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We have over 150 DVD's that we need to read. There is no time crunch, but I don't want to have someone manually swap DVDs for two weeks. Does anyone know of an automated way to get this done? Is there a DVD reader with a feeder, or should we just line up 2-3 computers with 4-5 DVD drives?

budget $500

thanks!

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I doubt there is any robotic solution that you can get for only $500... – Zoredache Nov 4 '11 at 19:41
This is off-topic, for SF, but what do you mean by read? Just copy data off them? I'd guess about 1/2hr per DVD, which is 75hrs, so yeah, about 2 work weeks, but surely you can get do this somewhat in parallel. – Ward Nov 4 '11 at 19:47
@Ward yes, just copy data off – Kyle Renfro Nov 4 '11 at 19:52
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closed as off topic by Zoredache, Jason Berg, Ward, Ben Pilbrow, mdpc Nov 4 '11 at 20:06

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1 Answer

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Minimum wage in most states is right around $8/hr. That's 62.5 man-hours on your budget if you hire someone just for the task. Depending on what you actually need to do to interact with that data, I'd imagine that's probably enough time. If you can give them 2-3 machines to work on, you should have no problem fitting in this window.

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Aren't interns free? – Mitch Nov 4 '11 at 19:49
@Mitch If you have them. If you don't, I doubt you'll get one for the sole purpose of copying 150 DVDs. – MDMarra Nov 4 '11 at 19:50
Get 5 people to do it while they're also doing their normal work and it'll be done in a few days. – Ward Nov 4 '11 at 19:54
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