Help with the craziest question I've ever heard!
 

Good afternoon, all! This spring, I shot a video for a client couple. They were very happy with the DVD I produced and I even went so far as to provide them with a flash drive with all the raw source footage. The couple has now come up with a request to place all this same raw footage in "viewable" DVD format! They want to be able to play the footage on TV and browse around through it. The raw footage is well over 70GB of data and I would, frankly, just not use some of it as being totally unusable. Without having to create--literally--DOZENS of DVDs (never mind the time to create them!!), is there a workable suggestion? Frankly, this isn't something I'm looking forward to even attempting, but if anyone would have a solution, it would be someone here on DVINFO!

Thanks for your input!
~TW

Re: Help with the craziest question I've ever heard!
 

You don't mention how many hours of footage this is, but can't you export the 70 GB to MPEG-2?
And then burn this to several DVDs?

Or put all the raw footage onto the timeline, then burn 3-hour(?) chunks to DVD with an auto-fit option?

Re: Help with the craziest question I've ever heard!
 

Hi, Vince, and thanks for your thoughts! The time total for the footage is around 8 hours, including prep, ceremony and reception. I hadn't thought of MPEG-2, but it could work. It would still be around 10 DVDs (even with auto-fit running) and the couple isn't wanting to spend the money for the extra work. Lord knows I have plenty of other stuff already in the workflow.

Anyone else?

Thanks again!
Terry

Re: Help with the craziest question I've ever heard!
 

Buy them a device that will play the raw files off the flash drive. There are a bunch of budget media players out there for just $20-30. Even better, tell them to buy one. Or you can spend all that time burning dvds.

Re: Help with the craziest question I've ever heard!
 

A media player is a good idea, Nate, but they're wanting to play this stuff on a TV. Unless the media player has an HDMI-out, that wouldn't work.

~TW

Re: Help with the craziest question I've ever heard!
 

Exactly my idea,Terry. Google HDMI media player and you'll find a plethora. What does it need to play? AVCHD or .mov files?

Re: Help with the craziest question I've ever heard!
 

There's the answer. Buy them a cheap laptop with HDMI and a a cable.

Re: Help with the craziest question I've ever heard!
 

Does your contract with them state that you will give them the raw footage? If not,then you are under no obligation to do anything with it without charging them for the time involved. If it was just a courtesy giving them the raw footage then the onus is on them to find a way of playing it. This situation is exactly why I never give out raw footage to clients.

If you have a decorator in to paint a room in your house and and he leaves you any unused paint as a courtesy, would you then expect him to come back and use the rest of the unused paint on other rooms free of charge?

Roger

Re: Help with the craziest question I've ever heard!
 

If a wedding couple ask me for raw footage I will give it to them BUT it's exactly what it says, camera files off the card and nothing else. It sounds like to me that the client wants a new edit on DVD (or usb) of everything you shot which already involves doing syncs from multiple cameras and not a simple "top and tail" and convert to a watchable format

I did have a couple who asked for raw footage then complained bitterly that the video was "in lots of short pieces" and she couldn't watch it. Sorry but raw footage is raw footage...if you want to watch it you will need to at least compile it into one long sequence ..Mr Client. If you want me to do it then it will cost you BIG for a second edit (and I'll still cut out the wobbly bits) so it's watchable.

Re: Help with the craziest question I've ever heard!
 

Dozens of dvd's for only 8 hours of footage? Eventhough I have not done this I believe tmpgenc can fit at least 5 hours of footage onto one dvd, at a low bitrate ofcourse. Even if you put 2 hours of footage on a dvd it should be at a reasonable quality and you would need 4 dvd's max.

Seriously? And you are ok with that? You already gave them the raw footage for free and now they expect you to put it for free on a few dvd's? I would make a quote for all the extra time it would require to do that, unless you are a charity organisation? :)

Re: Help with the craziest question I've ever heard!
 

Hey Terry,

If the couple has a laptop with HDMI out, they can probably play the files with the program VLC. Just copy the files to an external hard drive to get around problems of FAT32. Or you can use a large capacity thumb drive, but format it to something other like EXFAT or NTFS.

Really, VLC has played everything I've thrown at it so far. Of course, it might not play certain codecs. Haven't tried ProRes or DNxHD etc.

Don't waste a lot of time transcoding all those files, unless you charge extra for your time. The busier you are the less you can afford to waste your time.

And the couple should provide the drive, or pay you for one you provide.

Re: Help with the craziest question I've ever heard!
 

Thanks everyone for the robust feedback! For all the expressed reasons about giving a couple raw footage, it amazes me what people expect to see--even when you TELL THEM!! The flash drive I gave them was indeed formatted NTFS, so that's good. And yes, it is freakin' nuts that there would be an expectation that all this work would be done for free, and that's not gonna happen! I took another look at my signed agreement and there's nothing that would suggest this kind of service would be available or provided, as part of the deal.

So thanks to all who offered their thoughts. I think the "laptop with HDMI out" is the best solution they're going to get, and I believe they already have one of those. They'll just have to get used to browsing clip by clip. And VLC will do the job quite nicely!

Happy Thanksgiving!
Terry

Re: Help with the craziest question I've ever heard!
 

The easiest would be to buy them a modern bluray player that has a usb port for playing videos. I got a Sony last year and it's great save it as mp4 on a memory stick and you are done.

Option two burn it to dual layer dvd. You can fit 4hrs on each dvd (2hrs each layer) for a total of 2 dvds. But honestly you should be able to make a rough cut that's 2-4hrs that will fit on 1 dual layer dvd.

In the future you should offer an add on to clients for x amount of dollars you will give them a rough cut that is 2 hrs long. The rough cut is a lot of work so charge for it up front.

I would never give a raw footage without editing it. Shows all your mistakes and you could have inadvertently recorded sometime unflattering or a person saying something that wasn't intended for the bride's ears.

Re: Help with the craziest question I've ever heard!
 

Maybe get them a tv as well just to be sure? :)

I would never give the client a blu-ray player because you are just opening the can of worms even further, what if the player malfunctions, then you have to solve it during the warranty period. Then someone they know gets married and books you, guess who will be expecting a free blu-ray player?
It's not our responsibility to give our clients the necessary hardware to playback our films.

Re: Help with the craziest question I've ever heard!
 

Sony BDP‑S3500 Blu‑ray Player is $80 that's how much I charge an hour. If I don't need to spend anytime editing or producing dvds it has paid for itself. In addition you can test that the video codec you're using will work 100% guaranteed. They also will be viewing it HD.