Vimeo Background video embed efficiency/loadtime

Hi all,

There are other forum discussions on using external video links for video backgrounds, but I’d like to ask some general questions before I start down that path. I’d like to create one for each collection page I have and several for my homepage (40+ videos). Does anyone have experience with the above method that can tell me if this is a reasonable tactic?

Here are a few specific questions:

  1. Does it work reliably (play, loop, ect…)?
  2. Because the video is hosted externally, will a page with 1-3 background video elements load quickly enough to be useful?
  3. Is Vimeo the best platform for this? Or are there other more efficient methods?
  4. Can I link the custom code for Vimeo embed (or another method) to a field in the CMS?

Thanks for your help!

Are there any further developments on this, I’m finding my vimeo to not load in time leaving a large grey space.

Does anyone know how to better rectify this?

Sadly no. I gave up on pursuing this. I suppose there aren’t many interested in externally hosting background videos?

It’s too bad. I’d guess this could be a big aid to load time.

Cloudinary API is quite powerfull and fast at delivering video via its CDN. Otherwise, there are ways to fetch and inject a thumbnail into the video embed while waiting for vimeo to load and play the video.