Cattle Video Format Opinions ......PLEASE!

[jbh]

For those who care to give me some feedback.....please give me some thoughts on the following: (THANKS IN ADVANCE)

1)  For those with hi-speed....do you pay any attention to videos offered by anyone?  (This is in GENERAL...NOT Just MY WORK)

2) If you watch them....which do you prefer.... footage via non-specific source server OR a common universal source such as youtube.com?  OR does it make any difference.

3)  Do you prefer individual lots or groups of 4 or 5 together when viewing sale cattle?

4) Does the clarity of the video affect your opinion of the calf or does the quality of the footage??  OR BOTH?

THanks again.....don't HOLD BACK...your not going to offend me on my work.....just trying to get a feel for how the viewers are thinking.

 

[FutureBreeder2013]

I like to watch sale videos with more than one lot per video. It just seems to save time.

The source of the videos doesnt really matter as long as they are clear videos that have steady video.

Its also nice to see each lot from the same angles.

 

[Torch]

1. Yes!

2. Doesn't matter.

3. On show cattle I like individual shots. Bulls must be individual. But I want front, side and rear footage.

4. Both.

 

[TWR]

1.  Absolutely
2.  Doesn't matter as long as it loads quickly.
3.  Individual Lots
4.  I usually use a video to look at two things: the way an animal tracks on the move and thickness from both ends.  If the video is clear enough to show that, then I consider it good enough quality.

I wish more videos showed views from both ends instead of just a side view.

 

[forcheyhawk]

1). Absolutely love videos.
2). I prefer youtube.  I've found other methods can sometimes be slow to load.  Jansen's Simmental female sale this past weekend had videos and they were especially slow to load IMO.  I'll generally give it a few seconds and if it doesn't load - I'll move on.  I'm kind of impatient.
3). I prefer individual lots.  4-5 lots can sometimes force you to watch video of animals that you may not be interested in.
4). Poor quality and footage can sometimes make it very difficult to assess the calf.  So from the standpoint, I guess it could affect my opinion of the calf.  I'm less worried about the video being in HD and more concerned with being able to visualize and assess if that makes sense.

 

[CJC]

Brad
The things I would like to see in a cattle video are.

More footage of the cattle walking (both sides) around a couple minutes; not 2 seconds walking and 18 seconds standing still, front end shoot, rear end shoot, and be able to see their feet (too see if they toe out are not). JMO. CJC

 

[herefordfootball]

1) In my opinion videos will be the new standard for selling and advertising cattle. I love when people have vids. You can see the calf on the move.

2) I prefer Youtube. It seems to load quicker than most and you can view the vid anytime via the sellers youtube channel along with other vids of their calves.

3) Individual lots. You can replay the video and study the calf more carefully instead of having to go back to 1 min and 15 sec for example.

4) Yes. BOTH. I believe the better the quality the more accurately you can judge a calf and if you dont have good quality you vids wont be of much use to potential buyers. Also the footage, I believe it should include at least 10 seconds of the calf tracking on the side profile and rear profile so you can see how the calf tracks and handles itself on the move.

 

[rtmcc]

1) I have hi-speed and all the videos seem to load real fast so I check them out. we can all make cattle look good in a photo with just the right pose etc.  I know we all edit the videos but you get a much clearer idea of what the animal really is.

2) Videos on the ranch web site are great when they are with the catalog so you can check out the pedigree, data, etc..  But the Youtube posts get announced to subscribers and may be faster for some that don't have as fast of a connection speed.

3)Individual lots on a website and grouped on youtube.

4) Clarity and quality are BIG issues.  A bad video may be worse than a bad picture.

I have learned a lot watching your videos and it has sure helped us do some of ours.

