Going rate per page on DVD Transcription

[Ryan Court Reporters]

I haven't had one of these come up in a long time. What is the going rate to transcribe and certify a DVD? It is a dvd of a trust document signing.

[Jennie Ann]

I add a dollar a page for DVD transcription, on top of what my normal page rate is, especially if time codes need to be inserted.

I don't know why, but DVD (video) recordings take me longer to do than transcribing audio-only recordings.

It is difficult to provide page rates on this forum, as I have noticed that in some regions of the country, the page rates are twice that of others.

The format of the transcript also comes into play when determining a page rate, whether it is 22 lines per page or 28 lines per page. If I was typing a transcript with 28 lines per page, I'd sure want a higher page rate than a transcript with 22 lines per page, for example.

Also, how many characters are there per line? In my area, many court reporting companies change the character spacing to 1.2, getting 45 characters per line, as opposed to, say, 60 characters per line, with left and right margins of 1.75 and 0.75 respectively, utilizing the Courier New 12 font. All of these things should be taken into consideration when determining a page rate.

With the advent of digital technology, many new transcription-only companies are offering a per-audio-minute rate, as opposed to a page rate. I am beginning to like the per-audio-minute rate for transcription-only jobs, and so do the clients. It doesn't matter how many pages are generated, and the customer knows exactly what the cost of the transcription is going in, as it is based on how many minutes there are in the recording. This payment option is also based on the turnaround time or delivery of the transcript, i.e., standard, expedited, daily copy, same-day rush. HTH.

[Ryan Court Reporters]

Thank you so much for you input. Much appreciated.