2007 DVD Update
Ok, so here’s the deal. This year’s DVD is big. Like really big. Like too big for its own good. For comparison, the 2004 and 2005 DVD each contain about a half hour of video - give or take. They’re simple, one menu discs meant to share the videos and little more.
I had grander ideas for the 2007 disc - animated menus, tons of video, bonus footage, classic footage…going all out. I finished the DVD this weekend, burned a copy and popped it in. Wonderful stuff, I was pleased. Quite pleased.
Then I sat back down at the computer and began the trying to figure out how to compress the DVD files small enough to reasonably share online via download. That’s where the trouble began.
The 2007 DVD contains three times more video (almost 90 minutes) than the 2004 and 2005 discs and three times the content means three times the size. Three times the size means I either offer a ginormous download or compress the video further to make downloading a feasible option. I started compressing…and then compressing some more…and then compressing the files on top of that. Once I got the DVD down to a size I was happy with, I burned the compressed version and popped it in.
I almost cried.
It looked like hell.
Not that I didn’t expect it to. You can only push video so far before everything starts to break down and I crossed that line and then some. There was no way I could share this (even for free) with coasterimage visitors. I just wouldn’t. There’s a level of quality I try to maintain and this clearly wouldn’t cut it. The problem is an uncompressed DVD would not only take hours and hours and hours to download on even the fastest connections, but it’d also eat up my bandwidth and leave me with no website.
This is where I had to start brainstorming and I think I came up with a compromise that works on some level. I’ll offer the free DVD for download with most of the basics intact (essentially if you just want the videos from the website in DVD quality, then you’re covered), but also offer a physical product that can be purchased for a nominal fee (right now I’m working on a way to do it for $5 including shipping) - the key here is that the DVD’s were never meant as a way to cash in on coasterimage’s traffic. I refuse to do that - flat out. My whole philosophy with this site is to offer the visitor as much as possible at the highest quality possible for free…and I do that. The DVD’s should not be an exception.
So here’s my solution - two delivery options. If you still want to download a free DVD and burn it yourself, you can. However, in the best interest of all involved, it will be a basic disc containing 10 of the 11 videos from this season in DVD quality. If you want the full DVD (all 11 videos, 20 minutes of video not on the site and 4 classic videos) for whatever reason then you can have one sent to you pretty much at cost (product + shipping).
Right now I’m not 100% on the details of what exactly the product will be, but I want to keep keep the costs as low as possible. The final product could range anywhere from simple blank-faced, burned DVDR’s to actual commercial-quality DVDs printed in full color with a case, cover and shrinkwrap. I have to consider all the opportunities here - and again, the final choice will be the one that offers the highest quality in ratio to the lowest cost to get them in the hands of the people that want them.
So that’s where this whole thing stands right now. I’ll have the basic DVD download available (for free, of course) online in two or three days and by then I should have a solid answer as to what the other options will be too.
Thanks for being patient and sticking with me on this. All I can say is that I greatly underestimated this project going into it and now that I have my heart set on delivering something really nice, I’m going to make sure that happens.
Check back later this week for the DVD details and in the meantime, if you didn’t notice, I got the new map pages online late last week. Yay!
