Hi people,
I'm now in the position where a couple of times a year I have to churn out a fair few DVDs in a short period of time. The past few weeks doing the ... one in- burn- one out, then repeat a couple of hundred times has been painful. Even if I grab all the PCs in the house its still only 3 going at one time.
So, what have my more experienced colleagues found to be the best solution for a small one man band type set up?
Is out sourcing to a production house worthwhile? From my own investigation runs of 40 to 80 DVDs seem expensive.
Is making a small extra PC with maybe 6 burners in it a worthwhile investment?
Any thoughts appreciated.

I send all large scale duplication jobs to a local business - they do it all - copy, printing on DVD in full color, jewel cases or CD jackets, you name it. Did I mention free pickup/delivery from/to home?
Now it sounds like I work for them... :-) Accord Productions (http://www.accordproductions.com/)

Hi Gerald,

I found myself in the same situation several years ago. Back when VHS was popular, I had about a dozen VCRs racked up to make dupes of dance recitals, plays, graduations, etc. in bulk. Then DVD came along and it was "one at a time". As more and more customers were ordering DVD over VHS, I needed a solution, and ended up investing in a "DVD duplication tower". They are down to a few hundred bucks now with 5 or 6 burners in them. Stick in your master DVD and some blanks and you are making dozens of copies in an hour! Of course, they still have to be printed (labels not recommended), so you need a DVD-capable inkjet or specialized DVD printer. Then there is printing and trimming the case inserts and assembling it all. Very time consuming. I'd rather be editing myself.

So you have the choice of getting a duplicator machine and keeping the work in house and having control, or as suggested you can outsource, perhaps to another local videographer or specialty company.

My duplicator recently quit on me after many years and literally thousands of DVDs and I had a big job to get out, and I remember reading about an automated service years ago called "Kunaki". I looked them up and checked out the website and decided to give it a shot. Was able to upload my entire project to them including DVD content, DVD art, and cover art, and then "preview" the final result to verify print alignment and overall look of the package online. They even shipped a free proof copy to me.

Final result? 50 DVDs delivered direct to my client in a few days, with full-color DVD printing and case insert, DVD case, and even shrink-wrapped... for $1.75 per unit. I can't buy the materials for that! While I had always printed my own disc faces, I was running to the print shop for full-color inserts at 50-60 cents each, plus DVD and case, shipping for those raw materials, my time and gas to go across town to print shop, my labor to burn, print, trim, assemble. I should have made the move years ago!!

Hope these options give you some ideas

Thanks

Jeff Pulera

Thanks for the input guys.
I'll do some more research here locally, at first glance there doesn't seem to be as many options here (east coast of Australia) as you maybe have available in the states. Haven't looked really hard yet, been too busy editing.
The one quote I got a few months back was $9.74 per unit, double printed dvd in case with inlay.
Its a fair difference to your $1.75 Jeff.
If anybody has a company they use here in Oz they could recommend.......

I have to give a HUGE endorsement to Kunaki. Their options are limited, but the results are frickin' amazing for the price. I use them all the time, even for quantites as low as 2 or 3.

They do ship to Australia using Priority Mail international, which means you can have your DVDs in-hand within about 2 weeks.

For example, your 80 DVDs with full-color printed disk in DVD case with single-page insert, front/back outer label and INDIVIDUALLY PLASTIC WRAPPED (a nice professional touch) would cost $300 shipped to Oz. That's only $3.75 each!

I've got a $3000 automated duplicator sitting here idle and collecting dust because of Kunaki.