Ron <cowboy>

 

[Jill]

1. Depends, if they are offered at a sale I am interested in
2. Whatever is quickest
3. Individual
4. I honestly have never seen a video that does what I need to purchase from a video.  When I look at a calf the 1st thing I look at is if the feet cover the tracks, most video is shot in a pasture setting where you can't see the hooves and most are from the side rather than the rear shot I need to see them track.  It would also be nice if in the background there is some type of fence or other reference so you can guage the frame size of the calf you're looking at.

 

[rtmcc]

JBH -
I thought the quick videos you did of your bred heifers in the sale barn pens did as good of a job of really showing the heifer and giving a reference to frame size and movement as any.  Not fancy, but showed the "real thing" and all that needed to be seen. 

Ron
<beer>

 

[Dusty]

I think clarity and quality are both a must. 

To me the perfect video would be one that had the same point of view that a person would have seeing a calf in the pasture.  A side, rear, front and just plain natural view of a calf that represents his good points as well as the bad.

 

[ROMAX]

Brad i really enjoy watching all your videos so i don't know why you are asking our advice,you seem to have a good handle on it,although i'm still waiting to see what heifer won that show maybe a little too much suspense.

 

[GONEWEST]

Brad,

I have a real problem with many of the videos being used recently and I have talked with more than a handful of people that have the same problems I do. I'm technologically challenged, but I will try to explain as best I can. I will say that I have discussed this at length with Mark Sneed and he has yet to understand what I am talking about so maybe I can't communicate it well enough.

First I have cable internet, a fast computer and  a large, flat screen. When Superior does the videos the "viewing window" of what ever format they use is nearer square than rectangular. And though maybe a little to small in the size of that window, there is never any distortion. When Breeders world had those on line auctions many of those videos were Marks and they looked great. But when the video is hosted on Marks sight, the window is more rectangular in shape, longer than tall. Then the video fills the window no matter the shape. Bushy Park's and Janssens were so distorted, on my computer, that they were of no value. The animals appear to be 2 feet tall and 10 feet long. Then on Dwyers videos of the recent See and Believe sale the animals appear just the opposite, like they have been all scrunched up. As I said before I know many people that had views of these videos exactly as I did. I have no idea if the format isn't compatible with my computer or what. I have used both Firefox and Explorer as browsers and both are the same. But on youtube there is never any distortion. I have no idea if anyone will understand what I am talking about.

As far as individual or groups, I enjoyed the way you did the N IA club claves where there were several in each video, but individually pictured. Although having individual videos could have it's advantages as well.

I have another video question I will pm you about if you have a second to read it, I'd appreciate it.

 

[cwbyup62]

