There are many different file formats for video. The file format is separate from considerations such as frame rate (fps), aspect ratio (width-to-height size, sometimes called resolution), and bit rate (how much data is compressed or saved). Vimeo has an entire page explaining the best options for your video. Notice they never specify a file format because it doesn’t matter necessarily for the video’s quality.
For example, .MOV and .MP4 are lossy file formats (i.e. they throw out data during compression in order to make the file size smaller) that are popular file formats for iMovie. .MOV was initially developed by Apple as a file format for QuickTime. .MOV is proprietary. While .MP4 is more popular than .MOV, saving your video as either .MOV or .MP4 would result in the same video if you use the same codec. Both .MP4 and .MOV usually contain the MPEG-4 codec.
The bottom line: export your video in a large or HD size when possible, to save more data from being thrown out. Again, this page on Vimeo explains the best options to choose when exporting.
iMovie 10 has an option to export your video and upload directly to Vimeo. This process makes all the export and file format decisions for you. Here are instructions for doing that.
These settings are good because we want HD video and 1280 x 720 (16:9 aspect ratio) is one of Vimeo’s suggested sizes. Note that you can only upload one HD video per week on Vimeo’s free basic plan.
Next you need to add your video to the COM 202 group on Vimeo. If you didn’t export your video directly to Vimeo from your movie editor, here are also instructions for getting the video on Vimeo.
