Okay, we’re going to be honest with you: there’s no way we can make exporting/compression guides for every kind of video software on the market. It’s just overwhelming! However, we do want to give you some guidelines for compressing your videos for Vimeo, so look over these tips, find the corresponding settings in your software, and you should be able to make it work for you.

Note: Sometimes these settings are in ‘Advanced’ or ‘Options’ when exporting.

• Codec

  Choose H.264 for the video codec. Choose AAC for the audio codec.

• Frame rate

  This is usually 30, in Europe it's usually 25. If there is an option that says “current” just go with that.

• Keyframes

  Every 30 frames. This is basically how often the compressor references your uncompressed video.

• Data rate

  1800 kbits/sec (for regular video) or 5000 kbits/sec (for high definition). Making this number higher will increase both quality and size.

• Size

  640x480 (for regular video) or 1280x720 (for high definition). Please note, 1440x1080 videos will not be widescreen on Vimeo, you must compress them as 1280x720.

• Deinterlace

  Yes. If you do not deinterlace, you will often get weird-looking horizontal lines in your video.

• Sound sample rate

  44.100 kHz

• Audio quality

  You want audio with a bit rate of 128 kbps. You can set your audio to really good quality without increasing file size too much.

Those are the basic principles that will apply to almost all of the video programs out there. Eugenia, an active member in the Vimeo community, has made some tutorials for specific programs that you can view here and here.