Phil,

I don't know why you want to come on here and start criticizing my work, but I guess take your best shot.  I am just like Brad in the fact that I think the videos still have a learning curve, and correct me if I am wrong Brad, but I think all of us in this business are still trying to find a balance with these things.  With video, you have to balance three things in my opinion.  I have already read on this string request the following, High quality, longer videos, and quick download time.  I don't think a lot of people realize that in order to get the first two, you have to sacrifice the third.  Download time is directly controlled by the first two.  For those of you who have not worked with video, download time is controlled by file size, which is based on quality of the video ( higher resolutions take more file space ) and length of video ( which simply increases the file size because of amount of video ).  In order to balance it all, it has became quite a challenge. One person wants a big screen, the next wants more video, the next wants higher resolution.  There is going to be no way to satisfy everyone as everyone has different tastes for what they like.  It does not make anyone right or wrong, just differences of opinion.  Based on feedback from customers and viewers, we have found about a thirty second video of medium quality with a mid size viewing window is the most widely desired, though it may not be what everyone likes  The most common problem with the viewing of these videos is the resolution size that people have their screens and TV's set up at, as I had tried to explain to you.  Our videos are shot at the old "Standard" 4:3 setting, which is not widescreen.  If you go to watch these videos and they seem distroted in length, the resolution needs to be set correctly to watch them.  I have had several calls about this on DVD's being watched by people that we had produced.  My first question was, are you watching on a widescreen, answer is always yes, I then tell them to change the screen setting to normal or standard, which means that there will be two black bars up and down the side of the screen, and immediately they say, oh yeah, they look right now.  As I said, there is a learning curve on all of this, and we have learned that people did not realize this so we will be putting a note on each dvd explaining the situation.  The reason we are using standard setting is everyone can go to that setting to watch it, but not everyone can go to widescreen,  so this allows everyone to be able to watch the videos correctly.  As far as the distortion in some of our videos, we found that our technical advisor set us up with was slightly widening the viewing box, which we have change it away from and that problem is now fixed, if you had examined this before bashing us, you would have realized that.  Yes, a mistake on our part, a learning curve that we have hopefully progressed from.  As far as Janssen Farms and the Diva's sale goes, both were huge successes with the people who owned those cattle personally calling and telling me that they felt the video work we performed for them were one of the greatest reasons for the success of their sales. Had you gone to examine these cattle you would have found them to appear in real life, just as they did on the video.  I was at both sales and they had great sets of cattle and they averaged over $15000 per round on the Diva's sale with an awesome set of heifers and the end average of live cattle on the Janssen sale was a little over $4000 per head, which was well over their top average from the past.  Video is the wave of the future, I have taken pictures for a living for quite some time, but I am the first one to say I would never buy off of a picture.  On the other had I feel like there is more difference between a good video and a great video than there is a good picture and a great picture.  Still pictures are only a necessary evil in my opinioin.  We still have to have ads and catalogs, but video shows you what the real cattle are.  We are striving to do the best job we can, using tv cameras, high end editing equipment and all of the knowledge we can learn from our customers and their customers.  We certainly do not know it all right now, far from it, but we are striving to learn every day as this is all we do and we want to be as good at it as anyone else in the business.

I appreciate Brad asking these questions as it helps us to learn what we need to do to improve, Brad, tell me if I am wrong there.

I am sure I will get bashed for something about this but that always seems to happen.  I know many of you already do understand what I have written about download time, quality size and viewing window on here already, but for those that have not done much with video, I am just trying to give you a little insight into how video actually works.

Thank you,

Mark

 

[GONEWEST]

Good gosh Mark,

I never meant to bash anything you do. All I said about you was I wasn't able to communicate with you about what I was seeing. Don't you think a novel like that in reply to NOTHING in any way to do with criticizing your work, is being a little over sensitive???

Obviously you didn't even read what I said because I never mentioned the Divas sale in which the videos played great for me. I didn't mention anything about anyone's cattle being poor, either. So no reason to defend the quality of anyone's cattle.

And I'd be happy to just apologize that you had totally misunderstood why I was asking, BUT...

The most common problem with the viewing of these videos is the resolution size that people have their screens and TV's set up at, as I had tried to explain to you.  Our videos are shot at the old "Standard" 4:3 setting, which is not widescreen.  If you go to watch these videos and they seem distroted in length, the resolution needs to be set correctly to watch them.  I have had several calls about this on DVD's being watched by people that we had produced.  My first question was, are you watching on a widescreen, answer is always yes, I then tell them to change the screen setting to normal or standard, which means that there will be two black bars up and down the side of the screen, and immediately they say, oh yeah, they look right now.  As I said, there is a learning curve on all of this, and we have learned that people did not realize this so we will be putting a note on each dvd explaining the situation.  The reason we are using standard setting is everyone can go to that setting to watch it, but not everyone can go to widescreen,  so this allows everyone to be able to watch the videos correctly.  As far as the distortion in some of our videos, we found that our technical advisor set us up with was slightly widening the viewing box, which we have change it away from and that problem is now fixed, if you had examined this before bashing us, you would have realized that.

