Team WellcomeMat is hitting our stride now with our Weekly Top 5. Since late 2004, we’ve been lucky enough to watch the quality of local video content increase dramatically, all the while watching professionally-created content become more and more affordable. ‘Tis an exciting time in which we live and we can’t help but love the quality of video content coming through The Big Red Door.

235 E 40th Street - Apartment for Sale - New York, NY

Our bet is that Teddy Stoecklein found another long-term customer in Prudential Douglas Elliman’s David Glick. Teddy’s work continues to progress and we’re glad to have him present on this week’s shortlist.

Produced by: Teddy Stoecklein - Brooklyn, NY
Listed by: David Glick
Address: 235 E 40th Street - New York, NY 10016

235 E 40th Street - Apartment for Sale - New York, NY 10016

Marshall Street Bakery - Condo for Sale - Richmond, VA

Marianne Donahue obviously takes her personal brand seriously. Check out what Pete Spadaro of Williamburg, VA does when he’s set loose on a property.

Produced by: Pete Spadaro - Williamsburg, VA
Listed by: Marianne Donahue - Long & Foster
Address: 110 West Marshall St - Richmond, VA 23220

Marshall Street Bakery Condominiums - 110 West Marshall St - Richmond, VA 23220

403 Elm - House for Sale - Wenonah, NJ

And now…for the man that needs no introduction: ladies and gentlemen, please join us in Wellcoming John Stewart!!

Listed by: John Stewart & Sarah Reed
Address: 403 E. Elm St. Wenonah - Wenonah, NJ 08090

403 Elm - 403 E. Elm St. Wenonah - Wenonah, NJ 08090

Brighton, Real Estate - House for Sale - Commerce City, CO

While Rams (Colorado State is in Fort Collins, CO) rarely get love from this Colorado Buffalo (CU Boulder), Video Solutions out of Fort Collins deserves all due credit for producing this fine piece. See you guys at Invesco Field on game day!

Produced by: Video Solutions - Fort Collins, CO
Address: 424 Hunter Ct. - Commerce City, CO 80022

Brighton, Real Estate - 424 Hunter Ct. - Commerce City, CO 80022

Beautiful Secluded Montague Home - House for Sale - Madison, TN 37115

Tennessee….Tennessee…ain’t no place I’d rather be. Baby won’t you caaaaaarrrrrry me…back to Tennessee,” Jerry Garcia. Kimble Bosworth demonstrates the reasons that many famous song writers chose TN as a focal point and a home (RIP Johny Cash). Wide open spaces, lush landscape(s), and giant rivers all take center stage in her well-crafted video which made us want to move (at least until we looked out our window and saw the Flatirons).

Listed by: Kimble Bosworth
Address: 1008 Falls Avenue - Madison, TN 37115

Beautiful Secluded Montague Home - 1008 Falls Avenue - Madison, TN 37115

Popularity: 20% [?]

Extreme Home Makeover - House For Sale - Atlanta, GA

Produced by: See Inside Atlanta Homes - Atlanta, GA
Address: 5489 Ahyoka Dr - Morrow, GA 30260
Overview: See Inside Atlanta Homes produced this “Extreme Home Makeover” house for Max Chavez. In what is still considered one of the top ten best markets in the U.S., this Atlanta area English country style home produced by See Inside Atlanta Homes for Max Chavez boasts over 6500 sq ft featuring 5 beds, 7 baths and 5 fireplaces. The high quality production of this video is what brings to life this “Extreme Home Makeover” home.
Listed by: Max Chavez ReMax Advantage 678-231-1168

Extreme Home Makeover - 5489 Ahyoka Dr - Morrow, GA 30260

House for Sale - 645 Roundhouse St - Shakopee, MN

Produced by: Annie and Bob Pacieznik - Minneapolis, MN
Address: 645 Roundhouse St - Shakopee, MN 55379
Overview: Husband/Wife team produced video. Anne stages the properties and Bob markets them online. The perfect one-two punch.

House for Sale - 645 Roundhouse St - Shakopee, MN 55379

House for Sale - 6501 Branson Park Way - Franklin, TN

Produced by: Garrett Dixon (Reel Tour Vision) - Gallatin, TN
Address: 6501 Branson Park Way - Franklin, TN 37064
Overview: Garrett Dixon of Reel Tour Vision displays this home beautifully for Loebsack Homes with smooth movements and unique camera shots such as filming while driving to the home.
Listed by: Max Chavez ReMax Advantage 678-231-1168

House for Sale - 6501 Brandon Park Way - Franklin, TN 37064

Condominium for Sale - Cristalla 1010 - Seattle, WA

Produced by: Layne Freedle - Issaquah, WA
Address: 2033 2nd Ave - Seattle, WA 98121
Overview: Steve Paoli former sales manager of Cristalla and owner of this property narrates a tour of 1010 Cristalla.

