Need help reproducing a custom DVD

February 10, 2009 7:54 PM

Where can I get my own custom DVDs reproduced so that I can sell them to a small, select group of people?

My daughter was in a school performance tonight. Along with other parents, I video taped it. I'm going to collect video from some of the other parents and edit it together and then create a DVD from it.

What I need is a Cafepress-like resource where I can have the DVDs reproduced, a label screened onto it, a DVD case (of my own design) printed, and then the whole thing made available for sale. We aren't talking about mass production: the performance included students from 4 classes, so there are only about 80 families involved. I have neither the time nor money to manually create all 80 discs; I'd much rather outsource it. But I'd like to keep costs down as well.

I will be doing all of the production of the DVD myself - I don't need anyone to do any editing or menu creation or anything of the sort. Ideally, I'll be handing off a completed DVD that will simply need to be reproduced.

So any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks.

posted by robhuddles to media & arts (7 comments total)

I don't know about your town, but where I am there are a couple of weekly free papers with gig guides and music reviews etc. In the back of those there are always ads for recording studios and CD and DVD duplication services, which include small-run prices. If you have analogous street papers, that's where I'd start looking.
posted by pompomtom at 8:23 PM on February 10

Maybe you could try a local video production agency? I used to work for one and we always had short runs of DVDs going through the duplicator, including videos that we didn't actually produce in house. I don't think it cost that much.
posted by bristolcat at 8:38 PM on February 10

Looks like Lulu will do custom DVDs for $6.59 apiece at that quantity.
posted by teraflop at 8:45 PM on February 10

If you just google DVD Duplication there are quite a few places that offer this.

Here's one picked at random - $4.04 per unit for 50 to 100 DVDs, with cases and colour printing.
posted by Mike1024 at 1:19 AM on February 11

FWIW, I've had issues with DVDs made from DVD duplicating machines. If you find a place to do it, make sure they use decent media and run the machine at a slow burning speed.
posted by gjc at 5:27 AM on February 11

You might want to look into CreateSpace (an Amazon company). $3.96 per unit on orders of 50-99 (base price is $4.95 for orders of 1-49), but the real beauty is that they are a print-on-demand service like Cafe Press, so you don't have to take any risk in ordering DVDs that you may not sell (and you can actually sell through Amazon if you like).
posted by malocchio at 7:14 AM on February 11

I'll contact you via MeFiMail.
posted by omnidrew at 7:20 AM on February 11