[Ron Lindeboom]

It is live, Dimitris. You can find it here.

On weekends we do not do everything instantly, we cruise a bit and take it easier than we do during the week.

Thanks for your understanding.

Best regards,

Ron Lindeboom
CEO, CreativeCOW.net

Creativity is a type of learning process where the teacher and pupil are located in the same individual.

Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.
– Antoine de Saint Exupéry

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.
– Gandhi

Better is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure than to rank with the poor spirits who neither enjoy much, nor suffer much because they live in a gray twilight that knows no victory or defeat. – Theodore Roosevelt

[Ron Lindeboom]

Yes, it is getting very tough, Todd, as you know from Kim’s work over the years.

I just got the latest issue of Videography the other day in the mail, and it was 36 pages. I remember when it was one of the truly powerful voices in our industry. But they are having a rough time as are all the magazine in this industry.

Since beginning Creative COW Magazine, which we launched at NAB 2006, we have watched Film & Video quietly go away. Then February of 2009, we watched Studio Monthly go under. Then April 2009 saw the quiet final unplugging of Video Systems. Then in October 2009, we heard from advertisers that Millimeter was letting advertisers know that in 2010 they were going all digital.

Going all-digital is fine, but you have to have a web-footprint to do that if it is going to be anything real. Unfortunately, magazines are way easier to make than it is to build a powerful and industry-leading web community, no matter the industry you are in.

We think that 2010 is going to be the last stand for many of the magazines out there that are barely hanging on. Thankfully, we have the website to draw upon and to leverage to build our magazine, many others do not have any such luxury.

Print is a rough business and publishers who could not fathom the web or how to use it, are likely going to have the same kind of issues when trying to learn to create new media emagazines going forward.

From where we stand, the real problem is not one of technology, it is one of hearing. Without a real community to draw on, many once powerful publishers flounder trying to figure out what the market wants.

That old guy, the erstwhile Saul of Tarsus, once said that people without a vision, perish. In our experience, he was right.

Best regards,

Ron Lindeboom
CEO, CreativeCOW.net

Creativity is a type of learning process where the teacher and pupil are located in the same individual.

Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.
– Antoine de Saint Exupéry

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.
– Gandhi

Better is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure than to rank with the poor spirits who neither enjoy much, nor suffer much because they live in a gray twilight that knows no victory or defeat. – Theodore Roosevelt

[Ron Lindeboom]

The cost of the Creative COW Magazine is borne by the advertisers.

VERY FEW magazines today can get enough advertisers to cover their costs, etc., and we are fortunate that we get more advertisers than any of the other magazines that are left in our marketspace.

The magazine business is a rough business to get into. I would not recommend it for either the weak at heart, or for the fearless. We knew we were in an exceptional place that put us in a unique position, when we started the COW Magazine. Otherwise, we would not have attempted it.

Would we recommend it to anyone starting afresh? No, we would only recommend it to the independently wealthy, who are also foolhardy.

Best regards,

Ron Lindeboom
CEO, CreativeCOW.net

Creativity is a type of learning process where the teacher and pupil are located in the same individual.

Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.
– Antoine de Saint Exupéry

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.
– Gandhi

Better is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure than to rank with the poor spirits who neither enjoy much, nor suffer much because they live in a gray twilight that knows no victory or defeat. – Theodore Roosevelt

[Ron Lindeboom]

[Chris Blair] “And I continue to see references to Avatar and Coraline and fabulous previews of 3D technology setup expressly to promote it. You’re talking about a world that most of us are not familiar with. We don’t have 100 million dollar budgets. We can’t get people to dim the lights when they play their prized marketing video to a room of 300 people. We can’t get them to have the sound system turned on when they play that training DVD we spent a week shooting and editing.”

Then this really isn’t for you, is it?

The old salesman said it best: sell what you can see, don’t see what you can sell.

As in every industry, there are early adopters, mid-term adopters, and late adopters.

I remember when people on these forums years ago argued that no one was making money on HD. The people that I knew who jumped in and got the bugs worked out and built their businesses around HD, ended up with the lion’s share of the market. The mid-term adopters picked up work, later on. The late adopters are still saying that they can’t get anyone to pay for it.

This market, too, will be summarized years from now in the same way. It is a normal business cycle. Nothing more.

Best regards,

Ron Lindeboom
CEO, CreativeCOW.net

Creativity is a type of learning process where the teacher and pupil are located in the same individual.

Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.
– Antoine de Saint Exupéry

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.
– Gandhi

Better is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure than to rank with the poor spirits who neither enjoy much, nor suffer much because they live in a gray twilight that knows no victory or defeat. – Theodore Roosevelt

[Ron Lindeboom]

[Chris Blair] “We’re not pessimistic about 3D TV. We’re pessimistic about convincing corporate America to pay more for equipment and technical know-how than they’re paying now. We’re pessimistic about people who make decisions about making videos outside of the world of network and cable TV (and it’s a HUGE world outside it). We’re pessimistic they won’t pay the extra money to produce 3D programs.”

Then you don’t realize the power of THE NEXT BIG THING nor of the old adage that you “sell the sizzle, not the steak.”

The people that I knew who got into HD earlier than later were the ones who got the accounts, the same for those who jumped into DVD production before iDVD and DVD Workshop and Encore came along.

When things become commodities, you are right — corporations like everyone else, pay based on supply and demand.

When the supply is coming out of the woodwork, then there is little power left to the one selling.

You can always find the “hole in the donut” man. Me, I would rather concentrate on those gooey sugary greasy calories encircling the air.

Some people see the donut, others only see the hole.

Best regards,

Ron Lindeboom
CEO, CreativeCOW.net

Creativity is a type of learning process where the teacher and pupil are located in the same individual.

Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.
– Antoine de Saint Exupéry

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.
– Gandhi

Better is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure than to rank with the poor spirits who neither enjoy much, nor suffer much because they live in a gray twilight that knows no victory or defeat. – Theodore Roosevelt

[Ron Lindeboom]

I think you know I was not bagging on you, David. I just want people to be aware that this is arguably simpler and more fun to watch than many suppose.

Thanks for your enthusiasm, like you, I am really happy to see this come along as I never thought that I would see this at home in my lifetime (which seems to be going faster and faster all the time). ;o)

Have fun, David.

Best regards,

Ron Lindeboom
CEO, CreativeCOW.net

Creativity is a type of learning process where the teacher and pupil are located in the same individual.

Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.
– Antoine de Saint Exupéry

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.
– Gandhi

Better is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure than to rank with the poor spirits who neither enjoy much, nor suffer much because they live in a gray twilight that knows no victory or defeat. – Theodore Roosevelt

[Ron Lindeboom]

[David Roth Weiss] “Although I didn’t see it, many here on this and other forums saw and have commented on the 3D commercial broadcast during last year’s Superbowl. So, rudimentary 3D is capable without any technology other than a set of red and blue lens in cardboard frames. Great, that’s cool for a quick thrill.”

I responded to David’s other remarks in another post but felt that this one deserved and merited its own uniquely focused reply.

What we watch on our home unit is not “rudimentary 3D” and it is a far cry better than 3D from the 1950s that Herb Sevush mentioned, for example.

One of my favorite things to do with our friends who tell me that you can’t get 3D at home, is to sit them down in front of our 42″ non-3D-but-yet-it-is flatpanel, and put in Coraline and show them the living fantastical garden sequence and then the same garden later in the movie when it is dead.

They usually laugh and have a great time and then want me to come over and set up their TVs for them. As it takes only minutes to do, I never mind.

That sequence from Coraline is anything but rudimentary.

Is it as good as what we saw together at Dreamworks, David? Hardly. Does it rival Real-D? Nope. Is it as good as IMAX 3d? Not a chance.

But does it blow away all the Roger Corman and Alfred Hitchcock “a pair of scissors coming at you” 3D? It is lightyears better than that.

What we get at home even made the piece of crap movie of Brendan Fraser’s “Journey To the Center of the Earth” worth watching — once. (Ah, dirty pleasures, eh?) ;o)

But I know what you mean by the state of the art in the theaters today, now THAT’S entertainment. 🙂

Best regards,

Ron Lindeboom
CEO, CreativeCOW.net

Creativity is a type of learning process where the teacher and pupil are located in the same individual.

Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.
– Antoine de Saint Exupéry

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.
– Gandhi

Better is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure than to rank with the poor spirits who neither enjoy much, nor suffer much because they live in a gray twilight that knows no victory or defeat. – Theodore Roosevelt

[Ron Lindeboom]

[Craig Seeman] “And how does one know that number if they weren’t marketed as such?
I keep hearing about 3D capable HDTVs “coming to market” implying that previously sold sets are not 3D capable.”

There is no financial incentive to manufacturers to tell past customers that they have 3D already. They get paid on new TV sales, not on telling consumers about features they already possess but may not be aware of.

My 42″ Polaroid flat-panel — as well as my friend’s just purchased 32″ Phillips 1080-ready that we set up for him the other day — did not mention 3D support as a feature.

