Double Layer DVD question

[DaGbyte]

Before shelling out the money, can anyone help me out with regards to Double Layer DVD's? I am interested in getting one for my Dell laptop. I have a rather active child and typicall make backups of the movies he watches. I use the backups and keep the originals in a safe place. If he happens to scratch one up, or in the case of Nemo, watches it a gazillion times and from all that playing it get's dinged up, I can just rip a new one. However, if I were to rip a movie that was more than the 4GB of a regular DVD and write it using a double layer drive, can i still read it in my home DVD player? Are there any gotcha's to be wary of?

Any help anyone can supply will be much appreciated...

Regards,
-DaG

 

[imported_fatal]

Why don't you just make a backup on a single layer DVD using DVDShrink ? A blank single layer DVD is maybe 30 cents vs 5-8 dollars for a dual layer blank, the quality will still be very good

 

[DaGbyte]

True.... but I'm kind of lazy... and overly anal rententive (read: I don't wanna get up to change disks, let alone try to find a jewel case that will hold 2)...

 

[PrayForDeath]

Yep, DL blank DVDs are much more expensive than SL.
You said you want it for your laptop? So you want an external DVD writer? That would be expensive too.
The cheapest way to protect your DVDs is to use those plastic transparent thingies that cover the surface of the DVDs while still being readable. I don't recall their name but I think they're pretty good.

 

[DaGbyte]

Actually, Dell has one for $150 that will replace my existing DVD+RW drive in my laptop. I am just trying to find out if I make a DVD video (from a ripped DVD) on DL media, what standalone DVD players can i play it in? Can I watch it on my Sony DVD player? How about my portable DVD player in the car? Is a DL movie I rip at home similar to the commercial ones? There's not alot of info out there on it, as the DL format for home use is still kind of young......

 

[imported_fatal]

Originally posted by: DaGbyte
True.... but I'm kind of lazy... and overly anal rententive (read: I don't wanna get up to change disks, let alone try to find a jewel case that will hold 2)...

You wont have to, It will fit on 1 DVD...Thats what most people are doing. Give it a try, the program is FREE ! http://www.dvdshrink.org/

 

[CalvinHobbs]

dvd9 may not work on stnadard players..saw that in a report..don't remember where...well you must be one in a thousand...you'd rather pay a few dollars instead of just clicking with your mouse a bit more

 

[MobiusPizza]

I don't think DVD dual layer is supported by many players. Very weird the old PS2 does support it though.
Burning DL is slow and is a pain. Availability and prices of DL does not worth it. You would not be happy if you have to chuck it away when it doesn't work.

Also, you don't have to change disc using DVD shrinks. It just decrease the movie quality a bit that's all

 

[harrkev]

Originally posted by: AnnihilatorX
I don't think DVD dual layer is supported by many players.

Huh? Many commercial movies are dual layer.

 

[totalcommand]

The best place to get your question answered if no one can answer it is at the doom9 forum

(I'm not sure if it's allowed to post links to other forums, so just search google for doom9)

my guess is that it should work. keep in mind though that some newer DVDs will be too big even for DVD-9 backup (just a tad oversized).

I would just use DVD-RB + QuEnc to shrink to DVD-5 if you are that concerned about quality. I don't think your kid will notice the difference.

 

[Jeff7]

Originally posted by: AnnihilatorX
I don't think DVD dual layer is supported by many players. Very weird the old PS2 does support it though.
Burning DL is slow and is a pain. Availability and prices of DL does not worth it. You would not be happy if you have to chuck it away when it doesn't work.

Also, you don't have to change disc using DVD shrinks. It just decrease the movie quality a bit that's all

The quality is usually not noticably degraded, especially if you get rid of extras like additional audio tracks (why have 5.1 audio if you've only got 2 speakers?), and if you reauthor the disc (with the reauthor button in DVD Shrink), you can get rid of the bloated menus and just have the movie. The chapters will be preserved, so you can skip ahead easily - just no menu to see where you're going.


Also, use DVD Decrypter first. It is free too - it'll crack the encryption really well, and put the entire DVD onto the hard drive. DVD Shrink can then do its stuff. DVD Shrink isn't always too good at figuring out DVD encryption, so I leave that task to DVD Decrypter, which is more capable.

