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We appreciate everyone who
has come aboard and started using Afiniti to
watch, edit, archive and share their home video
content with family & friends. We are always
working towards the perfect balance between
ease-of-use and advanced functionality, and
wanted to create a vehicle to communicate the
seemingly constant upgrades and enhancements
that come from our development team!
Most of our enhancements
and usability improvements are a direct result
of you -- our customers! We appreciate all of
the feedback we've received over the years, and
always hunger for more input from you!
We read every email that
is sent suggesting improvements to our
technology, so if you have some ideas, please
let us know! You can contact Lars via email at
lars@homemovie.com.
Now on to the latest
improvements. We hope you enjoy them!
Regards,
John Larsen & Lars Krumme
Co-Founders
July 31, 2006
By: Lars Krumme, EVP Sales & Marketing
Afiniti 4.0 set to
launch Mid-August
Our development and
testing team are putting the final touches onto
our newest version of Afiniti, tentatively set
to launch later this month. Enhanced
usability, personalization and partner
integration lead the list of new features, along
with a tighter interface design. You are
more than welcome to take a
sneak peek at Afiniti
4.0 now, and
let us know what you think. Please
note that this product is not yet in full Beta
release, so you may encounter some bugs.
If so, please
let us know!
June 29, 2006
By: Lars Krumme, EVP Sales & Marketing
HomeMovie.Com Profiled
in NY Times Circuits (excerpt)
Video Catching
Up to Photos When It Comes to Sharing
DAVID A. KELLY
June 29, 2006
"We're positioning our
services as video sharing for grown-ups, not
'ego-casting,' where people upload a two- to
three-minute clip of themselves
lip-synching," said Lars Krumme, a
co-founder of HomeMovie.
HomeMovie's latest
service, Afiniti 3.0, allows consumers to
send in tapes for digitizing, upload saved
files for sharing or connect their digital
camera or camcorder directly to their
computer and transfer new video or pictures.
The service can also be used to download the
video to iPods.
Users can have up to
five hours of video content in their online
account free. Up to 10 hours is $3.99 a
month with no time limit for the clips — you
can have one-minute clips or two-hour clips.
When you share video
using HomeMovie (www.homemovie.com), the
clips are uploaded from your computer to
HomeMovie's servers. Invited friends and
family members, who are given a password,
can download the clips to their iPods, order
DVD's or view the video online — all free.
You can tag movies or
scenes with keywords, so that you can search
for "vacation" video or "birthday" scenes.
HomeMovie also offers a service that will
encode a two-hour tape into digital files
for $5.
An advantage of
HomeMovie is that it provides basic video
editing abilities, including combining clips
into a longer movie, or the ability to
remove unwanted scenes — particularly
helpful when working with shorter clips from
digital cameras.
April 27, 20066
By: Steve Smallman, President
Afiniti 3.0 Beta Launch
is Live!
Today is an exciting day
for the HomeMovie.Com community. We are publicly
(and quietly for now) launching the final stages
of our beta version of our revolutionary new
software, Afiniti 3.0. This is the biggest and
most radical change in software we’ve ever had
and we’re sure you are going to love it. As a
matter of fact, I’ve been lucky enough to be
using the new Afiniti 3.0 for several weeks now
and –man!- am I really pumped up about all the
new functionality!
So what’s so exciting? How
about this short list of just some of the new
features:
User Interface
Upgraded
Those of you used to Play-Edit-Organize-Burn
taskbars will quickly come to love the new
Movies-Add-Make-Watch-Share-Burn-iPod(!)
taskbars.
Upload videos
and photos directly from your computer and
camcorder
How about that for saving you time and
shipping costs! Afiniti 3.0 is the only
Video Sharing service today that enables you
to capture your entire videotape (even over
2 hours!), edit it into a custom movie, and
share it with family & friends. But
not to worry: we are still happy to receive
your tapes and encode them at Homemovie.com.
Tag Find Option
Have you ever wanted to organize your movies
by person, holiday, or any other keyword?
Now you can!
iPod download of
your homemovies
For many people, this is the most exciting
new feature. If you’re one of the legions of
new video iPod users, you can now download
your movies (or your friend's movies) to
your iPod and watch them anywhere!
Hey! Who’s this
Smallman guy anyway?
John and Lars are busy getting the new software
and website just right, so I thought I’d take
this chance to introduce myself. First of all,
as I mentioned above, I’m a HomeMovie.Com user
too, and I’m loving it. I’m a forty-something
guy with a wife, two kids, big mortgage, and
tons of tapes that we can actually now watch –
thanks to HomeMovie.Com. Whether it’s an old
Little League game from 1999 or that happy trip
to Disneyland from 1992, our video memories are
now secure.
