Running Dog DVDs

[Guest SJM]

What is your favorite running dog DVD and how much did you pay for it? I am talking about originals that you have bought, not copied ones off mates or off Ebay etc

 

Just testing the water really as I am hoping to bring out a rabbiting dvd later this season, daytime work, hunting up etc. Might even be able to transfer some old, old footage of hare coursing before the ban and make a dvd of that as well, whats the going rate for a rabbiting or hare coursing dvd these days?

 

Whats an acceptable price to charge that people are willing to pay? and how much would you think is taking the piss?

 

I remember when videos were all the rage and there were always vids advertised in the mags for £20 - 30 a pop, this seems a bit excessive these days when dvds are so easy to produce, so what kind of price do people normally charge for their time/effort of making one?

 

All replies appreciated

[Guest The Big Fish]

SJM, If your seriously considering producing a dvd, if i was you i would first do a test run and burn a short disk.

In the other thread you mentioned that you had managed to convert mpeg to wmv?

 

wmv isnt a dvd type file and when you convert wmv into a dvd compatible file the quality will be shite! Thats what i was trying to explain (rather badly).

 

To produce a high quality dvd that you can sell, you will need a better editing software than windows movie maker, something along the lines of adobe premier pro. That will edit your footage!

 

Then you will need something to put your footage together and make it into a dvd that will play on standalone players, not just pc's. Again something along the lines of adobe encore! You can make dvd menus with that software too.

 

The real way to make a dvd is edit your film, then export the film as an .avi this file is huge, we are talking many gigabytes.

Once that is done then you use encore to transcode the film into the dvd format, which is a vob file, this compresses the avi and makes it fit onto a dvd disk. Either single layer disk (4.7 gig) or a dual layer disk (8.5 gig) , obviously the dual layer can fit either more footage or a better quality footage.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Personaly i think £15 is about right nowadays for a 1 hour long dvd, with a main menu and a scene selection menu.

[TOMO 29,632]

what ever you charge somone will copy it, warrener , black dog are all taking the piss with £20 +

 

chipper did a couple at £15 but personaly if i were going to do one i would charge no more than a £10 ic post . to post a dvd cost alot less than a £1

 

Trouble is doing a film, puts you in the spot light. little tiny things people ridicule. i remember coments about chippers dog being a little reluctant to let go of his catch. people are unforgiving about things like that.

 

as to my fav running dog films , i think chippers was ok . at least in that film you saw dogs hunting up there own prey. lurcher mania 1 and 2 are still the best lamping fims. plenty of light and lots of difrent dogs running with difrent styles. and the tell you what dog it is. this to me is important .

 

how many times have you watched a coursing film with no idea of who running or what dog.

 

the one thing i will say about warrener films is they are well put together . the camera work is clear. and he narrates on top after, so for that they are good.

 

but he just irrates me with all that shouting and hollaring whilts ferreting TOMO

[TOMO 29,632]

SJM, If your seriously considering producing a dvd, if i was you i would first do a test run and burn a short disk.

In the other thread you mentioned that you had managed to convert mpeg to wmv?

 

wmv isnt a dvd type file and when you convert wmv into a dvd compatible file the quality will be shite! Thats what i was trying to explain (rather badly).

 

To produce a high quality dvd that you can sell, you will need a better editing software than windows movie maker, something along the lines of adobe premier pro. That will edit your footage!

 

Then you will need something to put your footage together and make it into a dvd that will play on standalone players, not just pc's. Again something along the lines of adobe encore! You can make dvd menus with that software too.

 

The real way to make a dvd is edit your film, then export the film as an .avi this file is huge, we are talking many gigabytes.

Once that is done then you use encore to transcode the film into the dvd format, which is a vob file, this compresses the avi and makes it fit onto a dvd disk. Either single layer disk (4.7 gig) or a dual layer disk (8.5 gig) , obviously the dual layer can fit either more footage or a better quality footage.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Personaly i think £15 is about right nowadays for a 1 hour long dvd, with a main menu and a scene selection menu.

 

JESUS I HONESTLY DID NOT UNERSTAND ONE WORD OF THAT TECHNICAL STUFF i will get me coat TOMO

[maty j 6]

agree with tommo regards price and copying. most seem to want a fiver for a copy. theres a few on ebay for less but whats the quality like?? can you get them made for a fiver - tenner and still be making a profit? then id be pritty sure that if someone wants your dvd they'll come to you, but it hardly seems worth making it for that money. as you say tommo, his dvds are good with the important bits that you want, but why cant he edit out all the shouting and balling? the price of them seems terrable to me! my mate paid 55 or 60 quid i think for 2 from the game fair. he had a discount of a fiver as he bought 2! not being funny but thats a lotta coin there for 2 dvds which you can buy copyed for a tenner or less. i know waht i would choose but if he gets enough people paying that price he'll surely keep charging it even though copies are being made. its just finding the right price balance of making a big enough profit and cheap enough so the copies arent flying around.

best of luck SJM with the dvd.

maty.

