The Power of HD Video
photo by Atilla1000
Recently I picked up a new digital camera for an upcoming trip my wife and I are taking to Turkey. After humming and hawing for a while I picked up the new Panasonic Lumix TZ-5 point and shoot (thanks Jeff) to compliment my Canon DSLR. What ultimately pushed me over the top to buy this camera was the TZ-5’s video capability - it’s the only pocket-size camera on the market that shoots HD (720p) video.
We’re heading to Istanbul to visit my younger sister who’s getting married and along with all our other gear we’re carting along a Canon VIXIA HF100 for her to surprise her husband-to-be (shhh.. don’t tell Turkish Customs). It’s a beautiful camera and I have a serious case of gadget lust.
So what’s the point?
HD is here. Tools like the TZ-5 and HF100 make it cheaper and easier to produce your own HD video than ever before. And just like every technology that’s come before it - it’ll only get cheaper and easier.
The rest of the Web is catching on too. Video host Vimeo now lets you host and stream any HD videos you create.
Drama in the sky - Time Lapse from Paul Klinger on Vimeo.
For real estate marketing - HD lets you show a property in vivid detail that a grainy low-rez Youtube video could never deliver.
And vendors like HDPremier can now create a property tour in HD for you and the results are pretty impressive (and suprisingly affordable).
Sure - there are drawbacks to HD. Namely much larger file sizes mean much higher bandwidth costs when streaming. But again. This is only going to get easier and cheaper over time.
So if you’re considering bringing video to your marketing - HD might be the route to go. Whether you’re climbing over the ruins at Ephesus or doing a walkthru of a home in Portland, the results will blow you away.
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Doug Quance | Jun 12, 2008 | Reply
I've looked at HD, but it still has drawbacks… including editing. I think its higher resolution is well-suited for real estate, however.
Lord knows I've seen my share of crappy real estate video.
Jon Sigler | Jun 12, 2008 | Reply
They say a picture is worth a thousand words. The clearer the picture the better. When the picture is not clear it is as if a few of those words are lost.
Matt | Jun 12, 2008 | Reply
nice hdpremier.com great and it even loads quickly which is a huge plus. must be using a good camera to get fast progressive video to look so good. i agree its worth a thousand words.
Daniel, the Real Estate Zebra | Jun 12, 2008 | Reply
There really hasn't been a lot of talk about HD video until very recently, so glad to see it here.
I have a Canon HG-10 camera, and it shoots in HD. I recently made the decision to switch all of my video blogging hosting over to blip.tv just so that I could take advantage of the HD capability. Stuff looks much better, and as you mentioned, bandwith and file-size issues will get better over time.
dalas | Jun 12, 2008 | Reply
Just to be clear: Vimeo is for personal, noncommercial use only and any real estate videos will be removed.
I'm glad you enjoy using Vimeo to host your personal videos.
sterner | Jun 13, 2008 | Reply
There he goes again…pushing the envelope. Great post Joel! There are a couple hurdles with HD on the web, none of which have to do with cost (I can remember my time at Sony Electronics when HD video cameras were over $80,000).
1) A vast majority of end users are not ready for HD. Two of the major culprits are connection speeds, and processing power at the end user level. Display mechanisms are lagging as well, so HD doesn't necessarily look exactly like HD.
2) Unless something has changed in the last couple weeks, you cannot embed H264 (which is the format being used to claim “HD”) files into an SWF player. In more simple terms, you can't embed HD quality videos onto a different web page yet.
HD is happening…no doubt…but don't trample your brethren to get into it.
sterner | Jun 13, 2008 | Reply
Daniel,
I forgot to mention that real estate video tours will almost surely be yanked down from BlipTV. Sounds like you are on track by sticking to blog-like content, but wanted to save you the hassle if possible.
Matt | Jun 13, 2008 | Reply
Yes, but anyone with a good cable connection should be able to handle the data of HD. From what i know cable has a good download stream but a slower up stream (uploads)
I have cox cable and have been able to watch any HD videos on the web. 1080p is a little slower i must say, but anything lower i can handle. plus i have a nice machine to view on:)
Joel Burslem | Jun 13, 2008 | Reply
OK - so who's gonna step up to the plate and provide a place to host/stream HD real estate videos then…
Sterner, I'm throwing down the gauntlet.
Christian Sterner | Jun 13, 2008 | Reply
Matt,
My bet is that-if you are a loyal reader of Joel's blog-you are not the average computer/tech user. Upload speeds, no matter what type of service (cable, dsl, dial-up etc) are slower. But CDN(s) can only do so much in terms of alleviating the pain of download speeds: they still have to rely on cable companies. My point is this: you probably have a pretty great computer that can process large files quickly. Most people do not. On top of this, we've observed some pretty heavy testing with HD files with large samples of internet users who complain that videos are “jumpy” or “stall” or “they can't even bare to watch them.” They were all broadband users. For the masses, HD is unfortunately not there. That is not to say that it is unexciting in any way.
Joel…you are always there to kick us in the ass when we need it. You know we don't miss parties and HD is going to be a rager!
Bonnie Erickson | Jun 13, 2008 | Reply
It's a conspiracy! Only the apples can get in to HDPremier? Oh, woe, is me, the old, the archaic PC! I must admit the Vimeo is pretty impressive!
Bonnie Erickson | Jun 13, 2008 | Reply
Oh, and Vimeo told me there was an 80 minute wait because of high usage! Your RSS is certainly pulling in curiosity seekers!
Matt | Jun 13, 2008 | Reply
I agree with you Matt, but Verizon “Fios” is gunna bring a whole new ballgame, bringing fiber optics to the front door of your house. with affordable prices. Its already available in my town in Laguna Beach, California. 15mbps!!!! its starting to spread-get out of your honda's and drive a benz
Matt | Jun 13, 2008 | Reply
it looks like HD Premier is providing a place for Real Estate Video, I read that section under “HOW IT WORKS” It says they host for 6months and you are givin a link to the video page to pass around. But in my town an homeowners are only signing 3month selling agreements with agents. Thats the lowest its ever been. So i cant see agents wanting to spend extra money upfront-but when the market is hot; sure.
Agent21 | Jun 14, 2008 | Reply
With broadband providers throttling back bandwidth and adding surcharges, I think HD might be in trouble for a while. What consumer is going to subject themselves to bandwidth surcharges to look at listings? Will listing brokers be obligated to deploy some kind of “reverse the charges” system to expose the listings via HD video? Will we see a subscription charge to view my HD listings?
Matt | Jun 25, 2008 | Reply
It shouldn't be at all, with the new codecs keeping low bit rate but still HQ videos. They load fast with broadband.