Thanks rayjay. We appreciate all of the supportive words from you and others. It helps make the huge effort seem worth it.
Regards,
Dave
Video Encyclopedia of Pool Shots
- Thread starter dr_dave
- Start date
Regards,
Dave
Best compliment I can give is that I just bought a copy. 
great work here. If the next disc were available before Christmas it would be on my wish list (and she would get it too!). I am looking forward to the rest of the DVD set. It will be in my library.
BTW, the trailer sold me. I too like the lines and the professional presentation. Something just rings right when you have a pro player and a univesity professor putting it all together.
This is good stuff
I noted the elbow lifting at the back of the stroke on the power draw that impressed me. I think this is used by many. It is not the drop it is the angle of entry -- but then what do I know.
great work here. If the next disc were available before Christmas it would be on my wish list (and she would get it too!). I am looking forward to the rest of the DVD set. It will be in my library.BTW, the trailer sold me. I too like the lines and the professional presentation. Something just rings right when you have a pro player and a univesity professor putting it all together.
This is good stuff
I noted the elbow lifting at the back of the stroke on the power draw that impressed me. I think this is used by many. It is not the drop it is the angle of entry -- but then what do I know.
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Dave
Making the Program Proprietary is a safer way to protect your copyright. They can be serial numbered and made to only install on one computer. Once installed the Activation code is changed by the install. The program will reinstall on that same computer because it will already be in the registry. This will mean keeping records of serial numbers for later support should a customer change computers.
Copyright is hard to enforce and very expensive, Taking steps to not get ripped off is important and a PITA. While I am NOT an expert on Proprietary programs, I beta Test Training programs for a good friend who is. People will pass programs to their friends or even resell them. Any thing made by man can be cracked or changed by man. But it takes a good hacker to do it.
About a year ago I broke the screen on my Laptop. It was wiser to buy a new one than to fix the broken screen. I just cloned the hard drive to the new computer and was good to go with all the same information in about an hour.
BTW I will be buying # I and hope to see # II soon.
Im getting them not to improve my play (im sure it will though :wink
but more for the students i teach. Extremely well done and like meantioned above any novice would become a hustler in a matter of months!! lol
Thank you for these. They will be well used and thats a fact
but more for the students i teach. Extremely well done and like meantioned above any novice would become a hustler in a matter of months!! lolThank you for these. They will be well used and thats a fact
You can do it multiple different ways....fact of the matter is if people want to for lack of a better word steal the information. They can and will. You just need to make it so its easier and better to buy it than steal it.
Sent a pm...
R
I used to write commercial software for use in mental health and related professions. It was determined by our software engineer that it should require about four times the effort to crack our code as it took our guy to write the code. This was the opinion of one of the leaders in the industry who wrote our protected operating system. Not a bad rule of thumb.
The fellow I worked with had a PhD in Math (by about age 19), wrote operating sytems and published on fuzzy math and turing machines. He figured it would take someone two years to crack what he wrote in six months.
The fellow I worked with had a PhD in Math (by about age 19), wrote operating sytems and published on fuzzy math and turing machines. He figured it would take someone two years to crack what he wrote in six months.
Thank you Joe. That's quite the endorsement! I appreciate it.Best compliment I can give is that I just bought a copy.
BTW, the trailer sold me. I too like the lines and the professional presentation. Something just rings right when you have a pro player and a univesity professor putting it all together.
This is good stuff
BTW, Disc II should be out in early December, so I hope your Christmas wishes come true. :grin-square:
Joe, I'm not sure what you mean here. I'm pretty sure my elbow was still during the entire shot. I'm sorry we couldn't include my arm in the camera angle. Anyway, the back of the cue goes up, and the tip goes down, during the backstroke because of the pendulum motion. I have a fairly long forearm (I'm 6'3"), and I used a fairly long bridge length, so the grip hand rose quite a bit during the fixed-elbow pendulum motion. During the forward stroke, the reverse motion occurs, bringing the tip right back to my initial aim point on the CB. Also, during the follow-through, the pendulum motion brings the grip hand up, causing the cue tip to finish down on the table. If you're curious, more info and resources covering the pendulum stroke can be found here:
Regards,
Dave
PS: Please let me know what you think (here or via PM or e-mail) after watching the entire DVD.
