It is still by no means certain whether mass-market consumers will embrace the concept of buying all their entertainment digitally rather than on disc – the music sector is undoubtedly undergoing a huge transformation with the majority of singles now sold digitally, whereas most albums are still physical sales.

It is clear that most manufacturers and distributors would want to avoid the cost and effort of maintaining a large inventory, but they would be foolish to ignore the very real attractions of packaged media to the casual customer.

Even in today’s climate of price-deflation and stagnant physical sales, entertainment content still has the power to grab consumers in a way other product cannot, and retailers are putting a lot of effort into enticing impulse-buyers.

Browsing through a display of attractively-packaged boxes is the quickest way to secure a sale, but it does mean that the retailer has to maintain and constantly update their inventory. This does, however, leave the way open to having point-of-sale machines that can burn discs on demand as well as digitally printing the packaging and artwork. The retailer would then simply have a display of lifesize empty boxes for the customer to handle and make his choice from, without having to guess at stock-levels etc.

The technology for this is still some way off, so the market for replicated packaged media is set to thrive for a good while yet, as pure downloads can never re-create the experience of buying and handling a quality retail product.

Piracy

New technology has always been viewed with suspicion when it came to the stealing of copyrighted material, but none of these predictions have ever really emerged as a serious problem:

“Home taping will kill record sales” warned the record companies in the 1970s when copying LPs to cassette had become the norm, but once the Sony Walkman made tapes more popular, the record companies simply sold more pre-recorded tapes.

Copying CDs is also possible, but most people can’t be bothered and, provided the price is acceptable, would much rather buy a nice-looking finished product than waste time making an unappealing copy.

How much material will be electronically “shoplifted” if online sales become the norm is also down to price and convenience – if it’s easy to buy appealing product at attractive prices, and tiresome to steal, customers will pay.

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The International Digital Media Alliance – and it’s ever changing name

Ever wondered how or who helps govern a fair and independent assessment and education of all the digital media that is being developed and released.
Formally known as The DVD Association, the now known International Digital Media Alliance (IDMA), is committed to providing expertise in DVD, Blu-ray Disc, and interactive media.

The International Digital Media Alliance (IDMA) is dedicated to ensuring that multimedia is uncomplicated, reliable and dependable for users. IDMA exists as a not-for-profit organisation which is solely supported through membership and sponsorships from corporations.

Originally IDMA was established in 1990 as the Compact Disc Interactive Association (CDIA) and was formed to help creators of disc-based television programs. CDIA also helped provide information to the general public and hosted annual educational workshops and conferences as well as producing many publications. CDIA intended to educate the public about then-new video disc options like CD-I and Laserdisc.

With the dawn of the DVD, CDIA changed its name and became the DVD Association, before recently re-settling on its current name, the International Digital Media Alliance. The latest name change has come about because of HD-DVD and the advent of Blu-ray. It is clear that the DVD was never going to remain the only video disc on the market. It however would not make sense for an organization to change to another name focused on a single medium. In this ever changing frontier of digital media technology, there is no doubt that there will be more mediums in the future. Just as apparent as the death of HD-DVDs, however it would appear that DVD’s are still going strong even in the Blu-Ray era.

The official website, located at http://www.theidma.org/, offers plenty of history and public files, as well as news on the organization.

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As a software or multimedia developer your aim is to educate and/or entertain your user. Therefor giving them a CD which takes them straight to the contact they desire will undoubtedly enhance their user experience. Generally speaking it’s not beneficial if you pop a CD or DVD into your computer and have to guess what to do next. Here are a few ideas to consider before sending a master disc in for duplication.

Firstly… Does it have autorun? It makes sense to do so, as the vast majority of Windows users expect their discs to do so. You can achieve this by popping a simple text file called autorun.inf, into the root directory of your disc.

Don’t overlook assigning an electronic volume label on the disc. Set the volume label using your burning software; alternatively try using the ‘label’ command inside the autorun.inf file. This way users navigating their PCs using Explorer can see that the CD in the drive is more descriptive then the default text ‘New’ or ‘1320982_04’.

Ask yourself…Is the root directory free of clutter?Generally speaking people do not want to be confronted with choice, especially when they unsure. Simplify the process, make the choice for them and only leave the most important file in the root directory ( along with the autorun file) To make it obvious name the file ‘start’ or ‘run’ and move all other files into  sub-folders. Remember these sub-folders and files should have real names. By giving these folders and files everyday readable names it allows users to navigate and locate documents/images outside of your software.

Remember that when creating a master disc to be sure that any unnecessary files, images or templates have been removed. As well as enabling a clean file structure, it prevents the possibility of sharing your source codes or any uncompleted or unused ideas.

Finally … Is your CD going to be used on both PC and Mac? If so then make sure your disc is a true hybrid CD in order to run on both platforms. This way you can hide the PC files from the Mac and vice-versa. This makes for a clean disc.

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As the music industry as a whole struggles in a down economy and direct download business models like iTunes flourish, the compact disc, which was commercially introduced in 1982, has the appearance of going the way of vinyl.

In 2007, CDs accounted for 90 percent of album sales in the United States, with digital accounting for the other 10 percent. Just two years later, the sales of CDs decreased to 79 percent and digital sales increase to 20 percent, and the remaining percentage point being made up of vinyl and other media.

A report by Side-Line music magazine has cited that a number of anonymous music industry insiders who confirmed that the major labels are planning to stop pressing new CDs by the end of next year, if not sooner.

The main reason is that CDs cost money to create, store, and distribute, therefore shifting to all-digital distribution will free up more resources for marketing and other parts of the business. There is however one problem with the notion of killing the CDs. Labels are still making money off of them.

It would seem that record labels have shown no desire to ditch the CD. The format still accounts for most sales revenue. It also appears that labels have been able to encourage the development of new digital business models while enjoying the considerable revenue CD sales provide.

Digital download and subscription services may indeed be eroding away at the CD’s dominance. However, a report by Gartner predicts that CD and LP sales will still amount to $10 billion in 2015. Although online music revenue is making a big jump, it is still trailing physical media, in the form of CDs, with a projected $7.7 billion. It would appear that record labels are unlikely to kill of a major money-maker just yet.

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So when looking at an image file you have three basic numbers that you’ll want to pay attention to. The first is the DPI, which stands for “dots per inch” and is also the resolution of the image. To confuse matters, people make a very poor distinction between this number and the second, which is the number of pixels an image has in both height and width. These are the dimensions of the image, but many people call these numbers the resolution. (See, confusing!) The final number you need to understand is the image size, or how much storage space it takes up.

Now, let’s break this down, shall we? DPI is the actual number of ink dots in a one inch line. It is a physical printing term. The higher the DPI of an image, the clearer the image is when it is printed. In addition, higher DPI images will be displayed more clearly on high resolution displays, such as high end tablet and telephone screens. There is less of a difference in how an image appears from higher to lower DPI on standard computer monitors because of how such equipment is made. (This does not mean, however, that you should reduce the DPI of images to a lower level if they are only intended for web use.)

The dimensions of an image are the number of actual pixels wide and high. Many people are used to a certain number of MP or megapixels in a specific image because of how digital cameras work. Changing the image dimensions reduces the number of MP in an image, and is a common way digital cameras can be tuned to take more pictures before running out of room. (But size is up next, remember!) An image with larger dimensions (and less DPI) can be printed out in larger format. So for example if a 5MP image that is 2338 x 3264 pixels is printed at 72 DPI you would get a 34 x 45.3 inch printout. That same image at 150 DPI would be 16.3 x 21.8 inches. 300 DPI is considered an appropriate print resolution for professional work, and that means that your image would now be printing at 8.2 x 10.9 inches. As you can see, the larger your images, the better blown up pictures you will be able to print out. (This is not the only thing that goes to quality, of course. A better camera sensor produces better images of course.)

Now, finally, we reach size. There are many factors which go into how much storage an image will take up. The larger the dimensions of an image the more space it will take up of course. But factors in the image itself have a great deal to do with this. As an example, using the same dimensions as above, 5MP images might range from as much as 4 megabytes to 0.5 megabytes. The first example would be a very complex image with a huge amount of color differentiation. The latter would be a very simple image with very little color deviation. This might be the difference between an image of a child behind a screen door on a sunny day as compared to a picture of light reflecting off of an object outdoors at night, with no flash.

So, now for these parting tips:

• Do not reduce the dimensions of your master copies of your images!
• When reducing the dimensions of your images, make sure you set them to a size appropriate for your medium, and no less.
• When setting the DPI of your images for online use, always go with 300+ when possible.
• When printing your images, go with the DPI that gets you the size of printed image you desire, while conforming to the printer’s specifications, but always use 300+ DPI for any high quality prints.
• Never skimp on storage, and keep backups of your images. DVD discs can make a good backup because you can store them away from your PC.

You should have a good grasp of what the three numbers you need to keep track of are for your images now. Bearing them in mind can make it so you are always sharing the best quality images online, and getting only the highest quality printouts.

