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Erendiox

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Oct 15, 2004
706
12
Brooklyn NY
Hey guys,

My dad is in a situation at his job where he needs to come up with a way to make 300 DVD copies of a 30 minute training video (DVD). The decision has to be made on what will get purchased by the company to do the job. He came to me for advice, and initially he brought up getting something like a TiVo to do it; one of those DVD recorders with built in HDDs. I thought it was overkill for what he needed, and to be honest, i'm not even sure if a DVD recorder can rip movies off DVDs, so I advised against it. There are two iBook G4s in our home, one of them being mine, and I told him that with a DVD burner he could easily make a disk image and burn copies of that with an iBook. He says he shouldn't have to use his own personal equipment, which actually is very true, and short of telling him to buy a mac for the company, which is out of the question, I don't know how to advise him. He has all PCs at his job, and, while I know you could get them to work with an external DVD burner pretty easy, I can't give him a concrete, step-by-step process on copying the DVD and burning it using a PC.

Is there a stand alone DVD copying solution that i'm overlooking? Any software you could reccommend for PCs that would get the job done quick and easy? What I need is a definite solution so my dad can use company money without worring about possibly buying the wrong thing.

Sorry for the long post. Any help is much appreciated :)
 

slagonnee

macrumors member
Apr 28, 2005
34
0
If this is a kind of project that is recurring, your dad's company could invest in a standalone CD/DVD duplicator, something like this:

http://www.primera.com/dup07.html

If you go to newegg.com or allmediaoutlet.com, you can find a variety of duplicators in a variety of price ranges. Only problem then is if he wants to print 300 DVD faces/labels or just write on them with Sharpies.

Also if this a one time deal, I second DevilsRejection's suggestion and send the project to a dup house. I think even Kinko's can do DVD duplication (with custom printing) - maybe there is a local company that does the same.
 

Artful Dodger

macrumors 68020
I know that most places that press the dvds need a minimum of 500, well they did about a year ago when I was looking around. The cost was between $5.00-$8.00 per dvd depending how long, how many and how fast do you need them. Like what was said if this is something that will happen very often then maybe an investment in a multi. tower type would work best.
 

gnasher729

Suspended
Nov 25, 2005
17,980
5,565
Artful Dodger said:
I know that most places that press the dvds need a minimum of 500, well they did about a year ago when I was looking around. The cost was between $5.00-$8.00 per dvd depending how long, how many and how fast do you need them. Like what was said if this is something that will happen very often then maybe an investment in a multi. tower type would work best.

Google is your friend. Typing "DVD Duplication" into google comes up with lots of places. The very first one offers 1000 DVDs for £575 + VAT, that is 57.5 pence each.
 

Artful Dodger

macrumors 68020
gnasher729 said:
Google is your friend. Typing "DVD Duplication" into google comes up with lots of places. The very first one offers 1000 DVDs for £575 + VAT, that is 57.5 pence each.

That's not bad at all even after the exchange, it ends up being $1.00 or so each US. Yeah my local place wanted $2.00 each if you bought 1000 or $4.00 each for 500 and of course that was last year at the last minute.
Also I went to videohelp.com and a few people gave me some press places but just knowing when I needed them I think they wanted to stick me $$$. My GF had her dance recital and the dvd guy canceled out 4 days before (always read the fine print) :eek: Anyway I ended up using my internal burner and then using my exterenal at the same time to make 225 dvds for the families :eek: Boy did that suck my weekend away.
I think something from a press in a large quantity can guarantee that they will play on any player no matter what, that may be a factor, shouldn't be but might :rolleyes:
 

Artful Dodger

macrumors 68020
balamw said:
There are places that will do burned copies for < 500, here's one ~$600 for 300, which seems cheaper than buying a duplicator from newegg and the time that would be involved...

http://www.elsproductions.com/dvd_duplication.php

B

Thanks, I just found a bunch as dance recital time is coming up again and I really don't want to sit in front of my iMac burning a ton of dvds (I'll sit here for any other reason though) ;) :)
 
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