I think investing in a website where customers can securely download their videos in various sizes is the way forward. Many people want to use their media on a range of devices and DVD can't offer this. It's very easy for the customer to burn their own DVD's when necessary. This is the way forward technologically but I suppose it also depends on the kind of customer base you have. If I was going to spend money on media distribution in 2015 then it wouldn't be on DVD/Bluray software/equipment.

Doesn't anybody else other than me see the value in menus? It must be the nature of the videos that others produce. I find it useful to be able to jump straight to various points in my videos (documentary style travel). Video files on thumb drives, hard disks, etc. don't provide that.

Peter, I concur on the value of menus. It's nice to jump directly to the segment you desire. Or at least be able to jump rapidly through the disk with the next button.

I think menus are fantastic, as long as they are very simple, direct, and short. It's probably one of the reasons my clients prefer DVD to online.

I remember back in RealPlayer days i used to split the production up into separate files for each chapter and point viewers to a .RAM file containing a list of URLs of the individual files. Real Player then treated it as a menu of sorts and let viewers skip back and forth between the chapters, or just let them all play continuously in the sequence listed.

Trying to do some web searches now to see if there's something analogous to that for MP4 and today's common players.

i've been supplying my clients mp4's on usb for years now with chapters - courtesy of drax.

https://drax.codeplex.com/

i covered how to in a previous post.

Nothing beats the concurrent quality and versatility of a well -authored Blu-ray disc with menus, alternate tracks, etc for the average consumer to play with. And nothing beats the longevity - dare say archival possibility of the Blu-ray.

On the subject of menus, those who are clever enough can develop their own programming to create menu navigation with video streams. Some sellers of video have done exactly this and offer the service to producers like many of you.
On the other hand there are also many application packages (once called multi-media authoring programs back in CDROM days) that can be used to author computer discs and offer a lot of versatility to bring in text, .pdf, and the like as extras.

The drax MP4 route to chapters seems less universal than wwaag's method using MKV container.
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I want to be able to view on my TV as well as computer.

agreed peter, but some of my clients are scared of the unknown ;-)

they recognize mp4 (thank goodness), but mkv!? and all the more so since wmp doesn't recognize them either.

anyway, i usually bundle my draxed mp4's on a usb to automatically play with vlc (portable) and a txt explaining how to access the chapters for the really dense (of which there are a great many unfortunately)

riredale: It's possible that during my little living room premiere that the settings on the TV were set too dark/saturated... I agree that different connections will give you varying quality, but I can't help but think that the color is gonna vary as well. I've used HDMI and Composite and as of recently Component, and I have the settings on my TV calibrated differently for each input. With composite your entire picture is of course transmitted through the single yellow plug. Component uses the RGB cables, which I assume stands for Red-Green-Blue, leading me to highly suspect that there's got to be at least some difference with the color as well as the over-all quality... and if this is the case than it's not hard to imagine the brightness varying as well.

You're right ushere. Ultimately, no player or screen is gonna display the picture/audio exactly the same. Many people just aren't gonna have what a lot of us geeks would consider to be an ideal set-up.

I guess whatever format people are gonna primarily see your work on is the best to edit on. For instance, I don't have any kinda fancy speakers for audio editing. I figure that most people will currently be viewing my work on a computer, and most people will probably have the cheap speakers that come with their computers, so that's what I edit on... and I figure if it sounds good on computer speakers than it should sound good enough when viewing on portable devices.

It would be good to somehow hook up to whatever input/display you plan to distribute on (like composite for DVD / HDMI for Blu-ray), then just do a separate color edit for each one. For every project you could have a YouTube color edit, DVD edit and Blu-ray edit. It would be a pain, but I'm a meticulous guy. The problem is I only know how to hook my computer up to my HD TV via VGA cable. Is it even possible to hook a computer up to a TV via HDMI or composite cable? Maybe you could do this using a converter/adapter of some kind?

I guess retail flash-drive movies aren't something that's likely to take off sense you can just do that kinda thing yourself... and the kinda people that don't know how to do this would just get DVD/Blu-ray. If I'm gonna watch something, I'd prefer to just pop in a Blu-ray and watch it on a big TV screen in a comfy chair. I don't really wanna mess with flash drives/portable devices... and like I said, Blu-rays are aesthetically pleasing. I like to physically have something with a nice little case, menus etc...

I already have alot of my work on YouTube, so selling digital downloads of my stuff wouldn't be anything special, and it just wouldn't be any fun. I really like the idea of physically getting my work out there. I used to always fantasize about making a feature film and seeing it for rent at a video store... well that's not gonna happen now. Sometimes it seems as though advancing technology is finagling me out of my life-long aspirations lol.

One other question I have for you DVD/Blu-ray self-distributors is: Have you guys ever tried just selling DVD/Blu-ray combo packs of your work? That's what I was thinking of doing. This kinda thing may not be as financially practical though, due to having to buy both kinds of discs. At least you could just focus on acquiring Blu-ray cases though.

Thanks again for all the information guys. Any more info would be appreciated as well.

"Have you guys ever tried just selling DVD/Blu-ray combo packs of your work?"

I recently bought the Gordon MacRae, Shirley Jones version of Oklahoma. It came with four dics: The CinemaScope and Todd-AO versions on both Blu-ray and DVD, plus a Digital HD download version.

Why couldn't they have thrown in a VHS and BetaMax version or two as well? :)

Have you guys ever tried just selling DVD/Blu-ray combo packs of your work?

before i released the last dvd i produced (about 5 years ago) i did some pretty extensive research into my markets expectations. now, bearing in mind this was a 'stockmans horse challenge', my audience was never going to be that sophisticated in the first place. having sold over 2k copies of the previous one i did have quite a large, if demographically limited, sample to question.

of the 250 or so i emailed (ah, they aren't that unsophisticated) i think 4 said they had blu-ray, but wouldn't pay a premium for it against a dvd.
about 30 or so were happy with the idea of a mp4 file on a usb
all were happy with a clear crystal case with a 'colour' printed dvd inside.

i decided at the time i'd stick with producing a dvd. it sold about 800 @ $35+p&p. i haven't done another since - i don't think it's really worthwhile as you've seen one, you've pretty much seen them all (and i'm not sure i have the stamina to shoot and edit another ;-()

from here on it's simply going to be mp4 one way or another. fortunately i'm in a position to lecture my clients as to what i'm willing to produce for them. so far they've all been very happy with either file or usb delivery*.

*in fact my last major production for a state health service was delivered intranet and on branded usb's. the feed back they receved was very, very favourable indeed.

$28K ain't bad. What was the time involved and the costs?

@dgates

http://www.kingoftheranges.com.au/



it's a three day event with numerous competitions and entertainments going on all the time. even though i had a lot of help from the organizers, etc., i still had to get a couple of other camera ops in for the first one i did (the second and third i better organised so two of us could pretty much cover it all). i paid cam ops $750 a day.

there was, as you can well imagine, a HUGE amount of footage, and all the cam ops were 'local' so there was a lot of looking and culling if you know what i mean.

editing took about a couple of week or so - wasn't looking at a deadline or rushing to get it out..

break down was something like 1st one sold 2040 @ $25 +pp, 2nd 1300 at same price. decided to give it a miss for a couple of years to avoid exhausting the market. as it turned out i got stuck with other major projects when i thought of returning and only got back to covering it in 2010. as i wrote 800+ @ $35+pp. also note, this isn't opening night box office - it's a steady, erratic income stream for a while with a slow tapering off.

i don't think it's really repeatable (profitable) covering just the one local challenge here, big as it is. there's three of these large events in australia that if i combined in one dvd i'm sure would be back to selling 1000's. unfortunately for a number of reasons i'm not into taking it on - age and the physical limitations that brings, finding cam ops who are both knowledgeable AND affordable (not going to work with 'amateurs' again), and the fact that i get exceeding well paid for the few gigs i still do makes me lazy ;-)

btw. i threw the first couple i did on youtube, there's a lot of people out there interested but aren't up to paying for a dvd, etc.,

People don't seem to see value in anything any more - media or content - as it is so much 'virtual', disposable, and more often than not free.

geoff

Slightly related side note ... i do far, far more audio-only work than video. The distribution for that is probably over 99% standard RedBook AudioCD. Even when i freely put links out there for people to download/stream, most of the response is "how much would it cost for you to send me a CD?" Or more and more often, a bunch of CDs so they can give them to family/friends. Note that the recording itself has already been paid for by the artist/host/producer and most of these people don't have to pay to hear it, but they still want to pay anyway to get the shiny spinny disk. About the only people interested in the online version are under-25-ers, and most of them don't care about the material in question anyway.

