January 19, 2008

New Feature: Add photo albums to your movies!

AddscenefromphotoalbumOur new add photo album to movies feature makes it easy to combine your photos with your video.  Just click 'photo album' from the add scene bubble and select a photo album. Your photos and music will be created into a scene on the current movie. 

December 21, 2007

Holiday Offer - Free Tape Digitizing through 12/31

For all our existing and new stashSpace.com customers, we have a great holiday offer -- FREE Tape Encoding services to get the rest of your videotapes digitized and added to your stash.  Just place your tape encoding order before December 31, 2007, and your tapes will be digitized for FREE!

If you haven't sent us your videotapes, they're probably just collecting dust on that shelf in the garage, rarely getting watched or seeing the light of day.  Send those tapes to us, and with just a few clicks of your mouse, you can edit, create and share movies of family birthdays, vacations, anniversaries and more.  Plus, you'll also have a digital archive of your videos protecting them from hard-drive failure, natural disaster and the damage of time.

We've made it as easy as 1-2-3!

  1. Send us your videotapes
  2. Watch & Edit your movies online
  3. Share with family & friends

Remember, place your order before December 31st, and your tape encoding will all be free! Your tapes will remain online for the duration specified by your account level.

Want DVDs of your Tapes?
No problem! Any of your tapes can be ordered on DVD for playback on your DVD player.  It's a great way to enjoy your memories or give them away as a gift.

October 19, 2007

StashBox 2.5 is Live!

We finally made it, and after much testing and debugging, we've released our latest version of stashBox.  Due to a number of feature enhancements, it will be a required upgrade for all of our users (don't worry, it should finish real quick).

So What's New?

1. Flip Video Support
Eleacctflipvideo_2 I jumped the gun last week, but our Flip Video Support is now live!  stashBox will copy your Flip Video files over onto your computer, clearing up the space left behind on your flip!  Now you can quickly and easily trim your clip starts & ends, create your movie(s) and share the results with family and friends.  There is simply nothing easier or faster to manage and share your Flip Video files.

Have a flip video?  Share your opinions about it with us, and how you've used this sweet new toy.  Don't know what a Flip Video is?  Read this, and then go out and buy one - You'll be glad you did!

2. We've added a logo!
SblogoOK, it's really a small thing, but will probably be the first thing you notice - we've added a logo to our stashBox application. You will notice it showing up in a number of places in addition to our website, giving you a number of possible ways in which you can access your stash.  These include your desktop, your startbar, your Programs menu (we're under stashSpace), and from the launch menu that comes up after plugging your digital video camera into your firewire port.

3. Drive & File Management Options
If you are running out of drive space on your C: drive, you can now create a new destination for your content and use a secondary drive on your computer. You just want to make sure that the new drive will usually be hooked up to your computer, as you will need it to watch or stash any of your videos. 

As part of this change, we've also renamed the master folder which holds all of your content.  It is now found on your C: drive and is called "myStash".

4. Improved stashBox Installation Process
We have greatly simplified our installation process, and removed many of the barriers surrounding the install of a web-based application.  You will now be able to open your stash from various locations on your desktop, or through our website - you choose!

5. Windows Vista and FireFox support
Not necessarily new news here, but our new installation process makes me comfortable stating "We are Windows Vista and FireFox compatible". Our Vista users will need to follow a somewhat detailed installation process to get going, but once we're installed, watch out -- stashBox works like a dream!  Firefox users will need to run the stashBox in our external application, but will be able to launch it right from your MyAccount page to get started!

Of course, we've also done a lot of behind-the-scene improvements and bug fixes to help increase speed and usability of the application -- too many to mention as usual. 

We hope you enjoy all these enhancements as much as we do.  Please let us know what you think!

October 11, 2007

New Flip Video Features Launching Tomorrow

I am very excited about the latest features we will be releasing tomorrow in our newest version of stashBox.  Our staff has been working very hard over the last two months on this release, which includes an improved installer, a new application interface with multiple launching options (Desktop, Program Menu, etc.) to make it even easier to start working with your video and photos, new skin/theme options, and much more!

