Hi Guys

I know this has been thrashed out many times but what do you do cost wise if you are doing DVD only delivery and the bride wants USB as well? Also if you are a USB only guy and the bride wants DVD's too as well as maybe BD, does your package price include at least DVD and USB delivery in the price or do they just get one delivery option and have to pay extra if they want DVD and USB.

I just saw a survey on Facebook and brides that responded wanted either USB or DVD but some wanted both!

Do you charge extra for dual delivery or cost in both??

Chris

We offer 3 copies and they can be DVD, Blu-Ray or USB. We don't say "It will cost this much for this and that much for that" It just makes things complicated.

Some choose all USB which is cosmic, render one format, no menus. Epic! But often they choose USB and DVD for the ability to go around grandmas and pop the disk in her machine.

I think disk still has a lot of life for its pure simplicity. To use a DVD you pop it in and play. To get a film from USB to your TV things get more complicated, some TVS you pop it in and you get a menu, some put it on their laptop, transfer it to their phone and AppleTV it over. Its just more complicated but still people want it.

We are pushing all USB delivery, sticks cost more but the time saved in menus and renders is worth it.

Hi Chris,
I'm pretty much in agreement with Danny, Dvd,Usb, doesn't make that much difference. I am just finishing a wedding where they would like both. I will just render it twice overnight, once direct to dvd and then to Mp4. As the rendering is done in down time, there is no disruption to other work and the media cost is minimal in the overall package price.

Roger

I now deliver standard 3 dvd's and one usb stick with the same thing that's on the dvd but in HD, I only ask extra if they want a blu-ray. This year I have had one request for blu-ray, the year before that nobody asked for blu-ray..

I've stopped all the haggling on all that and just ask what they want.

When I meet with potential clients I just tell them," tell me how many you want and I'll make them for you."
I explain as long as it's a reasonable quantity I have no problem making as many copies as they need on disc. I tell the story of a wedding we did at the Atlanta Botanical Gardens several years ago, where the couple wanted 200 copies of the wedding to give to all the guests. Naturally we charged them for that. But that is a rarity and have only had such a thing happen 2x in 15 years.

The most I've ever had was just a couple weeks back, where I had the bride request 5 Blu Rays and 1 DVD.

I figure my COGS on those things are about $5 each and I'm not going to get hung up on a quantity
to deliver in the end.

USB sticks might be different because those are expensive and I'd like to do something very nice if/when I go that route.

I always gave 3 DVD copies and extra ones I charge $50 each for.
For this year, I changed that to 3 blu ray HD copies, extra ones are $50 each.
If their wedding was shot years ago and they wanted to upgrade to HD blu ray, then that goes up to $200 for 3 copies.
If they want the USB stick, then they pay $ 50 for each copy.
If future weddings want 4K on BluRay , then it's $500 more for their package.
90% of my delivery is done on BluRay HD.

Thanks All

Great insight into what you are all offering ... I want to start giving brides an option now but didn't know whether to charge extra for a DVD/USB mix at that involves double renders but as Roger says it's not really a big deal.

I still have absolutely no demand for BluRay here so it will be USB, DVD or a mixture of both so grandparents can watch the wedding on their older gear.

Chris

Chris, do you offer Blu-Ray.

there is no way I would charge more for blu-ray, if anything I would charge more for DVD as I would prefer people watch our work in glorious HD. A DVD is around 30p and a blu-ray is just 90p so the cost is minimal.

Has any of you seen the picture quality difference between DVD and BluRay HD ???
How does one get HD onto a DVD ?

Hi Danni

Never ever been asked for BluRay .. 99% of brides don't even know what it is and the only people around here with a BD player simply have it because it was a freebie when they bought a new TV or they bought a Sony Playstation ... I have actually never talked to anyone who purposely went out and specifically bought a BD player here!!

Brides seem to be fairly up to date with technology and have the latest phones and tablets and certainly are knowledgeable regarding USB drives but BluRay seems to not on the list!

Chris

Same here, I never get asked for Bluray and if I did I would offer them HD on usb instead as I think it is far more flexible than Bluray. I find that hardly anyone here has Bluray, whereas most people have HD tvs which usually have a usb slot.

Roger

Here BluRay players are everywhere and the married couple expects the content to be on that media. Anyone still delivering DVD's is considered behind the times. Video quality suffers when compressing say 100 GB of HD content down to a paltry 4.7 GB DVD standard for a 2 hour production. Many customers know that, they are not ignorant of the BluRay technology. I have several that only want 4K capture and delivery for 2015, even though 4K BluRay players are almost non existent as of now. Looking at a DVD on a 60 inch LCD and a HD BluRay side by side will reveal a big quality difference. Imagine 4K ?
And then we look for cameras with the highest resolution, lowest lens distortion and highest imaging detail.
What for, if we give them anything less than HD ? I recently convinced a friend of mine to make his first HD BluRay on my system after his 10+ years delivering DVD's. He looked at the result and couldn't believe his HD camera delivers that quality difference. BluRay burners (writers) here go for as low as $59, Pioneer or LG which are Mac compatible. There is no reason NOT to offer them this. I myself offer a FREE BluRay player if they take the HD package. BluRay players can be had for as low as $39 around these parts.

