I recently got an android phone after a few years on iphones. I occasionally get trouble with vimeo, saying I need to install a browser that supports H264 or flash. Now I thought that android supported flash, and I’m not entiresly sure what H264 is?

I have downloaded flash player from android market but it still doesn’t seem to work.

Any ideas/advice?

Try downloading Adobe Air as well.
Are you using the default browser?

i’ve got the default browser, dolphin hd and firefox currently installed. doing it on the default browser and dolphin. Not tried firefox yet.

I’m getting the same problems on my android (S2 using dolphin HD browser). so can’t help. oh i’ve tried on opera mini too.
what exactly is adobe air too?

Some Vimeo vids don’t work on mobile. There’s normally a link at the bottom of the page in the middle saying “view desktop site” or something like that.

Can’t be much more help I’m afraid.

download the Vimeo app.

link to the video you’re trying to watch?

It’s the two snowboard vids linked on here by RHS#2.

i tried the vimeo app on my iphone. not sure if i just couldn’t work out how to use it or if it was just crap but it wouldn’t let me searh videos, was only able to watch the ‘featured’ videos on the front page. Might give it a try on android and see if it’s any better.

cheers

it works on dolphin HD if you set the agent to ‘desktop’. that’s actually true of several sites so it’s a useful tip 🙂

(More->settings->dolphin settings)

Some Vimeo vids don’t work on mobile.

Both those RHS vimeo videos play fine on the iPhone so I assume they are mobile-compatible or whatever.

Does it work if they are embedded like this:
[video]http://vimeo.com/34321078[/video]

That linked vid just gives a black screen with blue text saying ‘adobe flash player’ as a clickable link. Click the link and it goes to flash player settings

I get the same on my Desire. Also if I follow the link it says “The video cannot be played on this device.”
I don’t know how to fix it though!

I see your problem. Just been having a play.

Not ideal but I’ve found a workaround. If you download “Vimeo Droid” from the market, clicking the link in the web page (under / next to the video) then gives you an “open with” dialogue, select Vimeo Droid and the video plays.

Not quite sure why it doesn’t work natively; I suspect it’s an issue with Vimeo not identifying the client correctly.

EDIT – seems the video uploaders have to opt in to the ‘mobile’ version of their site. Losers.

seems the video uploaders have to opt in to the ‘mobile’ version of their site. Losers.

That’s dumb. But why does it work on iPhone then (in Safari, both on the Vimeo site and from that embedded vid)?

Good work Cougar. Vimeo Droid works a treat.

why does it work on iPhone then

Because it uses the full site? I honestly have no idea.

It does look as though they’ve expended more effort into making the site iPhone compatible though; there’s an official iPhone app but no official Android one.

Kinda crossmaking; I’m surprised that more people aren’t complaining about it, there’s not a lot of info to be had.

Just as a proof of concept; this should work natively.

[video]http://vimeo.com/5370705[/video]

To wit, it’s not an inherent problem with Vimeo / Android / Flash, it’s dependent on the video.

Because it uses the full site?

Nah, I can watch it embedded here. If I follow the link it bumps me to the mobile version at
http://vimeo.com/m/34321078 – does that link work on ‘droid??

Kinda crossmaking

Agreed. You’d think they’d just serve up an HTML5 version to all mobile devices – maybe it tried and that’s why he gets complaints about missing H264, though why the droid browser would be missing that I have no idea, as Google is a supporter of that standard.

does that link work on ‘droid??

No – I already tried various combinations of mobile and full-fat sites.

You’d think they’d just serve up an HTML5 version to all mobile devices

Well, quite.

It doesn’t even seem to be that though, it appears to be more of a “your name’s not down, you’re not coming in” sort of affair. It’s not a technical limitation, it’s a political one. I think.

As for H.264, AFAIK the Android browser supports it out of the box (from, uh, FroYo onwards I think), but even if it needed to hand out to external apps I have a separate player which should support it.

Dogs and cats, living together.

Mental.

I’m surprised there isn’t an army of droid users writing to vimeo support about this.

Maybe vimeo are hoping Google will buy them to sort it out?

Cougar, that video works for me. I’ll try the vimeo droid thing too, see if that works.

I’ve had problems running vimeo too on an Galaxy S, so i do’t bother trying to open them.
Tried D/L’ing vimeo to no avail, updated flash player too.. all very very dull if you ask me, so don’t bother now and have binned vimeo app.

I can open embeded stuff though, rather odd.

Probably written by an IT gonk in a polyester suit with dandruff on the collar.

Clubber, tried the setting change on dolphin and that worked nicely 🙂

cheers for all the help chaps

Turns out I can’t watch my own videos from Vimeo. You need a pro account and then you can generate mobile videos.
Proper crap imo.