How much do you charge for a Blu-ray copy?
 

Hi guys,

Just wondering how much you charge for a blu-ray copy?

I started offering Blu-rays this year, had 25 weddings so far, and 3 ordered Blu-rays.

I charge £30 (30 UKP) for a Blu, I'm wondering if this is too muhc, or if the majority of people just aren't interested in Blus

Of those 25 weddings however, 2 did ask for a HD 'digital copy'. 1 asaked for an mp4 (for his media centre pc, and the other asked for a copy in the .wmv (HDwmv) format for playback on his xBox 360.

I deliverd both of these on a usb stick, and charged £30 per.

Whats your thoughts? How much do you guys charge for a Blu or a HD digital file copy?

I posted on my web site $100 per copy of BluRay. however, the secret price is actually $50.

I charged a flat rate of $400 if the customer provides a harddrive to have all the edited .mpeg-2 files.

Free
 

Give it free with all my wedding packages. 10 dollars does not compare to another wedding at $3000 from a referral.

Blu-ray Disk is the only extra we offer and since it requires separate authoring we charge £100 ($150) - if they want more than 1 copy we'll deal. This is all in addition to the five DVDs we include in our package. We record, edit and archive in HD.

I am using Encore CS4. Only need to author once. It can burn both DVD and BluRay.

True but I dumped Premiere long ago in favour of Avid (please no flames) and have since preferred DVD Lab Pro for authoring DVDs. All motion menus, motion backgrounds etc.

Bear in mind almost all my work is multicam; I think Premiere has only recently caught up on that score - when I started (with 10 cameras for a concert) the best Premiere could do was four on a plug in.

As I write I wish I could even remember what I used for authoring Blu-ray - as I say it was only asked for once.

DVD Lab Pro is a great authoring program. I wonder if they will release a version that supports Blu-ray authoring?

I'm told that the folks at DVD Lab haven't invested time etc in making an app for Blu-ray because they don't believe Blu-ray has a long term future.

They may well be right.

Same thought with Final Cut Pro, they just have the weak straight to BR export. Looks fine, but no menu structure.

We are not shooting HD when the client doesn't want it. If I shoot HD in all cases that means that

-I have to edit and color correct "heavier" footage and that means more time when exporting (and re-exporting and re-exporting when something is not right). Applying other effects on such footage is taking away even more time. If I have a highlights video for example or many of the intros-outros and work with Magic Bullet or Time Warp effects, that means a pain in previewing and reediting. Time-warping 15 minutes of footage needs 6-8 hours in HD.

-When the footage goes beyond 2 hours (very easy on Greek weddings to have 3 hours of edited footage) I have to convert from MPEG to AVC in order to keep the quality. That means, 2 days render in quad-core PC! Even more time!

For all those we charge HD with 300 Euros (almost 430 USD) extra. I consider it fair, with all that extra time needed for the editing and authoring. In any case, I will never go shooting everything HD, unless it becomes the absolute standard. And believe it or not, at least 50% of our weddings are shot in HD!

I have a similar process to Dimitris.

I record in HD, but unless the client has gone for an HD package then I capture, edit and render in SD.

They can have the upgrade for £175 that covers the extra rendering time etc.

I charge £30 for a BluRay disc (extra copy on top of the ones included in their HD package).

So, to answer your initial question I think you are offering a fair price for the Disc.

If you are having to do extra rendering to different formats for the Hard Drive delivery, I would up your prices without any fear as the time invested in the rendering etc justifies it.

my standard 3 copies are included in my wedding packages too. But what if the client wants to order more? Do you give your client as many copies as they want free?

