Biz Card CD

[tdeagan]

I'm making up business card CD-ROMs with my demoreel to give to clubs and promoters as gig generators. They are the small CD-ROMS with the edges cut off to be the size of business cards. They hold about 50MB.

What format do folks use? I've made it into a VCD, but so many DVD players won't play VCDs these days. I like the experience of the VCD a lot.

Which is a better bet to hand to club owners/bookers? CD-ROM with AVI or MPG or VCD? A lot of computers will play VCDs so I'm still leaing that way. Any experiences or comments folks would like to relate?

Thanks,

[Kyle]

I like DVD...It?s getting cheaper by the minute and there are some nice programs that help you create a nice menu with navigation. File size is never a issue with DVD. I can fit everything I need. In my opinion thats the best route to go. Good luck

[Exavior]

The business card CDs are ?neat? but really gimmicky and impractical. You would be better off just making DVDs with a custom menu like Kyle suggested. The business card CDs are also limited in the types of players that can handle them. You would be better spending the money on normal cards and DVDs.

[many2]

The best thing to put on these CD-biz cards is your website. It will load in any browser on any computer if it's done well. You can also make some pretty DVD-like interface using flash.

[solly]

The good thing about the small cd cards is that people dont chuck them away like normal paper biz cards. The dvd or vcd are much bigger in size and not as cool. I would recomend using the small cd card with all your info printed on the card. If they want to know more they will see it in their tray loading cd drive with quicktime. If they are mac users using the direct insertion drive it will not work or mess up their drive. So check on that.
Solly

[tdeagan]

I'm afraid that buying a DVD burner isn't a current option. I'm going with a 'better than nothing' solution for now and the biz card CD-ROMs are exactly as good as any CD-ROM or VCD solution.

Since any non-dinosaur computer can play CD-ROMs (and the biz card CD-ROMs differ only in size, any CD-ROM player will play them) that's probably the lowest common denominator approach with a better chance than VCD.

DVD is cool, but overkill for my purposes. First, I'm not passing out stuff that I want re-used, so it's 320x240 (which is what I gig out of with TZT and better than VHS quality, please save all 320x240 vs. higher res flames/threads/discussions for one of the 50 threads already engaging in it.)

Second, years of passing out demo tapes for bands to get gigs has consistently proven that you've got less than a minute to 'make the sell.' I don't see any reason to believe that would be different with VJ material. My demoreel is 2:00. (21MB)

Don't get me wrong, I'd love a DVD burner (alas I need the external (more expensive) type since I'm a lappy guy and my current laptop doesn't have USB 2.0, so I'd actually rather wait until I upgrade the laptop,) but frankly, I'll have to get some more gigs to pay for it. I have for years worked my way into gear, so I'm not too worried about doing it in this case. So I've got to hustle with what I've got to bootstrap my way up.

<screed>
I'm a believer in 'best is the enemy of better', having seen many projects, bands, efforts never get off the ground because they couldn't start out 'perfect.' The 80-20 rule states that the final 20% is always as hard as the first 80%, yet most of the value comes out of the 80%. If you compare people/groups/performers who concentrate on getting a solid series of 80% wins with people/groups/performers who don't act until they can get 100% perfect, real life shows that the 80% people get a lot farther. This isn't an excuse for lack of quality, being successful in this approach means that you have to brutally focus on the critical deliverable, in this case, entertainment value for the audience, rather than technical idealism. Like any strategy, you can fail (in this case produce schlock) with this approach, it's a matter of discipline and ability to keep the goal clearly in sight.
</screed>

Spending money is just not my 'go-to' strategy (and I must say that it does feel like it's this community's go-to strategy,) creative response with tools at hand is my go-to strategy. Different strokes for different folks. I feel very confident about the quality/creativity of my material and I have a great track record of gigging in a professional manner (showing up ready to handle a wide variety of situations, not needing handholding, knowing my craft, self-sufficient with gear, loaded with duct tape, etc.)

Plus, Austin has, for all intents and purposes, zero VJ competition, so the issue for the moment won't be a club owner deciding between my CD-ROM and someone else's DVD. By the time the scene matures to that point, I'll be ready :nod:

Okay, I'll return to my coffee and quit being so 'monday morning' in my posting content :rolleyes:

[tdeagan]

Solly,

Great point about Mac direct insertion, that blows my 'any player will play them' statement :o

[freakowen]

a slightly different solution - which still looks cool and would be playable in slot loading drives are the 3" cds which are held within a 5" clear plastic disc, ie. they are exactly the same size as an ordinary cd (so not problems with slot loaders) but the outer inch is clear plastic, with the 3" in the middle holding the data.

Not quite a business card, but they do look quite striking. I've not come accross anywhere which sells them though....

[Kyle]

Originally posted by freakowen

Not quite a business card, but they do look quite striking. I've not come accross anywhere which sells them though....

Yea I forgot about those as well. They sell them here in Spain. They hold about 210 MB. Memorex sells them under the name Cool Pocket CD-R. They have multi-colored jewled case packs and disks for reasonable prices. check my Comp USA link for current US prices.

BTW...WSIWYG. How much does your CD-R business cards cds run you anyway? Those I have heard about but have not come across.
http://www.compusa.com/product_images/images/full/48/290748_f.gif
Cool Pocket CD-R at Comp USA (http://www.compusa.com/products/product_info.asp?product_code=290748&pfp=BROWSE)

[tdeagan]

I bought a pack of 100 CD-R business cards for about $45USD from some no-name on-line vendor (I think it was Shop4tech.com). Came with soft plastic cases. I also bought inkjet labels for them.

I love them. I carry around a small stack with the Linux Bootable Business Card (full linux in your wallet!), a set of basic apps (SSH telnet, palm sync, irfanview, etc.) that I find myself needing, USB drivers for all my toys, favorite family pix, stuff like that.

The really amazing ones are the CD-Rs that are cut into star and other shapes

see http://www.crystalclearshapedcds.com/shapes.shtml
http://www.crystalclearshapedcds.com/templates2/templates/star.gif

[Kyle]

That?s cool..thanks for sharing that link.

[Igro]

If i would give avay cds with my presentation i would make it is as user friendly as possible. Possibly importing everything in a single swf (prepared as executable) file with autostart from cd.

[akira_k]

The problem with tehse oddly-shaped CDs and the mini CDs as well, is that slot-loading drives cannot read them, actually, if you stick one of these in one, it's "bye bye drive, go to the tech so he fixes you". The Apple Knowledge Base CLEARLY states that the only type of discs you can insert in their slot-loading drives are those of the normal type (11cm diameter?)

I have planned to use these mini CDs, bought them and all (they look mega cool, much better than those "card" CDs I think), but now I'm not completely sure about them because of this. I have a tray loading drive in my G3 iBook, but my partner has a Powerbook, and all iBooks now come with slotsloading drives, and so does the new iMac G5!