What to charge for DVD duplication « Videomaker Community Forums

doublehamm
Member

Someone approached me at a wedding last weekend and was wondering if I could duplicate some DVDs for him. They are non-copyrighted DVDs that he just wants to make copies of. I am not sure what a fair price to charge for this is?

Posted 11 months ago #
Jack Wolcott
Production Host

First look at your costs: how much does each DVD blank and jewel box cost? How much does the ink you use to print on the face of the disc cost?

How long is the disc you're duplicating and how does that translate into cost of electricity?

How much time will you be involved in creating the label and packaging the DVDs? What is your time worth to you per hour?

Finally, how much do you want to pay your business per hour? This is different from "how much do I pay myself per hour." This is what you're going to put back into the business to replace equipment down the road, to advertise, etc.

My discs, which I buy in bulk -- 600 Fuji discs per case -- cost $0.39 each; jewel cases -- in bulk, 200 per case -- cost $0.18 each; ink for my Bravo II disc printer, costs about $0.20 per disc. Add labor, overhead and something for business growth and I'm into each disc about $2.00 - $2.50.

So I have to charge $2.00 to $2.50 to break even. Anything more than that is pure profit.

Your friend can probably get his DVDs duplicated at Costco or Walmart for less than $1.00 each, so you'll need to sell him on why your service is worth paying more than what he would pay there or at a local camera store. One of the easiest ways to do this is to print your client's artwork on each disc, along with a nicely printed title. If his source disc already a label on it, scan it and use the scanned image for the artwork and titling on the copies. This is a real "wow" factor and justifies the additional charge.

Posted 11 months ago #
birdcat
Moderator

When I do a video for a client, I include two DVD's as part of the package. If they want additional copies, my prices are $5 per DVD, $10 per BD or dual layer DVD and $15 per BD-RE (some BluRay players won't play BD's but will play BD-RE's). I don't have a dual layer (50GB) BD burner yet but the blanks for those are pretty steep (about $8 each in quantity) so I would figure that price out if and when I cross that bridge.

Just duping discs is not worth my while as Jack pointed out since you will most probably be competing on price with Walmart.

Bruce Paul
7Squared Productions
http://www.7squared.com

Posted 11 months ago #
doublehamm
Member

I might just point him to Wal-Mart. The reason with BD-R compatibility I think comes down to if they are HTL or LTH style. The cheaper type (LTH?) that from my understanding is produced something more closely to a DVD, can cause headaches in some older BD players. I like my glossy aqua (something or other) discs. The color printing on them is out of this world! Are there dual layer DVDs like this? It could save me some time with wedding that take 2 DVDs but still fit everything on one BD - I would not have to rework the menus in DVDA so much, just switch formats.

Posted 11 months ago #
birdcat
Moderator

DVD = 4.7gb
Dual Layer DVD = 8.5gb
BD & BD-RE = 25gb
Dual Layer BD & BD-RE = 50gb

Posted 11 months ago #
doublehamm
Member

I understand the size differences. For my
weddings, I always make a blu-ray first which always holds everything in
HD, then the DVD copies sometimes I need more than one disc. The issue
with this is it can get to be a pain in the butt to re-work the menu
when you have to split up the content. I do all my menus from scratch,
and have a nice template for Photoshop that I use for all the text and
some alpha overlays. This requires making a new PSD file for each
different disc I make. Then comes the issue of lining everything up and
make sure everything is functioning and linking correctly, and that can
get messed up in a hurry if you don't pay close attention. Sometimes
it is just easier to start the new discs from scratch as well.

(sorry for the ramble)

My question is if you know of any high quality printable glossy dual
layer DVDs out there? I see Optical Quantum has some but I was not
impressed by their "glossy" BDs and if they are the same glossy (more of
a brushed on satin finish that is very uneven), the printing is not
nearly as nice as my AquaAce Verbatim discs, and actually looks worse
than the matte BD discs at half the cost. The discs all function from
either company just fine, but the impression I get when I show the
printed discs to potential clients is pretty stunning.

I think I just hijacked my own thread...

Posted 11 months ago #