Help Center / Help Forum / Slow, Jittery Video Playback? Post here.

We cannot even play this video vimeo.com/6453157 directly from your Vimeo site ...
Literally stops every few seconds - it is exasperating.

What's the latest diagnosis?

None of my source video has the jerky video problem. I've tried different codecs but they all play back jerky after uploading. This one seems to be the worst. vimeo.com/7268891 I've checked video from the previous posts who've had problems and most play fine for me. I did the bitgravity test, maybe it is a localized issue?

Hello Everyone!!!

First things first, there are three scenarios going on here, they are as follows-

1. Your video plays back jittery b/c it is not loading fast enough, that's our problem and we're working on it. It's very frustrating but it has gotten better in the past two weeks.

2. Your video loads all the way but playback is still jittery, please check you compression settings as often times using an incorrect data rate or unusual key frame settings will cause this. For details see here- vimeo.com/help/compression

3. Your video loads all the way, you've compressed it correctly, but the playback is still odd. This is pretty rare but when it does happen it's our fault and we are working on fixing that.

Thanks for your patience everyone I know this can be really annoying.

Hy,
Ijust uploadet a hd video. All is ok exept the streaming.
It always stopp in the site i embedet it and even on the viemo site.
Only the hd video is loading slow.
vimeo.com/7437800
cleardesign.ch/tonyyoke/media.html
sorry my english.
Thank you for help.
Urs

Jittery playback usually has nothing to do with bandwidth, though similar start-stop jerkiness happens in that case.

The jittery playback is happening even when the video is fully loaded. My first reaction was that the player itself is making too much of a demand on the processor and therefore I had originally blamed my 4-year-old PowerBook. However, I doubt everyone here is on an old, slow laptop, and I know my client does not have an old, slow system.

So it would seem that it has to do with the playback algorithm in the player itself, perhaps?
Daniel, is it possible your systems have a proprietary codec that's the player is taking advantage of, but isn't on the average "out-of-box" system?

My videos wont playback correctly, they jump and even just stop while the audio skips. I have double checked my compression settings and they are exactly what you suggest. Do you have any more advice?

Thank you Daniel,I wonder whether it is my system or the bandwidth,on my MBP it literally freezes and hics, I ll try other computer to see.

Hey Daniel.
just uploaded my 2. movie, the first one was with a basic account. the second one on plus.
the first one playes back very well, but the second does not play at all, just buffersall the way and still nothing!
does it need time for aproval or something? its in HD.

link
vimeo.com/7452361

hope i didn't just spend $59 on nothing?

the video plays when HD is off, but that not what i need!

Hey, i don't know if my problem fits in this category, but i've been trying to upload a series of videos and each time i get the same results: video plays but glitches and repeats itself and the audio isn't in synch. My video files are fine. I've redone all the compression to fit the Vimeo Guidelines. What the junk?

Here's the link:
vimeo.com/7455512

Hey Daniel, I find my Videos are very jittery and not smooth, they were compressed out fine. My concern is I used Vimeo as my video player for my website over youtube due to the cleaner look...however the player is running very choppy and I need to know when this will be fixed. Otherwise I may have to recode my site to use my other video player....thoughts?

vimeo.com/6712720

It works fine in regular, but HD is always choppy

My videos are jittery. I posted earlier this week seeking some feedback/help. No response so far.

Please be kind enough to advise if there is or not a solution at this point. I need to showcase my work to a few people. I cannot share jittery videos nor defer much longer.

If there is no fix currently available, at least I will know to turn to another video hosting site to meet my short term needs.

Many thanks.

man. what's going on with VIMEO? used to be quality stuff.

the following video is done well, but the playback from vimeo SUCKS.

vimeo.com/2976388

any video i've played recently (past couple weeks) has not been smooth.

Hello Everyone!!!

First things first, there are three scenarios going on here, they are as follows-

1. Your video plays back jittery b/c it is not loading fast enough, that's our problem and we're working on it. It's very frustrating but it has gotten better in the past two weeks.

2. Your video loads all the way but playback is still jittery, please check you compression settings as often times using an incorrect data rate or unusual key frame settings will cause this. For details see here- vimeo.com/help/compression

3. Your video loads all the way, you've compressed it correctly, but the playback is still odd. This is pretty rare but when it does happen it's our fault and we are working on fixing that.

Thanks for your patience everyone I know this can be really annoying.

Odd results of a little test: uploaded a full resolution m2t (yes, not an mp4 per the guidelines...) and it plays much better than any others after Vimeo transcoding. Wanted to follow YouTube instructions, emphasizing frame rate and resolution over compression. They actually advise to NOT add any intermediate compression - makes sense.
Noted improvements over the past couple days. Playback isn't quite back to being smooth, but better.
What's even more interesting: here in the US, it plays much less nicely than the equivalent on YouTube.
BUT in Germany, Vimeo is actually smoother. Tested on several PCs on each end, including desktop/laptop and Windows 7 and Vista.
Does that indicate some bandwidth differences?
Just odd, but mabe a clue.

just watched the vimeo plus tutorial video, its stuttering and stammering, using latest firefox browser. have ADSL 2+ fastest speed. watch HD on youtube no stuttering..the only way I can watch this is by downloading the vid otherwise too frustrating at this time.

I'm getting horrible jerky playback of a recently uploaded HD video on my imac G5. But last night at about 11pm (BST) I tried viewing it from my laptop and it played perfectly?? My imac is still a pretty powerful machine and I can't believe it's the cause. But like I say - worked faultlessly on the laptop.

vimeo.com/7502410 - blocky looking playback.. plays fine speed wise but some parts are "broken up" as seen in intro.. maybe this happened when uploaded or converted after upload on vimeo? help thanks

Hello Daniel. Been uploading my vids for awhile now, haven't had any problems until recently. HD playback seems to work fine in the standard window size, but when expanded to full screen that's where I see the STUTTER problem. Not just for videos I upload, but EVERY single video I try to watch. Never used to do that. Really frustrating.

And oh yeah, ran the test and submitted it.

Vimeo, I'm a bit confused. Are you saying that you have been having problems on your end? Seems my videos used to play fine now I can get through 20 seconds without having to pause the video and wait for it to buffer. I'm on a FIOS fiber optic connection. Strange.

Still having intermittent problems here also, any update?

Daniel Hi, it jitters badly on other machines too, on my MBP it only plays smooth with HD and scaling toggled to off.

Daniel-
Just ran into an issue with our video vimeo.com/7386152. Slow playback - jittery - stopping during playback - please help.

I submitted a ticket too.

Daniel - it is playing more smoothly this morning as it has in the past couple of weeks. I'm just concerned that it might happen again.

Playback is generally very slow from my home computer, whereas when I access from other places playback is acceptable. My experience is that playback on Vimeo has deteriorated over the last months, and is now grinding to a halt. That seems to be other peoples experience as well. What is happening?

Removed my first uploaded video 1280 x720 shot at 23.97. 95MB just a bunch of jerky moves when played by vimeo. very disapionting. I can output at almost any format with FC or Avid, any suggestions.

I haven't really noticed anything particularly new, I guess. For some reason, my videos have ALWAYS played back very herky-jerkily on my computer. Most Vimeo videos do for me, my own just seem to be a little worse for some reason starting back when I first joined. My Firefox and Flash are both relatively up-to-date and they played fine for other folks so I always just assumed it was my machine being sluggish.

In any case, I'll try and remember to run the tests tomorrow if I get a chance. Maybe my problems are my own but I'd still like to be able to help everyone else out if I can.

In case this is usefult to anyone, I noticed that playback was different between the Google Chrome and Firefox browsers - In Chrome the video would stop but sound continue and then the video would go all green - however, it worked perfectly in Firefox.

Daniel / Vimeo staff - the jerky playback issue has returned with my video: vimeo.com/7386152

We're getting a lot of views right now, so is there anything you can do?

Hey Daniel, this maybe separate or the same issue.. I'm a vimeo plus and shoot with a canon GL2. I use the settings provided by vimeo for compression and the video looks worse on my page than the H264 I uploaded. Are you compressing twice, why would I pay for that? Have a look vimeo.com/7560172 And btw I'm a mac book user and can't right click to download my own clips. It only gives me back, reload page and print page as an option. The version that comes up in the download page is crystal clear too. ?? How do we correct this?

vimeo.com/7582742
vimeo.com/7526684

Hi there. Both of these video playback jittery. Can u fix this? Compression Settings: 1280x720, H.264, Frame Rate 30 Frames, 5000 kbits/sec, 80-90Mb File Size.

Thanks

My 3rd Video vimeo.com/7510262 plays back much better. The file size of that video is closer to 20Mb, mainly because the length is shorter. All compression settings are otherwise the same. I thought 1GB per file size was the limit for smooth playback...

"together we can fix this! "

Since we are helping you fix your own problems are you going to pay us?

Let me clue you in....it's not our problem. It's yours. What arrogance.

My video can't be played in low quality!?
vimeo.com/7590538

OMG vimeo is so slow.... is there any plans to get this fixed. I cant give it much longer before we have to find a new solution.

