How to distribute amateur video without optical disks?

Hi Wizard

If it works for you, do it your way.

I distribute lots of videos on optical disks and USB thumb drives.

Just did a feature length and created around 150 DVDs/BDs and a few thumb drives.

You can also create an account and publish on YouTube or Vimeo or other streaming sites. It does simplify the distribution, but assumes everyone can access the movie on internet. You can set your movies for public or private.

For just a few copies, you can now use Mail Drop for up to 5GB file size. Enable in Mail Preferences>Accounts>Advanced>Send Large Attachments with Mail Drop.

Welcome to 2016

Hope this helps, Greg

lightingwizard wrote:

Apple has declared DVDs dead. …

yep, development of DVDauthoring apps was stopped nine years ago… no real new news 😉

lightingwizard wrote:

…Now what?

keep using iDVD… works with El Cap.

or Toast, or whatever authoring tool you use 'til now......

lightingwizard wrote:

DVDs work great - they pay us, take the disk home, pop it in the DVD player, and show all the family. Easy!

Now what?

Ted

As already stated DVD/Bluray still work and discs and drives are readily available if that is what the clients require.

Many DVD/Bluray players and TVs have USB slots that can play Thumb Drives directly.

I find these newer devices are adopted by by differing social groups or even complete countries as the "Standard".

It's all about giving the customer what they want/require for their specific needs.

We have to "tool up" accordingly to fit their needs.

In Australia DVD/Bluray is still very popular and USB sticks are catching on.

Al

Alchroma wrote:

…

In Australia DVD/Bluray is still very popular and USB sticks are catching on.

…

in my enviroment, my soccer-moms&dads complain, when I dare to upload to YT 'just' in 720! … surprising, how many own 'smart TVs', connected straight, without computer/'box', to arm-thick internet connections ... urban surrounding here, easy; in a territorial state like Australia, I assume, fast iNet is rare, …?

Hard to find DVDplayers in the shops anymore 😁

fun fact:

every one asks for DVD copies from our school-plays recordings, but little watch them, when I ask for "How did you like the extras?" … yeah, I'm a sneaky ol' bas*** 👿 !!

NBN is in the process of rolling out in OZ.

Most of us still use ADSL2 or slower.

It's OK but uploads can be painfully slow. e.g.. Drop box etc. when sharing online. 😟

Al

You can stream the videos, using a device like Apple TV, and you'll be able to navigate through the chapters.

Russ

If some in your audience do not have computers, using these devices like Apple TV isn't going to work.

In the case of ATV, it connects to your TV and to your computer on your home network – usually via Wi-Fi.. The video is stored on your computer – typically in iTunes – and you navigate to your computer on the TV, using a remote (or your iPhone). When you navigate to your video and play it, you can bring up the on-screen controls (OSC) and you will get chapter options.

ATV can do other things – like mirror what you have on your Mac or iOS device. And if you're connected to the Internet, you can access the iTunes Store or use dozens of apps to stream/download – rent or purchase – media. (Examples are Netflix, HBO, PBS).

But again, that will clearly not work for everyone you need to reach.

Russ

It''s really dependent on your location. Where exactly are you? You should consider that there now a great many people who no longer have a DVD player. I think I have a burner somewhere in storage, but I don't think I don't know anyone who still has one attached to their TV, and there are probably fewer of them every day. We're probably at the point where you have to offer a menu of options and deliver in different ways for different customers. YouTube offers a very easy delivery platform for multi-part videos.

Hi Lightingwizard

I agree with Tom that allowing people a choice in delivery methods is necessary. No one size fits all.

Streaming is most likely the most universal, but this means uploading to a streaming service. Each service has its own advantages / disadvantages in terms of data limits, privacy settings, audience, etc…. You can imbed the URL for your movie on Websites so easy for folks to find. You do need to make sure to not use any copyrighted material like music or you risk being taken down.

I don't agree with Tom about how many people still use optical disks either DVD or BD. Pretty much everyone I know has a optical disk player of some sort hooked up. I was surprised by how few people actually have BD players instead of DVD players, especially given the newer TV screen size and resolution. Watching the same movie on a large HD screen in BD vs DVD is Day & Night difference. Why would anyone who owns a large HD TV not have a BD player? After all BD players also play DVDs.

So you need to give choices. Easy to set up order forms with check boxes for hard paper copy or electronic online ordering.

For our last movie, I have now distributed close to 200 copies. Almost all of them were DVDs. You have many choices in DVD authoring programs.

iDVD is the easiest and has 3 quality settings. You can use iDVD HD for creating them. Apple had a funny HD format that is not fully HD compliant, but allowed 16x9 format. iDVD is very easy to use, works fine in all Mac OSs, and setting up navigation is great, but it does not do BD. The latest version does support Double Layer (DL) DVDs. Wish all authoring programs were as easy to create navigation. It is pretty slow however. Make a disc image then use Toast or Disk Utility(Burn to disk) to create multiple copies.

I distributed around 15-20 Blu-ray Disc (BD) Creating chapters is more problematic and different BD players are more finicky. You can create the chapter markers and export them in FCPX, but navigation is blah. Toast is slightly better, and I hear Adobe Encore is OK(?)

I only distributed 3 Flashdrives. Two were just for computers. One is used to connect to TV. Be careful on thumb drive formatting here. Most direct TV will use ExFAT format, not MacOS GUID or NTFS. The most universal format remains ExFAT which is viewable on Macs, Windows, Linux and AV devices with USB ports. I went ahead and bought 16GB USB3 drives. They also play via USB2.

Fair disclosure… I haven't owned a TV in 20 years or more. Watch on computer.

Best of Luck, Greg