I’ve been following the
development of Home Movie since the start and
have been very impressed with its growth and
positive community achievements. One of the
great things I know about the company is its
ability to keep up with changing technology. I
predict that enhancements we’ll make in the
future will be even more exciting than the ones
you’re seeing today for the first time. But
that’s enough back patting for our technical
people for today. Let’s just say that I hope you
enjoy our service as much as I do. If you ever
want to drop me a line and let me know, feel
free to do at
steves@homemovie.com. In the meantime, have
fun with the new Afiniti 3.0!
Oh, yeah; one more thing.
If you sign up for Afiniti 3.0 during the
testing period, you might run into some kinks.
This is normal for new software, of course. If
you do run into any difficulties, please let us
know about them so we can get them fixed ASAP.
Please use
customerservice@homemovie.com
March 1, 2006
By John Larsen, CEO and Lars Krumme, EVP
Sales & Marketing
Join us in welcoming our new President, Steve
Smallman!
As we were searching for
someone who would understand our customer
demographic and help take Home Movie to the next
level from a business standpoint, we knew that
we couldn't just bring anyone on board. We knew
it had to be someone we trusted to share in our
vision 100%. Someone we knew beyond a series of
job interviews. And that's when it hit us. John
knew just the person: a long-time friend and the
man who helped successfully shepherd his
previous company from a small start-up to a $50
million company – Steve Smallman. After talking
with Steve and bringing him to our offices to
see the company and meet everyone, we were sure
he was the guy. Luckily, he thought so too, and
we are pleased to welcome him to the team. We
know you will help us welcome Steve to the Home
Movie community too.
Steve earned his degree in
Business from the UW 1984 and went immediately
into the business. On the private company side,
Steve founded a mail order company that sold
collectors’ books, ran a wholesale warehouse
(John computerized their inventory system in
1985), was an independent marketer of wholesale
industrial supplies, and managed a
floor-covering wholesaler. He worked on mergers
and acquisitions with several competitors in
these businesses and in 1997 moved on to the
gaming industry where he again met up with John
and helped grow John’s software gaming company
into an attractive acquisition target. Steve
stayed in the public company side of the gaming
industry until now and we’re ready for this to
be his best adventure yet!et!
It’s good to have you
back, Steve.
January 27, 2006
By: Lars Krumme, EVP Sales & Marketing
Logged In Home Pageage
We've finally cleaned up and added much needed
functionality to our Logged In page for
returning members. Among the many new features:
Login/Logout
feature for when you're on the road
Now you can take it with you! From time to
time, you may want to access your account
from a friends house or public venue. With
our new logout feature, you can access your
account, and then wipe all records of your
activity when you're done! Great for
multiple account holders as well!
Statistics of Afiniti account information
We are now providing valuable information
for you to track your use of Afiniti,
including:
--
Total hours in your account
--
Total view time for your account
--
# of people in your list, and who you've
shared with
--
# of scenes and Director's DVDs you've
created
--
Your upload activity, including photos and
videos
and much more...
Member Spotlight
Many of our customers have great stories on
how they have used Afiniti to share video
with distant family members.
Returning Your
Tapes
Rather than holding on to your tapes &
returning them with your first DVD order,
you can now request to have your tapes sent
back to you at any point in time. Shipping &
handling fees will vary based on the tape
type and total number of tapes being sent
back, but will typically range from $5 to
$10 for most customers.
January 2, 2006
By: John Larsen, CEO
SnapShot DVD
At long last, our DVD Snapshots feature is now
available as a stand-alone PhotoDVD. Select up
to 100 images to be presented in a photo-gallery
format or choose the slideshow function. Upload
your own music (.wav or .mp3 formats please) to
add your custom touch as you watch your images
in slideshow form.
Enhanced Ordering
Functionalityity
We found that there was some confusion among
some of our customers when ordering Basic or
Enhanced DVDs. Our new "Burn" section in Afiniti
fixes this issue and streamlines our ordering
process. Now when you order, you can toggle
between Basic DVDs, Enhanced DVDs, Director's
DVDs and SnapShot DVDs.
December 15, 2005
By: John Larsen, CEO
Personalize your Player!!
It might be a small enhancement, but we got sick
of just having one interface to work with. Now
you can select a color scheme that fits your
mood for the day ranging from our classic to
blue, green, pink, purple and steel. When you
save, your selection will be saved for your next
visit.
October 25, 2005
By: Lars Krumme, EVP Sales & Marketing
New Lower Monthly
Account Fee
We didn't think it was possibly, but after some
serious sharpening of our pencils, we've cut our
monthly Afiniti fee by more than 60%! It is now
just $3.99/month for your first 10 hours, $ 6.99
for your first 20 hours, $9.99 for up to 40
hours, and
only $5.00/month for each additional 20 hour
block. For just the cost of a cup of coffee (OK,
a really good cup of coffee), you can keep your
memories safe!