Thanks for the info. This doesn't sound like anything I would be interested in doing, for now anyway. I had the DVD professionally replicated with CSS encryption to copy-protect it. This can be hacked with illegal software, but it will prevent most law-abiding citizens from making illegal copies. That's good enough for me.
Originally, I thought you were suggesting I offer the video through some sort of video-on-demand or iTunes-like download-purchase system. This might be the way instructional videos will head in the future, but I think most people still prefer DVDs that they can play in any DVD player or computer (with a DVD drive).
I hope to have Disc II out by mid December.
Regards,
Dave
JoeW
When I made the suggestion to protect his copyright, I was thinking more of common software that a experienced Hacker would have no trouble cracking because of expense reasons. The Idea might be to keep the average guy from making copies for his friends. No matter what he does someone some where is going to steal the material in some way. They take it as a challenge just because they can. That is just life. BTW the Russians are famous for cracking software and then publishing the codes. I have watched first run movies on my computer before they were released to the Movie Theater, but that is another story and I no longer do it.
Serial Numbers are only good for mass reproduction not the best buddy trade. But you have to catch them first. The serial Number is the proof of theft. This is common in both Music and Movie industry. If people know this up front they will think twice before trying. In my friends case he sells his training programs to large companies with many employees. He offers a deal for a large number Purchases. But since his market is rather limited by specialization he must be sure One copy doesn't become the only one he sells.
IN EDIT
Dave I was 3 minutes behind you posting and didn't see your post. Yes you are good to go.
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Thanks. At first, I was a little worried that the pace of the first DVD was too fast, and that the amount of material we included on each disc was too much, and that the run-time is too long (about 1 1/2 hours on each disc), but then I decided people can just use the pause and rewind buttons, and watch in chunks if necessary. We also have a nice menu-title screen and shuttle-key chapters that make it easy to return to and review sections of interest or difficulty.
I know I can get a little "carried away" with the level of detail and technical stuff in my BD articles at times. Thank you for your honesty. I'm glad you like the videos better than my articles (... I do too).
We hope people think so. This was certainly our goal when we started planning the project.
Since you're "not easily impressed," I will be curious to hear what you think after you've seen the entire Disc I. Please post something or send my a PM or an email after you watch it.
It's statements like this that make me feel good about all of the effort Tom and I put in. Thanks.
Regards,
Dave
PS: I'm glad you got the free DVD on "that other forum" (which isn't as active as it used to be).
Please let me know if you and/or your students have any feedback.Im getting them not to improve my play (im sure it will though :wink
Thank you for these. They will be well used and thats a fact
If any "novice becomes a hustler in a matter of months," then he or she must be a true hustler!
Regards,
Dave
I had the DVD professionally replicated with CSS encryption to copy-protect it. Should I be overly concerned? Were you thinking of something else?
Thanks,
Dave
Has anybody out there seen the entire Disc I yet?
I'm curious to know what you guys think ... positive or negative.
Thanks,
Dave
I'm curious to know what you guys think ... positive or negative.
Thanks,
Dave
I give it five stars as an introduction to shot making ***** with some nice additions for intermediate players.
I watched the whole DVD the other night and here is what I like and what I thought was needed from a user’s perspective.
Like:
Quality of the DVD: It looked great on my 5’ plasma TV.
Use of graphics: They are exceptionally clear and well presented. They are not over used and illustrate the points well.
Presentation style: It is not hyped or overly commercial. The instructional style, with recaps as needed, were useful and appropriate. This is an instructional DVD and makes no excuses.
Lack of music and other extraneous noise: Made it easier to concentrate on the topics.
The use of Gems is a good idea as it highlights things that are useful but not necessarily common knowledge. They are (at times) the kinds of things you can tell your buddies at the pool hall and earn some respect.
