Vimeo is already known for its extremely high quality video streams, but it's about to get even better, with the site announcing today that 4K adaptive streaming has started rolling out to all users.
4K isn't exactly a new feature on Vimeo. The website has allowed Pro members to upload 4K video since December last year, but viewers had to download the files if they wanted to watch them at their highest resolution. This was due to the fact that, aside from some very limited cases, the streaming player didn't yet support 4K playback.
From today, however, Vimeo is rolling out support for 4K streaming across the site and its entire catalogue of apps. The rollout includes support for adaptive streaming, which will automatically select the best video quality (up to 2160p) depending on your device and available bandwidth, similar to what's currently available on YouTube.
Not every user will see adaptive 4K streams on Vimeo just yet, as the rollout is set to conclude in early Q1 2016. The rollout will bring the new streaming player to Vimeo.com, videos embedded in other websites, Vimeo on Demand, and every app including those for iOS, Apple TV, Android, Amazon TV and Roku.
The iOS and Apple TV apps should support adaptive streaming from today, and Vimeo's video-editing app, Cameo, has also been updated to support 4K videos captured on the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus. Apps for other platforms, including Android, will be updated "in the coming months" to support 4K streaming.
For those wanting to upload 4K videos to Vimeo, this will remain a feature of Pro subscriptions only, which cost $199 per year.
Considering the excellent quality of 1080p videos on Vimeo, 4K streaming support should bring a whole new level of quality to the website. It'll take a pretty decent internet connection to stream at the best quality, but the high-bandwidth streams will certainly be worth it.
