O.T. - DVD duplication????

[rs02931]

A bit off topic, but figure this a good place to get accurate answers.... I have a couple of jobs upcoming, two that will require 40 copies each, another that will require 250 copies. Question?? farm duplication out??? Purchase a standalone tower that will do 4 or 5 copies at a time??? any suggestions on brand, or things to look for/avoid??? I see them in the 600.00 - 700.00 range on line.

Thanks for any help/suggestions.
Bob

[Gorf]

I'm surprised they cost so much. Here in the UK they can be had for £200 ($368) plus £20 ($37) per writer, based on a seven-writer chassis. This makes a five-disc solution equiv. $588 with room for two more drives.

My supplier does 1x, 3x, 7x and 9x duplicators, which have two, four, eight and ten drive bays repectively. One of the bays is used for the read device (optical drive or hard drive) while the others are the writers.

The 3x configuration allows you to make 90 discs per day (7.5 hours x 15 mins per disc x 3 discs at a time) and would cost equiv. $390.34

Note - all the above calcs assume a DVD drive as the read transport. Using a hard drive would change the price - and not just for the medium. The kit "assumes" optical drives, so you need to add a tenner for 3½" adapters.

Your needs (2x40 disc runs, 1x250 disc run) certainly don't justify glass mastering, unless your time is very expensive. I'd consider getting someone to print the case inserts, though.

[Devil]

For the 250 run, I would consider glass master replication. Many companies offer minimum runs of 500 for between $1 and 1.50 each (including 4- or 5-colour printing), spindle packed. If you want sleeves or boxes, then this will be a little extra. So, you would throw away half of them, thus doubling the price but consider the advantages: you are sure they will play reliably in all players, no duds, no compatibility issues, and they look professional.

Of course, for the small run, duplication is the only viable solution. I would outsource the job, though, but be prepared to pay a good price (there are many cowboys offering duplication services at low prices, but no guarantee of quality or reliability. Doing it yourself is possible, but can you justify the time for duplicating, printing and quality control? Either way, insist on DVD-R which has fewer compatibility issues.

[Devil]

Gareth

You've just given away your Gorf anonymity!

[Gorf]

Gareth

You've just given away your Gorf anonymity!

I wasn't trying to remain anonymous, but I'm intrigued as to what I've posted that gave you the clue. My profile on every post says "Blackburn, UK" so it's not that I mentioned my nationality.

It must be the "answered on the webboard" that I posted on the dark side...?


Incidentally - where can you get 250 replicated discs for a quid each????

[Devil]

It must be the "answered on the webboard" that I posted on the dark side...?

Incidentally, when I see the same question posted in multiple places, I answer only one (if I can!) and ignore the rest.

I didn't say 250 @ £1, I said 500 @ $1-1.50 (in the USA) and chuck away ½ of them, effectively doubling the price for 250.

[Gorf]

It must be the "answered on the webboard" that I posted on the dark side...?

Incidentally, when I see the same question posted in multiple places, I answer only one (if I can!) and ignore the rest.

I try to say at least that it's been answered elsewhere (even if not by me) so that nobody else spends time duplicating an answer. In the interests of avoiding duplicated content, I only cut/paste the answer to the second forum if anybody says "I'd be interested too" which hasn't happened in this case on mug-sw.

I didn't say 250 @ £1, I said 500 @ $1-1.50 (in the USA) and chuck away ½ of them, effectively doubling the price for 250.

I know - that makes it $2 per disc, which at the moment is about a quid.

Having said that - if it's American there will be hefty carriage and also some import tax. I suppose you could ask the supplier to throw away half of them rather than send them (or better still - simply not replcate them) to save on postage weight.

I wrote to SVP here in the UK asking why it was cheaper to buy 10 boxes of 8cm discs (100 discs) than to buy three. the boxes were £8.75ea but if you bought ten or more the price per box went down to £1.99.

It left the bizarre situation that if you needed 21 discs, it would be cheaper to buy 100 @ 19.99 and discard 7 boxes, than to buy 30 @ £26.25

[GeorgeW]

Are these "mission critical" DVD's -- where Replication is your safest method for full distribution compatibility

Will you require "copy-protection" on the discs (however useless)

How long are the DVD's expected to run (or how much space will be required on each disc -- 1gb, 2gb, more than dvd5, dvd9, etc...)

What software do you use for Authoring

Regards,
George