TV. The text is a tiny bit too small...
I liked everything else.
Thank you for your constructive criticism. To address a few of your points:
1. We are working on search.
2. This was developed on Macs and tested on a Google TV unit that is hooked up to one of our TVs. We tried to maintain a padding of 5-10%, so if you have any screenshots/photos of anything that is clipping, that will be helpful to us.
3. Could you explain this dot-by-dot mode you are experiencing? We realize that there are a lot of devices that are going to have to support this, so the more information you can provide to us about your setup, the better!
4, 5, and 6. I agree with you 100%. These are bugs that we are already looking into.
2. I currently have the BD hooked to the Pioneer, which only "misses" half the buttons in its default overscan mode, but my Vizio TV in my office has a lot more overscan, so it almost misses the whole of these buttons. I think you need to bring the whole UI about 50px more inwards (on a 1080p display that is).
3. "Native" or "dot-by-dot" is a feature of the more expensive TVs where you can tell the TV to behave like a PC monitor, so there is no overscan at all. Without this mode, TVs resize the picture, and you lose a bit of crispiness. Legacy is what drives TV manufacturers to still create flat panel TVs with overscan.
So, my TV is one of these that has this PC mode, where there is no overscan, so you get the best quality possible, without any resizing/softness. But in order for the TV to "stay put" at that mode, the resolution must not change in the video feeding device (in this case, GoogleTV). The problem is, with your web app, every time a new video starts to load up, the resolution changes for half a second or so, for some reason. The TV detects that, and forces itself out of the native PC mode. The CURIOUS thing about this is that all the videos I tested the problem with were all 720p, so there should not have been a change in the resolution while a new video was loading! But there is! Either Vimeo's code, or GoogleTV's code, or the fact that these are 720p videos and my GoogleTV is set to 1080p. I don't know who does the wrong thing here, all I know is that while a new video starts to load, there's a small resolution disruption, and this kicks my TV out of its native mode, adding overscan again.
Thank you again for the reply. I'm glad to see that the rest of the problems will get fixed.
Alternatively, GoogleTV should do the upscaling to the set resolution automatically. But so far this doesn't seem to be its feature.
Btw, Kevin, thank you for fixing the text size. It's now readable.
As for that "article" you mentioned, what is "cloned Flash" anyway?
thank you vimeo...
Now i can keep watching videos non stop!
Yeah, right now Couch Mode is not optimized for the iPad or iPhone. The real goal of Couch Mode, in its current state, is for playing this through your TV or large computer display.
With that said, we are exploring ways on making this viewing mode available via touch interfaces, but for now the keyboard and mouse will have to do.
Thanks,
Ryan
Three things though..
1. where's the fullscreenmode button? I have a 27" imac, i don't need a tv.. Ok, in chrome there is a fullscreen mode, but you could integrate that in html 5 right?
2. where's the volume control? I want to be able to play my own music and set vimeo as "wallpaper" in the background.. That would be cool!!
3. maybe add a shuffle function, so you don't have to watch for example your "likes" in the same order everytime?
4. When I watch this on Safari on my macbook pro, the image stutters.. But that's maybe because it's kinda old and can't handle the HD format.. Also it crashed chrome, I'm sure it will be better of course when it's out of beta stadium..
However this is pretty much what I was hoping for!
2. It's designed to work on a TV, so you should use your device's volume
3. How old is the MacBook?
I don't have a tv, it would be cool if you could watch it on for example an imac 27" and play some spotify tracks on the same imac.. I'm sure I'm not the only one who would be really pleased to be able to do this.
My macbook pro's is a 2.16 Ghz Core Duo. My imac plays Vimeo HD without any problems however, although I haven't tested couch mode on it yet.
Keep up the good work!
Now if only my apple remote would connect directly to safari...