QR Code Review: VIDEO!!!!!!!

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If you know nothing else. If you lack even the tiniest creative spark. If you can't think anything to link with your QR codes, remember: VIDEO.

The April Consumer Reports magazine is one of the most anticipated issues of the year at our library. People who never visit the library will come in just to see which cars are recommended to buy. And to avoid.

So I was really excited to see this on the latest cover: "NEW! Scan for test videos." And the magazine has 12 QR codes on the first few pages that link to car test videos.

The bad news is that they are all in mp4 format. Which doesn't play on my phone. The code on the cover scans to http://tiny.cc/swxkj which expands to http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/resources/streaming/qr/april2012/behind-scenes.mp4
Also, the videos I tested run between 6mb and 17mb which isn't too terrible, but I'd recommend keeping the file size on the small end.

But still, it's video. So if you want to use QR codes, the best place to start is with video. Record your message and link to it. If you get this one thing right, then you won't ever need to learn anything else about QR codes.

But try to make it in .avi or .flv another generic format that all phones can view. Or else wait until I install an mp4 decoder.