Transfer costs: Mini-DV to Digibeta

P

pccross

Member
I searched and didn't find anything on this subject. I'm planning on entering a DVX short of mine later this year into a festival which if accepted, requires the short to be transferred to film or digibeta or beta SP.

Question is, assuming either digibeta or beta SP is cheaper option for the transfer, what do post-production houses typically charge for transferring one copy of an ~20 min. short? Can anyone make recommendations for post-production facilities in the Southwest which do this affordably? Or alternatively mail-order houses I could ship it to?
 
cost here was about 30.00 at a local dupe/transfer house just to transfer 30 sec. what a ripoff though. if i hadnt brought in my own tape to transfer to it would be like 48.00 for some kid to sit there and stick a tape in and hit a button and then review it quickly by scrubbing it through to make sure it was ok. takes about 2 minutes.
and forget about ever playing that DV tape again in you own equipment after it goes into their deck with those mixed lube and unclean nightmare heads. id make a second backup copy for you to keep and use on mini DV before you effectively destroy your only copy on mini dv.
 
Down here it's $50/hr to do a DV->BetaSP dub, billed in 15-minute increments. So a 20-minute film would cost $25 to transfer. (plus tape stock costs; you can buy it from them for $25 or you can go around the corner to www.nvtape.net and get it for about $8...)
 
Great! Thanks for all the responses. Looks like I can get it done for cheaper than I originally feared it might run (several hundred dollars).
 
Quick question...If you have to deliver on Beta SP to festival, which is the better option:

1) Output to Beta SP direct from Final Cut Pro (use Print to Video)
2) Transfer from mini-DV to Beta SP
3) Either one is fine, there is no difference

thanks!!
 
1) should be better quality, but only if you render to "uncompressed" rather than DV, and then output to BetaSP through a device that converts the uncompressed video to component.

If you've rendered to DV, the answer is 3)

Graeme
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top