Firstly can i say this is not a moan just a reflection, and thanks to Graham for this great Forum, and all whom contribute.

As the list of Dvd's /Cd's grows longer, and as such cost to buy them all becomes, greater. should we concider the formats, such as Tonya's & Thelma's, where instuctions are sent by DVD or, by PDF in an email. this has worked for me, the benifit is it is quicker and cost less. also production costs can be greatly reduced, as once created do not rerquire to burn lots of dvd's.
i am sure we all have a list of must have DVDs, but will we buy them ?

I fully believe authors, should be acknowledged / rewarded for their time and experiance, and cost should reflect this. if by having two formats , would this encorage more to buy, and in doing so twisters on lower budgets ( newbie's ) can access more. whilst if any one requires a dvd copy they may be happy to pay a premium.

This forum is great for sharing ideas and pictures, and nippy 99's reviews, cannot be missed. but if i can reward authors, through emailed pdfs, at lower cost, is that better that, than not buying at all, which supports no one.

please feel free to give your thought's. as Graham says , lets improve our art.

would this help / work for all ??

I hope this doesn't come off as a shameless plug, but I certainly believe in the value of quality online instructional material. My initial release of internet videos last week has been quite successful. I see this shift to downloads/streaming video to be the next step, and we're likely to see physical DVDs go the way of VHS before long.

Really, it makes sense for everyone involved. Content creators can produce material more cheaply, and pass the savings on to consumers. Many had commented that they would have paid more than $15 for my Super Suits video, but there was no need. Sure, I could have marked it up considerably, but keeping the costs low ensures that more people can have access to the material.

The one person that I can see losing out on this deal is the middle man, the DVD distributor. The market for physical DVDs is going to dry up soon, and they will need to find a way to either monetize the new online trend, or else plan for losing that part of their business. Lots to think about!

I've only just mastered the video recording, so now we have to go onto streaming which may be good as if there were 15 models on the DVD and it sold for say £20 we could make each individual model £1.50/75 and then people could get just what they were interested in from the DVD collection. I will have a chat with Lord G who edits my master copy and see what he suggests. As they say the times they are a changing.

With all that being said, for some reason I much prefer having a physical dvd/cd, perhaps because I have lost info that I had paid for when I failed to back up my hard drive and it crashed.  I also think it a bit strange when suppliers give you the option of either having the cd sent to you or down loaded both at the same price.  

I love the idea of downloading individual models for £1,50 as tbh there are very few dvd/cd's which I have felt worth learning everything on them.

I love to have the DVD/CD in my hand as well so to speak. Just ask Bonnie, she hated me as she had to take a walk to the post office to post my CD's over as I'm not a fan of downloads.

Downloads are great for speed of delivery, lower price etc. However, I do have concerns over piracy and any on-line retailer really needs to think about how they protect their work from file sharing sites etc. It's great to think everyone in our community is ethical but we know there are rogues out there waiting for a free ride. With David's recent superheroes designs, I had downloaded it within minutes of release which is fantastic. I have stored the original files in my secure and encrypted cloud storage and so if my PC blows up who really cares. The other advantage is downloads kills the ebay resellers who buy DVDs, copy them and within a few days put it up for sale. So I guess we are all winners. Low price instructions, increase in volume for the balloon artist, better for the environment, less money for import duties and postage.

BUT I still like DVDs. They look lovely on my shelf and the more inaccessible and expensive they are for others, then selfishly it gives me the competitive edge. I hope my reviews allows people to spend their pennies wisely.

Just my views  :lol: