Vimeo, a video sharing site akin to YouTube but for a more discriminating user, has now launched HD video streams in gloriously sharp 720p. For those of you stuck in the analog, rabbit-ears age, that is 1,280 by 720 pixels of resolution.

I sampled some of their fare, and was quite impressed with the quality and speed of the video. The content however, like most video sites, still leaves something to be desired.

Other sites will probably follow suit and start offering higher video quality. It won’t be long before we have a regular resolution arms race on our hands. Alas gentle readers, this leaves me wondering: do we really need to see aunt Deloris’s 80th birthday party, or a montage of groin smashing shenanigans in high resolution?

It also appears that the move to higher quality video is in part inspired by a lucrative advertising contract with Canon. Throughout the site you can see ads promoting the obvious superiority of HD video, and Canon’s logo is even watermarked over select videos.

I have selected from the cream of the crop a video for your sampling (you still need to visit Vimeo for the HD version):

The FX Movie (A Tribute To Visual Effects) - HD version from Spinning Blade on Vimeo.

Pirates have long plundered Hollywood’s vast entertainment riches for fun and profit. With new HD formats on the horizon, media makers felt confident that they had learned from past mistakes, and took the necessary steps to protect their new, high-res digital assets.

Well they were wrong, very wrong. All it took was a determined hacker, a few gallons of coffee, and 8 days to put the first chink in HD’s armor.

Now that the super secret code, the keys to the proverbial kingdom, has been leaked, it’s all down hill from here. All that is left for Hollywood to do is futilely fight pirates on the high seas, with a big gaping hole already in their boat.