How much to charge for 8mm to DVD

[Goose_100]

I have been asked to convert old home movies (8mm) to DVD. How much should I charge per DVD? I have 20 of these to do. Takes me an hour to an hour and a half to play then there is conversion/editing video and audio then burning. They have supplied the DVDs. About 2 1/2 hours per dvd so far. What would you charge.

Thanks for the input.

[SingSing]

Use a DVD recorder. Charge what Walmart charged.

[Helltrain]

My cousin works for a photolab that offers VHS to DVD conversion for 20$ I think all they do is throw it in a nice DVD-R/VCR combo and let it go. I think alot of depends on the equipment you are going to use, as this will affect the quality of the finished product. Using the persons camcorder to rip the video from the tapes is alot different than if you are going to be purchasing a dedicated piece of equipment for the project.

[Bodyslide]

For a straight conversion from 8MM to DVD I charge $20.00 per Tape. Also I would make sure they gave you good Blanks and not some Junk Media. Maybe give them a discount since you have so many to do. Maybe $300.00 for the entire set. Good Luck.

[SCDVD]

The prices mentioned are just for copying to DVD media. If you are adding value such as editing, menus, etc., you should charge more. Frankly I don't know what the going rates for added value editing and authoring services are. Perhaps you can give you customer some options and charge accordingly. The amount you charge should have a direct relationship to the time and effort required.

[Bodyslide]

I agree with SCDVD, Anything more than chapter points and a Main menu. Should be charged more....

[pijetro]

I would phone a few local places, and find out their costs and compare..One thing's for sure...Nobody in my area does the editing, filtering of authouring without a premium..In fact, many don't know how to do that..

[Cornucopia]

If your source is 8mm film and NOT 8mm video, you probably should add the additional cost of the transfer from film to video, as you will have those extra steps of setup/projection/splicing? and you need to have the additional equipment to do it right.

What I see as a common cost for this is $0.10/foot (as film reels are usually expressed in feet:frames). The small (~8cm dia.) reels usually hold 50 feet, so that translates to $5/small reel.

Scott

[Goose_100]

I have complete the tapes. They agreed to $300. We came to that agreement after I had completed the job. I think it was reasonable considering what you folks said. Mind you local stores did charge in the range of $20 -30. They did not like the price but we did shake on it. I kept track of the time it took me. It took 33hrs to get the job done. 33 hrs for 11 - 8mm video tapes to DVD. I did put menus and chapters in but nothing fancy. I even did DVD covers... once again nothing fancy just a listing of the content of the DVD. For some reason I feel guilty for charging so much. I know I shouldn't. They came to me asking me to do the job. I did not solicit the job. But I have to remember these people have more money than I do. Hell they own the golf course I work at.

[steveryan]

Don't feel guilty. Think about it this way - you charged them slightly above the average Canadian minimum wage, IMO they got a good deal.

[SCDVD]

There is a big difference between just doing a straight copy and providing the service of editing, menu creation, authoring and packaging. I'm afraid though that the unaware consumer doesn't have an understanding of what is involved. It can avoid big problems if the options are explained and quoted before the job is agreed to. Otherwise the chance is very high that someone is going to feel ripped off or taken advantage of. Copying is not much more than putting the source media in a machine and pushing a button but the rest of it is time consuming and the price should take that into account.

[greymalkin]

yeah under $10 an hour is dirt cheap. I wouldn't have even bothered making menu's..etc. If they want to cry then let them go somewhere else and see what they can get.