I had a feeling Flickr would be introducing HD video after I noticed this Flickr HD Video group on the weekend. So I decided to upload a 1280×720 video showing off fun with NewBlueFX video plugins. Lo and behold, it got upcoded, and their player now has an HD button. There isn't an obvious way to have that enabled by default yet:
Lifehacker reported on the official word, but I'm sad that the clarity's lacking. Noticeable block artifacts are visible, and colors seem a bit duller than they should be. This makes them trail behind Vimeo and YouTube HD, at least for now. Vimeo is the overall elegance winner here, but YouTube's HD quality still trumps them, plus it works reliably with TubeMogul (if you care about uploading to many sites at once).
I'm going to upload the above clip to YouTube and Vimeo and we can do a more direct comparison. For now, the killer limit with Flickr video is the "90-sec rule". Yes, it's to discourage people uploading entire copyrighted works, but it also deters original filmmakers… even if that's not the original intent of the site, it's a clear evolution. Much as how many static image effects have grown over time to be used on motion pictures.
And strength in numbers may win out gradually without any formal announcement to usher in a new age, as we've already seen from the proliferation of non-traditional computer imagery that's been uploaded to Flickr, yet classified as "photos". I'm including the mass array of Second Life groups in my reference here, and proudly so. GO RESIS GO!
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HD on Flickr? Oh did we dare dream about it. It's a shame that it's not as good as Youtube's, but there's less chance of getting flamed for no reason on Flickr…
Doesn't make much sense, I know.
@Jaymes: Flickr comment culture is definitely a lot more civil and thoughtful.