Product Created - Video Question (size!)

by tntrader

Posted: 16 years ago 19 replies

INTERNET MARKETING

I finished my first product, which is a real estate investment course (including ebook and videos).

My question is simple. Is there a general rule of thumb regarding the maximum size for a download? I compressed the longest video, and left all others uncompressed and the download size is right over 500 Megs. Is that ok?

If so, should I go ahead and make smaller versions in case someone on dialup buys my course?

Finally, I guess I could host the videos somewhere and allow the buyer to stream them.

What do you all suggest?

Chris

#created #product #question #size #video

radhika

16 years ago

Is there a general rule of thumb regarding the maximum size for a download? I compressed the longest video, and left all others uncompressed and the download size is right over 500 Megs. Is that ok?

No. There is no rule on the minimum or maximum sizes of files for download.

If so, should I go ahead and make smaller versions in case someone on dialup buys my course?

Certainly 500 mb takes lot of time to download on dial-ups.

Finally, I guess I could host the videos somewhere and allow the buyer to stream them.

Sure, you can offer that option for dial-up clients.

.

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Josh Anderson

16 years ago

"download size is right over 500 Megs. Is that ok?"

NO WAY.

That is not ok... especially if this is a consumer product and you have more than one video for your client to download.

It will take more than 19 hours just to download one 500 mb file over a dialup connection and 15% of the US is on dialup still.

Additionally 15% of the US broadband market is on a 256kbps connection or less. It will take 4 hours to download a 500mb file over a connection at this speed.

Also consider that the larger the file and the longer the download the more chances you have for corruption or connection loss during download.

Given the extreem quality available using Quicktime Pro ($29) and its h.264 mov compression option there is no excuse for not compressing your video these days. Even if you used Windows Media Encoder which is free you are better off than not.

To get the highest levels of compression without sacrificing image quality I would definately go with the quicktime pro h.264 option for downloads.

Additionally you can get smaller file sizes by always encoding the audio mono, reducing the frame rate, and choosing low bit rates.

Anyone selling or distributing video on the web who wants to be efficient and provide a better experience for their clients as well as save on bandwidth and reduce customer experience needs to master this knowledge and encoding/compression skills.

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Ryan Gabriel

16 years ago

Originally Posted by Josh Anderson

Psshht.. What makes you think we should listen to you about video compression? :rolleyes:

To add just a little bit of content to this thread, I'd think that a 500MB download would intimidate more than a few customers (and real estate is not necessarily a very tech savvy market). Plus, as mentioned earlier, you've got the chance of more connection errors, leading to refund requests.

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tntrader

16 years ago

Thanks you all, that is really what I kind of thought.

Josh, I appreciate the lengthy response. I will likely go the quicktime route.

Are there any free tools available that will allow me to encode multiple videos at one time? Does quicktime allow this?

Is 200 megs or less reasonable? If not, where should I shoot for?

Thanks again you all!

Chris

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Scott Lundergan

16 years ago

What is the content of your videos? How long are they? What kind of videos...Talking heads, powerpoint screenshots, scanned images of real estate deals, etc? The reason I ask is because the content would be one factor in determining the height/width so viewers can see what's necessary, without the file needing to be bigger than it needs to.

For example, you can get away with talking heads at 320 by 240, but if you had screenshot or real estate documents, a larger size would be more appropriate. Slicing the frame rate in half for streaming media would decrease the size as well.

The downloading of the flash format is a good way to go as well as another option. When we released some of the Optimize Youtube Video - Optimize Streaming Video - Optimize Web Video episodes for free, most customers actually downloaded the flv version for the preferred choice to watch the video and there were no issues with them playing back on their computers because the highlighted and bold "download this free mac/pc flv player here" link was pretty obvious.

With the right h264 settings, you can get your video down to an amazingly low file size while still maintaining the quality.

Scott

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mun

16 years ago

There should be some relatively cheap video converters out there that convert your videos specifically for internet use and highly compatile with streaming scenarios. The file size itself should not even be close to 50MB and still produce good quality images and sound.

I'll post up a link if I find a program that is worth looking at.

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Josh Anderson

16 years ago

Be careful with the cheap and free options....

There are some good batch converters but not all video compression conversion software are created equal and you will not get the pro results with the free and cheap batch converters that you will with some of the industry standard converters.

The best solution for batch conversion/compression which has both vp6 codec (for flv encoding) and h.264 codec (for mpeg 4 encoding) is Sorenson Squeeze for Flash Pro. Its not cheap but it's worth every penny to the serious long term online video publisher as it has all the bells and whistles and quality encoding results with the best codecs in the industry which are h.264 for mov/mp4 and vp6 for flv.

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AndrewCavanagh

16 years ago

You might also seriously consider making the videos a physical product you send to people who buy off you.

Many of your clients in the real estate market will be technical dunces so you can create problems for yourself trying to deliver everything online.

Physical videos have a higher perceived value and you can include an upsell sales letter for consulting or some other high priced product or service with the physical videos.

If you do go the online route Josh's advice is spot on...as always.

