[Matt Townley]

I share your concerns and questions, Nick.

As you mentioned, I am confident in the value our services provide our clients, but that doesn’t mean I want to air a detailed list of their contact information to the world, including our competitors.

From another perspective, we work with some clients that would not be thrilled to know that we work with certain companies; for example, apposing labor unions, clients that compete in the market place, non-profits that appose the point of view of another, etc. We make it very clear to all of our clients that we do not offer exclusivity and that we accept work from all clients, but at the same time we offer a certain level of anonymity to them that makes them feel confident in working with us.

I don’t know how we could have an active social network presence and still maintain this type of confidentiality or risk having all of our clients poached by a competitor.

[Matt Townley]

We offer Rimage Video Protect as an add-on to our DVD duplication. We have encrypted several thousand DVDs and have never had a complaint regarding compatibility.

I agree that no form of copy-protection or encryption is going to offer a 100% guarantee, but sometimes it is better than nothing. Most people that copy discs are average consumers that use off-the-shelf ripping or copying software, and if that doesn’t work, they give up. CSS was widely cracked over 10 years ago, so it is seldom of any use, but RVP is much more useful against deterring copying AND ripping. It has not been cracked, AND because of the unique way it encrypts discs, every disc is slightly different. This means that if someone cracks the encryption on the disc they have, the same key and decryption method will not work on every other disc, thus preventing widespread compromise of the encryption format.

[Matt Townley]

We are in a bit of a different boat than you, because our core business is not production. Our primary business is CD/DVD/Blu-ray Risc duplication and replication, and that is supplemented by graphic design, disc authoring, encoding and some light editing for certain clients. Just this year we started offering production to some of our clients, but we only help produce and coordinate it, we don’t shoot anything ourselves.

We have a 4 page brochure that acts as an overview of our company. It can stand on it’s own without anything else and it has a little bit of something for everyone. It has worked really well to get clients asking questions like “oh, you can do that too?” or saying “wow, I never thought about doing that…”

In addition to this, we have single page rack cards that highlight our services and go into more detail about them. We have a matching presentation folder that we put the 4 page overview brochure in along with any rack cards for the products or services that are of the most interest to the specific client.

Having a “modular” system like this works well since we can print the overview brochures in bulk to save money and have them look really nice, but the specialty inserts we print in shorter runs to keep them updated more frequently.

Here is what the overview brochure looks like:

Here is a link to download the PDF of the overview brochure:
https://www.mstproductions.com/uploads/MST-Productions-Overview.pdf

[Matt Townley]

[Mike Cohen] “I agree with this. You should not go to school specifically to learn software/hardware etc. You go to school for the fundamentals and to learn how to work hard.”

Agreed. By the time I finished school half of what I learned in my first two years was obsolete and useless. But the process of learning and the tools you learn to absorb and retain knowledge never go obsolete.

[Matt Townley]

I have battled this same fight and have been frustrated by it time and time again. Unfortunately, the reality is that the lack of a 2 or 4 year degree can make a difference. It doesn’t matter if it’s right or wrong, it’s just how it works most of the time.

Take for instance a scenario where a large Post House is hiring a new editor. The hiring manager gave their position to HR to fill and HR screened 250 resumes. They had phone interviews with 10 or so and brought in 4 for in-person interviews. Of those 4 final candidates they all have great reels and good references.

In a second round of interviews two of the candidates are weeded out because of other variables. That leaves two candidates, both with killer reels, great references and personalities that jive well with the existing team. They both have great experience and skill sets, but the only real difference is that one has a 4 year degree and the other doesn’t.

The hiring manager is responsible for the new editor. The successes or failures of this editor falls on them, and their boss is watching. When a hiring manager hires someone, they put a little bit of them self on the line for that person. If they hire the candidate without a degree and that person washes out in 6 months, their boss may ask them why they hired that person instead of the one with the 4 year degree. The degree may have absolutely nothing to do with it, but the reality is that perception matters.

Just my 2c.

[Matt Townley]

Hi Ally,

I can’t vouch for them personally, but I know the Bravo line of products from Primera are popular for people with needs similar to what you voiced. It does seem like people have love/hate relationships with them, but maybe something to look at.

Like Noah said, it may be better to outsource your duplication needs for cost control, efficiency or quality reasons. If you would like another option, feel free to contact me or visit my companies website (https://www.mstproductions.com). We specialize in high-quality and fast turn duplication/replication. You can get instant quotes on our site to compare pricing and options.

Best of luck,
Matt

[Matt Townley]

I have a few clients at large companies who forgo titles altogether. Instead, their biz cards have their name and a department, ie:

Joe Bob
Policy, Government & Public Affairs

I see this trend at more and more companies. As people’s jobs take on more and more responsibilities, deep and wide, it’s often hard to have a title that concisely explains what they do.

[Matt Townley]

The only thing I price by the minute is compression/transcoding/encoding.

[Matt Townley]

If you want a no-brainer solution without having to code anything, use something like a really simple WuFoo form an embed it in your site. I have used WuFoo for years and couldn’t be happier with them. I have a paid plan and the money is well worth the ease and flexibility of not having to deal with the coding and programming for both simple and complex forms.

[Matt Townley]

From what you described, it sounds like they didn’t have any other DVD player software installed. It’s not that “extra” software is required to play it, it’s just that they need a proper DVD player and mpeg2 decoder. Not sure what version of Windows they have, but I don’t think all versions (especially XP) comes with an MPEG2 decoder out of the box. This is not the fault of your (or any) DVD. No way around that. I could be wrong if others chime in with other thoughts, but this sounds like what is going on.