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The best way to deliver videos?

by Martin Avis
6 replies
Sometimes I am guilty of over-thinking things and ending up more confused than if I just got on with it, and I suspect that this is one of those times.

I have a series of 11 videos, which I will be offering as a downloadable course.

So far, so good.

They are all Camtasia .swf videos, so come with a bunch of associated files.

Problem #1 is that when all the 11 individual folders are zipped up into one, the zip file's size is a staggering 226Mb - much greater than the sum of the individual parts!

I can offer that as a download for people with very fast connections, but for everyone else I need to offer each video zipped up as an individual download (about 8-12 Mb each).

My problem/question is that I am also offering a menu.htm file that lets all the videos be run from one place - more for the sake of convenience for the customer than any real need, I guess.

It becomes a 'problem' because if people download each individual video BEFORE they download the menu file, the menu could become irrelevent, but if they download the menu first, some will inevitably try to run files that they haven't yet downloaded.

Given that so many people sell videos these days, what is the normal way of dealing with this issue - or is it not really an issue at all and I should stop thinking and get on with it!

I could circumvent the problem completely by making the videos viewable online through the Amazon S3 hosting, but I would prefer to make this a downloadable product.

Any views from the video experts?

Thanks,

Martin
#deliver #videos
  • Profile picture of the author Martin Avis
    Hi Nathan,

    The videos will all be available at once, and will list each one on the download page. My confusion is over the menu page for playing the videos, not for downloading them.

    Should I make them download the menu file first, knowing that some will not understand that they then have to download the videos and unzip them, or should I suggst they download and install all the videos first, and then give them the menu afterwards.

    Or is there a better way?

    Martin
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  • Profile picture of the author Kris Turner
    For the downloaded videos, I would convert them to a smaller file type - like WMV or mp4. You can still get great quality with those if you use the right settings. Personally, I'd forget the menu stuff. It's just something that can potentially go wrong, and no one will miss it if it's not there.

    Just get the product ready and selling. You can always refine it later. But for now, start selling it
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  • Profile picture of the author Aljiro
    Agreed with Alex up there

    Convert it to something else first to hopefully make it smaller and throw away the menu idea..
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  • Profile picture of the author Chris Thompson
    I would do this:

    1) Set the product up in DLGuard to protect your download links.

    2) Add the menu.html file as the "main product" and then add all of the videos in separately as "bonus or other downloads". What will happen is your customer will then be taken to a PROTECTED download page and they will see the menu file first. They can then download each video individually.

    3) I would also create a full on ZIP file of everythnig for customers with high speed connections. Write your download page template to explain that the customer has a choice in what to download.

    Key point: Just do it and modify as per what you find out from customer reaction later.
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    • Profile picture of the author Martin Avis
      Key point: Just do it and modify as per what you find out from customer reaction later.
      Good advice. Why didn't I think of that!

      Martin
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