Behind The Scenes: DevExpress Channel In High Definition?

This behind the scenes post is for geeks like me who like to talk about video, gear, etc. that we're using on the DevExpress Channel.

Hey, what do you think of high def video online? We've been trying it and it looks great, check out this video with Erica.

Makes the colors and contrast much more defined. I know a lot of you guys are experimenting with video, what do you think, is it worth the hassle?

Here are the pros and cons we've discovered so far:

1. Recording in HD means we cannot record as much on the flash cards as we can on tape. The super-duper Panasonic P2 camera uses a 16 gigabyte flash card. Jeff tells me that at 16 gigs, the card can only hold 17 minutes of HD video. Yes, there are larger flash cards but their prices are still too high.
2. High definition can produce large file sizes which means slower downloads.
3. The latest flash player required. Flash player version 9 Release 3 (or above) will be required to play the H.264/Mpeg4 codec.
4. Not everything looks better in HD (See the pictured example above).

These challenges can be overcome. For example:

1. We would still use the (lower quality) tape for the longer interview and conference type videos.
2. File size is not that much larger for the HD videos.
3. Most users have the required version of the latest flash player installed.
4. And, yes, everything does look better in HD (For example, see Amanda showing off the XtraGauge control)

So to improve the video quality, we’ve made some small subtle changes:

1. Record the ‘speaker’ portion in high definition
2. Edit and export tweaks during the video production

These small changes gives us better video quality without increasing the file sizes or requiring a new flash version. We’re still investigating the possibility of moving to full HD (H.264) videos someday.

What did we miss? Should we make the extra effort to film in HD?

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