[Robbie Ferguson]

Yeah, it's true. I super-compressed every episode, and now a full hour of the show is available in only 24 MB. [LATER CORRECTED: the filesize is closer to 50 MB per episode].

That means I could fit EVERY SINGLE EPISODE on a single 16GB flash drive and mail it to you.

The quality is crap (but useable), but it might be a cheap solution for those who don't have high-speed.

My cost on a 16GB flash stick is $25 plus shipping (it has our logo on it). Is this something worth pursuing? Is there anyone out there who would pay enough to cover the hardware, shipping & perhaps a little extra for the time to create it?

[ajamison]

That is actually a very good idea $25 for a cat5 branded memory stick that just happens to have ever episode on it lol
are they USB 2.0 or 3.0 memory sticks

[Robbie Ferguson]

Well, I'd be happier if people would be willing to pay $50 + shipping since my cost out of pocket will be $25 + shipping to get the drive manufactured, then I'd have to pack it up and ship it out. Still a good deal I'd think...

[ajamison]

yeah $50 for low quality seems a bit steep to me even if it includes a 16gb flash drive. Maybe if the flash drive was capable of USB 3.0 speeds

[Robbie Ferguson]

K thanks for the feedback.

[Garbee]

Could you host one of these super small episodes somewhere so we can actually see the quality. I personally would not do it since I have a big connection, but for people who may not have that, it could be *something*.

As far as USB 2.0 vs 3.0... Really, it doesn't matter too much since the video's will play properly either way. Further, if people don't have the bandwidth to download a full show and they are buying this, who is to say they even have USB 3.0 and are able to use the speed? Yea, it is backwards compatible, but I would really only see it at that point as a way to sell a Cat5 branded flash drive; also, sending a 3.0 drive would most likely cost more than 2.0, which means the people who really want one since they can't get the shows in other forms would need to come up with more cash. That in turn means the market goes down, and you are already looking at such a low market anyways since most people seem to be able to get the show just fine from the internets.

In my opinion, this just sounds like something to *have* for those who are on constrained bandwidth and want to get all the older shows or something. It is not something I would personally put time into. Also at this point why now just host the 24MB videos online for those that need them for access? That would probably be much faster and convenient than buying and waiting on a flash drive. If they need it 24MB download compared to 300+ MB for the SD feed. That is a much nicer download even at the quality.

[Robbie Ferguson]

Yeah, you're right. I think Andrew's comment is more revolving around the thought that he'd personally want to reuse the drive for other things after he's finished moving the videos onto a hard drive or something. But the intention is more to create a distribution mechanism that is available to everyone for a very cheap price (less than buying one season of a regular TV show, which usually contains about 25-30 episodes, vs Category5 which has 52 episodes per season).

I don't think it's people who "can't afford" a bigger pipe that I'm thinking of, but more the ones who can't GET a bigger pipe. I don't know how many potential viewers there are out there who we never see or hear from since they can't stream the show... but I'd be willing to entertain an alternative for them.

And if you want to use the flash drive for something else, it's cool--has the Category5 TV logo on it which is a bit of an awesome keepsake which can be used for years.

I like your idea about hosting... my fear though is that someone will leech it; basically tell their aggregator to download EVERY episode. See, I'd have to host the files on the CDN, and I have to pay for every download. If someone downloaded all 237 episodes, while they're small files individually, the entire download would be 10 GB. I don't know how I could possibly swallow that cost. But maybe I should do it anyways, because I love my viewers and they deserve to be able to get the show no matter what.

What about a "Crappy Quality" RSS feed? Maybe I'll name it differently, but that'd be the idea. A terrible feed for terrible connections, but with the ability to get itty-bitty files?

I was wrong about the filesize (my application reported it erroneously). The files are closer to 50 MB each. But still, for a 1-hour show, that's stupid crazy.

So I uploaded a sample of Episode 237 (the full hour) for you to test: http://static01.cat5.tv/tmp/237.mp4

Remember how small it is... only 50 MB... so the low quality is to be expected. But my thought is, would this help people with terrible connections be able to catch the show?

Also, I bought a Blu-Ray burner with the new broadcast server as you'll remember. I have the ability to likely put at least 100 episodes (possibly more) on a single Blu-Ray disc... so there's that option as well, and they'd be full quality. Just that I don't feel enough people have Blu-Ray players to make that practical (maybe I'm wrong?) Problem is, the cost of Blu-Ray discs. They're not cheap. The flash drive idea even at $50 is probably cheaper and gives you the keepsake. Blu-Rays are pricey, and if I create a coaster during the burn process, the price goes up and up.

[ajamison]

They do have some countries that have so called broadband internet but the ISP is very unreliable in other countries not to mention alot of them limit the download speeds
or even the total amount you can download in a month.

---

those 25mb files do not look to bad when left at the default resolution but any larger i see the break down. Still i think the quality is better then EPisode 1 was lol

[Robbie Ferguson]

Haha, true enough!

[Garbee]

The 50MB filesize is bearable, until you get to looking at a monitor, then nothing will save it.

As far as discs (blu-ray) goes, bad idea for the exact reasons you are pointing out. Too high margin-of-error, costly, and slow. Then if you want to have any kind of menu to that thing vs using it just as storage good luck.