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Encoding DVDs & Blu Ray

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PolygonGTC

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Jan 6, 2006
Messages
1,791
This is not a question of how, this is question of how much? I'm getting a lot of customers recently that want HTPCs and they are starting to want to digitize their movie collection. I've never done this sort of thing for anybody but myself and family.

Just curious what others that do this would charge someone by the hour to do this?
 
So your looking to have them rip the DVD/Blu-Ray and then convert it to another format?

Well one of my clients just uses AnyDVD and it allows him to rip his DVD/Blu-Ray. He has MASSIVE storage and 2 4U racks that hold nothign but hard drives, so he doesnt re-encode.

But what i personally use... well AnyDVD for my DVD's. I don't re-encode them UNLESS they are tv shows. Then i like to use MakeMKV to bring out each episode.

For Blu-Rays, I use AnyDVD to rip the Blu-Ray, then I use RipBot264 to convert the blu-ray from itself to MKV. MakeMKV will do this, but it will not shrink the file size down. RipBot264 will re-encode it for me. I never notice any drop in quality.

But if they have the HD space, no need to re-encode anything.
 
LOL, I know how. Did you read the first post? ;)

What I want to know is what would you charge someone for this kind of work?
 
$5/per movie for first set of 5, then drop down to $4.50/per to 10, and then $4/per after that. If you've got an adequate PC with multiple drive bays then it's idle time is making you money. Rip em all and encode in batches so that it's not to time consuming on your part.
 
Ohh wow TOTALLY didnt read, lol, i skim :)

Umm are you doing this on site, off-site or remotely?

On Site: $155/hour, our standard hourly rate
Off-Site: $5 a Movie sounds good. Plus they are responsible for purchasing the removeable USB hard drive. Then to copy the movies i'd charge a set rate (maybe $50)
Remotely: $5/movie, no xfer fee since you dont have to go back, but you'll have to keep calling them to swap out discs.

I wouldnt low-ball it, if they want it done, let them pay it. $5/$4/$3 discount rates, ehh gets to be a pain, plus a simple "$5 a movie" will let them add movies forever. Its also time on your hands, and if your like me, $5/movie isnt even a lot of money, actually maybe charge MORE, because think of it...

It'll take a guy how long to rip a movie, you'll need a PC to do it... and you hafta pay this guy how much an hour? Maybe $10/movie even, since your re-encoding it, not just COPYING, so its a length process (4-6 hours for blu-ray sometimes longer)
 
Very good idea. I was thinking hourly but that just didn't seem effective since I wouldn't be sitting at the computer all the time. Doing it on a per disc basis makes a lot more sense. Plus it doesn't make the customer feel like they are getting ripped off. and discounting by volume helps too.

Thanks a lot for the ideas everyone! :)
 
PolygonGTC,

Just out of curosity, what sort of frame rate do you get when you encode Blu-Ray to X.264 (if you do such a thing)?

I don't have a Blu-Ray ROM yet, so I simulate encoding to X.264 by up converting a DVD's resolution to what it would be on Blu-Ray. My Q9450 manages about 4.5 frames per second at stock speed using Handbrake.
 
Onsite: Your hourly rate even if that includes you sitting around waiting for the rips to finish. It's still your time being consumed.
Offsite: $50 for the first five discs, then $5 per disc on top of that.
 
I wouldn't charge or do it in any way shape or form. You are taking a huge litigation risk. Especially charging. If MPAA finds out you can kiss your business goodbye. They will pound it into bankruptcy.

You are better off selling them a how-to manual & the software to do it. It might also be a good idea to inform them of the quasi-legal issues surrounding the issue.

Again, I don't think it is a justifiable business model from a benefit/risk standpoint. You could potentially make loads of money, but you'd have to structure the business to remove you from liability and only expose the business to risk.
 
karkas said:
I wouldn't charge or do it in any way shape or form. You are taking a huge litigation risk. Especially charging. If MPAA finds out you can kiss your business goodbye. They will pound it into bankruptcy.

You are better off selling them a how-to manual & the software to do it. It might also be a good idea to inform them of the quasi-legal issues surrounding the issue.

Again, I don't think it is a justifiable business model from a benefit/risk standpoint. You could potentially make loads of money, but you'd have to structure the business to remove you from liability and only expose the business to risk.
Click to expand...

I was wondering the exact same thing, what sort of legal mire are you getting into if you offer such a service. Seems like a big can of worms.
 
Like karkas I wouldn't actually touch the actual ripping myself (strictly speaking the legality of ripping is questionable for personal use [conflicting regulations], definitely illegal for businesses to offer it as a service), at most I would set up (in addition to the HTPC and storage) the anydvd software and refer them to guides if part of my business were software installation/setup.
 
JaguarSKX said:
PolygonGTC,

Just out of curosity, what sort of frame rate do you get when you encode Blu-Ray to X.264 (if you do such a thing)?

I don't have a Blu-Ray ROM yet, so I simulate encoding to X.264 by up converting a DVD's resolution to what it would be on Blu-Ray. My Q9450 manages about 4.5 frames per second at stock speed using Handbrake.
Click to expand...

I haven't encoded anything on the i7 yet. I jut got in in last weekend.

karkas said:
I wouldn't charge or do it in any way shape or form. You are taking a huge litigation risk. Especially charging. If MPAA finds out you can kiss your business goodbye. They will pound it into bankruptcy.

You are better off selling them a how-to manual & the software to do it. It might also be a good idea to inform them of the quasi-legal issues surrounding the issue.

Again, I don't think it is a justifiable business model from a benefit/risk standpoint. You could potentially make loads of money, but you'd have to structure the business to remove you from liability and only expose the business to risk.
Click to expand...

Silentbob343 said:
I was wondering the exact same thing, what sort of legal mire are you getting into if you offer such a service. Seems like a big can of worms.
Click to expand...

novadude said:
Like karkas I wouldn't actually touch the actual ripping myself (strictly speaking the legality of ripping is questionable for personal use [conflicting regulations], definitely illegal for businesses to offer it as a service), at most I would set up (in addition to the HTPC and storage) the anydvd software and refer them to guides if part of my business were software installation/setup.
Click to expand...

Selling them the software and a how to guide would be just as bad. This person is going to be a test for the viability of this. If it's viable I would like to offer it as a service at which point I will be contacting the MPAA to see what I need to do to do this legally. This person is a family friend and will be signing a contract that these are for personal use only, that I am not keeping any copies of the movies ripped, that he will not distribute, and that I have not showed him how to rip the movies himself. If he does distribute then he opens himself up to litigation to the fullest extent of the law.

I don't have any concerns about him doing that and I wouldn't be doing this if he werent a family friend.
 
i don't own a business or a license, but when people ask me I show them... but don't do anything for them or charge them.

i have built people HTPCs in the past and have it setup for hulu and netflix and they put the DVD in the HTPC.

lame i know but it is the least headache for me
 
Adidas4275 said:
i don't own a business or a license, but when people ask me I show them... but don't do anything for them or charge them.

i have built people HTPCs in the past and have it setup for hulu and netflix and they put the DVD in the HTPC.

lame i know but it is the least headache for me
Click to expand...

Yeah, so far trying to talk to someone at the MPAA has been a real pain in the ass.
 
Let us know what they say or how it turns out... Something tells me you'll end up throwing in the towel long before they come close to giving you an answer you can work with.
 
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