events /weddings : new media to distribute USB sticks: is the future?

[Noa Put]

The final decision on delivery should still be the bride's choice not ours but if you can show her why she should choose one over the other that's just common sense.

My thoughts as well, I feel we should be able to deliver more then just one format and if the bride decides dvd is good enough for her, that's her choice. I do however want to make sure before they make such a decision that they get to see a dvd and a blu-ray copy first so they know dvd is of a lesser quality, I even mention that on my website.

[Steve Burkett]

Originally Posted by Chris Harding

I still shake my head when I hear about people proudly saying I spent 60 hours editing this wedding ...
Chris

I take approx 20-35 hours depending on the Wedding. I'm sure with more time I could make a better video, but it's still business 1st, art 2nd. I tend to give more time per second of footage to my Trailer, but then it has a wider distribution. Even so, I'm sure a better product could be made if I gave it more time, but I'd have to charge a lot more and do a lot less Weddings to make that viable.

Originally Posted by Chris Harding

If USB delivery or even better online delivery can save you time then that's worth doing as it gives you a better profit. I find that rendering to MPEG2 is quicker than rendering to1080 MP4 so for me that's more time holding up the computer and that equals less profit.
Chris

Rendering is done over night when I'm asleep, when I'm filming, when I'm watching the tele. I have a schedule. Actually my main PC is finishing rendering a video now for DVD, but I can still do some basic editing at the same time. It does slow the PC and I'll pause the render if it becomes an issue then when I need to pop out in a bit to go to the bank, I'll continue the render.

For me, DVD takes more work creating the disks - DVD cover, disk covers, menus, checking the disk for errors; whereas for me USB is just copying files to the device and playing a sample of each video. So it's extra time of work vs extra time rendering when I'd not be working anyway. That said, most couples will have a DVD anyway even if they choose USB. So I'm not putting a stop to DVD for my clients, just trying to sell digital files on USB as an HD deliverable format that will also serve as a backup in case their DVD gets damaged and if or even when DVD as a format has its day.

[Roger Gunkel]

A 90 minute video takes about 4 hours to render to MPEG 2 then to DVD on my system. It then takes about 8 minutes to make each extra copy. Sleeve design using a standard template and adding new text and photos takes about 15 minutes plus 1 minute to print. Label design about 5 minutes and also about 1 minute to print.

The same video to MP4 takes around 6 hours to render, but needs to be done as separate files, not to exceed the 4gb limit. That means I can't leave it to run when I go to bed, an inconvenience but not a game killer. The USB sticks cost about 75 times the price of a DVD, plus they need a presentation box which is about 15 times a DVD case cost. I put the files onto USB 2 drives, which take longer to transfer, so each one takes about 45 minutes to transfer files to. There are faster drives available, but then they cost considerably more and compared with DVD, they take a big lump of profit unless you charge a lot more for them. Because of the length of a full day video, a 32gb USB is really essential to be sure of getting everything on, so costs are much higher and production time much longer than for a few minutes of highlights.

I had a recent wedding where I was asked for 14 USB copies. The same number of DVDs would have taken about 2 hours including printing and packing as I don't have a multi copier, but the USBs took over 14 hours. I had to sell them for 2 times the DVD price, but in retrospect, if I took the time into consideration I barely broke even.

I offer one USB in the normal package, plus 2 DVDs, but the real cost of USB copying and the material costs, makes extra copies difficult to price at a level that will make them attractive at the moment.

Roger

[Noa Put]

A 90 minute video takes about 4 hours to render to MPEG 2 then to DVD on my system.
The same video to MP4 takes around 6 hours to render

That long?? I have a i7 3770 pc with edius and edius uses the onboard gpu for mp4 render acceleration, if I edit in a 10180p project both to dvd and to mp4 is about twice realtime, so 45 minutes each in case of a 90 minute video, how old is your pc that you get so long rendertimes?

[Anthony McErlean]

Originally Posted by Noa Put

That long?? ?

I use Edius (7.50) too Noa and love the speed of it as well.

[Steve Burkett]

Originally Posted by Roger Gunkel

The same video to MP4 takes around 6 hours to render, but needs to be done as separate files, not to exceed the 4gb limit. That means I can't leave it to run when I go to bed, an inconvenience but not a game killer.

Ouch, what editing system are you running?? With Premiere's Media Encoder I can queue up multiple timelines from the same project to render and even timelines from different projects. Yesterday I set up to encode overnight, a trailer from one Wedding and 2 full length videos from 2 other Weddings, all from different Project files.

Originally Posted by Roger Gunkel

I had a recent wedding where I was asked for 14 USB copies.

I have the good fortune to have a 2nd PC, a smaller all in 1 unit I use for same day edit rather than a laptop. It has a a couple of USB 3 ports plus a 4 way USB3 hub on one of them and I can run multiple transfers at once. Mind you USB 3 only helps when I'm downloading footage from the SD Cards - takes roughly an hour to transfer 300 gb's, running 4-5 cards at once. My USB sticks are 2.0, but with the hub I can do more than 1 at a time and I've done 3 in an hour, 6 if I use both PC's. So 14, I'd wager would be 3 hours. Sort of thing I'd run on an evening watching tele.
The 2nd PC also allows me to render the odd basic project to DVD files, whilst not hindering my work.

[Chris Harding]

My i7 renders MPEG2's are around the same rate as Noa's ... sometimes even faster depending on how many FX one has on the timeline ... Use Neat Video and WOW you would be lucky to render at even 1/2 realtime!! Based on the same clip, yes my MPEG2 files render a lot quicker than even 1280x720 video at a lower bitrate so they do take a lot longer. At this stage it's not a big deal as I only supply the high light video on USB and that's pretty short. I also break my weddings into event clips so my workflow is edit the first event clip and then render it, then edit the next event clip and render etc etc so I cannot go to bed while it renders.

[Steve Burkett]

I break up the day into individual timelines, Preps, Ceremony, Photo Session- Reception, Speeches, 1st Dance and Evening Party, then create a new timeline where I combine all timelines together and then that gets encoded as separate audio and video files that I'll upload to Encore for burning. Most nights something is being encoded either for DVD or as digital files; if you're not encoding over night, I can see why there'd be issues in longer encode and render times. However it's rarely an issue for me.

[Roger Gunkel]

Looking at the speeds you guys are getting, perhaps it's time to upgrade the editing PC. it's an AMD Phenom quad core 3.4Ghz with 16Gb ram, so should be reasonably fast, but I think it is becoming clogged up, so maybe time for a clean out, or relegate it to a secondary role.

Roger

[Anthony McErlean]

New PC Roger :) and Edius 8, just announced for end of June :)

[Noa Put]

Huh, what, edius8? That came quickly, just after 7.5, let's hope they improved the audio part a bit.
edit, just saw a demonstration on youtube, had to laugh with one of the slogans: "buy it, keep it", those guys are having some fun with adobe :D

[Anthony McErlean]

Originally Posted by Noa Put

Huh, what, edius8? That came quickly, just after 7.5, let's hope they improved the audio part a bit.
edit, just saw a demonstration on youtube, had to laugh with one of the slogans: "buy it, keep it", those guys are having some fun with adobe :D

:) didn't see that on youtube yet. :)

[Steven Davis]

We might have to start offering a HDTV as an addon.