playing +R DL discs

[dan101]

Recently I have been making 1 copy of owned DVD movies for my use. Being new I quickly found that making a clone or direct transfer was not possible (100% quality) because commercial DVD's are almost always greater than 4.7GB. I was ready to purchase R+ DL discs to have adequate room. I had two "experts" tell me that if I use that medium that I will only be able to view those finalized disc's on a PC. They said that home DVD players will not read those DL discs. The commercial DVD vs +R are not the same. I have several players and looking in the manuals and calling the customer service numbers indicate that none of these are DL ok. Yet when I saw the list of players on this site that do play them it was confusing. Will most of the DVD players on the market play home made +R DL copies? I am reluctant to buy a spindle of Verbatim DL disc's as an experiment to see if they will play. If they work in 80% of the players I'll be satisfied. Thanks in advance for your help! Dan

[craigarta]

It is a hit and miss with DL. I have on player that plays them fine and the other one that flat out refuses to play them at all

[guns1inger]

They will work in the majority of players 2 year old or less. Anything older will be more hit and miss, especially generic brands, although not all brand names handled them well either.

If you are concerned about the investment, buy and burn a couple of singles (not single layer), and have a test.

[jman98]

Welcome to the forums, but like so many new members you think that not providing more details is a great idea. You are wrong. Nowhere do you state what brand and model your DVD players are. Really, that was the most critical part of your post.

Newer players tend to play DVD+R DL discs fine. And yes, you should ONLY buy Verbatim or you are wasting your money. I have seen a DVD player refuse to play the 2nd layer of Verbatim DVD+R DL media. It's a Panasonic that belongs to a friend of mine and it's a few years old. As soon as it hits the layer break, it stops playing the disc. Other players will do the same, but I don't know any models. And I don't think anyone here can give you any numbers like you want, so either you want to take a chance or you don't. The odds are that newer players (within the past 2 years) will play them fine. All the cases I've known of where they didn't play were on players made 3+ years ago, but that doesn't mean that some fly by night China company doesn't make a cheap piece of crap player for $20 that won't play them today.

You can mail order Verbatim DVD+R DL media in small amounts. Here's a 3 pack:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817130954

[Noahtuck]

I had two "experts" tell me that if I use that medium that I will only be able to view those finalized disc's on a PC. They said that home DVD players will not read those DL discs.

Time to find some new "experts" 8)

[olyteddy]

I had two "experts" tell me that if I use that medium that I will only be able to view those finalized disc's on a PC. They said that home DVD players will not read those DL discs.

Time to find some new "experts" 8)

He is, hence this thread...

[dan101]

Thank you members for the reply's. Jman, 3 Verbatim DLs ordered. Excellent "trial size".
I could have listed each player, but I was afraid that I would be directed to the list of players elsewhere on the site. Two players are DVD/VHS combo's and the other two are DVD/VHS Recorders. Sometimes firmware is changed during the production runs and may give mixed results. I have no recollection of seeing DVD players on store shelf's that state that they will play +R DL and /or -R DL disks. I get the impression that it is truly a hit/miss proposition. But now that I know that it is possible, or most likely will play on newer models I feel better about it. There is another, better way to get quality copies and always be able to plat them back- A double sided 4.7GB disk for a total of 9.4GB (better than a DL). Although it involves flipping it, at least it is on a single disk. When I called the local shops, they had none for sale. Are double sided disc's available for non-commercial sale? Sound like a viable alternative? Dan

[lordsmurf]

The biggest issue on DVD+R DL is setting the booktype to DVD-ROM. Some burners do it automatically (like Pioneer), others need manual setting.

[dan101]

I contacted the firm that makes the program and asked them about the booktype and if an adjustment is needed for best results. When I get a reply and disc's in hand I will post the results and add any info to the Manufacture/Model. There are just too many options and possible results. Even posting here I just guess on most of the boxes to check- Example-What is a BB?

[guns1inger]

What program ?

If you are burning DL discs, use Imgburn. Plenty of guides at it's website (See the Help menu in Imgburn itself for links)

[jman98]

dan101 - The players list here is full of errors, lies and mistakes. That doesn't mean that nothing in it is reliable, but I also don't recommend blind faith in it. People will post that players will play things they won't or that they won't play things that they will out of ignorance (ie. the player will play DVD-R, just not the piece of crap 20 cents per disc no name brand that you used) and so on. And we are not Doom9, so listing your players would likely not get you a recommendation to go to the list. Post it or not. I don't care. But by not posting this info, anyone who might know something specific to your players can now not provide any guidance.

Some DVD players do state that they play DL media. I don't recommend DVD-R DL discs for a variety of reasons. You're much better to use DVD+R DL and ONLY those by Verbatim. Dude, there are NO 100% guarantees with burnable media. NONE. The odds are that newer model players in the past 2 years will play them fine, but again, maybe you bought some cheap Chinese crap on your last trip to Asia and it doesn't work. Too bad. But if you buy a new player from a big manufacturer, it should work fine. I've never heard of a firmware change that either added or took away the ability to play DL discs. Newer players don't need booktype to be set on DVD+R DL discs, but yes, a few such players seem to exist and if you can burn your discs with this, it can cut down on problems.

Double sided consumer burnable discs are about impossible to find. If you can find them at all, they are really really expensive.

[classfour]

I've gotta go with Lord Smurf on this one - set the booktype on +R media to DVD-ROM and it should work.

[AlanHK]

making a clone or direct transfer was not possible (100% quality) because commercial DVD's are almost always greater than 4.7GB.

However, it is possible to make the data fit on a single layer. