As you shop for a company to handle the conversion of your video tape into streaming video for the Internet or your corporate Intranet, or for conversion to AVI or QuickTime on CD, price alone should be only one of the factors you consider. Gaining maximum value from your investment should be your goal. As you've already seen on the Net, there are huge differences in the quality of the audio and video in rich media presentations. These differences are due to the quality of equipment being used during the production process, the conversion procedures used, and the experience of the producer who is providing the streaming video conversion services. Because there is such a big difference in the quality of audio and video in streaming video clips, we've put together a checklist below to help you shop for a reputable producer. Our own price list for video tape conversions follows the checklist.
What Should You Be Looking For In Rich Media?
Beyond shopping for a competitive and reasonable price, here are the most important factors you should consider when outsourcing your video tape conversion. These guidelines will help you to avoid making a costly mistake, and will enable you to select a reputable producer who will be able to deliver high quality audio and video.
- Examples
Make sure you see examples of actual streaming video on the producer's website. We currently have 6 different streaming videos available for you to watch on our site. Each is available in Real Video, Vivo and Microsoft NetShow format. Further, each format is available in two different speeds giving you a total of 36 different video clips to choose from. We invite you to watch any of these movies at this time by following these links to our pages which display our streaming video presentations: Movie 1, Movie 2, Movie 3, Movie 4, Movie 5, or Movie 6.
- Customer list
Make sure they prominently display their customer list so that you can easily sort out which producers are the most popular in terms of how many customers they've provided conversion services for. If nobody else is using their conversion services, there's usually a pretty good reason why they aren't. If on the other hand, a lot of customers use their services, there's an equally good reason and it's usually quality.
- Audio & Video Quality
Make sure their own examples look and sound good in comparison to other videos you've seen. During your comparison process, make sure you're comparing video that has been encoded at exactly the same speed. If you're not comparing video encoded at exactly the same speed, you will not have a valid quality comparison. If a video pauses during play, this is not an indication that anything is wrong with the video or the producer who made it. It's just a reflection of congestion on the Net or heavy demand from the originating server at that point, and should not be taken into consideration. - Choice of formats
Make sure you deal with a producer who is not married to a single streaming video format. This can indicate a limited knowledge of video encoding. We encode in Microsoft NetShow, Real Video, Vivo, AVI and QuickTime formats.
- Choice of delivery speeds
Make sure the producer is extremely familiar with the concepts of how delivery speed can improve audio and video quality on both the web and on Intranets, and that they illustrate and discuss the impact of video encoded at 28.8, 56k, ISDN, T-1 or over a LAN on their own site.
- Choice of movie size
Make sure the producer is capable of going beyond the 160x120 norm and that they illustrate it on their web site.Unfortunately most producers don't know how to achieve good quality when converting video into larger viewing sizes or they don't have the proper equipment for doing so. This is why you see so many small size (160x120) videos on the Net. Although we have a variety of movie sizes shown on our web site including 160x120, most are done at 240x180 or 320x240 which we believe looks much nicer.
- Pre-sale and post-sale questions
Make sure the video producer is really in business full-time and available when you need to talk to them both before and after the sale, regardless of your geographic location. Is their phone number shown on their web site and do they personally answer their phone, or do you get voice mail? Do they provide toll free calling for their nationwide customers or are they only serving a local market in their own community? We're here to answer your questions 12 hours a day. Call us now toll free at 800-707-8511 or 630-690-7611 and see how easy it is to get your questions answered on the spot.
- Complete HTML code and technical service
Make sure you'll be receiving more than just the video conversion. We specialize in turnkey solutions and totally eliminate your learning curve by providing you with the complete code to paste right into your pages for instant streaming video on either your existing web server or a video server. We will work directly with your internal network administrator or your outside Internet service provider to make sure that your streaming video is implemented quickly and properly.
- Reputation & exposure
Is the producer someone who is quoted or featured in the news? Have they authored articles about streaming video or are they consulted when others write on the subject? If so, they're more likely to be experts in the field and someone you can rely on.
- Fast service
Make sure the producer is able to meet your demanding production schedule. On most projects, we can furnish you with your completed digitized video within 24 to 48 hours.
- Affordable & competitive pricing
Although important, making sure you'll get high quality audio and video and 24/7 customer support should be your main concern. Delivering maximum value to our customers is what drives our company. Our prices are fully competitive with any reputable firm offering the same services. See our pricing table below for complete details.
- Technology improvements & upgrade
price protection
Real Video and Windows Media are constantly improving the quality of their streaming video encoding and player products. Real Networks, for example is now in their 8th version and Windows Media is in their 7th version in only 5 years. Over time, this has resulted in higher quality audio and video. At some point in the future, you may want your videos re-encoded using newer technology which delivers higher quality playback. To protect our customers from the high cost of having us re-encode their videos, and to insure that our customers can always have state of the art streaming video available on their sites, we guarantee to re-encode your original videos using the latest technology available at 50% of what you originally paid. This offer applies only to the original videos we encoded, using the same format and same speed selections and is good for five years from the date of your original order. CyberTech Media was the first company in the streaming media industry, and to the best of our knowledge, we're still the only company to offer this protection to our customers.
- International service
Does the producer provide services to an international customer base or just a local market? In addition to providing streaming video conversions to U.S. based customers, we also provide our encoding services to customers in all corners of the world, regardless of the format of the source material, or where their ISP is located at.
- Convenient payment options
Does the producer offer payment options to accommodate your business needs and geographic location? In additional to standard payment by check and open purchase orders for qualified repeat customers, we also accept the major credit cards your company or organization already uses - Visa, Mastercard, American Express and Discover/Novus.
| Video Conversion Charges | |
|---|---|
| Item | Price |
| Set-up fees | None |
| Per tape fees | None |
| First video clip (first 5 minutes) | $99 |
| Each additional clip, or for each additional 5
minute increment Volume discounting up to 80% on videos over 10 minutes Call 1-800-707-8511 for quotes on videos over 10 minutes |
$60 |
 Larger orders - see our $$ price matching policy $$ below |
Call |
| Alternate formats - for example if you're ordering Real Video but would also like a second clip prepared in Windows Media, QuickTime or AVI (per clip) | $40 |
| Alternate speeds - if you'd like your movie to be available at multiple speeds (per clip) | $25 |
| Conversion from PAL or Beta PAL to VHS or S-VHS | Call |
| CD charge - If your videos won't fit on disk and we need to write to CD | $25 |
| Discount for carrying our banner acknowledging our firm as the producer of your streaming video | 10% |
- $$ Price matching policy $$
Have you ever purchased something from a company just because of price alone - all the while wishing that the company you really wanted to do business with could have met their competitors price? We will! We are firmly committed to doing whatever it takes to earn your business, and we don't want to lose the opportunity to work with you just because of price alone. Based on the popularity of our company's encoding services, we believe our pricing structure is very competitive, however, we are not always aware of when other companies may be offering some special promotion in their pricing structure. If you believe in doing business with a market leader who consistently delivers high quality video encoding and expert technical support, please call us and let us know whenever we need to overcome a pricing differential with one of our competitors. We will never compromise our standards for delivering you the quality you expect, but we will always endeavor to meet or beat any legitimate quote to earn your business.
To add streaming video to your website or corporate Intranet, simply send us your Hi-8, Mini-DV, Beta-SP, Umatic, VHS or S-VHS video clips using our mail-in video submission form. Please call us toll free at 800-707-8511 or 630-690-7611. You may also e-mail us at media@cybertechmedia.com if you have any questions.
We also do video conversions for web developers.
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