The death of DVD is quickling coming. I expect DVD to have come to an end in less then 5 years.

With that said I need to switch to an electronic only delivery format. The internet happens so fast and it is extremely difficult to keep up with all the changes.

I basically need to have a link to download a file. If I can password protect the file on a user to user basis. So I.P. for user password one time download.

If that is not fee sable then I would do a lump sum payment of unlimited downloads to all that have access to the link.

I can not to this with my server as it would be too expensive for bandwidth.

What websites would offer what I need for a reasonable price. Reasonable obviously meaning

1. Cheapest
2. Reliable
3. Fast Server

Thanks in advance. VideoSilva.com

Don't you hate when you post a question, and someone gives a different suggestion...

Since your current business model involves delivering a physical disc,
have you considered delivering thumb drives instead of a DVD?

it's going to happen, obviously. But that would be a tragedy for us. Make no mistake: once the footage is on-line (regardless of passwords or restrictions) or in a flash memory stick will be copied and diffused for free. Period.
let's stick with the DVD until we can. Te future doesn't look good for distribution. The only way is to get paid in advance, and in full, and then post on-line for all to see and for free. It's the only way.

USB sticks might be the future but it is not quite there yet thus why we still have DVD. U.S.B. sticks are cost prohibitive.

And me waiting for consumer level UHD BD burners,

Ron

John Lewis pulls the plug on DVD's
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-45950477

But you can use Blu Ray players for DVDs, which John Lewis continue to sell..

Actually USB's are quite cheap IF they still made a 4GB USB so it would be comparable to a DVD at 4.7GB

Where we are I struggle to find 8GB USB's so have to end up buying 16GB drives ... I'm sure 4GB drives would be cheaper if they were available!!

The other attitude is to figure out the cost of a DVD, case, printing and duplication time and also what percentage of your job goes to media?? It might be quite OK to pay $10 for a USB and a job where you are getting 50X more in fees. You can also just apply a small price increase and the year start to cover USB's

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Swivel-Flash-Drive-Memory-Colors-Mixed/dp/B01H51JC8M/ref=sr_1_5?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1542571384&sr=1-5&refinements=p_n_size_browse-bin%3A310779031

And me waiting for consumer level UHD BD burners,

Ron

I have this burner in my PC https://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=3_54&item_id=067562 The missing piece is authoring software for UHD discs.

I would switch to USB sticks but feel that my job is not done as the person can come back to you and say " the stick you gave me with video will not play or the there is no video on it". Then I will have to put it back on the stick for them. At lest with a dvd when they are done and you can test them and they work and the person comes back and say this only played once but will not play again or it did not play to well. All I do is look at the disk for scratches or finger prints and if any then I show it to them and say "sorry this disk has been not been looked after or show them the finger prints on them and then I will give it a quick clean with a soft cloth if I have one in the car or tell them to clean it with a soft cloth."

I have done a lot of testing as in trying to make a memory stick/ USB stick "read only" so the file can not be deleted or even formatted but it may be on one system but not another.

Hi Tony

I honestly used to have a lot of issues with brides coming to me and saying the DVD plays on my Mum's player but not mine..in the end I found that using LG disks and an LG writer seemed to solve the problem but they are hard to find nowdays DVD players DO have disk compatibility issues but computers seem to be able to read any disk!

I do agree that there is no real cost effective alternative. The other issue of course, that people often don't realise is that a double cased DVD case has a much higher "perceived value" as it's physically bigger so when you present your client with 3 nicely printed DVD cases for your $1000 job they see value. Do the same job and give them a tiny 8GB USB stick and the "perceived value" drops dramatically.

When I used to do wedding photography in the old days, the bride used to get a huge album packed in tissue paper and that, of course, had a high perceived value. Nowdays they get a tiny USB in the mail which doesn't create the same impression.

On line delivery is great but how are we going to give it the same value as a physical item??

I would switch to USB sticks but feel that my job is not done as the person can come back to you and say " the stick you gave me with video will not play or the there is no video on it". Then I will have to put it back on the stick for them. At lest with a dvd when they are done and you can test them and they work and the person comes back and say this only played once but will not play again or it did not play to well. All I do is look at the disk for scratches or finger prints and if any then I show it to them and say "sorry this disk has been not been looked after or show them the finger prints on them and then I will give it a quick clean with a soft cloth if I have one in the car or tell them to clean it with a soft cloth."

I have done a lot of testing as in trying to make a memory stick/ USB stick "read only" so the file can not be deleted or even formatted but it may be on one system but not another.

You have positively tested for not format or deletion ? Was it successful ?

Hi Paul,

I made a USB sitck read only on a windows pc then I tryed deleting or formatting on anohter windows pc but could not. I put the same stick in a mac or a linux pc and I could delete the file and I also could format it. I also tryed the other way and round and on a windows pc I could then delete or format the stick that was read only in a mac of if it was done in a linux pc it also could be formatted or the files could be deleted in a windows pc.

I have also have done research in to memory chips that would be in side a usb stick 98% of them have a pin on the chip that is used to enable write mode of the chip it also can be used to disable it as in making it read only.