Eleacctflipvideo But the feature I am most excited about (and jumping the gun on announcing) is our new support for the FlipVideo.  I first read about the FlipVideo (produced by Pure Digital) in the Spring of this year, and was so taken by the concept that I went out the next day and bought one.

And my wife and I haven’t had this much fun with a video camera. Ever.

We are acknowledged video freaks, with a variety of standard and widescreen digital camcorders that we've collected over the years.  And when we're heading to a special event we want to get on video, we'll take one along -- When you want high-quality video, nothing beats a Digital tape-based camcorder. videotape.

But we inevitably found ourselves wishing we had a camcorder along when we were just out and about on a casual trip and didn’t plan on taking any video. And that’s where the FlipVideo comes to the rescue.

Small and very light, my wife has taken to bringing the FlipVideo everywhere in her purse. After 10 days of using it, she has claimed it as her own. The casual, candid, everyday family moments that were usually a story to tell to my parents over the phone are now being preserved and shared in video form with my family over the web. Extremely easily.

We wanted to make the stashBox experience for FlipVideo users as easy as it is to take the video.  Our system will auto-detect your FlipVideo and manage the copying of your video files to your Hard Drive.  Your stashBox then lets you trim the starts & ends off of the individual clips, and arrange them in a movie sequence. This way, you can share one movie (made up of a number of clips) with your family & friends, instead of having to share a whole range of individual clips. The video management features (movies, collections, tagging, search, etc.) make it very easy to customize movies for different family members, as well as just keep track of all the video that you take.

What else can I say except buy a FlipVideo now! I very rarely feel this strong about product recommendations, but this is a video device that makes video accessible across all generations. Even if you own a digital camcorder or camera that can take video, you still need to go out and buy a FlipVideo now! It is not a replacement for your current camera or camcorder - but it will allow you to preserve so many more of your precious moments on video for the future.

September 14, 2007

New Shipping Calculations for DVD orders

After lots of feedback from our customers (as well as our own friends and family!), we made some changes to how we are charging for shipping on DVD orders from your own or shared movies.  This will bring an end to the per-DVD shipping charges that had been charged on your orders.

Previously, DVD orders were offered on an individual movie-by-movie basis.  And this worked great for a majority of our users, except for those of you who wanted to order DVDs of more than one movie at a time.

So we changed it!  Now, whenever you order multiple DVDs in any 24-hour period (from the time of your first order), you will only be charged shipping on the first order.  So now, whether you order 1 or 100 DVDs, you will only be charged a single shipping fee.

As always, all outbound packages are shipped with Tracking Numbers (UPS) or Delivery Confirmation (USPS) so you can track your order and it doesn't get lost in the mail.  Seven years running, and no lost packages!

January 12, 2007

StashBox 2.0 Beta Video Sharing & Editing

StashSpace has released its Beta version of StashBox 2.0 for new users and selected existing customers.  The Beta release will run through the end of January, 2007, after which it will be available to all of its customers.

Existing customers will notice enhanced online video editing features for locally-captured content (video recorded from your camcorder, for instance), including:

  • Faster video timeline navigation
  • Higher-quality (1.5 Mbps) and larger (480x360) video recording capabilities
  • Combined Movie/Video menus for easier management of your home video content
  • A reintroduction of the ability to overlap scenes cuts within a movie
  • Larger search results pane (now showing 15 scenes at a time) when you search your movies by tags or titles.

We are now also requiring the installation of our ActiveX control for our Internet Explorer (preferred browser) users.  The true power of stashBox for managing and watching your home videos is only unleashed through the use of our web-based application.  So for all you die-hard Firefox users -- yes, our system is compatible in Firefox for uploaded (raw) video files or tapes you have sent to us for processing, but you are missing out on all the functionality for local  recording and editing of your video files.