how many ppl use their DVD-RW's to generate profit??

[DaveQB]

i mean like advertising locally to do DVD back-up's, convert home video to DVD etc for the local community and some small profit.

any one do this here ?
how many do ??

how successful is this ??

etc etc


thanx

[Cornucopia]

Yes, I make a profit.

No, I wouldn't hardly ever use DVD-RW (except for testers), I'd almost always be using DVD-R.

Similar things could be said about DVD+RW vs DVD+R, but they have more things in common. And part of my schtick is "Compatibility" and "Compliance". Nuff said.

You could get into trouble doing backups for other people for profit. That sounds like it would be outside of Fair Use. The other stuff you mentioned is OK.

Successful?...............I guess we'll see.


Scott

[DaveQB]

yeah i was mainly thinking converting video (ie weddings, kids sports, school plays or whatever) to DVd for ppl mainly so they have a more sturdy back-up

if you dont mind me asking what kinda profit ??
$50/week on average ??

thanx

[Cornucopia]

I work at an Audio/Video production company/Post house. We do lots of different types of stuff, so I couldn't say how much time I spend doing DVD authoring as opposed to VCD authoring, CDROM authoring, audio rec/edit/mix, field work, Graphics, etc.

We have some jobs where we get to charge >$5000 for a set of 2 discs, others where we do straight transfer from VHS to DVD for ~$25, and everything in between. It varies widely, so I really couldn't give you a good answer.

Work out how valuable your time is, what you need to keep food on the table, and how much work each type of job is gonna be. Then you'll find out what kind of price structure would be needed for you. If that will fly in your market, then great. But don't quit your day job unless you see work coming in in droves.

HTH,
Scott

[DaveQB]

But don't quit your day job unless you see work coming in in droves.

HTH,
Scott

no i realise,

i just seeing if the cost of a nice new LG DVD-RW for AU$380 will pay itself off in a few weeks.

thinking of a small newspaper ad in the local etc

[rob1]

I don't, but I've surfed around seeing what folks charge for VHS-DVD conversion (not copyright material- home video stuff). Most of the real 'on-line' companies with web pages seem to charge $25-$50 for conversion with basic menus, decent packaging and no editing- which is a nice profit margin. However, I spotted one ad on ebay- a 'buy now' where the guy was charging about $7 for the first DVD and $5 for each additional. The buyer had to pay for shipping both ways- but still, that profit margin seems hardly worth the effort!! Even if he's using cheap media, you'd think the profit would barely pay for the wear and tear on his system!

I don't know that it seems worth the hassle- though if a random stranger walked up to me and offered me $25 bucks for a legal conversion I'd probably say yes. That doesn't seem too likely though!

[Craig Tucker]

I do friends stuff for free, am currently doing a mates wedding video. To be honest I cant be arsed to try and tout for commercial gain. Seems like too much effort for very little reward.

[seinman]

I make money using mine, but not backing stuff up for people. I sell DVDs of content I produce myself. Don't make much (maybe $5 a week if i'm lucky), but it's making money none the less.

[DaveQB]

hmm being a poor Uni student, any money is good money

even if its just to pay off the DVD writers itself.


hmmm $380 - $40 for DVD-ROM ...
i am on my way

lol

[oldfart13]

Not much profit in doing DVDs, even for friends. I've done a couple but for the cost of a disk and maybe a DVD rental. Mostly I've used the time to learn more about ripping disks and making my own originals. Still learning. I can STILL make way more money from Ebay selling old tapes and magazines. Working on making enough for a new computer. Should take about 3 weeks...

[tygrus2000]

The entire reason I am registered at this site and follow it was to develop some media ideas I had a few years ago. I had to wait until some of the software was better developed and do enough of my own testing to feel comfortable doing it as a business but I think the time is finally right.

I plan to use my writer for 2 business ideas. The first is to create a content DVD myself which will be local nature/city scenes and a customized soundtrack that I am making right now. The second is to use it as a service to people for their own conversions. While it is probably illegal to back up someone elses movie, I think I can offer a service whereby I will transfer personal digital and scanned pictures to DVD slideshows for maybe $25 bucks a disc or whatever. I had considered converting home movies too, but it seems it would be too much hassle to capture and take too long getting these in a nice presentable product. In general, people take much better photos than they do videos.

I am also contemplating converting people's mp3 and music collections onto DVD. While it would be illegal for me to download the mp3s or rip them from albums for people, if they give me the files to start with in mp3 format and I just transfer them to DVD, I think it lands in the fair use category since they are the legal owners of the music in the first place (I assume). Not much difference in that say with recording cds to cassette which is allowed. I can fit a weeks worth of songs on one in mpeg1 audio formats. I think this is an opportunity since people will not want to respend all the money to buy their music all over again into the new medium. Wouldnt you pay $25 bucks to get 25 albums onto one DVD rather than spend $25 each to go buy the album again in DVD format from the studios?