Lack of duplicate or multiple replays of the same shot is probably one of the most appealing features. As noted on the DVD I am capable of rewinding and pausing as needed. The lack of duplicates makes the DVD worth much more than the price paid. I think that a relatively new player will spend many hours with the more than 150+ ideas presented and discussed. The DVD contains two or three times the amount of information available on similar DVDs and this is quite impressive. I think this should be strongly emphasized in your public relations campaign.
Suggestions
Written Table of Contents on the sleeve, as an attachment or as a download would help when searching for a topic on this and other DVDs in the series. There is much information here. An index is very much needed that would allow the user to quickly jump to the appropriate section. The DVD menu is good and useful, however when I pick up five DVDs I may not remember which one contained what, a hard copy would be quite useful. An annotated or sub-titled index would also be of use and make it a much more useful tool for instructional purposes. Something like a book index is what I am thinking.
Include a business card or small brochure that can be given to others. If you are in business never give one business card, always give two cards so that one can be passed on. Something similar is needed here. At the least give a card with your URL. All of us are simply too lazy to look at “all that stuff” and pass it on. The URL on the DVD is useful but you could do a little more here.
A case or storage unit (with a Table of Contents?) will be needed for all five DVDs. Again, help us out here, we are all too lazy to store this stuff in some reasonable way that does justice to the work that you and Tom have done. If you send the storage unit with the first DVD, I will need to fill it up with the others as they come out. A little Catholic guilt would be useful here.
Not sure how to do this one, but a few more smiles, laughs, grins, whatever, from you and especially from Tom would help. There is humor in a few places and that is good, a little more would help. The DVD is serious and instructional; a few more laughs would lighten it up a little more. Perhaps that is just my style and others may not agree. The "tenseness" that you and Tom display at the beginning of the DVD is communicated to the viewer. I don't think you wanted this, but there it is. Later on the style is more relaxed but that opening and closing need to be fixed.
Trisection for draw will be a complicated topic for many. It could use simplification but I have no idea how to do that. Perhaps using the tangent line as the primary reference could help. The concept is easy enough the application is prone to error (physical and mental). Some simple variant of the "Peace Sign" is needed here. Heck it is one of your best contributions to playing pool so you might expand this idea.
Is the DVD worth the money? --- hell yes it could be priced at three times the current price and would be worth it. Thirty dollars for the first DVD gives the user an evaluation copy and this is good. Subsequent DVDs could be priced higher. I know that if the people who published my stuff saw this they would immediately kick the price of the next DVDs. I quickly learned that authors should not price their work so I would strongly recommend that you have some commercial people evaluate your pricing. Apparently you need to consider the wholesale price, list price, and the possibility that commercial establishments might want to carry this so some sort of discounting is needed. I would think that as a self publisher you may also need an advertising budget (including desk copies) and table dispays at some conventions etc.
$150.00 for the whole set is reasonable but individual copies could be priced higher. Not sure how I would do it but I think that you are underpriced.
I watched the whole DVD the other night and here is what I like and what I thought was needed from a user’s perspective.
Like:
Quality of the DVD: It looked great on my 5’ plasma TV.
Use of graphics: They are exceptionally clear and well presented. They are not over used and illustrate the points well.
Presentation style: It is not hyped or overly commercial. The instructional style, with recaps as needed, were useful and appropriate. This is an instructional DVD and makes no excuses.
Lack of music and other extraneous noise: Made it easier to concentrate on the topics.
The use of Gems is a good idea as it highlights things that are useful but not necessarily common knowledge. They are (at times) the kinds of things you can tell your buddies at the pool hall and earn some respect.
Lack of duplicate or multiple replays of the same shot is probably one of the most appealing features. As noted on the DVD I am capable of rewinding and pausing as needed. The lack of duplicates makes the DVD worth much more than the price paid. I think that a relatively new player will spend many hours with the more than 150+ ideas presented and discussed. The DVD contains two or three times the amount of information available on similar DVDs and this is quite impressive. I think this should be strongly emphasized in your public relations campaign.
