What is your BD/DVD ratio??? at DVinfo.net

Chris Harding · August 10th, 2009, 05:53 AM

Hi All

I was just wondering how BluRay is penetrating the wedding market in various locations in the world.

I shot 28 weddings last season and not ONE couple asked about BluRay..It seems that couples in Perth are quick off the mark to setup a 42" HDTV in the living room but still opt for a standard DVD player. In fact I shot probably a good 8 weddings last season in 4:3 at the request of the couples who only owned a 4:3 TV!!! Of all my clients only one actually asked if I use HD cameras!!!!

What sort of ratio do others get and supply in other countries??? Anyone do BluRay exclusively and not offer any standard DVD's

Chris

Chad Dyle · August 10th, 2009, 07:20 AM

We are at the 10% mark for Blu Ray right now. We were thinking about offering an HD highlight-only disc with some of the packages. We should be able to get 2 HD recaps to fit on a DVD. It would be very inexpensive and easy to do. I'm not sure if we added that to all of our packages if it would mean more bookings or not.

Lukas Siewior · August 10th, 2009, 07:54 AM

What do you guys think about adding highlights as a mp4 file on DVD to play on computer in HD? Kinda a bonus feature for those who wants to see HD but have no BR?

Warren Kawamoto · August 10th, 2009, 11:16 AM

Almost 50% of my clients ordered blu ray once they saw the difference. All of our weddings are shot and edited in HD, and the couple can always upgrade to blu ray at any time, even if they don't have HD today. This has been our selling point. I'm considering having blu ray as part of the standard package, as opposed to an option. The couple would receive both blu ray and SD, but I haven't taken that plunge yet. I may do so when over 50% want blu ray.

Jason Robinson · August 10th, 2009, 06:09 PM

I haven't had a single request for HD video. I had one question as to what the difference was between HD & SD, but not a request to shoot in HD. That one question was more of a "well what is the difference" type of question after I brought up that I produced only SD videos.

Granted, I only have had 7 weddings this year.

Also, the HD market is covered in my area by Travis C. (here in DVInfo) and the other mass production company (who is only two hundred above my price point).

So the incentive to move to HD is incredibly low. If I move to HD, I probably can't charge any more money since I only have $200 till I hit the same price point as the mass production guy. Granted, I believe my productions blow him completely away (especially since he removed all his sample videos once I launched my web site last year). And so I should be able to charge more, but there are very few brides that actually look into the quality of a production. Most still care about the bottom line.

Chris Davis · August 10th, 2009, 08:42 PM

I think HD is a solution looking for a problem. Wide screen DVD is just fine for 95% of the population. Yes, most people realize in A-B comparisons that HD looks better, but they just don't care, at least not enough to pay for it.

I remember quite well when DVD came out - the big attraction was the convenience (no rewinding, instant chapter access, and it was less bulky.) The better resolution was a nice bonus, but it wasn't enough to sell the technology on its own. The only real advantage Blu-ray has over DVD is the resolution, and that's not enough.

Anyway, my penetration of Blu-ray in the corporate/event world is 0%. I (almost) always shoot in HD, but have never had one request to deliver on Blu-ray (and I've had the capability to deliver BD for 18 months.)

Jason Robinson · August 10th, 2009, 08:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chris Davis

I think HD is a solution looking for a problem. Wide screen DVD is just fine for 95% of the population. Yes, most people realize in A-B comparisons that HD looks better, but they just don't care, at least not enough to pay for it.

I remember quite well when DVD came out - the big attraction was the convenience (no rewinding, instant chapter access, and it was less bulky.) The better resolution was a nice bonus, but it wasn't enough to sell the technology on its own. The only real advantage Blu-ray has over DVD is the resolution, and that's not enough.

Anyway, my penetration of Blu-ray in the corporate/event world is 0%. I (almost) always shoot in HD, but have never had one request to deliver on Blu-ray (and I've had the capability to deliver BD for 18 months.)

Amen. I just got a bid approved for a commercial DVD project where I may actually shoot everything in native 4:3 even! Mainly because the intended audience is so wide and unknown that it is probably best to just go with lowest common denominator.

