I searched on the whole forum, but could only find very old info on this subject.

If you have done a larger replication run (+1000) lately, please weight in on these questions:

Are MPEG and Dolby (just stereo) royalties still required for replicated DVDs?

If so, who is responsible to pay them and how much are they?

That's how Dolby make their money .. charging royalties. The replicators include them in your cost.

Ring around and ask plants in your area what their rates are for various size runs and ask about all the royalties payable.

Royalties are also payable on copyright music used so don't start a production till you have permission in writing to use the music and what the royalty charges are. hth
Cheers.

Music's no prob, as we were careful there, but if we don't include Dolby's logo on the DVD, what is the law concerning output from Encore (which includes Dolby encoding by default)?

Plus, it used to be that the MPEG consortium required some kind of royalties, but I've seen nothing on that in the last 7 yrs.

I'm sure our replicator probably rolls that into his price (they do a lot of work), but the Dolby output via Encore for replicated DVDs has us wondering. If you have some hard data on that, I'd sure appreciate the URL.

Not sure why this was posted to the CineForm forum -- moved here where it belongs.

Thanks Chris.

Stephen .. Ray Dolby has been around for Yonks you can't put anything past him he'd hear about it :(

I'd definately call your plant otherwise something will slip by you ie: more cost, tech or printing specs, delivery dates etc.

Cheers.

Ha, I confess Chris, I knew you'd move it. I was wondering if you were sleeping....I mean, you took a whole hour and a half to do it! Thought maybe I'd slip it by...sorry for the extra work, I knew better.

Allan, I pretty much figured I'd have to run it through the replicator outfit. Prob is they are in the USA, busy like crazy, and I'm in Brazil right now. Emails are sometimes not so hot for getting info, but I guess there's no other way.

Yeah, Dolby is like Hurd...can't pull any fast ones on 'em. They've got a sixth sense to sniff out this stuff. It must smell like money.

Might have to call this one in.

Stephen .. yep I saw your location. The plant might have Skype? .. with such a big job and if it's a first might be worth going up there for a few days check the samples and accompany it back? Brazilian import regs?

Hope it's not an urgent job.
Cheers.

both producers/distributors and replicators are liable to pay licensing fees. When you get a quote, the company doing your replication should tell you separately how much licensing costs. These charges are usually standard and are payable in (usually) USD. The responsibility is shared.