Anyone think you could make money at this?

[Commander XJL]

Do you think a person could make money by authoring DVD's for people of their video's of weddings or any other important irreplacable video they may have? Authoring DVD's is something that almost no one knows how to do, and I checked within a 50 mile radius of where I live and there is no company or anyone else offering this service. What do you think?

[mpucoder]

I'd start by contacting the videographers in your area that do weddings to see what they think - and work with them (let them dig up customers).

[MickeyNBK]

I think you could, just make sure you type something up that they sign stating that they are responsible if there is any copyright infringment. I'm not sure if it's like photos or what not where the photographer owes the rights. Just a little CYA. Also you might want to charge different prices depending on the complexity of the design (motion menus, chapter list...).

[mpucoder]

Just one thing - don't use cheap media! You don't want them coming back a year later angry.

[Arky]

...And of course, if you are making commercial gain from your projects, you will be making sure to use only fully-licensed software...


Arky ;o)

[avih]

hmmm, i was actually looking at that option some time ago (but vcd/svcd). it turned out it's not economic.

at video editing studios, they charge about $20-$40 per conversion (and about $40-$50 for dvd). if you would charge that ammount for each conversion, and you'll won't be able to make more than 1 a day (unless you have 2-4Ghz computer), and not EVERY day, you will need a dedicated pc just for that, and it would take some time, even just to pay it back... and then you'll need pr and stuff ;)

think of all the factors.. but good luck anyway ;)

[Sequoyan]

done it, it works.

DVDSP is the only product robust enough and affordible enough to make it viable.

make sure your clients know that the encode they are getting is not studio quality

get half payment upfront

use good media and burn at 1x

have fun

[Commander XJL]

It seems like you could charge a lot more than 50 dollars to build a professional DVD with menus, and chapters. A place I found in chicago charges 800 dollars. Like I say in a 50 mile radius no one is offering this, even in some large cities

[p3distxii]

You could charge $50 up front and say $15 for each disc they want. You could score big on a large family who has the cash. Considering the cost of weddings these days, spending a couple hundred bucks to cherish your digital memories forever is not unrealistic for most people. I think it's a great idea. You really only have to create one menu system and just plug in new background pictures each time. Run with it.

[cap4000]

I have been doing it for over a year now.
From weddings to theatre plays, church video, speech's and all sorts of stuff. Average 1 a day. Most without menu's - title is first play.
I use the pioneer DVR-7000 and A03...
It's a good money maker, at least till the machines are really cheap and every one can afford one.
And very very important as the above person mentioned "you don't wan't them coming back"
"USE GOOD MEDIA".
I have never had one come back using tdk,vertibatim,pioneer or mitumi.
Had a few (7) jobs come back using princo 1x . Won't buy those again.
I did however have good results every time using princo 2x (for myself only though).

[fruitbat]

What sort of capture card are you thinking of using ?

[Commander XJL]

cap4000,

how did you get the work? And how much do you charge?

[cap4000]

have been doing audio to disc already for a decade now (live recordings, dat masters, restoration,cd dup... and anything else a musician would want). I did do the odd video dub for some business for backup purpose.Video to disc was just the next logical step. Not to mention people were asking about it.I have been charging $50 canadian so far for straight transfers. More for more elaborate or complicated jobs...This does keep me busy (while i also run my record (CD)shop).With out looking i had a fellow who has a video business (films weddings and such professional) approach me the other day to see if i would be interested in doing his dvd work because he didn't have the time (I know it is more like he did understand and want to take the time to learn (also cost factor)).Anyway that was 4 or 5 days ago...and 10 or so hours on dvd with more to come. He has made several hundred weddings alone in his 20 years busness. He only mentioned dvd 1 day to his customers and i got the above jobs.We split 60/40 after dvd blank (My machine have more than paid for them selves). I do get enough through my retail store, but i won't turn away good business. So anyway if you don't have a store front to advertise then may be approching someone like i mentioned above, there must be a few home run video business's in every town.
Goto love the pioneer burners, the stand alone 7000 and the pc a03.
my other computer is informing me it ready for more work...(doing a long audio resto... project for some jazz artist's).

btw it sound's like most of you guys know what your doing
It is easy to make a dvd from any anolog or firewire source with amazing menus and such. It is more difficult to make a dvd9 to dvd5
backup of a commercial dvd with everything intact. I have not done 1 myself yet. Just re-authored to fit (re-mpeg)and no extras..

just another note. Even the 2 hour audio project that i am restoring tonight involved my pioneer 7000. I captured fron reel to the pioneer 7000 VR mode mn32 to get a highres 48 bit pcm file wich i then ripped to my computer. It saved me the real time playing from dat to computer and not to mention safer than tape.