Kindest regards,
Andrew Cavanagh

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Scott Lundergan

16 years ago

Originally Posted by AndrewCavanagh

Many of your clients in the real estate market will be technical dunces so you can create problems for yourself trying to deliver everything online.

Kindest regards,
Andrew Cavanagh

That is actually a really great point. Every time I've done real estate videos for clients, they always ask for a physical copy as well for customers who want that delivery. Carlton Sheets comes to mind for physical dvd's

Scott

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tntrader

16 years ago

Fantastic points you all. This forum is awesome as always. I have bookmarked the thread and am going to try and will make a go at it tomorrow.

I like the idea about at least offering a physical disc with the videos on them. That is an excellent point. I don't want the default version to be physical though because I am trying to avoid shipping anything.

The videos are of my business partner talking, and occasionally using a whiteboard.

Thanks again!

Chris

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entrepenerd

16 years ago

Originally Posted by tntrader

Before you decide against going with a physical product, you may want to consider the difference in price between an online information product and a physical shipped product. Physical products can usually sell for at least 3 times the cost of a comparable online product.

It's just a perception issue, but the perceived value of a physical product that is shipped, ala a "home study course" is a lot higher than something that can be downloaded.

I think if you're trying to compress everything into a single download for ease of delivery, your best bet is going to be a physical product.

The bonus is that you're going to be able to charge a much higher price.

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Josh Anderson 16 years ago

" I don't want the default version to be physical though because I am trying to avoid shipping anything."

We recently integrated two on demand print services with our ecommerce platform automation so that having a book, cd, dvd, binder, or combo is as easy as publishing a digital product.

Now we can add on demand physical product offerings as upsells to the digital at will.
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- Jason Johns 16 years ago
  
  Hi there,
  
  Can you break your video into smaller chunks? Then offer the option to watch the video on the website or download it? It gives people the option then.
  
  I regularly sell video sets that are between 600 and 800Mb in size. I give people the choice to watch them online or download them (each individual video is under 40Mb usually) and have had no problems at all
  
  If it is a single 500Mb file then that would be a problem - it would definitely put me off.
  
  All the best
  
  Jason
  
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  tntrader 16 years ago
  
  Update:
  
  The product consists of 8 videos, and I converted them to .mov which decreased the size of the overall package to 75 Megs. That is much better, but is it still too large?
  
  One of the videos is 49 megs, so I could decompress it a bit more.
  
  What do you think?
  
  Chris
  
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  tntrader 16 years ago
  
  Anyone know?
  
  Thanks
  
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  entrepenerd 16 years ago
  
  That's a much better size, but I still really think you need to re-think your delivery mechanism.
  
  Delivering a single download with multiple .mov files in it is inviting problems that you don't really want. If your market is really technically illiterate like you mentioned, then you're not going to want to require that they install Quicktime to be able to view your .MOV files.
  
  Like I said previously, my first thought would be to ship a physical package to this sort of client. You can work directly with a fulfillment company like disk.com to get the reproduction and shipping done for you.
  
  If that's still not the way you want to go, then my next suggestion would be creating a secured website where your customers can stream down the videos that would be played in their browser. I think you'll end up with much fewer technical difficulties that way than you would by sending them to a single download.
  
  That's just my 2 cents though.
  
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  JohnATX 16 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by tntrader
  
  Anyone know?
  
  That's much better but in order to view .mov videos, people will need to download Quicktime. I would try for 320x240 .mpg videos. Generally a good size video, easily viewable by the majority of people and consider the quality too if size is a problem 70% is usually still looks good but lowers the video size a lot. Also, more than one video instead of one huge video are typically better, especially if it's a course.
  
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  KenJ 16 years ago
  
  Surely you have to go with the physical product option.
  
  Outsource the production and supply so you do not do the work. There are companies who do this as their business.
  
  You can charge more and the customer gets the high resolution movie instead of the tiny and rather annnoying quicktime video option
  
  When I download a quicktime video I find myself cancelling it because I know it will not have the detail I want but then I am just a simple consumer out for my own gain.
  
  What do I care for an internet marketer trying to make a dollar or two
  
  Thanks
  
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Steve Robertson

16 years ago

Originally Posted by tntrader

My question is simple. Is there a general rule of thumb regarding the maximum size for a download? I compressed the longest video, and left all others uncompressed and the download size is right over 500 Megs. Is that ok?

Hi Chris,

I think that 500 megs is a lot of downloading even for someone with a good broadband connection. I get my internet from a satellite (about like DSL Lite), and it would take me forever to download that much.

And I don't think it's necessary. When you say you left all but one of the videos uncompressed, are you saying these uncompressed videos are AVIs? Why not encode all your videos using a codec that will make them all much smaller?

For videos to be downloaded, I prefer Quicktime. But you could get even smaller file sizes by using Flash video. The main drawback to downloading Flash video is that you have to make sure all your customers have a "stand alone" Flash video player.

Steve R.
R.A.M. Video

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Product Created - Video Question (size!)

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