[Guest SJM]

Cheers Big Fish, thats a lot to take in I will have a look at that adobe thing you mentioned, it sounds good The only reason I converted the MPEG files over to WMV was because when I tried to convert them to AVI I kept getting error messages saying something about codecs, so I gave up and went with the easiest method.

 

I can burn clips to disc no problems with the camcorder software, but they are raw footage, rough and ready, and allthough it would be very simple to produce a dvd using just this method, I would like to do something a bit more watchable, with titles etc over it.

 

I like WMM as Im used to using it, but if that adobe thing is better then I will give it a go instead How much does it cost to buy and is it worthwhile purchasing?

 

Cheers

[Guest SJM]

Trouble is doing a film, puts you in the spot light. little tiny things people ridicule. i remember coments about chippers dog being a little reluctant to let go of his catch. people are unforgiving about things like that.

 

I would rather a dog was reluctant to hand it over than soft mouthed and lets the catch get away, I had a dog like that years ago and she was a nightmare If its dead it cant run away thats my motto

 

I know what you mean about people picking faults, they always will no matter what you do, all you can do is present the footage in the best way you can and then let them get on with it, we are a nation of critisizers, its in the British blood not to look unless its to see a fault Looks like I will have a long road ahead of me with all this technical stuff £10 was about what I originally had in mind so perhaps I wasnt too far off the mark in thinking this.

[IanB 0]

SJM try adobe premiere elements, its a cut down version of the full blown program, may be easier to get into also....I've taken footage with a digital camcorder when they were fairly new out, and the quality is ok, I'm not sure what the new ones are like these days, but the canon xm2, is seriously good...broadcast quality..

IF anyone is thinking of producing dvds, there ways and means round the people wanting to pirate them and sell them...fair enought the odd person handing it amongst mates is going to hurt anyone...the main means of advertising copies is ebay and hunting forums...obviously if your a member of the forums then you can stop people selling your copied dvd's or get the post removed...when your making your dvd make sure its copyrighted to death, scolling random copyright banners on the actual dvd itself...then just report them..

[bill88 6]

SJM,another thing i'd check is your pc's capabilities.My niece is studying film and photography at college,most of the software she was advised to buy wouldn't work on the pc ahe had,as the system requirements of the software were massive.Any video or image editing will really require quite a high spec processor and memory.All the best though,with the project.

[Guest joe ox]

Write a book no chance of that been pirated. Anyone who says they have not watched or bought a pirate copy dvd is a Pinocchio.

[Guest SJM]

You could have a point there Bill, I dont know if this old machine powered by twin hamster wheels will be up to the job I think a PC upgrade may be in order and is long overdue anyway. The pirating issue doesnt bother me too much, I guess its par for the course, everyone wants something for nothing these days dont they. Not interested in writing books, anyone can write a book and be accused of bullshitting, making it up etc. DVD is much better format these days because its easier to see if someone actually walks the walk rather than talks the talk, and theres plenty of those on the go

 

ETA Ian I will give that a go

Edited September 5, 2007 by SJM

[Guest joe ox]

Yes the piracy issue is par for the course, if the big film companys cannot stop it what chance has anyone else of stopping it.

 

I agree that any bull shiter or chancer for that matter can and has written books.

 

SJM you will be putting yourself up there to be shot down and criticized, but it proves your not scared to walk the walk.

Edited September 5, 2007 by joe ox

[Guest SJM]

There will be plenty to critisize Joe there always is If I make a rabbiting DVD with the old dogs, people will say Oh theyre too slow and boring to watch, it wont matter if the dogs are older than Methusalah - people will still expect them to run like 2 yr olds and as Im sure youll know, a dog thats caught thousands of rabbits doesnt always retreive with the style of a peg gundog, sure they bring them, but they do crunch them a bit and they drop them short, who cares so long as theyre dead, I sure dont Then again, if I wait and film the young dog, there will be all sorts of things people will be able to say about her, its a good season or so before a young dog really gets a style about it and is worth filming. The thing is, there is no such thing as a perfect dog or a perfect dvd for that matter, but hey I am up for giving it a shot, your only here once after all

 

Ian, Ive downloaded a free trial version of that software, cheers, will let you know how I get on with it

[Guest The Big Fish]

I agree about having a decent pc, preferably two hard disks, using one as a scratch disk for your editing.

 

Adobe programs are hugely expensive, premier pro is around £600 i think it doesnt do high definition yet, i dont think! Maybe cs3 does? Ian??

[IanB 0]

Yes two hard drives are definitely recommended, Fish I'm sure CS3 outputs HD as it outputs for Blu-Ray format also...