dvdcopycat.com

Video and Film professionals who wish to shoot and publish their projects in Hi-Def have, to this point, been frustrated with the prohibitive costs associated with manufacturing a Blu-ray Disc.

Say an average filmmaker or video professional wants to make 1000 copies of their film and put it on Blu-ray(BD) Disc.   Unlike DVD, they will have to pay a mandatory up front AACS licensing fee.  Going rate is about $1500 to $2000 plus an ongoing royalty.

After paying this madatory liscensing fee, it will cost approximately $3.5 per unit to manufacture a Blu-ray package that is ready for distribution and sale.

For a typical standard definition DVD, there is no mandatory licensing fee for encryption and the cost would be approximately $1.49 per unit to manufacture.

Comparing these costs, a filmmaker  will have to pay an extra 266% over the cost of a standard DVD to publish on Blu-ray Disc.  Almost every client I have spoken to about these costs has declined to go Blu-ray.

As economies of scale take effect, the costs to manufacture Blu-ray Discs will likely come down and eventually be similar to DVD costs.  However, the real barrier to smaller companies adopting hi-def is the mandatory AACS licensing fee imposed by AACS Licensing Administrator, LLC.  This additional $1500-$2000 (plus per piece royalty), will likely be too expensive for most, and is just one more barrier to widespread adoption of Blu-ray Disc technology.

My hopes are that AACS Licensing Administrator, LLC. drops the mandatory licensing fee for smaller Blu-ray Disc orders.  If they do not, I suspect that an entire market of filmmakers and video professionals will be choosing DVD over Blu-ray Disc for the distribution of their projects.

For more information on Blu-ray Disc Duplication and Replication you can contact us directly:

Brian G Fisher

DVD Copycat

745 Fillmore, #101

San Francisco, CA 94117

www.dvdcopycat.com

415-929-1581

Well there is some promising news for Blu-ray Duplication (BD-R Duplication).  In late 2007 When the first burnable Blu-ray discs came out blank disc costs were quite high.  For most industry professionals, releasing a small project in Hi-def on Blu-ray discs was completely cost prohibitive.  For quality printable surface BD-R discs the average cost to our client was around $60.  Over the course of the last year there has been dramatic drops in the cost of burnable Blu-ray discs.  We have seen cost come down for our top quality discs by 40%.

This is good news to the filmmaker or video professional who is shooting in Hi-def.   If the current trend continues Blu-ray Duplication for smaller runs of discs (5-500 discs) should come within a much more cost effective price range.

IF the current trend continues, we hope to see 2009 as the first year where an order of, say 50 Blu-ray discs, is financially justifiable for the high end projects, and anticipate widespread adoption in 2010.

At DVD Copycat, we are very encouraged by these cost reductions and continue to provide Blu-ray Duplication for a wide range of Hi-def video projects.

For more information regarding Blu-ray Duplication contact us at: www.dvdcopycat.com

or call toll free at 1-866-210-8768

local 415-929-1581

DVD Copycat offers a wide range of Hi-Def solutions for your next Blu-ray Project.

Bring us your Disc Image or Blu-ray(BD-R) master and we can duplicate discs for you with top of the line professional grade disc printing and packaging. If you are delivering the latest video technology on a Blu-ray disc to your client, it should have the cutting edge professional appearance reflective of this exciting new video format.

Bring us your edited final version of Hi-def video and we can compress it for you and author a BD-R(blu-ray burnable disc) disc. Menu design, compression and authoring are available.

If you have a project that requires 2500 or more Blu-ray Discs, we can replicate those for you in 14 to 21 business days.

In short, if you are in need of Blu-ray disc services, whether they are burnable blu-ray discs (BD-R), or standard replicated Blu-ray discs (BD) we have a solution for you at DVD Copycat.

If you would like to contact me direct write me here at Brian@dvdcopycat.com

or call us at: 415-929-1581 for San Francisco, Bay Area and California

or toll free: 1-866-210-8768

Ask for Brian or Joe and we will be happy to help.

If you are in need of low volume Blu-ray(BD-R) burning / duplication, then look no further.

At DVD Copycat we can output your HiDef projects to Blu-Ray for your corporate or wedding needs.

Or if you just want high quality copies with superior looking professional offset printing let us know.

We strive to be the foremost quality supplier of CD, DVD, and now Blu-ray(BD) products in San Francisco, the Bay Area and California.

For more information contact us at 415-929-1581 or go to our website here at Blu-ray(BD) Duplication in San Francisco the Bay Area and California.

Ask for Brian or Joe.

At DVD Copycat, we are continuing to receive many Blu-Ray calls questions and projects. In this early stage we are currently providing basic Blu-ray compression and authoring and output to BD-R master and duplication.

For more information see our website here for Blu-Ray Duplication | BD Duplication or contact us at 415-929-1581.

Ask for Joe or Brian.

Now that the Hi-Def Disc war is over and Blu-ray Disc has come out on top, the question to answer is “when should I start releasing my Hi-Def projects on Blu-ray Disc”.

As a video professional, there are many considerations to take into account when deciding to release on Blu-ray.

Below I would like to discuss a few if these consideration.

The first question is does the audience I am distributing to have Blu-Ray Players. Once Blu-Ray player prices come down, there will be widespread adoption, however, at the current price points, only a small percentage of households and businesses have Blu-Ray Disc players. Statistics to follow in upcoming posts.

The second question is how many Blu-ray discs do you need. This will determine whether we will be replicating(BD) or duplicating(BD-R) your discs. Typically 5000 pcs or more will warrant cost effective replicating of your BD discs.

Replicated discs will play in any set-top player on the market.

Compatibility of burned Blu-ray Discs (BD-R)
If you are in the market for only a few copies to a few hundred, then the solution will be duplication(burned BD-R). There is a concern here this early in the technology that has to be considered. Most set top players will play replicated discs, but depending on the player most need updated firmware to play burned BD-R discs. If you have a specific client in mind, for example a wedding client who wants their wedding video on Hi-Def, you can run a test disc on their player and see if it works, however, for general distribution of BD-R, you will have to consider that some players will not play the BD-R and make disclaimers accordingly. I will have more statistics when they become available with regard to percentage of players that will play BD-R(burnable Blu-ray discs).

At DVD Copycat, we can currently supply both Blu-Ray Disc Replication and Blu-Ray Disc Duplication depending on your specific needs. If you have further questions please give us a call. 415-929-1581