I guess I'd ask myself what platform do you think these family members will play your creation on? An AVCHD DVD will ONLY play on a Blu-ray player. If they only have a DVD player, it won't work. The lowest universally playable disc would be a basic DVD but you lose a lot of quality going that route if your source video is of higher quality. Have you thought about a USB stick instead?

Jeff

Quote I guess I'd ask myself what platform do you think these family members will play your creation on? An AVCHD DVD will ONLY play on a Blu-ray player. If they only have a DVD player, it won't work. The lowest universally playable disc would be a basic DVD but you lose a lot of quality going that route if your source video is of higher quality. Have you thought about a USB stick instead?

Jeff

Wow, am I glad I posted this here! I had no idea a AVCHD would only play on a Blu-ray player. So my original plan is now scrapped. Seems my goal of one size fits all is not the best stratagy so I'm thinking to do it right I'm simply going to have to ask anyone interested in the disk to give particulars on where they will play it and go from there. Thank you so much JL_JL!

And no, I had not thought of a USB stick and that's a neat idea. I've been leaning more on something that can be placed on a shelf and maybe passed down generations. I know, a generation from now they'll be saying, "What's a DVD?" Nothing in technology is static. Maybe those folks that wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls on parchment thousands of years ago had the right idea. If you don't take joy in the snow you'll have less joy in your life and the same amount of snow.

If you want the menu type structure of a DVD/BD one can simply copy the entire video folder that PD creates to the USB stick and they can playback with the full menu with many computer media players. I did someone’s reunion recently and for that I used a 32GB stick and put mp4's on it of each chapter, and also put a full Blu-ray folder and DVD folder on it. Some playback the mp4's on a USB port tied to the TV, others the folder on a computer, others the mp4's on the computer. Some actually burned the DVD or Blu-ray folder to appropriate media and playback on the device of their choice. The 32GB USB sticks were about $4 each.

Jeff

Another option is to upload them to YouTube but make the videos Unlisted. You'll need to copy the URLs of each video and send them out to everyone on your list because nobody can watch them unless they have that exact web address. The videos aren't listed and can't be found through searching on Google or YT, so they're reasonably safe from prying eyes.

You can also put them all on an unlisted playlist and just send that out to your peeps, and a nice the nice thing is that you can add new videos to the playlist all the time and your family and friends will be able to watch them as soon as you upload them.

Benefits are no physical media to buy/distrubute/maintain, and some pretty decent future proofing given that online streaming will likely remain a viable delivery method for a long time - or at least would seem to be a primne candiate for being upgraded to the next gen system.

Very few rights or wrongs here (besides the disc issues JL_JL pointed out), so maybe try out a couple options first before committing to any one approach.

YouTube/optodata

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Quote If you want the menu type structure of a DVD/BD one can simply copy the entire video folder that PD creates to the USB stick and they can playback with the full menu with many computer media players. I did someone’s reunion recently and for that I used a 32GB stick and put mp4's on it of each chapter, and also put a full Blu-ray folder and DVD folder on it. Some playback the mp4's on a USB port tied to the TV, others the folder on a computer, others the mp4's on the computer. Some actually burned the DVD or Blu-ray folder to appropriate media and playback on the device of their choice. The 32GB USB sticks were about $4 each.

Jeff

Really interesting information and I'm sure I'lll be using it at some future date. For this particular project (a family history) many of the folks getting a copy will be of somewhat advanced age (like yours truly!) and frankly would have no clue what a USB stick even is. So for this project I think I'll be sticking with good "old fashioned" DVD's. In the future, though, your info will definitely be put to use. Thanks! If you don't take joy in the snow you'll have less joy in your life and the same amount of snow.

Quote Another option is to upload them to YouTube but make the videos Unlisted. You'll need to copy the URLs of each video and send them out to everyone on your list because nobody can watch them unless they have that exact web address. The videos aren't listed and can't be found through searching on Google or YT, so they're reasonably safe from prying eyes.

You can also put them all on an unlisted playlist and just send that out to your peeps, and a nice the nice thing is that you can add new videos to the playlist all the time and your family and friends will be able to watch them as soon as you upload them.

Benefits are no physical media to buy/distrubute/maintain, and some pretty decent future proofing given that online streaming will likely remain a viable delivery method for a long time - or at least would seem to be a primne candiate for being upgraded to the next gen system.

Very few rights or wrongs here (besides the disc issues JL_JL pointed out), so maybe try out a couple options first before committing to any one approach.

Great advice, Optodata. I had sort of been mulling over the YouTube approach and I think I may be doing that ALONG WITH the DVD's. I had not thought of it from the standpoint of it being a likely long term delivery method but that certainly makes good sense and is very important to me. So like you suggest I'll try out a couple of options and see what floats. I may end up with somewhat of a shotgun approach using several options. Much thanks for the input! If you don't take joy in the snow you'll have less joy in your life and the same amount of snow.