Chad Dyle · August 11th, 2009, 08:47 AM

We are in an unusual market in New Orleans. After Hurricane Katrina, we all had to buy new TV's. At one point New Orleans had the highest penetration of HD sets. I'm not sure where we fall now. We started shooting everything in HD when the Sony FX-1's came out and I purchased a Blu Ray burner about as soon as they were available.
I would say that about half of our brides that book Blu Ray do it at the booking. The other half ask us after the wedding if they can get it. We also contact some our brides when we are close to finishing and ask them if they would like to order a copy in HD before we finish the project.
We have considered converting to some other formats for PC use, but our current thought is to just fit the highlights on a DL DVD that will play in a Blu Ray player. That saves us the cost of the Blu Ray disc and won't take early as long to render out. We have been using Roxio Toast on the Mac and it works fine.

Walt Paluch · August 11th, 2009, 10:24 AM

So here is what happen to us in the little town of Syracuse NY. Most of my customers watch HD TV Time Warner. When we started to give them the SD version they told us they were not happy. We now give each wedding a FREE HD Version on Blu-Ray. Keeps your brides happy and when they do go to HD in their household they have there wedding to be the first to play on it. It did cost me about $3000 to convert to Blu-Ray, software , disc's and hard ware.

I would rather be ahead of the curve and not look back to keep my Brides happy. Happy Brides always means more future business.

Mark Ganglfinger · August 11th, 2009, 10:33 AM

Bluray - 0
DVD - 100%

This is good since I don't have a Bluray burner!

James Strange · August 11th, 2009, 10:48 AM

I just stared a new topic that prett similar.

Of 25 weddings this year so far, 3 have ordered a Blu-ray, I'm wondering if I'm charging too much for a blu? I charge £30, how much do you guys charge for a blu-ray?

Chris Harding · August 11th, 2009, 06:48 PM

Many thanks people I really appreciate your input!!!

James, I dunno about Scotland, but the blank BD alone here costs AUD$25.00!!! Compare that to a DVD at about 36c!!!! As already mentioned, I think I will make sure I keep the HD raw footage so I can edit and produce a BluRay if required but I have yet to find a couple who even own a player!!! Sure they have an HDTV bigger than the living room wall but still use the DVD player. Based on blank costs alone I would be charging at least 30 quid for your effort (even if you have edited in HD, you still need to render out to HD and burn the disk...the render time is long too!!!)

Chris

Travis Cossel · August 11th, 2009, 09:32 PM

I've been offering the HD option for a year now, with 1 taker and basically little to no interest from everyone else. Once again I think this question is going to differ a bit by market.

After dozens and dozens and dozens of consultations with potential couples, and virtually 99% of them not giving a flying fart about HD, I've actually stopped talking about it during consultations. I've found people care much more about how my work plays rather than how it is delivered. I still offer the HD upgrade, on the odd chance that someone asks about it, but I won't be holding my breath.

Jason - the other guy that offers HD, as far as I know, still produces all of his DVD's in iDVD ... so he's not really offering HD like he advertises. FYI d;-)

Chris Harding · August 12th, 2009, 02:09 AM

Hi Travis

I have had feedback from some of the production pros here that, in Australia anyway, BluRay will die a natural death fairly soon and be replaced with Media Players which already are cheaper than a BD player anyway!! When high capacity SD cards drop in cost they forsee us supplying a wedding on a single SD card instead of a BD!!!

I must admit I'm still a little wary about even getting a BD Burner!!! They are still around the $200 mark here and it may never get used!!!!!

It's good to see that other people in other countries seems to have a low BD demand too!!

Chris

Steven Pustay · August 12th, 2009, 06:20 AM

I've done 3 blu ray weddings out of 14 total this year. Not a bad ratio. Now that Final Cut Pro will allow burning of blu ray, it will be much easier to produce them (have been using Adobe Encore after exporting from FCP). So I'll really try to push them this year.