Much of my work these days is just simple DVD output: wham, bam, here's your video, it will play when you put it in the DVD slot. Chapter advance, but that's about all.

But in the recent past I've also done some quite elaborate boxed DVDs with sophisticated menus:

(1) 4-channel discrete surround-sound (DolbyDigital 2/2)
(2) Audio commentary track
(3) Extra clips not included in the main title
(4) Outtakes
(5) Hidden Easter Eggs on the menu for people who enjoy looking for that kind of thing.

I've done these elaborate projects because I can, and I find it fun to create something similar to Hollywood commercial releases. BUT it is quite labor-intensive. Not "profitable," per se.


Maverick:

Regarding color, RGB can build any color, just as CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black) can build any color on an inkjet printer. So no, an image should look about the same, color-wise, whether it comes across an HDMI, RGB, S-Video, or Composite interface.

Regarding audio, you want to get some reasonable editing speakers. If instead you use cheap PC speakers that, say, have a midrange peak, then you will subconsciously adjust the sound on your editing PC to make things more balanced. Trouble is now the sound will be poor on a system with good speakers.

Many years ago when I was very much a newbie with my first PC, I began to move favorite 4x6 photos into my system via a scanner and Paint Shop Pro. It was very satisfying to see how I could adjust various parameters to get the scans to look really good on the display. A few years later I realized my screen was way out of calibration, and as a result all my earlier scans were worthless, with the black level, color balance, and sharpness remarkably wrong.

+1 regarding monitor....

like everyone else i suppose, i started out thinking that buying a 'decent' monitor was all i needed. it wasn't long before i realized a half decent ips panel, properly calibrated, far exceeded the very expensive tn monitor i'd previously bought. when i came to anything connected with colour.

I had a production monitor as well. When I no longer needed it, I could not give that thing away. It was in great condition too. Just nobody wants them anymore.

I should know this, but what exactly is mid-range peak?

What kind of speakers do you guys recommend for audio editing? I suppose that if something sounds good while being played on sophisticated speakers than it's of course liable to sound better on less sophisticated speakers than if you had edited on cheap speakers to begin with... kinda like a trickle-down effect.

I think I kind of have a way of convincing myself that I don't need alot of fancy tech due to the expense, lack of space, and it just looking overly-complicated to me... I've seen people that edit on multiple monitors and use these big complicated looking sound-board devices. Some even have their own custom padded rooms for sound recording. I've always felt that you could make stuff that is just as entertaining, and of the same level of quality without all that complex and expensive equipment. I do have a Zoom H4N and Behringer B-2 Pro though.

Then there's all these rules like, "You don't dare go above 0.0 decibels." Where as I've heard sound clips that (according to the meters) went up to 0 decibels, but by hearing it you'd never know it. When it comes to film making, I like to think of the rules as loose guidelines that were made to be altered. I of course don't completely ignore my sound meters, but I go more by what my ears hear. I go by what looks and sounds good to me. There's so many variables when it comes to things like sound mixing or color correcting. I like to think that when it comes to anything creative that there aren't really any wrong or right answers.

Does anyone know of any kind of tutorial on how to properly calibrate your Computer/TV screen? With TVs I've just kinda fooled around with the settings until I got something that looks good to me. It can be a bit of a pain, and makes me feel kinda like I'm color correcting someone else's work lol. I've never messed with my computer monitor display settings. It's always looked fine to me.

I've scanned in several old pictures on my $60 Canon Printer/Scanner combo. I haven't color corrected many of 'em. Maybe it'd be smart to have a totally un-altered original photo on your comp in case you wanna re-tinker the color. I've mainly just used the regular ole' Windows Photo Viewer to tweak the color/brightness/white balance... which I just noticed I can't seem to do anymore. The edit settings seem to have disappeared since I recently did a re-installation of Windows 7.

I've also used Sony Vegas for photo editing. For whatever reason though, when I'd click the little picture snapping button underneath the display the picture would turn out darkened. Maybe it wouldn't do that if I went to file and rendered it as a jpeg.