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The problem with any direct mail campaign is getting your prospect to open your package in order to view your marketing message and not throw it directly into the office bin. One of the best ways of achieving this is to create attention grabbing CD packaging and use the CD to deliver your message.

A study conducted by Cambridge Associates shows that using a CD can increase the response rate of a direct mailing campaign from typically 3% using only printed materials to 7%. This may be due to the fact that the recall of your content on a CD is typically 40-50% higher than if you were using a printed brochure. Your conversion rates may also increase by as much as 20%. Now it could be thought that the production and distribution of a CD is far more expensive than that of a printed brochure. According to the study, a CD campaign can cost 10-40% less than that of a brochure campaign. It is also worth noting that the high perceived value of the CD, your prospect is far more likely to pass it on to friends and family.

Let’s say you transfer your 32 page brochure into an exciting CD presentation with links to your website. The content is replicated onto a CD and packaged in colour printed cardboard wallets for example. You post 10,000 CDs out to a mailing list of prospects. Firstly, you have already saved as much as 40% on postage costs because you are mailing a much lighter package. Secondly your prospect receives the package and discounts that it is junk mail. Your package is opened and your prospect views the contents of the CD. Your prospect can connect to your website for immediate purchase or they may supply further information which will assist you with future marketing. Extraordinary success is possible using a CD and a strong marketing message.

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The conventional way of winning new or existing business is to have corporate brochures printed that are eye catching whilst getting your sales message across to your potential client. However, there are problems associated with printed matter:

• Require large volumes to retain the quality and keep the unit cost down
• Wastage is high as information goes out of date fairly quickly
• You may have multiple products that are grouped in different brochures
• Storage can be bulky and distribution costs can be high

It would appear that nowadays people are 50% more likely to keep a CD or DVD brochure than a paper brochure.  Your company or business could benefit from crossing over to this new format to promote your services.

Let’s exam some of the reasons why.

A CD brochure is practically storage free and is much simpler to find what your potential client is looking for. If your brochure contains many products and/or articles, they can be presented in an index just like at the front of a paper brochure.

Digital CD Brochures will help you to:

• Reduce costs of printing and distribution
• Increase sales and profits
• Increase circulation and readership
• Expand your marketing reach
• Create an all-inclusive and progressive presence for your company and product.

CD brochures provide a faster and more efficient way of targeting. It is fully interactive, meaning you can promote your product(s) or service(s) in an interactive environment – with video, high resolution images, specifications, articles and even videos of client testimonials. You are only limited by your imagination as to what you can display in a Digital CD Brochure. With wonderfully clear, full colour images, you cannot fail to impress your clients.

Huge savings can be made over traditional paper distribution. An existing paper brochure can be converted into a Digital CD Brochure in a matter of days, and at a fraction of the cost can be ready for Duplication, Printing and Circulation.

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Besides standard DVD format, there are some non-standard DVD formats. Below is some information explaining the differences of these formats.

DVD-VCD is a DVD-Video disc that has data on it which has been encoded by using the MPEG-1 video format with the same definitions VCD has.

DVD-SVCD is also not a valid DVD standard, since the DVD standard does not support the SVCD resolution. The term DVD-SVCD is used to describe a hacked, or non-standard DVD-Video disc that has SVCD compatible content on it.

DVD-MP3 is created with and contains only digital audio files in the MP3 format. It should be noted that not all DVD players can play DVD-MP3 discs.

DVD-D is a disposable DVD format that provides a limited play time with duration of up to 48 hours after the packaging has been opened. After the designated time has passed, DVD players are unable to read the disc. The packaging of the disc is airtight and the DVD itself has a special coating that begins to deteriorate when exposed to air. The DVD-D format is currently being used for video game and movie rentals where not only can intellectual property rights be better protected, but consumers have no need to worry about the hassle of DVD rental returns. According to the manufacturer’s Web site, both the DVD-D disc and the cardboard packaging it comes in can be recycled. The DVD-D format was developed by German company FDD Technologies AG, and while no official definition of the D has been offered, many use the abbreviation to mean DVD-Destroy or DVD-Destruct.

HD-DVD which is short for high definition-DVD is a generic term for the technology of recording high-definition video on a DVD. In general, HD-DVD is capable of storing between two and four times as much data as standard DVD. In February 2008, Toshiba issued a release stating that it would no longer develop, manufacture and market HD DVD players and recorders. Several major retail chains, such as Wal-Mart in the US followed with plans to no longer carry the product, and major Hollywood studios have also dropped plans to release productions in HD-DVD format as well.