Condominium for Sale - Cristalla 1010 - Seattle, WA 98121

Ocean Front Home for Sale - Seal Rock, OR

Address: 11912 NW Short Street - Seal Rock, OR - 97376
Overview: Real Estate Agent Matt Kurtz brings to life this beautiful ocean front home in (Portland) Seal Rock, Oregon with great use of various camera shots and an informative presenter. This 3 bed, 2.5 bath with wood floors and a 3 car attached garage is filled with an incredible view of the Pacific ocean and coastline.
Listed by: Matt Kurtz - Real Estate Agent - Portland, OR

House for Sale - 11912 NW Short Street - Seal Rock, OR 97376

Popularity: 34% [?]

-posted by Christian Sterner

Note: the following post is based on my experience, and resulting knowledge (or lack thereof).

At Sony Electronics, we spent a ton of time, money and resources trying to sell/market High Def (high definition). At the time, if you weren’t in the electronics, broadcast, or video production/engineering world, you had no idea what “HD” was. Additionally, there were significant technical, knowledge, and financial barriers between customers and HD in the home. It’s a pleasing fact that HD did see the light day, even with the odds stacked against it.

HD on the web is a very different animal, but it definitely has one solid advantage that TV(s) did not: the buzz acronym “HD.” Around every corner, you find people using this acronym to describe quality differences between their video offering and others. However, in terms of getting web content prepped for the web, and getting that content into the hands of viewers, HD isn’t yet the solution. Many times, even if a shoot is done in HD, by the time it meets the viewers’ eyeballs on their computer, it isn’t. There are many reasons for this: most are technical (compression of HD files for web readiness, network distribution, processing power at the end user level etc). In short, HD video is a very large amount of video data. The more data there is, the harder it is to pipe it through networks, and translate at the end user’s machine.

Aspect Ratio: What is It?

Aspect ratio is a ratio used to communicate dimensions of the viewable area of a video. This is true on a TV, true in projection (projectors), and this is true on the web. Here’s how to find the aspect ratio of a video:

1) Take the width of your video, as a pixel count
2) Put your width count over your height count as a fraction
3) Reduce your fraction

Typically, that fraction will come to 4/3 or 16/9. Just interject the colon to make your fractions ratios (4:3 and 16:9 respectively).

HD is a 16:9 format natively, but 16:9 videos are not always HD. Does that make sense? HD has to be 16:9, but any video can be built into a rectangular, 16:9 video frame?

Summary

16:9 is not always HD, and-unless you are some major media company-you should not yet buy into the hype of HD video on the web. Well over 90% of end users can watch a video in flash. Make sure your videos are being displayed in Flash. Lastly, if you do choose to display videos in 16:9 and you are doing so in Flash (again…you should be), this is strictly an aesthetic choice, not a statement of clarity/quality.

Popularity: 41% [?]

Joel Burslem’s post today about the Rea Group had me wondering if American real estate web companies have cornered ourselves into a show of card tricks that never ends.

The gist of the post was about the Rea Group, whom makes their money when real estate professionals and property owners pay them to list their properties on their site(s). Simple huh? Pay me to list your properties and I will either a) deliver by sending buyers/renters your way, or b) you will stop using my service.

I know that idealism is the ultimate no no in the real estate space, but wouldn’t listers know within a short period of time whether or not it is worth it to pay to have their properties on Site A as opposed to Site B? Out of all the innovation that has occurred within the U.S. real estate space, I wonder what true value has actually been unleashed. I have a few personal favorites, but the rest seem like boring card tricks.

Popularity: 37% [?]

NewTeeVee reports that Pickle, which was bought by EW Scripps in August of 2007, is shutting down its user-generated video/photo service.

Popularity: 43% [?]

Here is the latest in our ongoing series called “The End of User Generated Video.” Video Egg is about to join Brightcove, and ManiaTV, disallowing user-generated video uploads. While BlipTV has not yet joined the No UGC party, they have stopped allowing real estate videos on their site.

Here are the highlights from Video Egg’s email blast:

“…Yes, as of May 31, 2008, we are discontinuing our consumer video uploading, hosting and sharing service at my.videoegg.com. No, we are NOT going out of business! We are simply refocusing our business away from our consumer video service and concentrating on our advertising network and technologies.”

“…If you would like to create an account with another partner who can host and serve your videos, please consider sites such as Vimeo, YouTube, Blip.tv, Ooyala, Userplane, Veoh or Kickapps.”

Plan to see this trend continue…we definitely do. And, to be sure, know that WellcomeMat does not have any plans to stop allowing user-generated video. Our game is marketing places…and any video is better than none.

Popularity: 49% [?]