2007 DVD - Full DVD Now Available
Jan 24, 2008
I promise this is the final update concerning the 2007 DVD. I’m sick of hearing about it too.
The full version of the 2007 DVD is now available. You get the DVD in a simple paper sleeve mailed in a protective cardboard mailer for a flat rate of $5 - that includes the cost of the disc, packaging, shipping and all applicable taxes. We didn’t do any fancy packaging as that just adds to production costs and increases the shipping costs as well. That’s totally against the idea behind our DVDs. We’re giving these away pretty much at cost.
So if you want the full DVD with all the extra videos not available on the free downloadable DVD, head on over and snag one. It’s just $5 total for DVD orders shipping to the USA or Canada. Orders shipped internationally (anywhere but the US and Canada) cost a total of $10.
I guess that’s it for now. The 2007 DVD saga is over and I can finally get back to adding new pictures and photo galleries and all that good stuff.
Go get yourself a copy of this year’s DVD (either download for free or order the full version for a small fee) and check back soon for tons more new media coming your way.
2007 DVD - Now Available For Download
Jan 18, 2008After much ado, the 2007 season roller coaster DVD is now available for download. As I rambled about in the last update, the free downloadable version contains 10 videos from the 2006 & 2007 seasons. I wish I could have included more in the download, but the sheer size became an issue.
I still wanted to be able to share all 11 videos, the extra stuff I have and throw a few of the older video clips on as well and that will be an option too, but not for download. The good news is I worked long & hard and once I get them (in the next week or two) I’ll be able to send DVDs to those of you who are interested for a flat $5 in the USA and Canada. That includes the DVD, packaging and shipping. I’ll have more details on that once I’m ready to start offering the discs.
Until then, go download the new DVD and enjoy the videos.
Also of note, this year’s DVD is done in widescreen format. If you have a newer 16:9 widescreen TV, the picture will fill the screen with no stretching and if you watch on an older 4:3 CRT television, you’ll get a slick letterboxed picture. Good stuff.
Like I said, I’ll have the ordering info on the full DVD posted as soon as I get the discs and in the meantime, I’m going to try to do a photo gallery update. Lots of goodness coming so keep checking back.
2007 DVD Update
Jan 14, 2008
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!
Kings Island Photos, Theme Park DVD, 3D Glasses
May 1, 2007I just added 24 new Kings Island pictures. Go check them out. As usual they’re just mixed in with the rest wherever they belong, so keep an eye out for the 2007 date on the new ones. Some good stuff in there - the Firehawk construction area, the new track replacing the loop on Son Of Beast and some other stuff.
Next up, we’ll be hitting Cedar Point for opening day on May 12th and you can expect Maverick photos and video to show up here by the end of that weekend. So don’t forget to check back around for that.
In case you missed it last week - make sure you take a look at the free DVD thing we’ve added. Good fun there.
Lastly, I’m working on one more of those crazy features I’m so fond of trying. Some of them stick around, some fizzle out and disappear - we’ll see how this one goes. It will take another park visit or two before I have enough to add this new feature. I don’t want to give it entirely away yet (wink, wink), but you might want to to request your free pair of Red/Cyan anaglyph glasses if you don’t happen to have any lying around your home (and why would you?). They’ll be a useful thing to have once the new feature goes up in a month or so. (note: Red/Blue glasses will technically work, but Red/Cyan is preferred and will give much better results. Those other colors/styles of glasses will not work)
I guess that’s it for this time. Dig those new Kings Island pics. Not sure if we’ll make it back down to Kings Island this weekend, but we’re definitely there for Maverick’s opening day at Cedar Point the following weekend. Until then…
Theme Park & Roller Coaster DVD
Apr 21, 2007Coasterimage.com DVDs. I think that has a nice ring to it. DVDs featuring the coasterimage.com videos. Seems to make sense too. What if I included videos that aren’t available on the site? That might be fun. What if they were free? That’s a cool idea as well. That’d be a great way to kick off the 2007 season with a bang! Well, consider it done. But I’m getting ahead of myself. First things first:
We start the 2007 season today with a trip to Kings Island. Should be good stuff. Can’t wait to see how Firehawk is coming along. As usual we’ll be getting new photos so keep an eye out for those to show up in the next week or so.
Might be a good time to sign up with our mailing list. You’ll be politely reminded when something big hits the site. No inbox full of stupid emails coming across several times a week. No commitment, no hassle. We’re cool like that.
Might also be a good time to check out the coasterimage.com YouTube channel and maybe even subscribe to that as well. You’ll get notified every time a new video gets added over there. And I suspect some video from in the park (think the old moblog feature I used to have, but with video) might just show up throughout the weekend.
So yeah, the 2007 season is officialy underway for coasterimage.com and if all of that isn’t enough, we still have that DVD thing to discuss.
Here’s the deal. I’ve always had the DVD idea in mind. So many sites, enthusiasts and groups offer DVDs that it seemed silly not to. I’ve been doing DVDs of my videos for personal use for a couple of seasons now. It just makes sense. The problem is when you shell out a couple of bucks to get these DVDs from enthusiast sites and groups or whatever, you inevitably find that you got sent a DVDR. Just some video burned to a DVD and sent to you. Sometimes it might get thrown in a case with a inkjet printed cover or something. Some might even use labels or printable discs, but it still all seemed like I could’ve just done it myself and avoided both the wait and the cost of all involved.
That’s exactly the idea behind the new coasterimage.com Theme Park & Roller Coaster DVDs. Just download the DVD files, unzip them, burn your own DVD and off you go. Makes sense to me. Sound interesting? Then go check it out! These aren’t just the videos from the site formatted for DVD - they’re full DVD resolution versions of the videos. The DVDs also include videos not found on the site. There’s menus and all of that stuff too. It’s pretty much what you’re probably used to paying for from other sources.
There’s currently two available - the 2004 season and the 2005 season. There is no 2006 disc as I only did a couple of videos last year, but you can expect a 2006/2007 disc at the end of this year. And like the others - it will be free. All you need is a blank DVDR and the time to download a zip file containing the DVD stuff. Pretty hard to go wrong with that kind of deal.
So there you have it. 2007 starts with free DVDs and a trip (for us) to Kings Island. And if you really want to stay in the loop, check out the mailing list and the YouTube channel as well. Our travel plans are pretty much finalized for the rest of the year and this looks to be one of the best yet - lots of new parks and coasters to get to. You’ll definitely want to keep an eye on the site this season.
