USB, DVD, BD or all three - Pricing?

[Chris Harding]

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

[Danny O'Neill]

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.

[Roger Gunkel]

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

[Noa Put]

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..

[Kyle Root]

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.

[Arthur Gannis]

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.

[Chris Harding]

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

[Danny O'Neill]

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.

[Arthur Gannis]

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

[Chris Harding]

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

[Roger Gunkel]

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

[Arthur Gannis]

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.

[Roger Gunkel]

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

[Arthur Gannis]

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.

[Roger Gunkel]

Originally Posted by Arthur Gannis

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