Suggestions
Written Table of Contents on the sleeve, as an attachment or as a download would help when searching for a topic on this and other DVDs in the series. There is much information here. An index is very much needed that would allow the user to quickly jump to the appropriate section. The DVD menu is good and useful, however when I pick up five DVDs I may not remember which one contained what, a hard copy would be quite useful. An annotated or sub-titled index would also be of use and make it a much more useful tool for instructional purposes. Something like a book index is what I am thinking.
Include a business card or small brochure that can be given to others. If you are in business never give one business card, always give two cards so that one can be passed on. Something similar is needed here. At the least give a card with your URL. All of us are simply too lazy to look at “all that stuff” and pass it on. The URL on the DVD is useful but you could do a little more here.
A case or storage unit (with a Table of Contents?) will be needed for all five DVDs. Again, help us out here, we are all too lazy to store this stuff in some reasonable way that does justice to the work that you and Tom have done. If you send the storage unit with the first DVD, I will need to fill it up with the others as they come out. A little Catholic guilt would be useful here.
Not sure how to do this one, but a few more smiles, laughs, grins, whatever, from you and especially from Tom would help. There is humor in a few places and that is good, a little more would help. The DVD is serious and instructional; a few more laughs would lighten it up a little more. Perhaps that is just my style and others may not agree. The "tenseness" that you and Tom display at the beginning of the DVD is communicated to the viewer. I don't think you wanted this, but there it is. Later on the style is more relaxed but that opening and closing need to be fixed.
Trisection for draw will be a complicated topic for many. It could use simplification but I have no idea how to do that. Perhaps using the tangent line as the primary reference could help. The concept is easy enough the application is prone to error (physical and mental). Some simple variant of the "Peace Sign" is needed here. Heck it is one of your best contributions to playing pool so you might expand this idea.
Is the DVD worth the money? --- hell yes it could be priced at three times the current price and would be worth it. Thirty dollars for the first DVD gives the user an evaluation copy and this is good. Subsequent DVDs could be priced higher. I know that if the people who published my stuff saw this they would immediately kick the price of the next DVDs. I quickly learned that authors should not price their work so I would strongly recommend that you have some commercial people evaluate your pricing. Apparently you need to consider the wholesale price, list price, and the possibility that commercial establishments might want to carry this so some sort of discounting is needed. I would think that as a self publisher you may also need an advertising budget (including desk copies) and table dispays at some conventions etc.
$150.00 for the whole set is reasonable but individual copies could be priced higher. Not sure how I would do it but I think that you are underpriced.
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Have watched this twice now
Dave,
I’ve viewed it twice. By far the most complete collection of billiard knowledge I’ve seen. I can’t wait for more. I did have a hard time trying to find the “peace sign” tips after the first viewing. The categories being more shot oriented. The numbering is great and you and Tom both do superb work. I can only imagine how tough editing had to be. There is no wasted time. I definitely learned a few things, particularly in regards to cue ball travel and how to change it with different stroke. I definitely don’t know what I don’t know.
Paul………2 thumbs up
Dave,
I’ve viewed it twice. By far the most complete collection of billiard knowledge I’ve seen. I can’t wait for more. I did have a hard time trying to find the “peace sign” tips after the first viewing. The categories being more shot oriented. The numbering is great and you and Tom both do superb work. I can only imagine how tough editing had to be. There is no wasted time. I definitely learned a few things, particularly in regards to cue ball travel and how to change it with different stroke. I definitely don’t know what I don’t know.
Paul………2 thumbs up
Joe,
Thank you so much for your thorough, insightful, and flattering review. I appreciate it. I have other comments below related to your excellent suggestions.
Thanks,
Dave
That's a good idea. FYI, we do provide a detailed index for each disc online. Here it is for Disc I:
and here's the category outline of the entire series:
These are definitely useful to have when wanting to refer back to a specific shot (e.g., to review and/or practice).
Good idea. Thank you.
We decided to keep the packaging as minimal (and environmentally friendly) as possible. However, I can see how some people might like some sort of storage case for the whole series. I'll look into that.
Your point is well taken. Unfortunately we are done with all of the filming for the entire series. Maybe if we do another project in the future, we'll get all liquored up before filming the intros so we can be less "tense."
