Brides without BluRay

[Chris Harding]

Hi All

I get the occasional bride who would like to see her wedding in full HD but hasn't got a BD player.... apart from adding a player into my packages, what other options would be practical.

HD Media Player and a USB drive ????? BD players are not that popular at the moment and still pricey ..I was wondering if a Mediaplayer with the wedding video preloaded might be a nice touch as an optional extra... could I also get away with a format that doesn't require me to add a BD burner to my computer ?????

Any suggestions ??? Portable would also be good so she can take it to Grandma's house and just pop the HDMI cable in the big TV cos sure as nuts she won't have a BD player or PS3!!!!

Chris

[Chris Davis]

I don't shoot weddings, but I shoot a lot of business events. I have the exact same challenge. Virtually no business has a Blu-ray player, yet they want to display HD video in their lobby, trade show booth, etc.

The HD Media Players have been a godsend. Best Buy was closing out the Western Digital HDTV players a few months ago and I bought several for about $50 each. I put the video on a USB thumb drive and either loan a player to the client (if it's a video for a specific event) or I simply include one on the invoice.

[Chris Harding]

Thanks Chris

I also liked the WD Players!! Just for interest, what format did you use on the thumb drive...I was just wondering the most "economical" format to use that will fit on a drive!!

I know that Bruce Foreman swears by the HD WMV files!!

Chris

[Travis Cossel]

To be perfectly honest Chris, if a bride wants to watch her wedding in HD then she should just purchase a BluRay player. You shouldn't have to start including them in your packages.

I actually just dealt with this with one of our brides. They selected our BluRay upgrade and now several months later as we're about to deliver the discs she was wondering if the BluRay discs would play in a regular DVD player. I simply explained that they would not and let her know that you can purchase a BluRay player pretty cheap these days. She was cool with that.

My opinion is that it's our job to delivery an amazing video product, not video equipment. d;-)

[Chip Thome]

Not sure about there Chris, but I think Netflix, Tivo etc is killing BluRay over here. With that being said, I do think delivering an HD data file is more future proof than a BluRay disc will be. I'm just not sure how you are going to print your typical beautiful DVD artwork and fit it on the case of that thumbdrive? :-)

[Ryan Czaplinski]

Interesting.... HD files on a small drive would be awesome to do as a package.

I still believe Blu-Ray is a niche market. Growing, but still niche. Many people still are loving their DVD players fine and if you're not a hardcore movie consumer with a large monitor and sound system, generally people seem to just stick to what they got and watch DVD because t's cheaper and they think they can't see a difference.

I think that's a great idea to be able to offer HD files with your package so that it could be viewed via a media player or other device. That enables it to be more future proof in this digital age of rapidly changing technologies.

[James Strange]

I love the wdtv media boxes, got 3 of them.

Also love bluray, i think maybe bluray has taken off here in the UK than in the US?

Still, only about 20% of my 2010 brides ordered a bluray, thats up from about 12% on 09, and 5% in 08

I use the wdtvs at home, but they are great for wedding shows.

In terms of formats, i did ALOT of testing for the wdtvs, i found that h264 files (the same specs that i use for vimeo, both 720 and 1080) were the best, and those same files play on xbox, ps3 and mac/pc/laptop (as long as the machine isnt too old)

Its the same specs that vimeo recommend for exporting, 5mbps for 720p files, 12mbps for 1080p (athough i found that if you use profile 3.1 insead of 4 that the files play on the ipads native video player)

James

[Craig Terott]

Originally Posted by Chris Harding

Hi All

I get the occasional bride who would like to see her wedding in full HD but hasn't got a BD player.... apart from adding a player into my packages, what other options would be practical.

Remind them that a Bluray player is just $69.

[Pete Cofrancesco]

I agree with the opinion to remind the client how inexpensive bluray players have become. WDHD with a thumb drive sounds great until they lose the thumb drive or accidentally erase it. You could pay for video hosting service on the internet but that would really only be good for 10 minute montage. Its funny how clients can be so dam cheap about things like this.

[Ryan Czaplinski]

Originally Posted by Craig Terott

Remind them that a Bluray player is just $69.

Not entirely true. A good one with bd live network features and faster load times are more expensive. The lowest end ones with basic function and slower load times... Sure you can get one at big lots for 60 bucks (well during the holidays).

My ps3 performs far faster than that other cheap player that sits in the spare room, but all depends what you want out of a player. Fine for basic needs. :)

[Michael Bray]

This entire HD transition has been nothing short of a nightmare because consumers just don't know better. A lot of them even think that the awful SD picture they watch on their new TV is in fact HD. It's really sad when you think about it...people will purchase a new 40"-50" HDTV for a few grand but they won't spend $70-100 for a blu-ray player nor will they upgrade their cable TV programming to an HD package...so they go on watching SD on their new TV, which IMO, looks like garbage. On top of that, they prefer to stream Netflix OnDemand thru their XBOX which is actually lower res than DVD quality.

I simply provide my clients with a DVD/Blu-ray combo pack. It really doesn't take that much longer to encode both formats from the timeline using Adobe CS5 and this way, they have both forms of media to choose from depending on which player they have.

[Adam Haro]

This is an interesting discussion. We still deliver solely on dvd even though we use HD cameras. Haven't had a single request for blue ray yet. I'm hoping I can skip the whole bluRay thing and start delivering files on thumb drive. I think netflicks and movie streaming will kill the bluRay market.

[Michael Bray]

I just wish there was a better way to make a thumb drive look fancy.

A couple pays the photographer around $2000 and in return, they get a great looking deluxe leather bound photo album.

A couple pays the videographer around $2000 and in return, they get a 2 inch plastic thumb drive.

Now I realize, I'm being a little sarcastic because in return, they actually get a wonderful movie of their big day, but I just can't imagine trying to glam up a thumb drive. Believe me, I'm with ya. I wish I could skip the entire Blu-ray thing as well but unfortunately, I just can't come up with a good way to make a fancy package for a thumb drive compared to optical media or the photographers deluxe leather album for that matter.

[Chris Harding]

Hi Adam

Me too!! I have yet to get an enquiry for BluRay and most brides only find out about HD from hubby anyway.

Michael, you could of course supply them with a WD Live Player and add a 300GB external drive...surely that would be as impressive as an album??? Also it's harder to lose than a thumb drive....BD has not been popular here at all (the only people that I know that have them are ones that bought a Sony TV and a BD player was thrown in for free)

I'm figuring that you can take your Media Player over to your bridesmaids and just plug into their TV and you can all re-live the moment The player's secondary features also might make hubby like the idea too!!

It's an all-in one arrangement especially if you get the players with space inside for an HDD...!!!!

I was thinking more of a HDD inside as they are cheaper by far than a 64GB thumb drive...here those are way over $100 and a 500GB 3.5" HDD is half that!!! Maybe the USA is different but people seem to like little "gifts" in their video package ..."buy this package and we will give you XXXX free!!!"


Chris

[Travis Cossel]

Having had this discussion recently with a bunch of women I can tell you that the average bride will not be at all impressed by a WD player and a hard drive; the groom maybe, but the bride no. It's just not comparable to a beautiful album. I'm not trying to burst anyone's bubble, just relating what I've discovered.

No doubt, product delivery for our industry is a bit of an achilles heel versus the photography industry. We currently use custom-made image-wrapped cases and they look amazing, but the technology is definitely going toward digital delivery and streaming. Not really sure how we're going to handle delivery in those mediums yet.