Just to make sure my memory was correct, I went back through the notes you sent me concerning this issue. As I remembered, you never mentioned to me ONE SINGLE THING about  "4:3 setting" or a wide screen. Even though the first thing I asked you about was format.  All you said was that they looked fine to you and you had had no complaints. I wasn't complaining to you,either, I was just asking so that I could view them correctly. Obviously you didn't know about this problem at the time or you would have mentioned this to me. You never mentioned the first thing about setting resolution. Not the first thing. All you said was the Bushy cattle sold really well and they were happy with the videos as were Janssens. It was a very friendly conversation. We talked about the different host servers, yours as well as others. Not one thing near what you said here.

I apologize again for the misunderstanding that I was bashing your work. Since you couldn't tell me why it happened when I spoke to you, I thought I would ask Brad if he knew, that's it. I enjoy looking at  and appreciate your work both photography and now the video. All I had in mind was being able to view them. But I will not accept you telling something concerning me that isn't true on a public forum. If you insist on continuing this misrepresentation of our conversation concerning this issue, I'll post every note you sent me concerning the subject, some seconds apart, here so that EVERYONE can see that you're either just mistaken in your memory or you decided to say things that are untrue because you misunderstood my intention.

If you had a bad day and were overly sensitive and thought our conversation took place after you discovered this I can understand. But I will not allow you to say things that concern me that aren't true in an effort to cover your own butt.

 

[GONEWEST]

You know, I just read again what I posted.

You must have had a really bad day, Mark. The only thing I mentioned about your work, at all,  was that it  "looked great."  Three times in that short post I said that the problem was on my end and I knew it I just didn't know what it was or how to communicate it. I even said I didn't know if anyone would know what I was talking about. How could you possibly have thought what I said was a poor reflection on you?

Geez, I don't know who has been giving you a hard time, but you need to take it out on them and not on me.

 

[creativecattle]

I think video is definitely going to be the way to market your cattle. And think about it this way, even if you aren't doing it your competitors are.

I would highly recommend using YouTube over other servers because they have servers all over the country and therefore it creates faster loading times, which people have noticed as mentioned above. Also, to know if your marketing is working you need to measure results, and YouTube gives you great data back. You can tell if people are searching to find your video, watching through an email link, or if they even viewed it off of SteerPlanet.

Also, if you like the look of the video on your own site, you can embed the YouTube video within your own webpage - www.ebyranchco.com is an example of this.

Good luck to everyone with all their video work. It is great to see so many SteerPlanet members using the technology.

 

[jbh]

OK.....FIRST......Phil and Mark......take a DEEP BREATH......NOW let it out........THINK ABOUT PUPPIES.......THINK ABOUT RUNNING THROUGH A FIELD OF FLOWERS.....THINK ABOUT TRYING TO CATCH YOUR BREATH AFTER RUNNING THROUGH THE FIELD OF FLOWERS.... ;D ;D ;D.....or MORE IMPORTANTLY....think about ROAD WARRIOR and what his family's been through this week after losing his daughter and say a little prayer for them.....and I'm sure this little tiff will seem pretty SILLY! (NO CHARGE for the COUNCILING...the first time!) (clapping)

Now back to the subject.....MARK described it best about the file size and the clarity and speed....you CAN'T EAT the WHOLE CAKE and stay skinny....you can have a bite, and stay skinny OR you can eat the WHOLE CAKE and get FAT.....but you can't have it BOTH WAYS (unless you're a FREAK!)lol  But what we didn't talk about is the FLAVOR of the CAKE.....here in lies the PROBLEM.....everybody likes a different FLAVOR.

The FLAVOR is all the different ways that video is saved and sent up to the web...and believe me.....there are a gazzilion different ways......this is WHY I side with what CREATIVECATTLE said about youtube.com......this way you've got the SAME CHEF cooking ALL the DIFFERENT FLAVORS!  When I first started I bought a MAC and used QUICKTIME....assuming EVERYONE used QUICKTIME......WELL, they DIDN"T...... it appeared that MOST used WINDOWS MEDIA PLAYER! And this is where the nightmare started.