[fruitbat]

If you load a VHS video source onto your harddrive what
software are you using to demux the audio stream from
the video signal to author in Scenarist/Maestro ?

[cap4000]

If it's just the audio i want i use DVD Wise to demux a vro file to pcm & mpv (the mpv file is not usable if it was video you want- reports illegal video in maestro). Then i load pcm into cool edit and process then convert to (44.1)cd or leave 48 if for dvd.

Vhs I usually goto to Pioneer DVR-7000 DVD Video mode real time then it's done.If i want to clean up audio or make menus and chapters i use the DVD recoring mode (vro)on a dvd -rw then rip to computer for processing.If i need to cut or insert and transitions I use my camera wich will capture anolog to firewire to computer, then use premiere to finish video. Then rather then use the computer to make mpeg2 (10h for 2 approx) I play back firewire to camera then camera firewire to 7000 in real time. Results are always beautiful.
A nice advantage to vro mode on dvd-rw it allows for 32 different bitrate settings (1pass vbr)Not that all would be used but the 10 or so settings between 5000 and 10.8 come in handy just to make sure you get max quality depending on time of source.

so an answer to the ? DVD wise for demuxing if it's vob or vro, also TMPGEnc as well if it is an mpeg 1 or 2

[fruitbat]

Thanks for the reply, so to sumarise....

If I was to capture a VHS movie onto hard drive I would
run through TMPGEnc to demux into 2 streams

1. Video stream
2. Audio stream

Would I then need to convert both to DVD specification
with various application software or would TMPGEnc
automatically demux them to DVD spec for me ?

[Commander XJL]

OK, so what do you charge?

[cap4000]

TMPGEnc has templates built in to make dvd ready for authoring.
You would still need to author to dvd using something like MyDVD or DVDit that comes with a burner. Check this forum it's loaded with faluable info on which progs... are best, & how to use them.

I have been charging $50.00 canadian per disc. So far all people think this is reasonable. Places in the bigger city's (Toronto)charge a lot more. I was quote almost $200.00 at 1 place. That is why i decided to purchase my own equipment

[fruitbat]

Ah right ! thanks for info

[dvd_master]

For fun I was looking around for jobs on a job search engine, and there is a high paying one for a person to design and produce menus for videos of theirs and stuff. I considered trying for it, but I'm too young and there are people here who are over 30 times more experienced and better at it then I am.

[Imjin]

This whole thread intrigues me.. I've been thinking about ways to put my A04 and dvd experience (all learned from here - thank you doom9) to good use. I do a fair amount of audio editing for local amateur figure skating performances in my area and the video side is only a natural progression of it.

On a side note, I gotta tell ya, for audio editing I looooove CoolEdit2000. Its one of the FEW pieces of software that I've every paid for add-on modules for because its the sweetest audio tool I've ever had. You can buy a 4-track editor for the CoolEdit2000 version, but the Pro version comes with 128-track editor, of course costing about $250 where the home-user 2000 version is more like $70.

[Faceman101]

Originally posted by dvd_master
For fun I was looking around for jobs on a job search engine, and there is a high paying one for a person to design and produce menus for videos of theirs and stuff. I considered trying for it, but I'm too young and there are people here who are over 30 times more experienced and better at it then I am.

But you're the DVD_Master ;)

Depending on who your clients are, you can make some nice side cash. Talking to local videographers can be helpful, but also advertising in local colleges can be a boost. If you can do some serious menu making and video linking, I suggest making a nice sample and sending it into companys that make DVDs professially. I emailed some just to see if they were looking and where more than willing to take a sample. Give it a shot, look in your local phonebook (if you live near a big city [Manhattan would be tops] you will find alot more work).