September 8, 2005
By: John Larsen, CEO
Upload your Video to
your account!
You asked for it, we delivered. We make it easy
to upload video to your account. 20 seconds? 2
hours? No problem! Simply upload your video to
your account in Windows Media format
(instructions), and our servers will process
your video for Afiniti. Depending on the length
of your video, it will be ready within 5 to 10
minutes for you to edit and share just like any
other videotape that you have in your Afiniti
account!
September 1, 2005
By: John Larsen, CEO
New Easy-to-use Scene
Creator
You can now easily identify scene start and end
points of your scenes as you are watching your
video. As you are scrolling through your video,
you can set a "New Scene" marker at the start of
each new piece of video. At the same time, and
"Enhanced DVD" will begin, allowing you to set a
chapter thumbnail and title for this scene. When
you have finished identifying all of your
scenes, you will also have a completed Enhanced
DVD to share or burn on DVD.
Visual Scene Index for
Editing
We didn't believe it was possible, but we've
made editing your videos even easier! All of
your created scenes on each video are presented
in an easy-to-use Video Scenes area.
To create a Director's DVD, simply drag the
scenes you want onto your DVD and you are done!
Your chapters are automatically generated based
on the scene information you've already entered!
Expanded packaging
Options
Put the final wrap on your DVD production with
the latest improvements to our industry-leading
DVD packaging. Choose from one of our 100
Packaging themes, or upload your own background!
Create custom titling for your keepsake. Select
just the right thumbnail images to represent
your project.
July 20, 2005
By: John Larsen, CEO
Upload photos to your
account
Now you can upload digital pictures to your
account for use as Snapshots, Menu backgrounds,
or as thumbnails for your DVDs!
 May
7, 2005
By: Lars Krumme, EVP Sales & Marketing
HomeMovie.Com receives
Golden Tennis Shoe Award from Senator Patty
Murray
We're normally not one to toot our own horn,
especially as our brothers and sisters are a
world away fighting a war that never seems to
end, but we were really touched by the
recognition that our effort has brought both
locally and nationally.
The Golden Tennis Shoe
Award is a yearly recognition by our State
Senator Patty Murray of three individuals that
have
Watch the Video!
March 7, 2005
By: John Larsen, CEO
HomeMovie.Com launches
Operation Enduring Love
Staying in touch with friends and family is a
constant struggle for soldiers, especially those
stationed on the battlefield in hotspots like
Iraq and Afghanistan. While long-distance phone
cards are standard issue, local long-distance
providers often charge exorbitant connection
fees, making phone calls to the U.S.
prohibitively expensive. But even when phone
calls are priced more reasonably, audio-only
communication only goes so far in keeping
families in touch, especially when there are
children involved.
That’s what drove Lars and
I to decide to offer our services free of charge
to the families of troops overseas. About 90
days ago my wife Michelle was listening to NPR
when she heard about a woman who had an
18-month-old baby and was sent to Iraq. Michelle
couldn't imagine having to be over there and not
be able to watch her kids grow up.
After a quick discussion
with our employees and partners, we came up with
a plan to employ our services in an effort to
lessen this unfortunate reality of war for any
troops serving in Afghanistan or Iraq. Their
friends and family can send in up to 20 hours of
video, and we’ll encode it and make it available
through an Afiniti account.
To get the word out, we’ve
been working with our state senator here in
Washington, and the effort has been recognized
by US Senators Patty Murray, Elizabeth Dole and
Saxby Chambliss and US Congressmen Adam Smith,
Doc Hastings and Walter B. Jones. We also
appreciate the support from our partners
CenturyTel, NCTeleserve and AllRecipes.com in
providing technical and marketing resources for
the project.
It’s really not a big
marketing arena for us, but we thought that this
would be a great technology to offer to our
servicemen. It’s our way of helping out and
trying to ease some of the suffering. Sometimes
a breath of fresh air from home may be just what
they need.
If you know someone that
might qualify for the offer, please send them to
http://www.operationenduringlove.com/
September, 2004
By: John Larsen, CEO
Well, it's out of the bag.
Today, we received coverage in the NY Times
about Afiniti -- our web-based video archiving,
editing, viewing and sharing platform for
consumers. Although the core technology has been
up and running for our professional customers
for the last 3 years, we are rushing to get all
the "i"s dotted and the "t"s crossed for you,
our consumers customers. We look forward to
working with you, and value any and all feedback
you may provide to us as we strive to be the
digital repository for the most precious of
video content -- your home movies.
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