Blu-ray Discs are distinguishable for they use 405nm-wave length blue-violet laser technology, instead of the 650nm-wavelength red laser technology used in traditional DVD formats. The rewritable Blu-ray disc, with a data transfer rate of 36Mbps (1x speed) can hold up to 25GB of data on a single-layer disc and 50GB on a dual-layer disc. On a 50GB disc, this translates into 9 hours of high-definition (HD) video or approximately 23 hours of standard-definition (SD) video. The Blu-ray format was developed jointly by Sony, Samsung, Sharp, Thomson, Hitachi, Matsushita, Pioneer and Philips, Mistubishi and LG Electronics.

AOD and Blu-ray are similar in that they both use 405nm-wavelength blue-violet laser technology. While Blu-ray has a storage capacity of 25GB on a single-layer disc, AOD can store 20GB on a single-layer disc and has the capacity to hold 30GB on a dual-layer disc. AOD was developed jointly by Toshiba and NEC.

Several technologies are seen as successors to the standard DVD. These include HD-DVD, Blu-ray, AOD and HVD (Holographic Versatile Disc). With so many formats competing, it is similar to the old VHS versus Beta wars, but with one main exception; the difference in quality between VHS and DVD was extremely noticeable, and this encouraged consumers to quickly and easily transition to DVD from VHS. With these new standards, however, consumers are not seeing the drastic quality difference of, HD-DVD over DVD for example, and adoption has been slow.

Additionally, the media players and the media itself is still more expensive then standard DVD media. Overall the industry suggests that consumers are just not ready to leave DVD behind quite yet.

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In order to make your discs look their best, it is very useful to consider the packaging you would like to put them in. A quick list of packaging types follows:

• Spindles. Not very stylish, but they are very space efficient, these are the same kinds of packaging as you find bulk discs sold in. About the only things you can do for labeling are placing a piece of paper (or a stick-on disc label for that matter) on top of the box, or wrapping some kind of a label around the sides.
• Plastic disc sleeves. These are thin pieces of plastic which have a closing flap like an envelope.
• Cardboard disc sleeves. Unlike the plastic sleeves, these are rigid and can be printed with a full-color design on the front and back.
• Digipacks. These are a combination of a rigid plastic tray and a cardboard cover. They can be printed in full color.
• Clamshells. Hard, clear plastic allowing the disc design to be seen while it is protected from damage.
• Slimline jewel cases. These are hard plastic cases designed to be thin. You can place at most a small booklet in the case front, and no back material is possible.
• Jewel cases. These hard plastic cases can handle both front and back inserts.
• Double jewel cases. They hold two disks instead of one.
• DVD cases. These are the standard “tall” cases that DVDs come in at the store. They can contain a book in the front, and can have a full color printout inserted into them.
• Double DVD cases. As before, but they are able to hold two discs.
• Blu-ray cases. These are matched to the Blu-ray standards and look exactly like you’d expect: blue, and slightly different dimensions than a DVD case. They can have wraparound printed material inserted into them, as well as a booklet inside.

In addition to the packaging types, you can choose from a variety of book and wrap styles to match your cases. Each option can of course be easily printed in full color. Your choices include:

• 2 sided cards. This is in essence a single piece of paper printed front and back.
• 4 sided cards. A longer piece of paper folded in half to give the appearance of a small booklet. Twice as much space, though it must be removed from the case to read the additional information.
• 4 page DVD booklets. Like a 4 sided card but in DVD size.
• 6 sided cards. Even longer and folded in thirds to make a “Z” this will give you half again as much space, with the same caveat of needing to remove the card to see the extra information.
• 8 page booklets. Two 4 sided cards stapled together allowing for a fair amount of information and a booklet format.
• DVD wraps. These are used to wrap around a disc case (Blu-ray or DVD) and form the outer jacket. They slip under the plastic for protection.
• Double sided DVD wraps. These are exactly like the previous wraps but have been printed on both sides to accommodate clear cases. Particularly useful for Blu-rays, which are always clear.
• Rear tray cards. These sit in jewel cases and are printed to make a “back cover” for the case. They sit behind the plastic, under the disc tray.
• Double sided rear tray cards. These are exactly the same but have two sides to accommodate jewel cases with a clear tray. Generally the inside is printed with an image that translates well through the distortion of the tray.

In addition it is possible to package disc cases in cellowrap. This lends a professional air to your product that you can’t get without wrapping your cases. After all, nobody in a high street shop sells unsealed discs!

In the grand scheme you can pretty much pick and choose exactly how you want your discs to appear. They can be very simple, or extremely elaborate. The choice of how to present your discs is yours, and they should reflect the character of your project.

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