Frequently asked questions
What name will appear on my credit card?
“Don Michael Photography”
Will any packages be shipped to my home address?
That depend on your order. Products purchased from the “DVDs by Mail” section are sent by the United States Postal Service. All other products are download only.
Can I use the videos I purchase for my own website or other purpose?
No, each video or other product is intended for personal, non-commercial use only and is protected by copyright, trademark and other intellectual property laws. Any redistribution or republication violates our terms & conditions.
Can I use a download manager to get my purchase faster?
No, a download manager will not speed up the download and will very likely cause the security features to be triggered. If that happens it takes 24 hours to reset. Don’t use any download managers if you want a smooth transaction.
What is the “DVD to Burn” option?
With the “DVD to Burn” option you download an ISO file from our site to your local computer. An ISO file, also called a disc image, is a single file that’s an exact copy of an entire DVD. When you burn a DVD from an ISO file, the new disc has the same menus and viewing quality as an original disc delivered by mail. This results in higher quality viewing compared to the “DVD Videos” option.
Making a DVD from an ISO file is very easy to do on Windows and MAC computers. You must have a DVD burner (not just a DVD player) on your computer, a blank DVD and the correct software. If your DVD drive is a burner it should have the marking “DVD-RW” on the front of the disc tray.
The DVD to Burn Help File is available as an Acrobat file (.pdf) here.
What is the DVD Videos option?
DVD Videos are long video clips in standard definition (SD at 720 x 480). They are the same video as on the DVD but do not include menus and are slightly lower visual quality due to the conversion process.
They download as .mp4 files that play in almost all computers.
What is the .mp4 video format?
The best video system for common computer, media player, Blu-Ray player and other usage is known as H.264. That codec (COder / DECoder) can produce great quality with small file sizes (quick to download) and can be used to produce a large variety of video formats and resolutions. Videos and movies encoded in the H.264 format can use a variety of extensions (end of file name). We have selected to use the .mp4 format for our videos.
Many Hollywood movie companies now use H.264 when creating Full HD Blu-Ray discs (its one of only 2 formats approved to meet Blu-Ray quality standards). Using H.264 to produce an .mp4 file is the best option to keep video & audio quality good while allowing for a file size that is easy to download and store on your hard-drive.
The .mp4 format created using the H.264 codec / specification is so popular that many hardware manufacturers are creating video cards and other types of processors with the decoders built in – which improves quality of both the image and the playback smoothness.
The .mp4 format also allows us to embed a security tag to the files to help limit and trace pirating.
Will these videos play on all computers?
To play a .mp4 video the computer needs to be fairly modern and have the correct software installed. Here are some notes related to the more popular computer systems.
Windows 7 – The latest version of Windows comes with Windows Media Player 12 (WMP) installed. The Microsoft site states that .mp4 files will play automatically in WMP. At my office the files played instantly on all computers that have Windows 7 / WMP 12 without us installing anything.
If these new videos (.mp4) will not play automatically in WMP on your Windows 7 computer you should first try updating the player by opening it, clicking HELP> UPDATE. After the update try the videos again.
If, after updating, you are not able to play these files on your computer please review the Windows XP / Vista section below for easy solutions.
Windows XP or Windows Vista – Previous versions of Windows (XP and Vista) may have Windows Media Player 9, 10 or 11 installed. The newer version WMP 12 will not work on XP or Vista.
The Microsoft site states that .mp4 files will not play automatically in WMP 9, 10 or 11 unless an h.264 codec is installed. This leaves us with two options.
- You can install the codecs that you need.There are free codec packs available that are very easy to install. We have tested and prefer the “Codec-Decoder” available at Download.com (search Codec-Decoder Pack in top right). Its free and it doesn’t include its own player so the codecs are installed right in Windows Media Player (it detects and installs the 32bit or 64bit versions automatically).The first time you want to play a video file with this set-up please follow these directions. (A) Right Click the file and select “Open With” from the menu. (2) Scroll down the options and select “Windows Media Player” and be sure to check “Always use the selected program to open this kind of file”. That will set WMP to play them automatically in the future just by double clicking.
- You can install a free media player that has the codecs included.QuickTime is produced by Apple, it comes in a Windows version, is included with ITunes and plays all these files perfectly. You can download it here.VLC is a very popular free media player. Many have reported to us that they already use it for the various video formats they find online. You can find it at Download.com
There are several other free media players out there that will play .mp4 videos. We have only tested QuickTime and VLC on our Windows XP and Vista. Be careful with other players so that you don’t accidentally install a virus or unwanted toolbar.
Mac OS X – The QuickTime player that comes with all MAC based computers and laptops already has the proper codecs for playing back h.264/.mp4 videos.
Many of our fans reported that they prefer the controls or options offered by third-party media players, including VLC (see Windows XP Section).
Linux OS Based Systems – We do not use Linux based systems here. The Linux users that helped with our .mp4 testing mentioned VLC played the videos fine.
Some may prefer the controls or options offered by third-party media players.