DVD Mastering and Copies

[Scott Nocella]

I chose to create a new thread as most of you refer to each of these discussions.

I will try and establish a relationship with a replication house so as to help reduce costs on replication. I will try to ease the costs as best I can. As far as posting prices....that's impossible since all your films will be different lengths, and have different features that make each DVD different in design. I will try and work within the desired quantity levels requested and post updates accordingly. I will work out some more detail about creating packages that are meant for film makers.

As far as creating the computer files necessary to send to a replication house for a DVD that is over 2 hours in length that turns into another whole adventure. As Trevor posted there are larger DVDs that hold more information but I have to save those files to a DLT(Digital Linear Tape)device and send them to the replication house where they burn the DVDs....I will find out if they make an optical master or if they just use the files as a source to burn on a mass quanitity of burners and I'll post here.

Scott

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[Alex]

Scott-

Glad to hear about being a possible interface with the "House of Glass"! Don't worry about going over two hours on one DVD, not that big an issue in this circle. (in my opinion)

I have a sense that a lot Super-8 movies could be 50 or 60 minutes long, and the filmmaker must look at their movie and say, "if only it were just a little longer, I could call it a feature.

A 75 minute feature.....Yeah Baby! (the absolute bare minimum length for a feature)

Here is another issue to consider.

Instead of putting a movie that is just under 2 hours on one DVD, and do a whole lot of compressing and playing compression tricks to make the movie fit on one DVD.

Could you put the darn thing on two DVD's, and do a whole lot less compressing, which might mean less of your time which would save the filmmaker money, (no offense) AND theoretically stay truer to the original quality of the film...

....and have the 2 DVD's not cost anymore BECAUSE there is less compressing to be done, so the actual time to make 2 one-hour DVD's is virtually identical to making one 2 hour DVD.

Is it possible that one hour per DVD might actually be a lot easier to create, so the overall costs end up being similar, but you have a better representation of your movie?

Plus the filmmaker gets to put "Volume I and Volume II on their DVD packaging....cool!

Next Question:

Is it possible that making a DVD is like playing "Chenga"?

Chenga is the game where you start with a stack of small blocks and each person removes a block from from beneath and the loser is the one who makes the column of blocks fall.

Point is 35mm can probably be "Chenga'd" a lot more than Super-8.

It's quite possible that you won't be able to compress the Super-8 image as much as the 35mm image...or perhaps it's the opposite, the super-8 frame has less "info" on it than a 35mm frame, so you can compress it without fear of losing detail because there is less detail to lose?

Opinions anyone?

-Alex

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[mattias]

alex, once again: there's no magic to putting 2 hours on one dvd, and it certainly doesn't take any of your time. just select the dvd template in cleaner 5, press the play button and go have a few beers in your bar of choice. done.

/matt

[Alex]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Courier, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by mattias:
alex, once again: there's no magic to putting 2 hours on one dvd, and it certainly doesn't take any of your time. just select the dvd template in cleaner 5, press the play button and go have a few beers in your bar of choice. done.

/matt<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Interesting premise...anyone here agree or disagree with the above statement.

-Alex

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[MovieStuff]

Not me! I'm still waiting to find out what a glass master is and how it's used.

Roger

[Alex]

My uneducated guess is they press DVD's directly from the glass master...don't know how fast, but probably well under a minute for each.

And you can't use one DVD to instantly press another one.

-Alex

By the way, Trevor found a DVD website,
http://www.disctronics.co.uk/dvd/dvdmain.htm

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[This message has been edited by Alex (edited September 08, 2001).]

[Alex]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Courier, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by mattias:
alex, once again: there's no magic to putting 2 hours on one dvd, and it certainly doesn't take any of your time. just select the dvd template in cleaner 5, press the play button and go have a few beers in your bar of choice. done.

/matt<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

What you describe is not the process needed for making a single DVD copy, not a glass master which is needed to make hundreds or thousands of DVD's quickly and cheaply.

This link describes making a glass master as being more difficult than what you propose.

http://www.dvd-video.co.uk/premaster/frameset.htm

-Alex

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[This message has been edited by Alex (edited September 09, 2001).]

[mattias]

alex, i'm not talking about making a "glass master". you said that it took magic and millions of dollars, as well as skilled "designers" to achieve the compression needed to fit two hours of video on a single dvd. and you even said this was the reason it's so expensive to make a real dvd. you even said it would be easier and cheaper if you compressed less and put the movie on two discs.

[i talk about mpeg-2 compression with cleaner 5]
alex:
> anyone here agree or disagree with the above statement.

damn it, it's not about agreeing or disagreeing. just trust me on this one, ok? i did this myself as recently as yesterday, and it worked. did i make a "glass master"? no! did i compress video enough to fit two hours on a single dvd? yes!

/matt

[Alex]

Mattias, I have always linked the issue of DVD's with Glass Masters.

Because as a filmmaker, we may want to make more than one or two DVD's, and less than a thousand.

Perhaps we want to make a hundred DVD's at a time, something not very feasible if they must be made one at a time, in slower than real time, and if it means the computer is tied up so we can't be here on the Super-8 Filmmaking site. (joke)

It would appear that the only other option is to make a glass master so one can make a thousand copies at presumeably a dollar or two each. .

However, IF the glass master costs several thousand dollars to make, that may not be a viable option either, since it would raise the price for the first 100 DVD's to anywhere from 10 dollars each to 50 dollars each depending on how many thousands the glass master costs.

So, one final option is to have Scott make one DVD, and if it is liked by the filmmaker, Scott deals with the "Glass Master" creators, and uses his existing files he used to make the DVD and gives it to the Mass Duplicator so they can make a Glass Master.

That is where the discussion had arrived.

Scott he would look into the idea of acting as an intermediary with the Glass Mastering people.

-Alex







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[Alex]

Mattias, I have always linked the issue of DVD's with Glass Masters.

Because as a filmmaker, we may want to make more than one or two DVD's, and less than a thousand.

Perhaps we want to make a hundred DVD's at a time, something not very feasible if they must be made one at a time, in slower than real time, and if it means the computer is tied up so we can't be here on the Super-8 Filmmaking site. (joke)

It would appear that the only other option is to make a glass master so one can make a thousand copies at presumeably a dollar or two each. .

However, IF the glass master costs several thousand dollars to make, that may not be a viable option either, since it would raise the price for the first 100 DVD's to anywhere from 10 dollars each to 50 dollars each depending on how many thousands the glass master costs.

So, one final option is to have Scott make one DVD, and if it is liked by the filmmaker, Scott deals with the "Glass Master" creators, and uses his existing files he used to make the DVD and gives it to the Mass Duplicator so they can make a Glass Master.

That is where the discussion had arrived.

Scott said he would look into the idea of acting as an intermediary on our behalf shold we decide we want a Glass Master.

-Alex







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