Seems like a lot of so-called 'VHS-to-DVD' competitors?
 

Seems like a lot of so called vhs to dvd competitors are offering vhs to dvd by using a vhs and dvd burner combo unit.

They charge $10 per transfer. How do you compete with these guys? I use professional / prosummer vcrs as well as a good capture card as well as edit out tv shows.

I charge $25 for two hours which I still think is a bargain.

More of a rant than a question.

Those are not competitors, they're noise.

This is no different than any other field or product. Sites like Fiverr are full of "professionals" with zero training, education, or qualifications -- and the quality sucks. Some people think that Google is a college, and they're willing to learn at the expense of customers. The only bad aspect is when consumers fail to realize the quality of the service is awful, and make the illogical conclusion that all services are like that, even the "expensive" (actual professional) ones.

Facts about those cheap video places:
- Most do terrible work, using low-grade consumer equipment.
- Most have zero qualifications/experience in video.
- Most close shop in few year due to unsustainable pricing.
- Big-box outsourcers (Walgreens,etc) do it as a loss-leader for other upsell (fancy menus, cases, etc).

Many of our projects are fixing or re-converting what the low-end guys screwed up.

Although we handle consumer/individual projects, it's mostly due to our philosophy: family history/memories are important. After all, we're a family business. We open ourselves up to the masses so they can get the same quality of work available to the B2B (business to business) industry. Most of our work has been with studios, small businesses, indy filmmakers, non-profits, etc. We mostly operate on word-of-mouth references in those circles.

If you want a $10 price, that's not us. At minimum, we'll charge $10 per footage hour, depending on format. (And VHS isn't one of those formats, as VHS has a lot of issues to overcome.)

You get what you pay for.

Former cheapskates often comes back to us, telling us his/her horror story experience, giving us the project for attempt/round #2. The crappy part is that it costs them more by trying to be cheap; I feel bad for them. Sadly, sometimes consumers toss that tapes after conversion, and are simply stuck with bad quality.

Just don't lose focus of your client base, your target demographic.

Interesting qestion. The commercial aspect is not so much discussed here. I have the same considerations. What is your workflow and equipment?

That's the thing: there shouldn't be (can't be!) a single workflow, and equipment varies on workflow.

- Are you wanting to know what's in a basic error-free VHS to DVD conversion workflow?
- Or are you asking what all we use ... because it's a novel!