Comments on: Podcast #21: 5 Things You Didn’t Know You Could Do with Your Table Saw http://www.woodworkingonline.com/2007/05/14/podcast-21-5-things-you-didnt-know-you-could-do-with-your-table-saw/ An online source of information for the connected woodworker. Fri, 25 Jul 2008 01:34:56 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6 By: Joel Hess http://www.woodworkingonline.com/2007/05/14/podcast-21-5-things-you-didnt-know-you-could-do-with-your-table-saw/#comment-2782 Joel Hess Tue, 05 Jun 2007 12:45:40 +0000 http://www.woodworkingonline.com/2007/05/14/podcast-21-5-things-you-didnt-know-you-could-do-with-your-table-saw/#comment-2782 Daniel, this question has come up a few times in the past and I've even enlisted our I.T. manager, Brian VanHeuverswyn, to address the possibility of improving the quality of the podcast. Here is his response to an earlier request (I thought it did a good job of explaining our plans at this time): To viewers of the <em>Woodsmith</em> Woodworking Seminar Podcasts: Thank you so much for your question. I'll do my best to answer. We have no immediate plans to produce an enhanced version of the podcast. Podcasting is a bit of a tricky beast because you have to find a "happy medium" in terms of the encoding that you use to create them. Some of our customers want to view them on a small media player (such as an iPod), others want to view them on their computer. Still others (like you) want to watch an enhanced version on a larger screen. We discussed our options and settled on our current format. We did have some discussions about offering a second, better quality version for people who want a better viewing experience on their computer or TV. But in the end, the time and effort that it would take to do that would simply be too much for us to handle right now. We are working on enhancing our workflow to try and decrease the amount of time it takes for us to create these videos, but for now it just isn't something we can do. We have very limited resources in our video department and since the podcasts are a free product, we just aren't generating enough revenue to warrant the additional time and effort. I do empathize with you and I wish I could offer you the podcasts in better quality, but that simply isn't on the horizon. Please feel free to reply with any additional questions that you may have. We appreciate your patronage and look forward to serving you in the future. Kind Regards, Brian VanHeuverswyn I.T. Manager August Home Publishing Daniel, this question has come up a few times in the past and I’ve even enlisted our I.T. manager, Brian VanHeuverswyn, to address the possibility of improving the quality of the podcast. Here is his response to an earlier request (I thought it did a good job of explaining our plans at this time):

To viewers of the Woodsmith Woodworking Seminar Podcasts:

Thank you so much for your question. I’ll do my best to answer.

We have no immediate plans to produce an enhanced version of the podcast. Podcasting is a bit of a tricky beast because you have to find a “happy medium” in terms of the encoding that you use to create them. Some of our customers want to view them on a small media player (such as an iPod), others want to view them on their computer. Still others (like you) want to watch an enhanced version on a larger screen. We discussed our options and settled on our current format.

We did have some discussions about offering a second, better quality version for people who want a better viewing experience on their computer or TV. But in the end, the time and effort that it would take to do that would simply be too much for us to handle right now. We are working on enhancing our workflow to try and decrease the amount of time it takes for us to create these videos, but for now it just isn’t something we can do. We have very limited resources in our video department and since the podcasts are a free product, we just aren’t generating enough revenue to warrant the additional time and effort.

I do empathize with you and I wish I could offer you the podcasts in better quality, but that simply isn’t on the horizon.

Please feel free to reply with any additional questions that you may have. We appreciate your patronage and look forward to serving you in the future.

Kind Regards,

Brian VanHeuverswyn
I.T. Manager
August Home Publishing

]]> By: Daniel Dennis http://www.woodworkingonline.com/2007/05/14/podcast-21-5-things-you-didnt-know-you-could-do-with-your-table-saw/#comment-2733 Daniel Dennis Mon, 04 Jun 2007 17:34:08 +0000 http://www.woodworkingonline.com/2007/05/14/podcast-21-5-things-you-didnt-know-you-could-do-with-your-table-saw/#comment-2733 I used to attend the seminars in person, but due to time constraints I have to download the podcast instead. I am confused as to why you don't offer a higher quality larger size (viewable) video file, one example is http://www.thewoodwhisperer.com/ , I have a lot of trouble being able to see the podcast at such a small size. I assume this is a band width cost issue, if not please offer a high resolution version of the seminars. Thanks. I used to attend the seminars in person, but due to time constraints I have to download the podcast instead. I am confused as to why you don’t offer a higher quality larger size (viewable) video file, one example is http://www.thewoodwhisperer.com/ , I have a lot of trouble being able to see the podcast at such a small size. I assume this is a band width cost issue, if not please offer a high resolution version of the seminars. Thanks.

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