Gnomon Workshop DVDs Now Available for Download!

[sacslacker]

I'm glad they're finally doing this. Gnomology has been great also!

[depleteD]

finnally, damn finnally is all i wanna say

[cresshead]

excellent news!....shipping used to cost nr as much as a dvd...so download is VERY welcome!

[R10k]

Great idea, but I wonder if there are mirrors for the downloads... since there's the two day download limit.

[Mobious]

This is a great feature, and I'm sure it will open the content up to many people who otherwise could not (or would not) have benefited from the material. But, I do think the download version should be at a slightly reduced price.

You are not getting the DVD or jacket, there is no manufacturing cost, and are inconveniancing yourself with downloading the product on your own time.

This should be reflected in the price. I'm not talking half off or anything... But selling both at the same exact price is a bit unfair to the customer in my opinion.

[PaulAdams]

This is a great feature, and I'm sure it will open the content up to many people who otherwise could not (or would not) have benefited from the material. But, I do think the download version should be at a slightly reduced price.

You are not getting the DVD or jacket, there is no manufacturing cost, and are inconveniancing yourself with downloading the product on your own time.

This should be reflected in the price. I'm not talking half off or anything... But selling both at the same exact price is a bit unfair to the customer in my opinion.

Maybe if you're in the US. I'm cool with paying the same price as I won't have to pay $70 shipping. Fantastic news, this. Now where's the next lot of BTS? :D

[cresshead]

This is a great feature, and I'm sure it will open the content up to many people who otherwise could not (or would not) have benefited from the material. But, I do think the download version should be at a slightly reduced price.

You are not getting the DVD or jacket, there is no manufacturing cost, and are inconveniancing yourself with downloading the product on your own time.

This should be reflected in the price. I'm not talking half off or anything... But selling both at the same exact price is a bit unfair to the customer in my opinion.

you do get it cheaper!...no packageing or postage!

well you have to think that gnomon have to set up an administer the download versions with bandwidth considerations and securtrity for downloading...that can balance itself out for the lack of a disc and printed jacket...

also you get the product within an hour or so...MUCH faster than posting...and no bent discs or lost discs to worry about....

as for other vendors...such as digital tutors they charge the same

in the end you have a choice>
download> nr instant...
post> physical media...but you'll have to wait and pay more for packing and postage

[Venkman]

This is especially great for those occasional discs that sell out, or are out of print. I'm sure they lose sales when there are no discs to buy!

I'm excited. I'm going to go check it out now!

[Mobious]

Postage is not part of the cost of the product, thats a separate fee and shouldnt be considered when pricing something.

But I do see the benefits if you live over sea. You guys do get hit with postage pretty hard.

I dunno, everything Cresshead said is right. I'm not denying the benefits, and even at 49 bucks, the Gnomon stuff is worth every penny and more. But with all this digital download stuff (not just them, but other companies) in the long run a sever cost far less to maintain then burning printing and packaging hundreds of DVDs. In the end, their profit will be more.

Personal nag I guess...

[whalerider]

I'm fine if the price for the download version is the same.
Not just because of shipping, but also because I don't have to wait until it arrives.

I wonder if the titles that used to be 'Sold Out' will be available as downloads.

[Venkman]

There are a bunch that do not have the download option (found some in maya training -> dynamics), and some of the old discontinued/sold out DVDs are not up.

[Spin99]

Out of curiosity what size download is a Gnomon DVD like?
Cause it seems you have 48hrs to do it?
Just wondering if African cable would cut it lol..

[R10k]

From Gnomon...

Each DVD is about 4.3-4.5 gigs.

I was also told if there was a problem with the download speed for some reason, they'd extend the download time. I'm pretty sure that's for rare cases, not in the case of trying to download 15 DVDs at the same time ;)

[R10k]

Scratch that, I just purchased one of the older ones by Scott Robertson, and that came to a gig or so.

[Spin99]

Thanks R10k. So better value DVD's could go all the way to 4.7 GB.
Just wondering, not that I'm planning to purchase anytime soon, but it's a heck of a lot of downloading for 48 hrs.