Hi Chris,

I know what you mean when they get a nice dvd box and a nice dvd that is printed on. I have found away around dvds not working. Well this works for me, when buring the image to disk I do it at the slowest speed I can then I test the master disk in 3 different dvd players and if it works then I duplicate from it at as a slow speed and never had any problems. I do know one of my dvd players do not like disk burned a high speed and another one has a problem if I lock them to a region as region 2 for me but it will play any bought dvds that is locked to region 2. I have stopped locking dvd to regions.

For the last 3 years, we have been delivering our wedding videos on USB and DVD. We used to deliver on DVD only, 3 dvds with cases, printed sleeves etc. Now they get 2 DVDs and one USB. I find it far easier to write an mp4 to USB, rather than the hassle of creating menus, printing etc. However, as Chris says, the perceived value of a nicely presented DVD is a bonus so we continue it. We now deliver our USBs in a white leather jewellery case, which Brides love and for our joint video and photography packages contains video and photos on the same stick.

I have noticed though that whenever we deliver to a client, it is always the USB they watch, never the DVD and in fact most young couples no longer have a DVD player. Cost wise, with weddings, the cost of the USB is negligible in the overall package price and they are getting a full HD video rather than the SD DVD version only.

Unfortunately with other larger volume DVD clients such as school and theatre productions etc, USB is not such an economically viable delivery system unless the prices are loaded.

Roger

Nice to hear from you again Roger!

Yeah, the quality advantage on USB is probably the way to go. BD disks here are almost as pricey as USB's now and even fewer clients have a Bluray player so really, we have to suck it up and use USB ...even 1080 video MP4 files rendered at a mere 8mbps look stunning compared to DVD

I wonder if SD cards will eventually make an appearance as storage media ??

Nice to hear from you again Roger!

Yeah, the quality advantage on USB is probably the way to go. BD disks here are almost as pricey as USB's now and even fewer clients have a Bluray player so really, we have to suck it up and use USB ...even 1080 video MP4 files rendered at a mere 8mbps look stunning compared to DVD

I wonder if SD cards will eventually make an appearance as storage media ??

Hi Chris,

I hadn't gone anywhere, just that there is little wedding video activity on the forum now, so not much to contribute to.

Regarding SD cards, although they are a useful storage medium, you can't plug them into a smart tv without a SD to USB converter, which is the sort of faffing about that doesn't really make it attractive. At least a DVD and case has substance and a feeling of a professional product even if it is now old technology. I agree with the Bluray players being rarer than DVD players, I don't remember the last time I saw one in a client's house, with just the occasional Playstation having the facility. I've also only ever been asked on two occasions if I can supply a BD from when they first appeared.

Roger

Hi, what I do whether it's right or not I don't know but I encode a 2hr plus wedding file from my Edius HD timeline. In my system it takes about an hour, I'm Ok with this speed, I usually encode it when the PC is not in use.
I then take the file into Handbrake and make another file with a 20000 bitrate.
The file size ends up something like18GB.
I drop this into a format NTFS 32GB USB3 pen and the quality is very good.

There's only about £3 difference in price from a 16 to a 32GB pen so I up the bitrate to give a better quality MP4 file.

So far, it has played in all my brides TVs, no one has come back to say it hasn't.

Hi Anthony

Probably an overkill. We nowdays only livestream weddings but of course also record them to the computer and camera 1920x1080 at 25mbps and they look great! However now and again I feel the need to add a opening title so I drop the file into my editor and render out the edit to a 1920x1080 MP4 file at a mere 8mbps (1/3 of the recording bitrate) and it looks awesome. Maybe you are doing a little too much extra work that the bride probably never even notices!!

So you don't supply DVD's any more???

Hey Roger

Yep very good point about cards, You would have to include an SD to USB adapter with every one you send out so not really a good idea. Something I have seen from an album supplier here is an 8 page photo album and the two centre pages have cutouts for your USB's for the bride ...It does increase the perceived value of the whole package and providing 8 x 8"x10" prints and an album would make it look a lot better value for money than just a USB ..even in a fancy case.

Maybe you are doing a little too much extra work that the bride probably never even notices!!

So you don't supply DVD's any more???

Hi Chris, you could well be right :)
Yes, should have said :), I still supply 4 DVDs as well.

When I used a lower bitrate of 6500 I noticed like a little glitch at times when someone was walking/moving but when I increased the bitrate to 1200 ish there was no glitch in the same clips at all.

I must try the next MP4 at 8000 to see how that looks.

Thanks Chris.

If you're doing HD video then 10Mbit/sec is more than good enough and that's what I encode to before uploading to YouTube. You could do 5Mbit if you wanted to, and get away with it.

20Mbit seems like overkill and may even give playback issues on resources starved computers at the other end.

Andrew

I use 10mbit/sec for wedding mp4s and it looks sharp.

Your album idea Chris is something I have thought about, as at the moment for our combined package they get the Photos also on USB. As we are increasing our prices next year, we thought about a simple album with USB cutouts to add value, so I will look further.

Roger

I always remember when I used to do photos only and used to supply the bride with a big white album with "my wedding" on the front and full of prints carefully chosen!! It always came in a white box lined with tissue paper so for the bride it was like opening a wedding gift and they always were blown away by the presentation. Now THAT was high perceived value so the same thing with somewhere for the usb should go down well. Even if you are doing a wedding with video only it's pretty easy to grab a few appropriate stills to make up the package!!!