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How much to charge for putting VHS on DVD?

Megatomic

Megatomic

Lifer
Hi ATOT, I can't decide which hardware forum this belongs in so I'll try you guys out. I just got my DVD burner and I intend to make some $$$ using it. I'm going to advertise to convert peoples home movies (any tape format) into DVD video. I even have potential customers lined up. Their tapes are starting to wear out and they are uninterested putting them on tape again. I have already established a method and it works for me. I am ready to go...

Except I don't know how to price my service. I know it will cost ~ $1 per DVD media but aside from that I'm lost. I have this idea that I'll have a graduated scale. The basic service will just put the video onto DVD. From there I can do menus, add still photos, etc. for a price of course. But again I have idea what to charge.

So I ask you all to help me figure out what to charge. In case it matters, I live in Virginia Beach, VA and that's where I plan to concentrate my efforts (for now). Thanks all for any advice/guidance.
 
Originally posted by: GtPrOjEcTX
base price on how long it takes you to do the work and how long your pc is occupied while it does the work.
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Yeah agreed, at $50 an hour. That's my price for consulting work. $75 an hour if the client is a jerk. 😉
 
For now I'm using my Leadtek TV2000XP Deluxe. After a few jobs I'll buy something a bit more capable but to start with it'll do. Movies look great on my 32" Toshiba.
 
see my sig, that's what I charge. average price on the net is $20 to $80, (extra copies between $8 and $20) varies greatly depending on who does it.

I do it cheaper than most, because it's simply a hobby to me and I can't make good est. of completion.

edit: I do this on a conopus advc100 my rig is a 2500+ OC'd to 2800+ it takes me about 1hr to encode a 2hr movie, most of the work is done by my computer (takes about 15min. to edit and kick of the burn) 4x burner takes ~15min. for a full 2hr dvd) so all in all a 2hr movie for the first copy takes around 4hrs, most of which I'm doing other things so actual labor per dvd is about 30min. ($1 a disk $.50 per label and case, $.10 for electricity) 4 or more copies per hour = $20 - $8 ($2 cost per disk) = $12 an hour, when only spending about 5min. per hour working. and while I'm burning dvd's if I have any photos to do, I do those on a different computer at the same time.
 
Thanks man. Your prices are very low, I'm thinking of asking for maybe twice your rates and giving options for enhanced stuff like menus and stuff (at a cost of course).

How does your business do?
 
I put menu's on all of my DVD's, and my buisness does pretty well, word of mouth right now was bringing in an average of $50 profit a month, but I just made the web site last week so I could put an add in our weekly Shopper (like a thrifty nickel type advertising pages that gets delivered to every mailbox in the county every wed.)
 
Originally posted by: lobadobadingdong
I put menu's on all of my DVD's, and my buisness does pretty well, word of mouth right now was bringing in an average of $50 profit a month, but I just made the web site last week so I could put an add in our weekly Shopper (like a thrifty nickel type advertising pages that gets delivered to every mailbox in the county every wed.)
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I don't know if advertising is a good idea. What if you get busted for operating a business without a license or some DMCA violation?
 
I have a texas sales tax license. all taxes are included in my pricing. (if out of state I simply keep the difference) I use flat fee pricing because I hate calculating the tax and making people pay odd amounts.
 
In VA you don't need a business license unless you do $25K a year. You do need to file self employment taxes though. My wife does accounting work, I'm covered there. I'll be advertising as well.

So lobadobadingdong, you put menus and stuff on each DVD at that low price? Wow, you are the AMD of the VHS -> DVD world. Except you actually advertise. 🙂
 
yep, menus (and chapter points) only take about a minute with my editing software. even adding sound and a background picture (screen shot) from the movie (I only do that if the movie has a single theme, often home movies will have a few months on them with widely varied footage).

I use Ulead's DVD movie factory 2 for the editing. hehe, if you get swamped and need someone to help make up some time on your edits, maybe we could work something out in private for me to sub-contract to you since you'll be charging more anyway 😉

edit: I can't seem to type with proper spelling todya.
 
Lol. 🙂 I hope I get enough business to warrant such an arrangement.

Oh I am using Ulead VideoStudio 7 and DVD MovieFactory 2 to do my work. I'm glad to see I'm not reinventing the wheel so to speak.
 
What software does everyone else use to do this? My wife wants to take some of her parent's old home movies and put them on DVD. I already have a burner but have never gotten much into video capturing. I do have a capture card but don't really know what the best way to do it is. I would NOT want to just do a dump but rather record in the parts of a tape I want and then once I get a good mix of clips, then burn it to DVD and put in some very simple menus.
 
Originally posted by: FrankyJunior
What software does everyone else use to do this? My wife wants to take some of her parent's old home movies and put them on DVD. I already have a burner but have never gotten much into video capturing. I do have a capture card but don't really know what the best way to do it is. I would NOT want to just do a dump but rather record in the parts of a tape I want and then once I get a good mix of clips, then burn it to DVD and put in some very simple menus.
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most people use the softare that comes with either thier burner or capture equipment, professionals will often use very expensive software like pinnacle systems liquid, and adobe premier pro video editors.
 
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