Content Requirements

Due to some issues we are having with cropping photographs instead of re-sizing them during the thumbnail generation in our backend, we have instituted some content requirements. In the meantime we are working on coming up with a solution that will re-size and not crop images when they are displayed on the site.

The minimum file size should be 1600 x 1200 pixels if possible. Make sure you upload the largest file size that you have. For example, 300 dpi 5" x 7" is ideal. A lot of the graphic designers we have spoken to can’t use 640 x 480 images.

The only formats that Cutcaster can currently encode are: 3GPP, 3GPP2, AAC, AVI, BMP, DV, Flash Video, Flash, GIF, JPEG, MP3, MPEG, MPEG-4, PNG, QuickTime, TIFF, WAV and Windows Media formats.

If you want your content to have a Cutcaster watermark to protect it, which we recommend, the following source formats can have a watermark overlaid to them:
BMP
JPG
PNG

The following source formats can be read by the Cutcaster thumbnail encoding server, and we can still license them to others however a watermark can not be applied:
TIFF
GIF

We do not support thumbnail generation or re-encoding to alternative sized images for the following source formats:
PSD
EPS
TXT
3GPP
3G2
MP4
MP3
MOV (H.264 Codec)
AAC

Video Watermarking Support
The following video source formats can have a watermark applied:
AVI
MPEG
MPEG-2
MPEG-4
MOV
WMV

Watermarking can be applied to the following output formats:
3GPP
3G2
AVI
MPEG
MPEG-2
MPEG-4
MOV
WMV
FLV

We are sorry but at this time, Cutcaster does not support watermarking or transcoding for the following source formats:
FLV
SWF
3GPP
3G2

We wil continually update this list as we build out our capabilities. Let us know if there is anything that we should focus all our attention on or move to the front of the line.
Thanks

Which Watermark do you like better?

Watermarks are an important security feature for most sites that sell images or videos. The purpose of a watermark is to prevent the video or image from being illegally taken while allowing the buyer to see it well enough to decide if they want to purchase it. Finding the right balance, a watermark must be difficult to remove and not obscure the image too much. Here is the watermark that Cutcaster will be using on top of all preview flash videos and image thumbnails on the site. Its obviously going to be lightened up but will cover up all the essentials.

Lee Torrens writes,
"Determining which watermarks protect images well is simple. A watermark must:

1. Cover enough of the image to make it useless if the watermark is cropped out
2. Cover all parts of the image to protect photos where the subject is not in the center
3. Be substantial so that removal with photo editing software is difficult

Lee goes on to point out which websites out there protect your images the best.

We are really looking to give as much control to the user so he is able to place where the watermark will show up on the video or image. This will help them in protecting their image while still maintaining a ton of control. But we also don't want our watermark to distract too much and create a situation where buyers can't properly view the content.