Pro video blog…Produced by Philip Johnston DoP/Editor

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Have you ever uploaded a video, then realized you needed to make a change to it? Vimeo allows you to replace a video after it has been uploaded without losing that video’s stats. This can be very helpful if you realize you made a mistake in your video, or something like a name needs to be updated.

When you upload your video to YouTube, it cannot be changed without completely deleting the file and re-uploading. This means that you will lose all of your views and stats in the process. If you use YouTube, double and triple check spelling and content, because once you post it, you can’t fix it! I have been hoping for a long time that YouTube will activate this feature, but so far, it hasn’t happened.

Vimeo has a REPLACE THIS VIDEO button so why does You Tube not adopt the same technology ?

YOU TUBE

  • Large mix of users, don’t always get constructive comments, feedback
  • Offer free version to join and a $10/month ad free version
  • Cannot replace a video with a new version and maintain analytics, but you can trim
  • Ads everywhere!
  • Can schedule release times, unlisted & private options
  • You Tube will pay you if you MONETIZE your video once you get enough views or subscribers.

VIMEO

  • A professional community of users that offer constructive feedback
  • Free, or Paid Tiers: Plus, PRO, Business – Each have varied storage limits
  • You can replace a video without losing stats
  • No ads
  • Password protected option, plus many more
  • Vimeo has an ON DEMAND feature which allows you to post a video like a training video and customers pay to view it.

Could it be that You Tube deliberately don’t want you to update a video and lose all your stats so they don’t have to pay you, who knows I just hope the replace this video arrives sooner than later. You Tube should give you a time limit of 12-24 hours to be able to change a video that way at least you have time to change a video if you inadvertently discover a gaff in your video.

 

author

Having been working in the video business since 1988 I have amassed a great amount of knowledge of both the kit and production values over the last 30 years.

6 thoughts on “Why does You Tube not allow you to REPLACE a VIDEO as seen in Vimeo

  1. Youtube do this so that a user can’t build up the views and stats with one video, and then replace it with something completely different keeping the views and stats etc.

    A lot of their users aren’t as ethical as Vimeo.

  2. I’ve wanted to to this myself, many times. I’ve thought about this a lot, and the original idea for youtube was to be a video record of the time the video was made. So editing things along the way would be like changing comments on an internet post; kind of seen as cheating, especially if commentary had been critical. In their view you can just upload a newer version; of course, you can’t transfer all the view counts unfortunately. If you take into account all the crazy political rants and predictive and religious posts on there, the policy makes sense. I know for creative projects it’s not optimal. Many music sites are the same way, you can’t overwrite old versions and mixes of songs with newer ones without losing all the listening counts.

    I’ve just left mine as they are.

  3. I have no liking for YouTube and totally agree with HDW’s comments. I regard YouTube as being utterly devoid of ethics, being the very home of copyright piracy. For 35 years I made films for the railway industry; British Railways, Railtrack, Network Rail, the Train Operating Companies and major civil engineering contractors. A very large number of these films are now to be found on YouTube…. pirated in every case! When I broached the matter of this copyright infringement I was told by YouTube that I should have to challenge each title infringement independently. That. I guess, would have taken the rest of my life. It shines an interesting light on YouTube ethics that it is incumbent upon the victim rather than the perpetrator. I shall always remain faithful to Vimeo!

  4. The Vimeo “replace video” feature is one I’m a fan of. It means I can maintain the same link/URL to showreels but also periodically update them – great if websites or potential clients have the link.

    Its a shame Youtube don’t offer this feature, but I have to say that (to my eyes at least), Vimeo compression is kinder to videos than YT – another reason to favour them.

  5. Both services have their place, however remember that YouTube allow unlimited uploads with no fees. Piracy of music is commonplace on Vimeo with people using whatever music they want on their commercial products, even though it’s against there T&Cs.

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