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Give me shorter and I'll watch more. But make the long ones that I'm interested in available to consume at my leisure
As for the length of the videos - I would rather not see you be constricted by a length of time, instead focusing on the content at hand.
Just me two cents.
I caught up with a few shows this morning, but to be quite honest with you it took a while. Shorter videos that are much more brief would be a lot better, and you could then decide to download the larger/longer video if the topic really interested you.
Go for it, I say.
Oh yeah and Thanks for the content!!
Yeah, to me I'm just having interesting conversations with interesting people.
Imagine having a conversation with someone like Douglas Engelbart and telling him "you gotta tell me how you invented the mouse and the GUI in less than 10 minutes otherwise we won't get on YouTube and not enough people will see it."?
Dear: you nailed it. I'd rather have a smart audience than a large one.
Anyone can get a large audience. Just look at Paris Hilton.
But getting a smart audience? That's a LOT LOT harder.
I remember someone telling me "shipping is a feature." So, I've put all of my energy into getting interesting conversations going.
Now it's time to go back and add some more features into the mix.
What's the reason you want WMV, by the way? Zune?
Otherwise, it's a pretty good show and I agree that your interviews should last as long as they're interesting. The trick now is learning how to make interviews intersting all the way ;)
I will do WMVs, just will take some time. Probably after CES, sorry.
I also like the idea of a highlight reel showing key moments from the weeks videos. This would make it easier to choose ( if time is limited ) a specific video in spite of its length. Content is KING!!
Cheers!!
If your going Flash there's a nice site that breaks down long free form content at http://www.fabchannel.com, I like it anyway.
Sounds good, thanks... provides a more accessible path to the more engaging versions... lets us better judge where to put our limited attention each day. (Text summaries & transcripts are a good entrypoint too.)
jd
As for transcripts, it's a whole another thing. But it does not have to be you doing the work either, it's a perfect opportunity for a company to emerge in this niche.
Anyway, in short, it's 100% automated technology we are talking here. Don't do the work by hand.
I reckon, if you believe the long-format HD vids are necessary to do the subject matter justice, then by all means produce them that length.
But at the same time, if you want people to be able to watch the stuff, you should make it available in smaller chunks, with lower definition. I'm sure format converters and editors are available. I'm not talking about mass market, just expanding your audience from those who want to watch the material and are equipped to do so right now - my guess is a small proportion of all the people that would watch.
...and don't forget links, screenshots and transcripts!
Given the rendering and upload times, rework is a killer (having to redo a video due to a mistake not caught in editing). A replicable error-free process is really key to being successful in multiple formats.
As a side note, the data for our audiences show that FAR more people watch the online flash version than download the video...
As for the HD content, I think in your shows the spoken content is much more important than the visual.
You can monetize the video easily in multiple ways. You can make it available to watch freely on Google Video, you can charge a micropayment to watch on Google Video, you can make the video free or you can charge a fee to download the video.
There are lots of options there. Not to mention, the bandwidth costs then get put on Google instead of on your own servers. Especially useful given its free to host videos on Google Video.
A production date tag of some sort along with the post/upload date across all podtech productions can also be used as another archive search feature in the future as the podtech collection grows.
thanks-
Resist! Just because one person says so don't make it so.
LayZ: >On the one hand you say shorter videos are coming, but on the other hand you seem to suggest shorter videos would reduce the “quality” of your content.
I will always do the longer-form interviews. That's what interests me the most. But, I could put that up in complete form, and also put a three to five minute "short" version up for people who just want the highlights.
I don't think having a weekly 10-minute highlights of the current shows would change my downloading behaviour, and it's not sure I would even watch it.
But I have noticed that the one type of video I really don't care are the photowalks; I guess digital pictures are not on my radar.
As for the sound quality, it is now generally a lot better than in the early videos. But to echo Aki's comment earlier, once you start laughing it often feels like my computer speakers will explode due to the sudden jump in the audio volume.
2. True. Google video allows you to upload longer videos, give you option to charge a fee.
3. Why uploading video to YouTube and Google may not be the best interests for PodTech.net? Because you lose the traffic tracking in the future. Your shows do contribute a major traffic flow to PodTech.net, part of the assets that PodTech.net can show and attract corporate sponsors and clients.
4. True. Podtech.net needs to build machine farms to do massive conversions to WMV, MOV, FLV, iPod on 24/7.
5. Sound quality. It is painful but necessary. It is better to invest the time to clean up audio part of past videos before you do massive conversions. Take the opportuntity to breakup long videos, such as separate the demo away from interview.
6. True. Date is important. It is important for viewers to know how old the content is especially tech world move rapidly. The demo may valid for 2-3 months given the short product cycle.
7. Don't let those complainers to change your content quality. Content quality comes first, regardless of length. If you make video viewable in ipod or other portable players, they can watch longer video without getting tied to the computer.
8. Always good to have written summary/outline or short video highlights of long videos.
I was going to mention this ^-^
H.264 would be nice if Microsoft woke up or if you could get your users to install Media Player Classic with the K-Lite codec pack. This seems to play mp4 files without any problems.
Otherwise, yes, I *would* like a 10-minute hightlights version of very long vids, please, and an audio-only file, and a transcript, and... ;-)
But you might want to run a little vote on your site to find out what the key things are. Pareto applies. No point in devoting vast resources to things not many real users value.
Please let us know if you can come to the DivX booth at CES so we can host our solution demos for you.
Thanks
susan
And I hate to leave him "crippled" when I am aware of possible solutions.
The big advantage of the 2-minute clips is the same as movie trailers. How many movies do you really go watch without watching the trailers?. Also, putting them on a show is nothing more than providing a preview/demo. Something that has worked for years!
So go ahead and do that, might be i'll take time out to watch that 10 minute show full of preview's and then pick 1 or 2 videos to watch full-length. Else, I watch about 1 of your videos every month.