mcmm Loc: Kansas

I am a teacher and take around 5,000 pictures a year of our students. At the end of the year I make a movie from the photos. To help raise money for our school we sell the DVD. My question is this: Many people no longer purchase a computer with a dvd drive and many do not own a dvd player for their television. What options do I have other than creating a DVD? Thought about a jump drive but is that doable? I would appreciate any suggestions.

This group always has great information to share with those of us in need. Love this site.

PixelStan77 Loc: Vermont/Chicago

Consider using a thumb drive

Quixdraw Loc: x

Many newer computers have slots for SDHC - but Flash drives are pretty much universal. You'd need to research cost per unit based on the size of your previous productions. Considering the variety your customers' computers, you might be able to offer pre order of all three media and adjust production as you move forward.

markngolf Loc: Bridgewater, NJ

I think the flash drive is an excellent idea. (already mentioned by others). One other possibility is to upload the movie to Youtube on a private site. A link to the recording on YouTube would allow others to view it. I use ProShow Gold. Of course you would have to be creative with the fund raising.
Mark

rjaywallace Loc: Wisconsin

It is premature to give up on DVDs. I have a high quality DVD player and a DVD slot on my MacBook Pro laptop. DVD players can be purchased quite inexpensively at Amazon, BestBuy, Walmart, KMart, Sears, local electronics stores, etc. Lastly, I also believe DVD players can be easily rented or purchased at local movie rental stores. Duplicating DVDs is much cheaper than buying a load of flash drives, formatting them, transferring the images and distributing them to the mass populace.

Ysarex Loc: St. Louis

Your raising money for the school and the loss of a sale is an un-redeemable loss. You offer the movie in multiple formats so that if someone can't use the DVD you offer option two and if needed option three. A USB port is pretty normal now on a TV.

Joe

Sunnely Loc: Wisconsin

Indeed, would be a problem with newer computer/laptop with no DVD player but lots of USB connectors.

Allow me to begin with this: I have an old Dell laptop with both regular DVD and 2 USB slots and a slot for camera flash drive (e.g., Sandisk, Lexar, etc.) to download photos. I also have an external Blu-ray player/recorder connected to the laptop, as needed.

I can make slideshow/video of photos & home video into any format - DVD, Blu-ray disc, and thumb drive. I can also upload the slideshow/video to YouTube, facebook, Vimeo, etc. To do this, like Markngolf, I use ProShow software to create the slideshow/video and make copy to my preferred format.

I used to make copy from the slideshow software to regular DVD but can use it only once unless it's re-writable (more expensive). Currently, I use thumb drive for making copies. A 16-32 GB will accommodate lots of 15-30-minute slideshow program or video. With thumb drive, you can also delete old programs for newer program if you want to, unless it's a "keeper." In the long run, I think it's more cost-effective than regular 100-pack regular DVD. Convenience is another advantage. Most thumb drives have keyhole on them and insert in key ring. Also, this is just my own observation, the image quality copied into thumb drive seems better than the regular DVD. For the real "keeper" and best quality slideshow/video image (e.g., special wedding, family birthday, Christmas, memorable trips, etc.), I use Blu ray recorder to make a copy.

Markngold mentioned uploading the school movie to YouTube but you'll need to do it on YouTube's private site. Once uploaded, only those you grant permission will be able to watch it. You will have to send the link to the movie or show through each one's respective e-mail address. Will be a hassle unless you don't mind doing this. If you choose the "public" site, anybody who has access to YouTube will be able to see it. Since there are children involved, I doubt this will be an option.

If you go by thumb drive, the number of GB will depend on the number of photos or length of the show.
In my guesstimate, a 500 photos or a 15-30 minute show will most probably fit into a 2 GB thumb drive. You may want to look at 2.0 thumb drive (cheaper) rather than 3.0. The quality of image is same. The difference is the time it takes to make copy (faster with 3.0). Check Amazon for bundles and cost.

Once you make a copy of the show from the software to the thumb drive, you can then make as many copies as you want to more thumb drives using one of the USB slots in your laptop as "master" and another to copy. Just drag and drop. It's a breeze.

via the lens Loc: Northern California, near Yosemite NP

Jump/flash/thumb drive might be the preferred way to do this. I don't think people are using the DVD/CD as they used to and many TVs even have a USB port. The cheapest one I could find, at Staples.com, was a 16GB USB 2.0 for $5.99. You could check around online for something less expensive. There are many sites where you could post the video but I don't know if they have a secure, password type approach that you could use. Good luck.

mcmm Loc: Kansas

Thank you all for your responses. I thought probably the thumb drive might be the best option but wanted to ask the experts what thoughts they had. I will investigate the cost and see if that is a possibility. I love this site. You are all so helpful. Thanks again!

rgrenaderphoto Loc: Hollywood, CA

Make it a downloadable MP4 movie file and share it on Google Drive or a similar cloud service. When the Parent purchases, give them a 2 weeks download limit. It is more administration on your part, but no more than burning everything to DVD and mailing.

chrisg-optical Loc: New York, NY

Definitely a "thumb drive" or "usb stick" a 4 GB stick will hold almost the same as a DVD 4.7 GB, and they keep getting cheaper... still many people (musicians and artists) still distribute DVDs since they can print logos, messages, graphics on the face of the disc...maybe give people a choice - disc or stick? You can do limited runs of both.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Right - jump drive, thumb drive, or flash drive. All three will work fine.

Also -
Other names for USB flash drives
USB flash drives.
Thumb drives.
Jump drives.
Key chain drives.
Pen drives.
Memory units.
Data sticks.

bschafer

We travel frequently with Lindblad/National Geographic and they produce a video of each voyage to sell to the guests. They used to produce it as a DVD and now it is given to the guests on a thumb drive. One major benefit of this is that it is a higher resolution product (high def vs the standard DVD)

eadler

One can purchase an external DVD player that plugs into a computer via USB port. They are relatively inexpensive. I have an Apple player which is $79 and that's the most expensive one around

bbrown5154 Loc: Baltimore, MD