USB delivery instead of DVDs?

[Dave Partington]

Roger, I totally respect your point of view. It's valid. But as with everything else, its not the only valid way to think about things.

If your ISP is unreliable, as happens with mine from time to time then you can delay uploading until you have good service again. It's no different to mailing a DVD knowing that the post office (who is an intermediary you didn't mention) could have delays or even worse, lose it. Not everyone lives 10 minutes from me, nor do they all want me personally delivering their DVDs either. Often we get commissions from the other end of the country and there is no way I am delivering them by hand!

If your server doesn't have the space, you could change server providers, and it's still likely to be cheaper per month than producing a single set of DVDs for delivery.

If your client doesn't have the bandwidth to download it they still have the option of a USB stick or DVD, or Blu-ray if they wish, it's just not a no-cost option from me any more.

I would not totally remove those options for some time to come, but they cost money to buy/make/send, not to mention the time it takes to transcode to MPEG2, create the menus, author the disc, 'test' the disc once made (I've had a few issues over the years that I've gone back and corrected), and then do what ever you do to create the inlay, print it, cut it, insert it, place in the wrappers etc etc. Oh, and then the cost of a jiffy bag plus postage, or in your case time & mileage for delivery.

While the raw costs aren't huge, they do add up over the year, and the time spent making DVDs certainly adds up.

So, I'm not advocating that everyone moves to online delivery, just like I'm not advocating that everyone moves to Blu-ray or to USB stick. What I am saying is that I now offer my clients a variety of delivery options, the cheapest of which is the HD files as a download only. After that they can choose USB or DVD or Blu-ray if they wish, but at additional cost. So far people seem to like either for download only or for download + DVD.

In terms of having physical media, anyone buying regular recordable media is kidding themselves if they think clients are guaranteed to be able to play those on their 25th wedding anniversary. Even if they do still have a DVD player in the loft, what guarantees are you giving that the discs will actually still be playable? The disc manufacturers certainly aren't giving those guarantees (unless you are buying the expensive gold 100 year archive versions).

While I agree that people could download the files and not back them up, in the end this is their responsibility, just like them not losing the DVD, or relying on the DVD being playable in 25 years when in fact it's likely not. Within reason I'm archiving them all indefinitely, so just like a client finding their DVD doesn't play, they can come back and ask me for an additional download, at some fee for retrieving from the archive and re-uploading again, of course ;)

Of course, anyone with Windows Movie Maker or iDVD and DVD recorder can make their own playable DVDs from the HD files if they wish, though as others have said, DVD drives are fast disappearing even from many computers.

What the download option does do, which I agree is a negative, is it has the potential to eliminate follow on re-orders for DVDs, although only today someone with a download + DVD package came back to order more DVDs for the bridesmaids etc, so it doesn't eliminate it altogether.

[Roger Gunkel]

Dave, part of my service is to deliver the finished dvd (or alternative) personally. I send extra copies by post, but I consider that a follow on to the main service. I occasionally have a long distance production, when I would always arrange in advance that personal delivery would be impractical and delivery is then by recorded delivery or courier. At least I know that if it gets lost or damaged, I can very quickly make and send another from the master, rather than hours of uploading again if there is an upload failure. Your other point of dvds not being playable in 25 years time is probably quite right, but formats are quite easily convertible to the next one that comes along. The same argument could probably be applied to file formats that are stored on hard drives in a few years time, but neither are any cause for concern as far as I am concerned. I would rather that my clients had something on hard copy that I have supplied them with though, rather than something on some vague distant server.

You are obviously happy and confident with the way that you deliver as am I, so I would in no way wish to try to influence your choice or condemn it, although this discussion is an interesting and informative one on choices. My experiences with uploads and downloads over the years have frequently been extremely frustrating, but that is also partly due to the rural locations that I choose to live and work in. We all choose what works best for us, but it is always useful for everyone to hear and consider different views.

Roger

[Dave Partington]

Originally Posted by Roger Gunkel

Your other point of dvds not being playable in 25 years time is probably quite right, but formats are quite easily convertible to the next one that comes along.

This is true, but DVDs are stuck in standard definition. Can you even buy a standard definition TV today? Converting a DVD to some other format is always going to be SD, which (IMO) is going to look terrible when upscaled in the future to 4K and 8K. I'm totally disappointed every time I make a DVD after editing clean 1080p!

Yes, file formats will come and go but every video file I have from the early 90s still plays now. No reason to think files of today won't play in another 25 years time.

Out of interest, when you deliver DVDs is that all they get or do they also get the HD version some other way?

[Roger Gunkel]

I am also disappointed with the quality of dvd compared with what I see at the editing stage. My clients are always offered the option of USB, SD card and Bluray, but they always seem to want the dvd as the whole family can play it. I am constantly amazed by the number of people who think that because they have an HD TV that everything they see on it is in HD. I do archive the HD master though so that they could come back at a later date if they want an upgrade.

Roger

[Chris Harding]

Hey Roger

Done correctly, a wedding on DVD doesn't look too bad at all upscaled .. I have been to clients where they have played the DVD and I have been pleasantly surprised and the end result!