The real issue / opportunity is HD not Blu-ray. There's a lot more to it than Blu-ray. You can't take a passive position on this and just wait for clients to order Blu-ray. If that's all you are doing, yeah, you're right; "no body is ordering Blu-ray." But if you take a creative marketing approach, you can convince some clients to upgrade to HD (ditch the word Blu-ray). A key way to do this is to demo HD versus SD and let them SEE the difference. You can also provide the complete solution which also provides another revenue opportunity for you. A good way to demo as well as deliver HD content is with a player such as the WD TV. After a HD demo, you can offer to deliver the video on a HD player "just like this one". Suddenly it takes on a different perspective; you're offering the HD content AND the viewing solution. You don't have to become a crusader. If someone wants delivery on a Blu-ray disc, fill their order with Blu-ray even it it isn't your favorite media.

HD looks better. When people properly SEE the difference, some will want it. But if you take a passive approach and just mumble the question, "Do you want Blu-ray?", you will continue to report that "No one wants Blu-ray." Asking someone if they would like Blu-ray sounds a bit like you are asking them if they want an X-Ray for a disease or something. - - - Oh my back is just killing me! I'm sorry, do you want a Blu-ray? But if you SHOW them HIGH DEFINITION so they can SEE it, it's a different story.

I have heard videographers ask other videographers, "Hey Bill, do you know anyone who has a Blu-ray player?" Bill answers, "Why no Larry, I don't know anyone that does." They then both chortle together as if that "proves" there is no Blu-ray market. The real question should be, "Do you know anyone who DOESN'T own a HD TV?" Go to a store and buy a TV that isn't HD. Non HD TV's virtually don't exist anymore! Do you mean to say that people don't want to take advantage of the high definition capability of their TV? Then how do explain all of the money the cable and satellite providers are making on HD subscription service? What's the answer? The cable and satellite are highlighting the benefits of HIGH DEFINITION TV because it looks so much better. As a result, a lot of people want it to use with their HD TV that they ALREADY own. They aren't asking their customers if they want an X-Ray or a Blu-ray or any other kind of "ray".

When presenting HD to a client, call it High Definition, not HD. Don't assume people know what the two letters HD mean. There is a good chance they don't and if they don't, you might as well ask them if they want a YP or a RS or a QL. If they don't know what it means, why would they want it? - and don't just talk about it, show it to them.

High definition is a revenue opportunity - -if you're up to it.

Here's my take -
I won't shoot SD... once you shoot HD, it's really hard to go back, the quality difference is pretty obvious. Better input source = better final output, simple.

Delivery is another kettle of fish... Yes, people probably have HDTVs or will once old TV's slowly die off, some have PS3's, and some have BR players...

I don't think you can even buy a non-HD TV, although lower rez "HD" (720 or 768 or whatever, not 1080) is still fairly common. BUT, you can still buy cheap DVD players of all sorts... for far less than BR, and lots of DVD content, again for cheap. The "demise of SD" as a delivery format is greatly exagerrated...


The hurdle is how to deliver HD content - EVERYONE has a DVD or three, but with BR players STILL being well north of the $100 price point (coming down, but nowhere near the price of DVD players), and burners being over that same magic $ figure (writeable media seems to be available fairly reasonable now), and a serious recessionary economy... it just isn't as big a draw as it might otherwise be. Discretionary $ that might go to that new toy go in the tank or on the table first.

My "mile marker" is the $100 price point on burners and players, it's a psychological thing, but it's the sort of thing that makes people "think" it's affordable - show me "$99 Christmas BR specials", and I'll say we're there.

Until then, I'll render BR versions at a slightly lower bitrate (17Mbps vs. 25), and put them on regular DVD's, playable on most BR players, or archive to HDD.

This doesn't mean I don't think its's worth promoting HD - I just upgraded my aging laptop, new one has BR player, stuck some of my "BR-DVD's" in and compared to SD versions - big difference in detail and clarity, yet I'd say 90%+ of people wouldn't see the differences unless you showed them... my wife didn't really think it was such a big deal...


If you're shooting video, you ignore HD at your own peril (sorry "Bill & Larry"). Just because delivery is awkward doesn't mean that people don't expect the quality and not too far down the line will EXPECT HD footage, whether it's delivered on a BR or a thumb drive, or whatever.