We do use a modified "peace sign" for the draw shot trisect system, but you must be referring to using the trisect system backwards to aim a billiard shot. I tried to explain and illustrate it in simple terms, but I agree that some people might not relate to it. I've tried to come up with a simpler approach, but I haven't found one yet. Luckily, once you think you have your line of aim, you can use the trisect "peace sign" method to check yourself.
I will be curious to hear what others think about price. We thought $29.95 was fair. We want as many people as possible to benefit from our work, and we didn't want to scare people away with a higher price tag. Some instructional DVDs cost more than this, but many cost less.
I hope others out there will share their thoughts on this topic. What do other people out there expect to pay for an instructional DVD that you think contains good and useful information?
That's good to hear. I look forward to hearing what others think.
Thanks again Joe. I appreciate all of your thoughts and suggestions.
Regards,
Dave
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Paul,
Thank you for that very-flattering "testimonial."
You are correct about the editing and production work. That takes a lot longer than all of the filming.
BTW, to make it easier to find specific shots within the main categories on the disc menu, we have a complete list you can print from the website. Here it is for Disc I:
Thanks again,
Dave
Really doesnt matter what you do, it can be ripped. I rip all of my DVDs to store on my computer. For me, much easier to watch than DVDs. Mostly because I don't actually own a DVD player.
As far as these DVD go, they look good. I may have to check them out.
It occurred to me over dinner that you might want to create a series of lesson plans or mini lecture outlines to go with this set of DVDs. The idea here would be a guided set of lesson plans or outlines that could be used by students and/ or instructors. This could be something like the instructor’s manuals that contain lecture outlines, overhead slides and items banks for examinations.
Unlike the textbook market, this set of instructional materials would be sold because many of the pool instructors do not have collegiate teaching experience. A set of outlines on a CD that could be modified to suit would make this an attractive teaching package. As far as I know there would be nothing else like it on the market. Some of the class handouts I have seen from group instruction leave much to be desired. You could do much here and make a couple of bucks.
Most instructors must have some sort of lesson plans and your work would be an exemplar that could show how to structure concepts, allow for Q & A and structure discussion sessions. These teaching tips would be very useful to those who have not yet mastered the art of teaching as you have. It is possible that you could help to set some standards here.
Bob Jewett (on his web ste) has some nicely structured lesson plans for BCA teaching that could be reviewed and or incorporated. It might be worth exploring these issues with him and other BCA people.
Selling xx packages to instructors at a discount who in turn optionally retail copies could improve everyone's revenue.
BTW I could see this getting picked up by some continuing education departments and or college instructors. Many Possibilities here in high schools, community organizations etc. Now you need workshops and it goes on and on.:grin-square:
Get together with Mike Page for his intro to mechanics, Colin C for breaks, Little Joe V for kicks and Freddy the Beard for Banks and you have a consortium that would be unbeatable. All produced by DR Dave !!!
Unlike the textbook market, this set of instructional materials would be sold because many of the pool instructors do not have collegiate teaching experience. A set of outlines on a CD that could be modified to suit would make this an attractive teaching package. As far as I know there would be nothing else like it on the market. Some of the class handouts I have seen from group instruction leave much to be desired. You could do much here and make a couple of bucks.
Most instructors must have some sort of lesson plans and your work would be an exemplar that could show how to structure concepts, allow for Q & A and structure discussion sessions. These teaching tips would be very useful to those who have not yet mastered the art of teaching as you have. It is possible that you could help to set some standards here.
Bob Jewett (on his web ste) has some nicely structured lesson plans for BCA teaching that could be reviewed and or incorporated. It might be worth exploring these issues with him and other BCA people.
Selling xx packages to instructors at a discount who in turn optionally retail copies could improve everyone's revenue.
BTW I could see this getting picked up by some continuing education departments and or college instructors. Many Possibilities here in high schools, community organizations etc. Now you need workshops and it goes on and on.:grin-square:
Get together with Mike Page for his intro to mechanics, Colin C for breaks, Little Joe V for kicks and Freddy the Beard for Banks and you have a consortium that would be unbeatable. All produced by DR Dave !!!
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