McDougall Digital, Inc.
|
Volume 1, Issue 1 Only one article this month, by me. Remember that I'm looking for people to contribute to this newsletter. If you have something relevant to say, please drop me an email at: dennis@mcdougalldigital.com **************************************************** The Value Of The CDROM by Dennis B. McDougall I assume that many of you readers are accomplished video producers, directors, editors and the like. Your skill is interacting with your clients and bringing their ideas to life using state-of-the-art video technology. Upon client approval, you dupe off hundreds of VHS copies and your client sends them out with glossy brochures and a sales cover page. If you're not into video, this message may help you in your marketing approach. I've been in the video business for about 25 years now, and just went along with the status quo when it came to distributing the full motion, live action video . . . VHS. Now, I don't agree. Look at the end-user and their position. If your precious tape gets to the marketing director, he or she may have a VHS tape player in their office just for playing back the many tape pitches they receive each year. Or they may not. Also, your tape may reach the CEO, who probably doesn't have a tape player in the office. So, what happens to the tape? It either goes into the round file, the back seat of the car, or ends up as the tape stock to record the next Superbowl. The percentages for a viewing by the right person may not be as high as expected. I could be wrong, but it is an important issue for your clients who are paying big bucks to have their video done. If you can suggest a better way to distribute their message, you may have a client for life because you care about them and the chances of their message being seen. Enter the lowly CDROM. Just about 620 megs of info (including file structure) and a bad rap for poor quality video. Well . . . The CDROM is probably one of the most cost-effective high-percentage ways to reach the end-user. Again, put yourself in the end-user's shoes. I'm a busy person, I do have a high-powered PC on my desk with speakers, and I am interested in your message. I look at the CD label and it's states "XYZ Company Widget Presentation, 3:00 minutes, guaranteed to play on any PC." Well, I've got 3:00 minutes if I don't have to try hard to watch the presentation. I put in the CD, close the door, and in a few seconds I'm watching the show. If I like it I even have time to watch it again or send it down to my cohorts to have a peek too. Back into your own shoes now. Pretty simple, huh! Then you say, "I've seen some MPEG-1 video played on a PC, and it was poor quality and blocky!" I've seen that too. The MPEG-1 encode was not done on a high-quality encoder or the original video was noisy or non-broadcast. If you take the time and expense of sending out your Beta SP dupe master to an MPEG-1 service bureau, you'll be pleased at the high quality of the 352 x 240 image. On newer faster PCs, the MPEG-1 image can be clicked to scale to full screen and still look really good. That MPEG-1 image will even play on a Pentium 120 and play at 30 frames per second in the small playback window. The icing on the cake is automatic and/or guaranteed playback on any PC using Windows 3.1, Windows 95/98 and Windows NT. There are software programs available that embed the MPEG-1 player right onto the CDROM. When that CDROM is placed into the end-users machine, it looks at the system/multimedia folder to see if the machine has an MPEG-1 player installed. If it does, it plays from that. If it doesn't, it loads the player into RAM and plays from that. There is NO END USER INSTALLATION REQUIRED! On the downside, it doesn't work on a Mac, but Macs are mostly for graphics. A PC usually sits on the CEO's desk. ***************************************************** If you're interested in more information and testdrive downloads for CDROM playback, send me an email: dennis@mcdougalldigital.com. I've also got some MPEG Tips for you: http://www.mcdougalldigital.com/mpeg_tips.html ***************************************************** I'm an active spam fighter and believe that spam has a negative effect on all who use the medium professionally. If the McDougall Digital Newsletter is not to your taste or your needs, send a blank email to dennis@mcdougalldigital.com and put UNSUBSCRIBE in the "subject area." I'll immediately remove you from the list. McDougall Digital, Inc. Dennis B. McDougall, Digital Consultant St. Petersburg, Florida - USA 727-347-4332 http://www.mcdougalldigital.com dennis@mcdougalldigital.com |