Bluray on a 60" tv!! Not only do I not get asked for bluray, I have never seen a 60" tv in a client's house. I think we live in different worlds. I also see Bluray as a dated technology that will disappear along with dvd. All of the quality benefits that are touted for Bluray are available with usb delivery without the requirement for a specialised player, so for me it is very easy to bypass Bluray completely, Dvds still dominate commercial sales in the stores, but I find that less and less people are bothering with discs at all, preferring streaming and downloads.

Roger

A USB stick that can do HD quality justice would be in the area of 32 GB ( actually more like 20ish GB).
Unless you compress to fit on a 8GB one which is not much better than sub HD quality you get on a DVD.
A 32 USB stick goes for around $20 here and a blank BluRay 25 GB disc is 50 cents. If I want to go hog out and deliver something with a wow factor, then I will do it on a 50GB BluRay disc. Still much less than a 32GB stick for $6. The 60 inch displays are everywhere to be found and sell for less than $600. In fact I have 1 of them along with a 42 inch in my bedroom. Anything less than that is considered small and eye straining. Here national football and basketball must be seen on a large telly. The groom's first purchase in his new house is a very large telly just for that reason. Try showing a DVD on that size and you can see where I'm going.

The groom's first purchase in his new house is a very large telly just for that reason. Try showing a DVD on that size and you can see where I'm going.

Definitely different worlds, as most newly weds in the UK would be struggling to even get their first house let alone making a 60" tv their first purchase. The average overall UK wage is £26k pa. and the average house price £270k although the average working man's wage is nearer £20k. London area house prices are £500k and the cheapest 60" tvs I can see advertised are about £900 or $1400.

Roger

I'm sure supplying a "free" BD player works for some but for me it's a messy solution. You are sort of telling them .."You have to plug in this big box to your TV so you can watch your wedding video" ..they might not have space or want another electronic box in their already full entertainment unit. So if they treat it as a portable solution it also means they need to take the player and remote in the car to Grandma's house so she can watch their wedding! I have never had a bride complain about resolution issues so I still offer DVD's and almost every bride will also ask for DVD's even though I currently offer their choice of DVD or USB (or even a mixture of both) but no Bluray.

I actually offered a Media Player FREE to brides so they could watch their wedding on any media and not a single bride took me up on my offer. I think they prefer convenience over technology and don't like complicated or messy delivery of their wedding video!

Roger? So buying a home in London must be a pipe dream now for most couples? Our house prices in Perth are also crazy. Median house price in the suburbs is around $440,000 and wages about $40K ... Funny most brides DO have a big 50" TV in their living room but only a DVD player!! Because we deal a lot with China, big screen TV's and electronics are pretty cheap here!!

Chris

Chris, because of the amount of land compared to population in both Oz and the US I am sure that average houses are much bigger in both countries than in the UK. Certainly going by the size of houses I have visited in Florida and friends houses in OZ that is the case. A much bigger lounge will mean a greater viewing distance and bigger screen requirements. Presumably that means more sales for bigger tvs and lower prices.

My findings on dvd delivery are identical to yours.

Roger

I had a mate in Florida and he used to do Realty Videos .. sheesh you can get a huge 5 bedroom home on the waterway with your own jetty and a huge garden for less than you would pay for a bed sitter in London. Even Sydney here is crazy!! They sold a home on auction yesterday (it was on the news) it was directly under the airport flight path and the house itself had a fire and was essentially gutted so it was a shell. Some woman paid $790,000 for it ..Are people crazy???

Yeah the bride is still the boss! I'd love my brides to look at their weddings on a 60" TV in 4K UHD but if they ask for DVD's that's what we have to supply them even if the footage is in low 720x576 SD!!

We actually give ourselves headaches if we try to push the resolution issues. I have had weddings on decidedly nasty wet and windy days and the bride has been over the moon with the result! It's all about content rather than resolution ...When we get to 8K we will have to start softening images so the imperfections showing thru the makeup are hidden... photogs already do this so often a bride will look more attractive in SD than pin sharp UHD where every blemish shows up !!

BluRay and DVD mainly. (And hosted highlights.)

Lots of blu-ray requests in my turf.

Almost all the video guys I talk to are getting in the BluRay wagon. They are all either upgrading or replacing their MacPro desktops for the 4K cameras that will also be replacing their HD cams. For me, my eye is on the Samsung NX1 just for the fact that it can record 4K in the H265 codec, hope the low light is great with the BSI sensor. I already have several contracts next year for 4K capture. I only got those because I told the clients that I can do it. If I didn't offer it, they would have booked elsewhere. There is a huge Arabic community here that is handled by my friend who only does Arabic weddings. I don't touch them, but he charges a pretty penny and is upgrading all his 4 workstations as well as his cameras for 4K to be ready for 2015 season. His average price just jumped 40% for BluRay 4K.