Spyderco Video suggestion

Spark

Spark

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Speaking as a merchant, have you guys given any thought to producing a video similar to Cold Steel's Proof (and More Proof) series?

I've been suprised at the results that we've gotten by including the tapes and DVD's with orders.

Since you guys are already including video's with the sharpmakers, would this be a difficult project?
 
Hi Kevin. Thanx for the suggestion. We do offer our dealer video to interested ELUs (see current thread on dealer video).

We have not been that impressed with the Cold Steel "proof" Videos. At Spyderco we use hi tech testing equipment with computers, printed graphs and repeatable results. Our tests are used to create standards for our models and make sure that our products are meeting those standards. Our products demonstrate their "proof" on a daily use level.

There isn't a video in the world that is going to convince me that AUS-8 will outperform CPM-S30V or VG-10 no matter how many tmes I watch it. I imagine it's a good marketing tool for Cold Steel.

Lynn Makes a good knife. I have always been impresed with his dedication to quality. In terms of materials, performance, value for $'s spent and effort extended to make them right, I believe Spyderco's products are better, but that is my opinion (& my testing equipment's opinion as well).

We constantly test our competitors knives. We have a pretty good idea how we compare. It has always been our "style" if you will, to under-sell and over-deliver. "yelling loudly doesn't make the product better. I have always said "Man who beat on own chest knock self over backwards".

Our products are rarely the first knife you purchase. One usually "works their way up". The more you know about knives, the better we look, so we've spent more time on "Edge-u-cation". We give you the true information and let you decide.

Your forum is an excellent marketing tool for sharing information about our products and the dialogue permits questions and debate.

I will keep your suggestion in mind though. Perhaps an Edge-u-cation video for the ELU? Thanx again for thinking of us.

sal
 
I think an "Edge-u-cation video" aimed at ELU would be a great counterpart to the Dealer video.

I don't know what the costs involved are, but I'd suggest DVD or VCD over VHS.

The advantage to VCD is that it is region free, will typically work in both PAL and NTSC equipment, and will work in most DVD players and computer drives. A single format international promotional item.
 
Carlos

I agree with the VCD suggestion. The mini-CD or rectangular "business card" cd formats can store a fair amount of video and keep production and mailing costs to a minimum.
 
Sal, I can't direct you to the technical place on the VCD, but many in the building industry have gond this direction.

The form factor is simply a CD cut down the to size of a business card. You can drop it into a regular CD or DVD player.

Funny thing - go to your local Burger King and get a "kids" meal. Chances are, they will be running a promotion with a VCD inside.
 
VCD = Video CD

VCDs use MPEG-1 compression rather than MPEG-2 (DVD), and hold up to 74 minutes of full-motion video at VHS quality (sans tape wear degradation). They are used a lot for movies in the East (Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, China, etc) so that is where manufacture is centered.

Here is some VCD info:

http://www.euro.dell.com/countries/eu/enu/gen/topics/vectors_2003-vcd.htm

http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Forum/2496/vcdfaq.html

I think that business-card shaped CDs would shorten VCD video length a good bit over regular 5" CDs, but it might not be an issue. It is a neat form factor.
 
Both VCD and DVD use Mpeg (1 or 2? I think) as the encoded video file. DVD has 2 layers of info to cope with the 2 and more hours of video content. The laser on a DVD player 'peers through' the first layer to read the second, then reads the first.

A VCD is just a one layer DVD (or a DVD is a 2-layer CD) and will hold about one hour of video. It's just the same Mpeg file burned onto a standard CD. You just have to put the right shell on it so that a DVD player will recognise it.

There are heaps of sights that will tell you how to do this. I've posted one here.

http://desktopvideo.about.com/cs/makingvcds/

The little mini CD's are cool are a great promotional aid.

Ps: I love your take on business Sal. The un-discerning customers are so swamped with information that they have almost lost the ability to make an informed choice so either respond to the greatest hype or make an impulsive purchase. But the internet makes it easier for discerning customers to eventually find you once they have learned about quality. They then make great customers.
 
Yeah, business card CDs only give 50 megs of space vs. 680 megs for 5" CD. That would be less than 10 mins of video. :(
 
The choice of recording medium really depends upon the purpose. A full length production (1 hour +) would require the regular full-sized CD format. A short well-produced video in the 10 minute range could communicate a lot about a company - all on a business card format mini-cd. I have received a couple of these and its amazing what you can fit into a 10 minute video. Some of us serious Spyderco fans would love the "feature length" version, but the 10 minute version would likely be a more suitable introduction to a general audience (for example - for distribution at knife shows or with catalogs).

I think it all depends on how much you want to emphasize education versus promotion. Only the "God of Infomercial" Ron Popiel would think of producing a 1 hour promotional video ;)
 
VCD uses Mpeg-1, at a much lower bitrate, and actually, if I really correctly, slightly less resolution than a TV can actually accomplish.
General quality for a VCD is comparable to VHS, unless for very busy screens with a poor source/poor encoding. That being said, it doesn't degrade like VHS as long as it's pressed, instead of burnt.
I do notice that on very cheap CD-Rs, it's possible that they can be damaged after viewing/storing.
 
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