You have to remember that you are looking at technical quality AND have the raw footage to compare the DVD against. The bride just wants to see all the pretty dresses and herself and she has no worries about IQ ....keep the footage in focus and the bridesmaid's dresses the correct colour and she will be happy!!

I constantly have to remind myself that brides are not tech heads and pixel peepers like me and very few can actually see the difference (or appreciate ) between SD and HD !! I did survey on a bridal forum a while back and most brides admitted that they couldn't tell the difference (but hubby could) and really they couldn't care anyway ...after those results I stopped beating myself up over quality!

Chris

[Roger Gunkel]

You are quite right of course Chris. I just got back from a wedding show today and had five separate comments from visitors on how clear and sharp my video was. I was running from a dvd and two people also remarked on how nice my HD video looked. It's so easy to forget that so much of what potential clients see on their HD tvs is nowhere near HD and good quality upscaled dvd can look very good.

Roger

[Bobby Lin]

Honestly, there are tons of options for physical and digital video delivery to your clients. This article outlines many of them: https://valoso.com/blog/deliver-client-video-files/ There's DVD, flash drive, file sharing websites, file sharing apps, cloud storage services, FTP servers, torrents, and more.

DVDs and flash drives are pretty similar; they're the main physical delivery forms. I agree that video technology may be moving more toward flash drives, but DVD is still a secure and traditional option. It all depends on your business!

[Taky Cheung]

I am still offering DVD and BluRay as add on together with USB and Online as standard. But now, I will be pushing my HDMI dongle to playback wedding film on ANY television.

Recently, a colleague is filming a celebrity wedding. They want to distribute the wedding film but don't want people to own the file that they can upload everywhere. Now they will be ordering the HDMI dongle from me. After the file is copied to the internal storage of the dongle, I can disabled the USB mass storage and file transfer option. In that case, guests can only watch the film on TV only. They won't be able to have access the file content inside. They might be ordering 200 of my TB Dongle :D

[Steven Davis]

I imagine until TVs use a universal file type, DVD will be here. I have two Samsung tvs, one will play an mp4 file I've made, and the other won't. So even a single TV manufacture has tvs that are in different stages of ability for different file types.

I'm hoping personally for an online 'garage' for clients videos where they can download or sale it themselves. Or we can sale it as well.

The other option of course is putting it on the client's cell phone vs. a usb highlight.

[Taky Cheung]

Originally Posted by Steven Davis

I imagine until TVs use a universal file type, DVD will be here. I have two Samsung tvs, one will play an mp4 file I've made, and the other won't. So even a single TV manufacture has tvs that are in different stages of ability for different file types.

I'm hoping personally for an online 'garage' for clients videos where they can download or sale it themselves. Or we can sale it as well.

The other option of course is putting it on the client's cell phone vs. a usb highlight.

Decoding videos such as mp4, TV manufacturers need to pay royalty to the organization such as MPEG LA (mpegla.com). To reduce cost, certain models even from the same manufacturer won't play videos.

I bought a new TV at bestbuy just 3 months ago. The INPUT selection screen clearly says the USB port is for photos only.

You can use Vimeo some what in a way your clients can play online, download video file. or use their On Demand feature to collect revenue per view.

[David Barnett]

For those delivering USB, approximately what size do you try to get a full length (1 hour) down to? About 8GB would you say?

I'm thinking of supplying them as well as DVD for this coming year, just so they don't come back to me in 5 years asking for an updated version.

[Steven Davis]

Originally Posted by David Barnett

For those delivering USB, approximately what size do you try to get a full length (1 hour) down to? About 8GB would you say?

I'm thinking of supplying them as well as DVD for this coming year, just so they don't come back to me in 5 years asking for an updated version.

I just ordered a test run from photoflashdrive.com I'm going to test it with video and of course photos. We'll see.

[Adam Stanislav]

Originally Posted by Steven Davis

I just ordered a test run from photoflashdrive.com

I never heard of them, so after reading your post, I went to their web site. What a strange site! They display a bunch of pictures on their main page with absolutely no explanation (and no link to any explanation) what exactly it is they do/sell.

So what are they? Some kind of a secret store that only sells to their own initiates? What do they do? Just copy your files to a USB drive, or do they actually do something we cannot do ourselves faster and for free? The lack of that information on the entry page of their web site certainly doesn’t inspire confidence.

[Taky Cheung]

Originally Posted by David Barnett

For those delivering USB, approximately what size do you try to get a full length (1 hour) down to? About 8GB would you say?

I'm thinking of supplying them as well as DVD for this coming year, just so they don't come back to me in 5 years asking for an updated version.

I use target 12mbps and max at 15mbps for USB deliver. as a reference Vimeo uses 10mbps. With that rate, a 45 mniutes clip will be about 4GB in size. I put it in my blog

http://www.lacolorpros.com/blog/?103...drive-Delivery

[Taky Cheung]

I custom made this boxes with a manufacturer in China. It takes any standard 4x6 (4R) photos as the front insert :) The box can also be used as a photo frame too.