Aznagoel said:
First of all clips4sale seems like a logical choice. And I agree they have to sort things out, but I would guess they should be ready with that not too long from now (they are loosing business at the moment, that should be an incentive).
Yeah, it should be fully functional in the near future. It's taking somewhat longer than they thought, but I understand that things don't always go as planned. So I'll wait patiently.
Personally I don't mind if the clip quality is not optimal. That is the trade-off when moving to downloading clips. If you want the best quality, then order DVD's.
That's how I see it. However, I also realize that many people don't wan't to wait for a DVD, don't want to pay the price of a full DVD when they only want a couple of scenes, or simply can't order a DVD, period. In fact, today's market is very clip-oriented. To tell you the truth, I'm kind of disappointed with this situation. I wish I could go on selling physical videos exclusively, as selling clips means more confusing experimentation for me, as well as selling what I consider to be inferior products (compared to DVD and VHS). But I have to be realistic. If I don't start offering clips eventually, a lot of my hard work may be for nothing. I have to remain competititve.
Now, as you said, people who want quality can always buy DVDs. But it's not always possible or desirable for them. I can't use that as an excuse to produce poor-quality clips. I have to make sure they are of an acceptable level of quality. More than acceptable, really. While I can't expect them to look absolutely awesome, I do have to make them look pretty good. Finding a compromise between frame/file size and quality, all the while taking into account the hard-to-evaluate monitor factor, is turning out to be quite a juggling act.
I agree that monitors differ. But most of them can be adjusted quite a bit. Also taste of people differ.
That's true. Personally I prefer a picture that's a tad on the darker side. It tends to make it look somewhat warmer, and it can make some flaws less visible. At least that's how it is for me.
What worries me, though, is that while people can indeed adjust their monitors to view my clips, some may find the exercise a bit annoying, while others may not even know one can adjust a monitor, or at least how to do it.
Filesize is always an issue. I wouldn't be too afraid for that though. People with low bandwidth should consider not do download clips (again, ordering DVD is an alternative).
True. I have to say, though, that file size isn't what worries me most anymore. Finding that a clip takes too long to download due to one's connection speed is one thing. Finding that a clip's bit rate is too much for one's computer to play correctly is another. I could produce good quality 640x480 clips by boosting the bit rate in a major way, but then people with older or less powerful systems may have trouble playing them. I don't want that. Oh, I can't expect my clips to play perfectly for absolutely everyone, but I also don't want to loose too many potential customers, or to disappoint too many people.
And several producers offer two options: download a full clip (which can be quite large) or download parts of it. I am much in favor of that approach.
It makes sense, but I wasn't considering offering full videos in clip format. I'll be sticking to shorter clips for now, each of my videos being split into clips of 5 to 10 minutes on average.
And finally: for me (and for others as well, I guess) ordering DVD's is not an option. So without the clip option I don't have access to your vids. And from your previews I get the feeling that I am really missing something. I rather have access to your material with a little less quality than no access at all!
Believe me, I really do want to offer products for people in your situation and people who simply prefer clips over DVDs. After all, we're talking about a significant portion of the market. I just want to make sure people who buy my clips think "These are really nice clips, and they play just fine. I'm very pleased with my purchases", and not "Ugh, the quality of these clips kinda sucks. But DVDs aren't an option for me, so I really don't have a choice".
Right now, my main dilemma (after the monitor thing, which is really what bothers me most, as I don't really have control over that factor) is frame size. I find it hard to pick a frame size because I don't know what customers are used to and what their preferences are. If I knew that frame size isn't an issue, or that clips should have a minimum frame size of X for people to be happy, then all I'd have to do is find an adequate bit rate. The smaller the frame size the easier it is for me to get good quality. But I don't want people to be unhappy with clips that look too small. Like I said earlier in this thread, I personally prefer smaller frame sizes because they look sharper at very reasonable bit rates and file sizes. But the people that I mainly need to please are the customers, not myself. Since I don't know what customers prefer, it's hard for me to choose the right compromise.