 

[Sforsyth]

I use shrink to backup just the main movie on a SL DVD and most of time it's looks the same as the orginals Nemo if you keep just the main movie it's smaller then 4 GB's.

And it's takes the same amount if not faster because then you'd have to burn a DL DVD at like 2.4 X instead of 8 or what ever you use.

 

[Lemodular]

Originally posted by: harrkev

Originally posted by: AnnihilatorX
I don't think DVD dual layer is supported by many players.

Huh? Many commercial movies are dual layer.

He means DL writables, not pressed.

 

[kini62]

DVD Shrink isn't always too good at figuring out DVD encryption

Haven't had a movie yet that DVDShrink couldn't decrypt.

To OP just do what the others have suggested, DVDShrink to one disc. It works great.

 

[SoundTheSurrender]

Originally posted by: DaGbyte
True.... but I'm kind of lazy... and overly anal rententive (read: I don't wanna get up to change disks, let alone try to find a jewel case that will hold 2)...

You won't have to switch, Dvd shrink compresses the movie, you loose some quality, but not enough to cry for.

 

[Sforsyth]

 

[biostud]

Originally posted by: fatal

Originally posted by: DaGbyte
True.... but I'm kind of lazy... and overly anal rententive (read: I don't wanna get up to change disks, let alone try to find a jewel case that will hold 2)...

You wont have to, It will fit on 1 DVD...Thats what most people are doing. Give it a try, the program is FREE ! http://www.dvdshrink.org/

Another vote for DVDShrink +Single layer, the DL discs costs nearly as much as a new movie. But I would still recommend getting a DL-burner as the prices on DL discs may frop in the future. The NEC 3520A should be a really good one. DVDShrink is dead easy, so it really should be a no brainer

 

[Turkey22]

I've had a few movies that dvdshrink did not like, but less than 10-20%. DVD Xcopy was needed for those, but that puts it on 2 disks. DL media is definitely not worth it. Even with leaving lots of stuff in, most movies still look great with shrink.

 

[DaGbyte]

I've been using DVDdecrypter to rip them, and Nero Recode to recode the movie. You can tell recode to adjust the quality to make it fit.

One question tho... when you re-code a movie to make it fit, and let's just say it's 80%, what kind of performace to you lose? Is the picture grainier? Smaller? What do you give up for adjusting the quality?

Thanx for the input. In the words of my daddy "The best way to double your money is to fold it in half and stick it back in your pocket!".....

-DaG

 

[imported_fatal]

Most moives you will not even notice a difference in the quality, a lot of times if you delete xtras, the movie can be kept intact with no reduction in quality at all.
It just makes a lot more sense untill the cost & compatibility of DL discs improve

 

[MustISO]

Re-encoding doesn't make the picture smaller or grainier. It will however add pixelation and various other video artifacts. The programs that "shrink" movies use one of two methods. You can either re-encode or transcode. DVDShrink is a transcoder and something like CCE is a MPEG2 encoder.

 

[fstime]

DL is a rip off.

I use CloneDVD w/Anydvd, it shrinks the size.

 

[Insidious]

Every commercial DVD movie you buy is on a Dual layer disk.

amazing so many posts in this thread speak authoritatively, but don't even know that simple fact.

Your DVD player will read a properly burned DL disk no problem.

-Sid

 

[TheLogLady]

Every commercial DVD movie you buy is on a Dual layer disk.

amazing so many posts in this thread speak authoritatively, but don't even know that simple fact.

Your DVD player will read a properly burned DL disk no problem.

As someone pointed out earlier in the thread, there is a difference between commercially pressed dual layer DVD-ROM's and dual layer (DVD+R DL) recordable discs. And no, not all set top players (or DVD-ROM drives for that matter) will recognize/play DVD+R DL.

The survey at videohelp.com lists the current set top player DVD+R DL compatibility at 66%, but I'd be willing to bet a higher percentage of players actually in use are compatible with it.

 

[Insidious]

yes, you may have to replace your 1995 vintage DVD player...

Spend $80 for a DL writer and $8 per disk, but can's swing $45 for a DVD player made in this decade..... ?

-Things that make you go hmmmm....