My uploaded video, Tagheur & Lamborghini, is not showing properly. Pls let me know if there is a remedy to that; if there isn't then how can i delete it?
Thank you

Hre's the link:
vimeo.com/7546680
Thanks Daniel,
Melih

Hi Daniel, still hicking up badly on any machine,runs quite well with HD and scaling OFF. What to do ?

Hi Daniel.. I followed the instructions. Here is my link: vimeo.com/7618768

Thanks!

Video is jittery on this one:

vimeo.com/7621444

Here are the settings:
720x480 mpeg-2
6000 kbits/sec
29.97 frames/sec

This is more an observation than a question.

I run a 7 year old PC and a two year old Mac Pro.

Vimeo streams are generally better on the Mac, but the PC, which is much older is not so good, especially in full-screen mode.

Using the BBC's iPlayer as a bench mark, I notice the iPlayer is always perfect in full-screen mode on BOTH computers - the programmes are encoded using h.264, at 800kbs, and set to 640x360 resolution.

These rates are LOWER than the SD rates detailed in Vimeo's compression guidelines and yet produce infinitely better results than streamed video here on Vimeo.

I love Vimeo... everything about it is way better than other video sites BUT, and you knew one of those was likely, the playback quality I am experience is pretty poor.

(I realise those outside the UK cannot see BBC iPlayer programmes, but trust me, the quality is good...)

bbc.co.uk/blogs/bbcinternet/2008/08/bbc_iplayer_goes_h264.html

Anyway, the upshot of all of this is I remain confused about the compression/encoding settings being suggested by the Vimeo team... they seem vastly different to those employed by the BBC and the results, sadly, seem poor.

No doubt I'll be told it is something I am getting wrong - my work originates as SD 16:9 PAL DV.

Sadly, if the service can't be improved, I'll have to look elsewhere, which would be a shame.

Good luck,

James Harrison

I have just been watching a video (vimeo.com/7337505) and every 5 seconds it pauses slightly, the music seems fine but the action stops for a fraction of a second.

Im waiting to do that bitgravity thing atm. I'll see what happens there but I just wanted to give the heads up on this. Its happened on quite a few videos i've watched only on vimeo

Cheers
Steve

This is wholly unacceptable. I entered a contest and cannot afford to have the video sputtering when people are viewing it . I chose Vimeo because of the alleged high fidelity of their service. Waiting patiently with the correct settings for over 6 hrs to upload, I now regret having used them and would have chosen the free solutions that are out there.

Ran the test and submitted.
I seem to have this problem with all the vids when I'm on my Powerbook G4 laptop. I don't have the problem when I'm on my iMac desktop. All software, browser, plug-ins are up to date on both systems, fyi.

Hi, I have a slightly wierd issue that may or may not be related to this thread.

We have several HD videos that we are trying to embed in our site. The issue is that the playback on the embedded videos is jittery, but they play fine when viewed on vimeo. This problem only seems to effect Macs, as similar spec'd PCs can play the embedded version fine. Can you shed any light on this problem?

Thanks.

My video vimeo.com/7142072 Played perfectly for a month, until yesterday. I have made tests on Safari and Firefox, and it doesn't play well at all... What may have happened?

i use the same compression settings (h264) in all of my videos but this one vimeo.com/7686720 is really bad. can you check this for me?
thanks

Can you please have a look at this one:

vimeo.com/7685276

Will not play nice. Re-uploaded twice. Thanks!

Forrest

the video is playing but the quality is not good. i can see the pixels in some colors

Hey guys.

This still an issue? Have followed all guidelines - works fine for me but not for others - could you have a look at the video and let me know what you think (Staff) - vimeo.com/7684979

Thanks.

This video:
vimeo.com/7685276

Plays great on my intel macbook pro via wireless. Very choppy/stalls on my Quadcore G5 broadband. Must be a processor thing.

Hi, this video vimeo.com/7709083 is not working and for some reason its twice as long as the original. it stutters until halfway in and then it plays normal. I have uploaded it like 3 times. But if i download the generated quicktime file its perfect...

Uploaded my videos as usualy, but my recent ones don't play back smoothly even after waiting for them to completely download. I've tried uploading them in differnet formats (wvm, mp4, mpeg2) but all with the same results. Did the test and sent the ticket.

vimeo.com/7696663

this one use to work fine
vimeo.com/7696663

Vimeo is the best! Thanks

My video plays perfectly on Firefox but jittery on IE8. Is there a fix for IE to correct this?

vimeo.com/7530244
Thanks.

Thanks for the Insight from your last post Academy! Same here. My videos play great with the Safari browser for a PC but not with IE8. Don't know if this is a Vimeo issue or an IE issue. Problem is most people use IE.