One of the things I am struggling with is how to interface with potential customers. I dont really want a bunch of strangers coming to my house and I dont want to go over to theirs. I think I have finally settled on using the mail. They can send me the discs of their content, I make the DVD, then I would have to go meet them somewhere to demo the disc and collect the payment. Maybe if there was a way to password protect the disc, I could just mail it back and then give them the pass word when they pay up. Also, many of these people would be return customers since people are always adding to their mp3 and digital pic collection or might want copies.

Tygrus

[DaveQB]

ppl here are saying analog to digital video conversion is too difficult. But dont you all do it for yourself anyway??

Just add the customers work to your list.
hmmm, the whole reason i got into digital video editing was to convert all my tapes of amateur football to CD/DVD

i am starting to think i could at least make back the cost of the DVD-rw anyway, i hope. might buy it today then.

8)

[hitechjunkie]

ppl here are saying analog to digital video conversion is too difficult. But dont you all do it for yourself anyway??

Just add the customers work to your list.

yeah but when u do it for yourself, you don't have to worry about time constraints, quality, or any of the other pressures associated with doing it for a paying customer. doing it for pay changes everything.

[rsuave5]

i do lots of vhs or 8mm to dvd, i do slideshows and photo archiving on dvd and i do music videos to dvd and lots of porn. the analog to digital isnt hard for me it takes about as long as the source vhs. i sell bootleg concerts on dvd and i make a nice income aside from videography and photo restoring

[Vejita-sama]

How about doing all the above at a lost I actually like having people loan me their home movies, convert them to DVD, add menus, transitions, etc (with their help, they tell me what they want and I try to think of a way to make it work). But then only ask for like $2 to cover the cost of the blank disc and the case. Often ask for nothing, this is all a hobby after all...

[hitechjunkie]

things were a lot simpler (and profitable) with burning VCDs on 10 cent blanks at a burn rate of 5 minutes per VCD, on two low cost burners, and charging $2 per disc.

[Rickster]

Oh, yeah, you can make a profit doing this kind of thing. I made a special video presentation for the Lake Placid Florida Mural Society. Shot and edited (about 2 days work) and came out with a video presentation that totalled all of 00:09:22. Delivered the final video to the Mural Society on dvd and got a check for $425.00. I just made them 20 more copies of the dvd and 10 VHS copies for them to sell. I got the 20 discs for about 22 bucks online and the VHS cost 10 bucks for 10 at Wal-Mart. And I just got another check for $260.00. So, I'd say, yeah, it was profitable.
The thing most people forget is that they have to deal with alot of different types of people when they're in this type of business. Get everything in writing and get it signed. Don't let people try to get you to do something extra for free at the last minute. If they want something changed in the video after everything is put together, charge them extra for it. Only you can decide when you'll do something for free. But how profitable making dvd's can be depends on several factors, including how creative you are, what you will do and not do for your clients, how creative you can be at tax time (keep receipts and deduct for EVERYTHING!).
So, yeah, this can be a profitable business, even lucrative...or you could lose your shirt. It's up to you.

[txpharoah]

Was a lot more money in this back in 2001. Back when DVD burners were largely unheard of and expensive.

Almost entirely used for business. Only recently have I been using it for personal stuff.

Nice large customer-base too.

And this is about more than just equipment: you must know about video and digital video too. Any moron can buy a DVD burner.

[hitechjunkie]

But how profitable making dvd's can be depends on several factors, including how creative you are

yeah, but how do u put a price on creativity?

people have no idea how much time it takes to come up with just the right clip when adding motion menus to a DVD, custom-designed highlights (hidden features?), smooth transitions (between motion menus, video content), multi-angles, etc.

i've been a tech consultant for the last 20 years and it's relatively easy to command $100+/hr. i find that those involved in any of the more creative fields (art, music, etc.) ever get paid based on the actual time invested (i gigged with a jazz/fusion band in NYC for 4 years, 2-3 nights a week for peanuts). the truly creative ones do it for the love of "it", usually on the brink of starvation until they are "discovered", find a niche market (or hire a good agent).

[kamuixtv]

Yeah I do in medium scale. Experimenting n data and videos.

[markums2k]

But how profitable making dvd's can be depends on several factors, including how creative you are

yeah, but how do u put a price on creativity?

people have no idea how much time it takes to come up with just the right clip when adding motion menus to a DVD, custom-designed highlights (hidden features?), smooth transitions (between motion menus, video content), multi-angles, etc.