Both play 3D nicely, thank you.

So, anyone that bought the 1080-based Polaroid with HDMI ports that we have, possesses a 3D-ready unit. Add to that, the 1080-based units with HDMI ports from Sony, Phillips, Panasonic, Sharp, Mitsubishi and a bunch of others. Add ’em all up, and you have your number.

That is probably what they are counting, Craig.

Best regards,

Ron Lindeboom
CEO, CreativeCOW.net

Creativity is a type of learning process where the teacher and pupil are located in the same individual.

Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.
– Antoine de Saint Exupéry

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.
– Gandhi

Better is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure than to rank with the poor spirits who neither enjoy much, nor suffer much because they live in a gray twilight that knows no victory or defeat. – Theodore Roosevelt

[Ron Lindeboom]

[Nick Griffin] “What constitutes a 3D capable set. (And please tell me I already have one of them.)”

Many people think that their existing TV flatscreens are not 3D-capable, when they are.

I have a 42″ Polaroid flatscreen, nothing fancy, bought it for about $1,500 a couple years ago and it did not list 3D as one of its capabilities.

Can it do 3D? Yes, we have watched many a show on it — and it is quite cool.

How did we get there?

You have to have a minimum of the following:

• An HDMI flat-panel capable of 720 or 1080 HD support.
• A Blu-ray DVD player
  OR
• an up-converting progressive scan SD DVD player
• An HDMI cable between the player and the flatpanel.

We have nothing fancier than that and we watch 3D movies all the time at home.

I cannot tell the difference between the up-converted progressive scan SD version of movies like Coraline in 3D, or their Blu-ray counterparts.

I do not trust the manufacturers to incorporate real up-conversion and progressive scan on the Blu-ray players, so I own separate units because I don’t for the life of me believe that there is any advantage to a manufacturer to add real up-converting support to a Blu-ray player because they are so visually comparable that they would have viewers saying, “So what is the big deal about Blu-ray?”

One of the other secrets that we have found to getting great 3D at home, is that you have to have curtains that stop all outside light from coming in. We have window coverings that totally blacken the room. In that environment, our never-meant-to-be-a-3D-television-and-yet-it-is unit is more fun than any TV we have ever owned before.

Oh, and for those who want to insist that it doesn’t work: please tell that to my friends whom we have also helped set up their own never-was-intended-to-be-3D-and-so-should-not-have-shown-3D-but-yet-they-do units. They love them, too.

Best regards,

Ron Lindeboom
CEO, CreativeCOW.net

Creativity is a type of learning process where the teacher and pupil are located in the same individual.

Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.
– Antoine de Saint Exupéry

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.
– Gandhi

Better is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure than to rank with the poor spirits who neither enjoy much, nor suffer much because they live in a gray twilight that knows no victory or defeat. – Theodore Roosevelt

[Ron Lindeboom]

You should be a TV reporter, Mark. I can hear it now, as the anchor says: “Let’s go to Mark Raudonis for today’s report…”

“Yes, Mr. & Ms. Well-Coiffed-and-Well-Dressed Co-Anchors, JP Morgan today floated a boatload of cash to speed the adoption of 3D in the cinemas. And while a few myopic naysayers over at Creative COW continued to get pummeled by the vast majority of its members who actually love the stuff, crowds continue to line-up to see Cameron’s Avatar yet again — most, watching a movie that they’ve now seen more than once. Some, like David Roth Weiss, have seen the movie in multiple formats — seeing it on the standard screen Real-D and then jetting across town to see it on the big and beautiful IMAX screen.”

“Thanks for that report, Mark,” states Mr. Well-Coiffed-and-Well-Dressed Co-Anchor.

I remember when DV first came out. I hated it. I owned my Motion-JPEG Media 100 system and the picture back then was great. Far better than DV, I assure you. But the marketplace wanted DV and they got it.

I remember sitting at a dinner once with Ralph Fairweather in New York City where he thanked me for not believing in DV. “By doing so,” he told me, “you left the door open for us to start and build the 2-pop site. If you had believed in it, we’d never have gotten it off the ground.”

So, I will ask the naysayers here: “What doors are you leaving open for others because you can’t see what’s happening here and have no interest in what the market clearly wants?”

Best regards,

Ron Lindeboom
CEO, CreativeCOW.net

Creativity is a type of learning process where the teacher and pupil are located in the same individual.

Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.
– Antoine de Saint Exupéry

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.
– Gandhi

Better is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure than to rank with the poor spirits who neither enjoy much, nor suffer much because they live in a gray twilight that knows no victory or defeat. – Theodore Roosevelt