Has Blu-ray reached critical mass

[Vince Pachiano]

Each year I produce a DVD for a local group who pays me for my time/materials.
Each participant (about 80) gets their own DVD.
Every year when I submit my bid, I like to up-the-ante by offering some added value.
This upcoming year I am thinking of producing both a DVD and a Blu-ray disk of the same project.
Since it is difficult to know whether each participant wants a DVD or Blu-ray, I'm thinking that each participant will get both (much like today's Hollywood movies)

Question: Is Blu-ray ubiquitous enough that it will matter, or should I wait another year or two?
Is this really a value-added option?

[Al Gardner]

The main reason I have delivered on Blu ray is to show your work at it's highest quality. That's if you are using high quality cameras to begin with.

It does make a huge difference in visual quality.

I do it mostly for concert and band stuff.

[Noa Put]

Actually only if all 80 or so people have a blu-ray player which I highly doubt. You are better of making a dvd as usual and adding a second dvd with a 720P or 1080p mp4 file of the film you made (at a appropriate bitrate so it fits onto the dvd) which they can just copy from it and play on whatever device they prefer, such as a ipad, laptop, desktop pc or tv.

[Chris Harding]

Over here Video Hire stores have BD but they still have to have DVD disks as well. Just for weddings I have never had a bride ask me for BluRay so I think that people who offer BluRay are maybe just future proofing or offering the latest and greatest BUT in real life only a tiny portion of your 80 clients might have BluRay facilities so Noa's solution is not only cheaper (DVD blanks cost only pennies now) but is far more practical as MP4 HD files can be watched on a wide range of devices. I was thinking of offering my brides a DVD disk of their weddings in HD .... I tried offering a USB as an incentive and no one took me up on it!!

The bottom line is it's all about content not format! Give them a good product and they are happy ..most clients cannot even tell the difference between HD and SD as they are too busy watching the content.

Chris

[Bruce Dempsey]

They depend on you to get them the best possible quality
Remember whatever you give them will be played back on their great big flat screen because they all have one of those. or a computer
They don't know what to ask for. Some still call the discs a cd for heavens skake
Thne post office just nearly doubled the cost overnight of mailing a disc so I'm doing download from a wdmycloud now and everyone who used to get a dvd in years past raves about the clarity and vibrance of the download which is an mpy at full res

[Peter Ferling]

It's the old saying: if something's not broke, then don't fix it. You know that the DVD has worked in the past and has given you 100%. Regarding value added, it depends on the age and technical aptitude of your clients. I think online and digital downloads have done much to prevent the kinds of adoption of Blue Ray I'd expected to see. Most folks I know are watching them via PS or Xbox, but never bothered with dedicated players. The likely option is DVD for the technically challenged (whom think BlueRay is just an expensive DVD anyways), and downloads for everyone else whom hate physical media.

Providing a download via a simple link might show that you're up with the times, and still having the DVD for those whom won't bother. On the other hand, depending on the media, having access to a download might risk physical sales if folks simply share the media with other clients. You could be opening a can of worms. Whatever you're doing, you're doing it right as they keep coming back, so value added might just create more work.

Food for thought.

[Roger Gunkel]

Like Chris, here in the UK my clients always want dvd, although I am able to produce a dvd if necessary. A number of producers on the forum seem to have download delivery, but that really worries me, as download speeds im the UK vary incredibly from place to place. A 90min HD download would be totally impractical in many areas and my customers would rather have something meaningful that they can hold in their hand for their substantial outlay. Downloading their wedding may well put it on a par with a £4.99 Netflix movie in some people's eyes.

Roger

[Roger Van Duyn]

Originally Posted by Noa Put

Actually only if all 80 or so people have a blu-ray player which I highly doubt. You are better of making a dvd as usual and adding a second dvd with a 720P or 1080p mp4 file of the film you made (at a appropriate bitrate so it fits onto the dvd) which they can just copy from it and play on whatever device they prefer, such as a ipad, laptop, desktop pc or tv.

I take the same approach as Noa. Twin DVD cases work well for this. Sometimes they go on sale online and I stock up.

[Darren Levine]

I too think Noa has the best alternative, since DVD discs are still pennies to BD's dollar, putting a 'computer friendly' HD file onto a second disc along with the DVD would be a nice extra touch that would be appreciated by the customers, while not adding much cost to production

[Tim Polster]

Tough and frustrating situation for the modern times. I think people really like downloads but that can be a can of worms. If your event is long the file size will be too large. Compress it too much and there goes your high quality option. A lot of folks will not make it to the download location as they are busy and forget anyway! Blu-ray will probably account for 10-20% of people in my experience.

I shot some soccer games recently and some folks wanted files for editing. So I said I would upload them to my website for download. The games were 1hr 20min in length. A 720p file at 3mbps was 2 gigs. They did not know what to think of this... I made DVDs as well but in this case, the download option sounded better than it actually played out in real life. I could have made a lower res, more compressed file but where do you draw the line?

My preference would be thumb drives but sadly they are not as affordable as optical discs.