DVD delivery requested ..... aaaah!

[Paul R Johnson]

I've been progressively moving to solid state and on-line delivery for my event videos (mainly music and theatrical stuff) and just retired my DVD duplicators as they've sat unused for 6 months. Luckily I still have them, but it was close.

Today an old customer surfaced with a new project (one that has always worked pretty well for us in the past) but the customers when poled, unanimously asked for DVD delivery. So all my investment in HD/4K are pointless. SD on DVD, sigh! It's been two years since this client had the last event they did recorded.

Am I on my own here, or are others still being asked for SD on DVD? I really thought it was gone!

[Tony Neal]

I grit my teeth and cringe every time I test a newly mastered show DVD on my 65" 4k TV.

Its just soul destroying shooting and editing in 4k only to be asked mostly for DVDs instead of Blu-rays or USB sticks - but its what the customer wants and happily pays for.

I want to move everything online but I'm not yet confident I can do it securely - and they'll still want DVDs so whats the point?

[Pete Cofrancesco]

Most of my events still request dvds. I give them a variety of options. You can always add a digital download as an add on... I’d prefer bluray but since i’m on a mac it’s in my best interest to avoid it due to a lack of menu software.

[Danny O'Neill]

We moved to all digital (online and USB) delivery for this year. But still people want disks. Thats fine, computer has burners still, Ive got the disk printer.

Weddings are shared with Grandma, who for the life of her cant see her TV but the kids make an effort to let her watch it on her old DVD player.

[Boyd Ostroff]

I haven't made a DVD since 2011. In 2013 I ripped my large collection of commercial DVD's and put them on a media server. Have not touched a DVD since then and doubt that I ever will. Now, I am not in the business of selling videos, so I don't need to deal with this anymore.

But a few days ago, I was talking to an old friend (my former boss) who is very technologically-challenged. He wanted a copy of a performance video that I originally shot back in 2004 and asked if I could send him a DVD. I said "sorry, I don't do that anymore". I put it on Vimeo and sent him a link an hour later. He was just amazed that this was even possible. He asked "what is this Vimeo thing anyway? People keep telling me about YouTube, but I don't know what they're talking about".

I couldn't even begin to explain that to him. But he was delighted to watch the video right away on his iPad, and that he can just e-mail a link to a friend in South America instead of mailing a DVD.

[Paul R Johnson]

Yet Adobe and others get rid of authoring software and Apple abandon CD/DVD slots. They clearly assume DVD and CD just don't exist.

[Boyd Ostroff]

Yeah, it's terrible. You can't even buy a TV with a built-in VHS player or an 8-track player for your car anymore either. ;-)

[Jeremiah Rickert]

I make videos for my kids' school (Plays, Concerts, Graduations, etc) and I poll people and ask what they want, and the answer is still DVDs. I do make Blu Rays for some parents who I know have Blu Ray players that will play burned discs. At least then the menus and graphics look sharp on HDTVs.

I can't use online delivery for most of the plays and choir concerts because of rights issues.

[Steven Digges]

There are savers and there chuckers in this world. I am generally a chucker. But this photo is from the third shelf up on my edit desk and they are still hooked up.

I do not deal with the general public, I'm more corporate client based. But the reason it is still there is weird. I get strange requests. Like the last time it was turned on a valuable client handed me a VHS tape with 3 feet of tangled tape hanging out of it's jaws. The tape was not corporate work. It was a tape that was precious to him for family reasons. He handed it to me and said "I don't know if you can save this or not but if you can would you make my family a DVD? We don't know what to do and it is irreplaceable to us."

I would have gone out and bought a new VHS player, capture system, and brand new computer with DVD burner if I needed to so I could pull off that unpaid FAVOR! As it was I spent nothing and handed him 4 copies of a labeled DVD.

Sometimes business is more about what you do, not what you do to charge for it.

Kind Regards,

Steve