Maybe it wouldn't be such a great deal buying a DVD from Gnomon and only being able to download half of it before your download expires?
My 2c.

It would be OK if they kept track of how much you downloaded (with software or something)
and then extended I suppose. Just not if you're strictly limited to 48 hrs.

[R10k]

Well, the guys seem to be open to offering people more time to finish downloads if needed. I'd contact them and ask. Perhaps a good idea (I may suggest it) is to list the size and breakup of files for each DVD. The one I downloaded has each chapter as a seperate download, which makes it easy if you need to do half one day, and the other half the next.

The general pricing for a DVD seems to give the size away. For example, a $40 DVD will run around the 2-2.5 hour mark, while a $70+ one will run around 3-4 hours. If it's an old ntsc 720x480 one it'll be smaller again, while the newer 1024 ones are larger.

So, some of them are actually quite downloadable for those with limited connections. Plus, the DVD won't get lost in the post on the way to SA :D

[anthonyredou]

I love Gnomonlogy because you pay and you get right off the bat. Now Gnomon Workshop has joined this philosophy also. Excellent!!!

Anthony

[powerwave3d]

Do they have any weird protection attached to it? Like if I download and watch it on my laptop will I be able to watch it on my desktop as well?

[R10k]

There's no protection I've seen.

[switchblade327]

Postage is not part of the cost of the product, thats a separate fee and shouldnt be considered when pricing something.

But I do see the benefits if you live over sea. You guys do get hit with postage pretty hard.

I dunno, everything Cresshead said is right. I'm not denying the benefits, and even at 49 bucks, the Gnomon stuff is worth every penny and more. But with all this digital download stuff (not just them, but other companies) in the long run a sever cost far less to maintain then burning printing and packaging hundreds of DVDs. In the end, their profit will be more.

Personal nag I guess...

When pricing something, how much money it takes out of your pocket is what should be considered; the breakdown beyond that doesn't matter much. The cost of DVD pressing, printing manuals and clamshell case probably add up to 50 cents or so per DVD. I don't know what the serverside costs are for hosting huge video files are but even if it were free, the savings of digital downloads would still be trivial until you get to postage. I like that there is a choice; I much prefer digital downloads to physical, space-consuming media as long as the use is unrestricted (and at least the Gnonomoly ones are). For overseas people, this is extra-awesome because you pay US prices and avoid potential tarriffs/customs on top of the crazy high shipping rates.

I think this is awesome and I hope the CG Pro Shop gets all of them soon. I want to use my new discount :) My only concern is the two day download limit. If you have a hard drive failure down the road and lose a video, are you SOL?

[cresshead]

if it's like gnomology they're just quicktime videos...i back mine up onto another pc so if a hd fries i still have the products i bought.

[Spin99]

Yeh if they actually make sure you get a chance to download your DVD than it's got to be nice. I remember not liking the import prices on Gnomon DVD's also how quickly they go out of stock and are hard to get by.

So really nice, it looks like anyone now can definitely get the videos they've been meaning to save up for :P

[switchblade327]

if it's like gnomology they're just quicktime videos...i back mine up onto another pc so if a hd fries i still have the products i bought.

I'm good about backing up too but you can still lose data on a second computer or raid drive (break in, house fire, meteorite, etc).

For digital purchases, you should just be able to download a replacement once you've verified that you purchased it since it doesn't cost them any more (like Steam does for games), It could be expensive and time consuming to use a personal online backup service to store gigs of dvd data. Backing up my personal data on mozy.com has taken over a week and that's without hours of dvd footage.

I'm not assuming the worst here; maybe their customer service will let you download again if you explain the circumstances. But it's a legitimate question.

[switchblade327]

Update: I just bought 2 digital training videos...

While I still love the idea, the process needs a lot of work. Rather then downloading 2 big files, I have to individually download 17 smaller ones, waiting 10 seconds between clicking on each one for security reasons. So instead of downloading and forgetting, I get to babysit 17 downloads for the next hour or so. I'd advise sticking with the DVDs for anyone who isn't saving a grip on shipping.

For those asking earlier, total file size looks like it'll be about 600-800mb.

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