You hit the nail on the head. On a bad day, I might take over an hour to decide on that *perfect* still for the menu, or to get a transition JUST right... and the customer would never know, and they may not even like your creative decision when all is said and done. Wasted time and effort; I mean, we all like to take pride in our work. Right?

Best case scenario, counting all expenses but NOT encoding time, charging top dollar, I might make $20 an hour doing video conversion/backup... and I make WAY more than that at my regular job.

If you count encoding time, or say you have a troublesome source that needs heavy filtering or god-knows-what, you might end up with something really ridiculous, like $2 an hour. You might be better off getting a job at Burger King... honestly, if profit is yer game.

Now, if you can get a sweet DVD authoring contract for a major hollywood release... hmmmm, now that's where the big bucks are in this type of field. You won't be burning those on your RW drive though. Now I'm just rambling. Nevermind...

[Will Hay]

Just done a friends vhs tape to dvd.
Must admit, I'm delighted with the results.
He get's it today, I'll see if he's as happy as I am
Will

[FulciLives]

Hello

I would like to point out that if you use a stand alone DVD recorder then you can save yourself all the encoding time and still make a custom DVD recordable in the end.

I won't go into detail ... the process is easy but there are many steps that you must follow ... but here is a quick summary:

Do your recording on a stand alone DVD recorder that supports the DVD-RAM format (the most popular being the Panasonic line). You can then import that DVD-RAM into the computer and edit it then create a custom DVD with your authoring program of choice (custom menu and chapter points etc.) then burn a final DVD-R or DVD+R with your computer burner.

If you do the process correctly you will NOT have to re-encode the original recording done on the DVD-RAM disc. THIS is only possible with DVD-RAM ... if you record on a standalone to another format, such as DVD-R or DVD+R or even DVD+RW etc. then when you copy it to the computer you WILL have to re-encode.

The Panasonic line of stand alone DVD recorders have a built-in TBC and 3D Y/C adaptive comb filter. This means that they work GREAT at cleaning up and stabilizing analog video for conversion to mpeg2 DVD.

If you do a forum search here for DVD-RAM or VRO (which is the format DVD-RAM uses) then I am sure you will find more than one post with the details on how to go about this process.

As I said it is not hard but if you don't do it "just right" then you will either screw up the audio or end up having to re-encode which of course is the thing you want to avoid.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

P.S.
My point to all this? If you can cut out the SLOW software mpeg2 encoding step then it might be very possible to make a decent profit converting home videos to DVD discs.

[Cornucopia]

FulciLives: Where are you getting that BS?

Not sure about +R/W cuz I don't use it much, but I know this is not true about -R/W. I can take the video into my Pioneer PVR-9000 (using either the DVD-Video mode or the DVD-VR mode), then copy the disc contents to HD, demux and re-edit (along GOP borders), and re-author w/ more menus, chapters, etc. ALL without re-encoding or losing any quality.

Now, how often do I do this? Rarely, cuz my material is pretty short and I have a FAST enough encoding computer so it's not such a big deal to just capture, edit, encode, author and burn.

RAM's good, but it's not the only player on that block.

Scott

[FulciLives]

FulciLives: Where are you getting that BS?

Not sure about +R/W cuz I don't use it much, but I know this is not true about -R/W. I can take the video into my Pioneer PVR-9000 (using either the DVD-Video mode or the DVD-VR mode), then copy the disc contents to HD, demux and re-edit (along GOP borders), and re-author w/ more menus, chapters, etc. ALL without re-encoding or losing any quality.

Now, how often do I do this? Rarely, cuz my material is pretty short and I have a FAST enough encoding computer so it's not such a big deal to just capture, edit, encode, author and burn.

RAM's good, but it's not the only player on that block.

Scott

Well I know the format that DVD-RAM uses creates a file called filename.vro and this VRO file can easily be made into an mpeg file without any re-encoding. I thought this was only possible on DVD-RAM

How do you do it with DVD-RW or does that also use the VRO file format?

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[Cornucopia]

FulciLives:

The Pioneer will record in DVD-Video mode (using std. VOB+IFO+BUP) for DVD-R, and in either DVD-Video mode or DVD-VR (using VRO files!) with DVD-RW. As everyone here knows, its fairly easy to do demux with VOB files (DVD2AVI, TMPGEnc etc). You also would know from your experience with the Panny that there are less, but still some apps that can work with VRO files.

IIRC, DVD+R/W on some of those Phillips decks will record in what's referred to as DVD+VR mode. This is VERY CLOSE, if not identical to DVD-VR mode.

Scott

[dvcd]

Do you need a business license to legally make profit from your DVD writer?