I have a few more question for you guys:

Do any of you ship DVDs/Blu-rays to other countries? Is it possible to make your own region-free DVDs/Blu-rays? Would you need special kinds of discs, software, burner etc...

How much can you fit on a DVD and a Blu-ray?

If all of your content is exclusive standard-def video than is there really any point in selling it on Blu-ray? Would DVD be sufficient enough given the quality?

Sorry I'm so long-winded lol.

Mid-range peak merely means that the middle range of the frequency spectrum is reproduced louder than the bass and treble ranges. All audio devices have this problem, not a single one has ever yet been produced that doesn't! However, some are much better at avoiding it than others. A typical classic hi-fi system might have a frequency response like 50 to 20K +-1dB, which is very good. The cheap speakers that come with your computer might be 100 to 14K +-6dB with the + part mostly in the middle range. These speakers emphasize the middle vocal area and diminish the highs and lows. If you use these and correct the sound to be pleasing, those who then listen to it on good speakers will end up with a muddy hole in the middle where you've reduced the mid frequencies and will have very loud treble and bass. It would be quite unpleasant for them.

You've never heard any digital audio that peaked above 0dB, not once ever. It's physically impossible since the maximum numeric value that can be encoded in a digital format equates to 0dB. You may have seen output meters go above this when they're showing average value though. If the sound has been compressed to lose it's dynamics and is all near 0dB then the average sound power can indeed be above 0dB, but if you like real music you may find that it sounds very flat and dead because there is little dynamic left. The advice is to make sure you never peak above 0dB. How can this happen when the physical limit is 0? Well, suppose you're mixing two audio tracks, both of which peak around -1.5dB. When the peaks coincide they add together, which would result in a new peak around +4.5dB. Since this can't be encoded, the peak is merely lopped off at 0. These lopped off peaks sound very badly distorted and you would recognize this sound instantly when you hear it. The meters in Vegas' editing window are peak meters, so make sure these never go above 0 when mixing. Similarly, when recording, if your input volume is high enough to produce peaks above 0 then these too will be lopped off and distorted.

How much can you fit on a disc? Hundreds and hundreds of hours, maybe thousands! However, just because you can doesn't mean you should. How much you can fit depends on the size of the disc and the bitrate used. Hollywood releases often run 3.5+ hours on a disc. They accomplish this for two reasons: 1) they use double-layer discs, and 2) they start with a source that is very high quality, clean, and noise free. We mere mortals usually use single-layer discs which cuts us down to half the space to begin with, and our video is often shot under less than ideal lighting and is far less processed to remove the noise. The noise is a huge killer because it takes a lot of data to encode it, and the space used for that data is robbed from what would be used to save a good quality image. Hollywood DVD releases often get away with encoding as low as 5-6Mbps whereas our mere mortal material usually needs 8 to 8.5Mbps to look good. In addition to noise, motion has a huge effect. More motion needs more bits to store it well. When i shoot community theatre or concerts there is very little movement and i can often get away with encoding at 4.5Mbps in order to get 133 minutes on a disc. On the other hand if i shoot sports or dance, i have to encode around 8.5Mbps and can barely fit 72 minutes.

Blu-ray is similar in these aspects, but the higher resolution requires a correspondingly higher bit rate. Fortunately Blu-ray discs also hold vastly more data, so you can usually get more time on a disc with less compression.

All the discs you or we have ever burned are region-free, which means they can be played anywhere. We don't have the ability to set a region code, unless we send the discs off to a commercial pressing house for duplication. Even they won't include a region code unless you specifically request it.

The content i render and deliver may be standard def, but most all of us now shoot in HD. I could very easily render to HD as well, but considering that i don't yet own a Blu-Ray burner, nor do any of my clients own Blu-Ray players, it would seem a bit pointless. However, since i still have the original source material and the projects, i can always upgrade the content to HD down the line if anyone wants it. If the original material is standard def then there wouldn't be much point or benefit to making Blu-Ray discs, other than that supposedly Blu-Ray discs may last longer.

Hi dxdy,

Do you have any more information about Taio and them not making DVDs anymore?

"Sadly, they are exiting the business,"

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