Steve Pustay
Horizon Video

August 10th, 2009, 05:53 AM	#1
Chris Harding Inner Circle Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: Perth, Western Australia Posts: 8,441	What is your BD/DVD ratio??? Hi All I was just wondering how BluRay is penetrating the wedding market in various locations in the world. I shot 28 weddings last season and not ONE couple asked about BluRay..It seems that couples in Perth are quick off the mark to setup a 42" HDTV in the living room but still opt for a standard DVD player. In fact I shot probably a good 8 weddings last season in 4:3 at the request of the couples who only owned a 4:3 TV!!! Of all my clients only one actually asked if I use HD cameras!!!! What sort of ratio do others get and supply in other countries??? Anyone do BluRay exclusively and not offer any standard DVD's Chris

August 10th, 2009, 07:20 AM	#2
Chad Dyle Major Player Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: New Orleans, LA Posts: 410	We are at the 10% mark for Blu Ray right now. We were thinking about offering an HD highlight-only disc with some of the packages. We should be able to get 2 HD recaps to fit on a DVD. It would be very inexpensive and easy to do. I'm not sure if we added that to all of our packages if it would mean more bookings or not. __________________ www.chaddyle.com www.chaddyleproductions.com

August 11th, 2009, 08:47 AM	#8
Chad Dyle Major Player Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: New Orleans, LA Posts: 410	We are in an unusual market in New Orleans. After Hurricane Katrina, we all had to buy new TV's. At one point New Orleans had the highest penetration of HD sets. I'm not sure where we fall now. We started shooting everything in HD when the Sony FX-1's came out and I purchased a Blu Ray burner about as soon as they were available. I would say that about half of our brides that book Blu Ray do it at the booking. The other half ask us after the wedding if they can get it. We also contact some our brides when we are close to finishing and ask them if they would like to order a copy in HD before we finish the project. We have considered converting to some other formats for PC use, but our current thought is to just fit the highlights on a DL DVD that will play in a Blu Ray player. That saves us the cost of the Blu Ray disc and won't take early as long to render out. We have been using Roxio Toast on the Mac and it works fine. __________________ www.chaddyle.com www.chaddyleproductions.com

August 11th, 2009, 10:24 AM	#9
Walt Paluch Regular Crew Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: Syracuse NY Posts: 65	Our solution So here is what happen to us in the little town of Syracuse NY. Most of my customers watch HD TV Time Warner. When we started to give them the SD version they told us they were not happy. We now give each wedding a FREE HD Version on Blu-Ray. Keeps your brides happy and when they do go to HD in their household they have there wedding to be the first to play on it. It did cost me about $3000 to convert to Blu-Ray, software , disc's and hard ware. I would rather be ahead of the curve and not look back to keep my Brides happy. Happy Brides always means more future business.

August 11th, 2009, 09:32 PM	#13
Travis Cossel Inner Circle Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Miami, FL Posts: 2,933	I've been offering the HD option for a year now, with 1 taker and basically little to no interest from everyone else. Once again I think this question is going to differ a bit by market. After dozens and dozens and dozens of consultations with potential couples, and virtually 99% of them not giving a flying fart about HD, I've actually stopped talking about it during consultations. I've found people care much more about how my work plays rather than how it is delivered. I still offer the HD upgrade, on the odd chance that someone asks about it, but I won't be holding my breath. Jason - the other guy that offers HD, as far as I know, still produces all of his DVD's in iDVD ... so he's not really offering HD like he advertises. FYI d;-) __________________ Black Label Films www.blacklabelweddingfilms.com

August 10th, 2009, 07:54 AM	#3
Lukas Siewior Major Player Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: Lyndhurst, NJ, USA Posts: 408	What do you guys think about adding highlights as a mp4 file on DVD to play on computer in HD? Kinda a bonus feature for those who wants to see HD but have no BR?

August 10th, 2009, 11:16 AM	#4
Warren Kawamoto Trustee Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Honolulu, HI Posts: 1,435	Almost 50% of my clients ordered blu ray once they saw the difference. All of our weddings are shot and edited in HD, and the couple can always upgrade to blu ray at any time, even if they don't have HD today. This has been our selling point. I'm considering having blu ray as part of the standard package, as opposed to an option. The couple would receive both blu ray and SD, but I haven't taken that plunge yet. I may do so when over 50% want blu ray.

