DVD Mass Production

[Jonathan Gentry]

What is the best way/place to mass produce a video I'm putting together. I'm looking to do about 200 copies of an hour long movie and I figured it would be logical to have these done professionally instead of trying to burn all these dvd's myself.

I'll be editing in Vegas.

Thanks...

[Jonathan Gentry]

Any ideas on this one? Where can I send my low budget production to have dvd copies made?

[Glenn Chan]

1- I'm assuming you want to get your DVDs professionally duplicated and that you want to know which the best shops are. If so, what's your location? Maybe someone here will have experience with duplication houses in your city.

Duplication quality seems to be hit or miss sometimes, so you may want to watch out for that. Where I live, Canclone has/had problems printing B+W onto CDs (they have also had problems with another batch for something else).

2- With DVDs I don't know how shops compare in making DVDs that will be compatible on nearly all DVD players. Maybe ask the shops in question?

3- Most dub houses I'm guessing will encode and make menus for you. Do you need this service?

4- Have you tried the Yellow Pages?

I have never duplicated DVDs before so I might be missing things.

[Jonathan Gentry]

I live in the Washington DC area. Actually just south of there in the Maryland suburbs.

Anyway I was thinking there was a company like this that operated over the internet. I could probably do all the editing and menus I just don't want to make 200 dvd's from the burner on my computer if you know what I mean. Is there anything I need to make sure of for compatabilitys sake? Are the DVD's you would get from a professional shop as compatible as a movie you would buy from Blockbuster? Are they more compatible than DVD-R's or DVD+R's that you burn yourself?

I will be selling these videos so I need 100% compatiblity.

Thanks for the info...


-Jonathan

[Glenn Chan]

If they do a glass master, then it will be as compatible as the DVDs from Blockbuster (assuming they're competent). This is expensive though and requires quantities of at least 500/1000 AFAIK.

Below that I really don't know. If they burn like you would (except with equipment to burn many DVDs at once), then they will have the same issues with using good media and not burning it too fast. I'm not sure how compatible DVDs from pro replication would be.

[Peter Sieben]

Someone told me that if you burn a DVD-R type disk, a duplicator company can make normal dvd's of it. He suggested that DVD+R is not the right format to deliver for the job. I have no idea if this makes sence, but think of it when calling a company and make sure what they need to make normal dvd's of your production.

Peter

[Doug Turner]

Check out www.customflix.com too

Check out http://www.discmakers.com they offer both replication (glass mastering) and duplication (dvd-r) and they offer any quantity you need, although to really get your money's worth you need to order about 500. They also offer full on disc printing and amarray cases and inserts.

Some houses accept DVD-R / +R as masters and some do not. Be sure to ask that otherwise they all accept DLT tapes (which is still the industry standard.)

If the discs are "replicated" via glass mastering then they are 100% compatible (assuming that you used a decent authoring program to make the master).

Make sure that you send the replication house a good master because you don't want to end up with 200 dvds that don't work.

[Jonathan Gentry]

I wonder how practical it would be to get a computer (or computers) specifically for DVD production.

Anyone know how many DVD's you can burn reliably at the same time from a 3Ghz computer with plenty of memory and fast bus? I was thinking one DVD at a time would be all you could do but if anyone knows differently please let me know...

-Jonathan

I think you can only burn 1 disc at a time per computer. But if you're thinking of doing your own duplication they make stand alone "duplicators" which are basically just an array of dvd burners put into a case, configurations of 1 to 16 recorders are available i think.

Here's a link to one place that sells them. http://www.rima.com/Merchant2/mercha...tegory_Code=DP

[Mike Rehmus]

You can buy a controller card that will operate a master dvd reader and up to at least 8 burners. Don't think it takes a super-hot computer to host this.

Or you can of course buy one of the $2000-$3000 DVD duplicator/printers.

[Jonathan Gentry]

Yes this controller card is exactly what I want. Any suggestions on where to get one? I wonder if Newegg carries them...

Big help thanks!

[Ralph Morris]

I recently had 50 DVD-R's reproduced on inkjet printable media with the artwork I supplied.

Fast turn-around and not one report of incompatibility.

Unit Price was a bit over $3.00 US including a plain CD jewel case.

Contact Jason jason@jcmediaservices.com.

I have no interest in the company, just wanted to pass along a report of good service at a fair price.

[Jonathan Gentry]

This is good to know. I was doing the math on this and it looks like I would have to move alot of DVD's to ever make it worth it...

I'm swaying back and forth but I think I may outsource the project.

[Jake Russell]

As mentioned if you're going to be doing 500+ (but usually 1000+) and need 100% compatibility, replication is the way to go. Use a DLT master but as mentioned dvd-r(G) and (A) are options also. With dvd-r(G) you can not use copy protection, and the disc must be region all(1-8) etc.

If you need less units you could still get a house to do it and master to 3.95GB authoring media as this is still the most compatible recordable media.

But all that said, even though recordable media isn't 100% compatible you could quite easily never have a complaint if you ship 200 units and use dvd-r(G)! Just take into account all the good authoring and encoding practices and things might be fine.

Jake