Let me make this REAL CLEAR.....I'm an UNEDUCATED HILL BILLY from IOWA SOUTH.....and I have several degrees from the SCHOOL of HARD KNOCKS......BECAUSE... that is the only way I can learn!
VIDEO is not like PRINT......it has MANY DIFFERENT  TOPICS to address even AFTER the product is built and finished....this is where it gets TRICKY for MOST.  Hope this analogy wasn't too annoying....oh, and BTW....my barn got broken into last night......AND THEN.......my best friend I went through school with called and told me he had blood cancer!!!!!.....how bout that for a Friday!!!(NOT lol)

Almost forgot.....THANKS to ALL who responded!  For those of you who did, let me ask you this......Have you ever shot video of any cattle and messed with it????......NOT being SMART here......just want to know what perspective the quotes are coming from.....whether it's simply as a viewer or BOTH.....Thanks, Brad.

 

[cwbyup62]

I am sorry if I misunderstood your compliments but after reading the following statement, I simply did not find much complimentary about it.

When Breeders world had those on line auctions many of those videos were Marks and they looked great. But when the video is hosted on Marks sight, the window is more rectangular in shape, longer than tall. Then the video fills the window no matter the shape. Bushy Park's and Janssens were so distorted, on my computer, that they were of no value. The animals appear to be 2 feet tall and 10 feet long

I read this as saying that our videos only looked correct on Breedersworld, sorry if I misinterpretted it.

As I reacall was that the monitor setttings might need to be corrected, just like a widescreen would have to be.  That is the only advice that I gave.

I agree with Brad, you just can not have everything.  Video is very frustrating, because everyone has different tastes of what they want.  We have several videos that people have been put on YouTube, and this may be a very popular marketing form, I will not deny that.  What I did was poll the top five customers that I have and asked them where they would place  the priorities of what they wanted and what they would give up to get something else.  My clients said they felt that after viewing all of the different styles and settings we could show them that they would prefer a slightly larger screen with a little more download time, but keep the quality high so the cattle can more clearly be seen.  That is what we have proceeded to do.  With You Tube, I asked many of my clients and virtually all of them have never been on you tube and would have no idea of how to find their own videos, much less someone elses.  Many ranchers and buyers do not search the internet, but do go directly to the web sites of whose cattle they want to look at.  Therefore from an exposure standpoint they were not interested in utilizing youtube, but wanted to do their merchandising through their own sites.  We had the very same problem Brad did with Quicktime, only in reverse.  The first thing we got was complaints that people on a Mac could not see our videos because they were being played in windows format.  Again, with the learning curve, we made the decision to set up an independent server of our own to put all of the video work we do as a service to our customers for a couple of reasons.  1. Many web providers will charge you for the video space on the net, whereas we cover that cost.  2.  We have purchased players that are "supposed to" play any video we do on any computer with any framework it has, whether it be windows or Apple without a problem, no downloading of players for anyone.  Our players are downloaded on our server to try to simplify this whole situation.  I do love the download time of Youtube, but you give up a great deal of resolution with them.  The bottom line is , and I think Brad will agree again, when it comes to processing the videos, we don't really care what we do, it is all the same for us, but our desire is to supply the best form of merchandising tool we can for our clients.

I apologize for the novel, but when it comes to video there are a lot of details you have to do with to do it correctly.  I am just trying to enlighten many, as I have been asked to do privately, but hate to because of the obvious problems I have incurred with this thread.

Thanks and if any of you have any questions about video or photography, I always try to give the best advice I can if you want it.  I do think in the future I would just as soon do it by email though for obvious reasons.  I can be reached at [email protected] if you have any inquiries.

Thank you for enduring this "novel".

Mark

 

[farwest]

Tusa show cattle , Jacob tusa, I believe my spelling is right , have the quickest loading and clarity to go with that of any cattle videoes I've watched. Spoke with them and they said they did the work themselves and explained the download process to me. Which I didn't grasp with my computer knowledge.  I think they still have an advertisement from their October sale on the front page of steer planet.