August 10th, 2009, 06:09 PM	#5
Jason Robinson Trustee Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Boise, Idaho Posts: 1,997	I haven't had a single request for HD video. I had one question as to what the difference was between HD & SD, but not a request to shoot in HD. That one question was more of a "well what is the difference" type of question after I brought up that I produced only SD videos. Granted, I only have had 7 weddings this year. Also, the HD market is covered in my area by Travis C. (here in DVInfo) and the other mass production company (who is only two hundred above my price point). So the incentive to move to HD is incredibly low. If I move to HD, I probably can't charge any more money since I only have $200 till I hit the same price point as the mass production guy. Granted, I believe my productions blow him completely away (especially since he removed all his sample videos once I launched my web site last year). And so I should be able to charge more, but there are very few brides that actually look into the quality of a production. Most still care about the bottom line.

August 10th, 2009, 08:42 PM	#6
Chris Davis Trustee Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Willmar, MN Posts: 1,400	I think HD is a solution looking for a problem. Wide screen DVD is just fine for 95% of the population. Yes, most people realize in A-B comparisons that HD looks better, but they just don't care, at least not enough to pay for it. I remember quite well when DVD came out - the big attraction was the convenience (no rewinding, instant chapter access, and it was less bulky.) The better resolution was a nice bonus, but it wasn't enough to sell the technology on its own. The only real advantage Blu-ray has over DVD is the resolution, and that's not enough. Anyway, my penetration of Blu-ray in the corporate/event world is 0%. I (almost) always shoot in HD, but have never had one request to deliver on Blu-ray (and I've had the capability to deliver BD for 18 months.)

August 11th, 2009, 10:33 AM	#10
Mark Ganglfinger Regular Crew Join Date: May 2007 Location: Hermon Maine USA Posts: 138	Bluray - 0 DVD - 100% This is good since I don't have a Bluray burner!

August 11th, 2009, 10:48 AM	#11
James Strange Major Player Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: Glasgow, Scotland, UK Posts: 309	I just stared a new topic that prett similar. Of 25 weddings this year so far, 3 have ordered a Blu-ray, I'm wondering if I'm charging too much for a blu? I charge £30, how much do you guys charge for a blu-ray?

August 11th, 2009, 06:48 PM	#12
Chris Harding Inner Circle Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: Perth, Western Australia Posts: 8,441	Many thanks people I really appreciate your input!!! James, I dunno about Scotland, but the blank BD alone here costs AUD$25.00!!! Compare that to a DVD at about 36c!!!! As already mentioned, I think I will make sure I keep the HD raw footage so I can edit and produce a BluRay if required but I have yet to find a couple who even own a player!!! Sure they have an HDTV bigger than the living room wall but still use the DVD player. Based on blank costs alone I would be charging at least 30 quid for your effort (even if you have edited in HD, you still need to render out to HD and burn the disk...the render time is long too!!!) Chris

August 12th, 2009, 02:09 AM	#14
Chris Harding Inner Circle Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: Perth, Western Australia Posts: 8,441	Hi Travis I have had feedback from some of the production pros here that, in Australia anyway, BluRay will die a natural death fairly soon and be replaced with Media Players which already are cheaper than a BD player anyway!! When high capacity SD cards drop in cost they forsee us supplying a wedding on a single SD card instead of a BD!!! I must admit I'm still a little wary about even getting a BD Burner!!! They are still around the $200 mark here and it may never get used!!!!! It's good to see that other people in other countries seems to have a low BD demand too!! Chris

August 12th, 2009, 06:20 AM	#15
Steven Pustay New Boot Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: Canton, OH Posts: 21	Blu Ray Wedding Ratio I've done 3 blu ray weddings out of 14 total this year. Not a bad ratio. Now that Final Cut Pro will allow burning of blu ray, it will be much easier to produce them (have been using Adobe Encore after exporting from FCP). So I'll really try to push them this year. Steve Pustay Horizon Video

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