As a videographer, I have watched changes in equipment happening at a dizzyingly rapid rate over the years. SD to HD to 3D to 4K…DSLRs, GoPros, drones and other pieces of equipment and these transitions have taken place just in the last few years!! What’s a person to do?!? One thing’s for sure: You could go (and stay) broke trying to keep up! Besides, you might have the latest and greatest “gizmatchit” but in the end, it still comes down to the creative skill you possess when you look through the viewfinder. And regardless of the gear I use (I do confess to having all HD equipment nowadays!) my clients hire me because I am able to interpret their requests and deliver a finished product that we are both happy with.

One of the things that has occurred in all this change is the type of delivery medium being used. For years—if not decades, the delivery medium of choice has been the ubiquitous DVD. Now even that little plastic platter is facing potential extinction as consumers are asking for their deliverables in formats other than DVD. Even Adobe with their incredible “Creative Cloud” series of applications is unbundling and discontinuing Encore—their DVD authoring program—from their editing app, Premiere Pro.

The fact is that there are a number of options available and since it is my job to deliver in a manner and medium desired by the client, I am very open to these alternatives. As the cost of storage media continues to drop and with the advent of “cloud-based” storage, I can get your finished product to you pretty much any way you want. Here are just a few examples, keeping in mind that you still must have an application that will play the video file (with the exception of sharing or streaming services that have playing capability built-in):

• DVD (let’s start with the obvious)
• CD (yes, you can use a CD, so long as the file is small and will fit the 700MB limitation!)
• USB flash drive
• SD or CF cards (or their variations)
• Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive, Box, Copy and others
• Sharing services like YouTube, Vimeo, Instagram and others
• Live Streaming

According to industry website Doddle, wedding and event videographers, and even attorneys (for depositions and other types of legal videography) still desire—and sometimes require—DVDs. That said, I have used every one of the alternatives listed in the bullet points, except live streaming. As the price of that technology continues to come down, I can see adding it to my repertoire.

So here’s the question: How would you like your video delivered? I’d love to hear your thoughts! Drop me a note at info@firstimpressionsvideo.com,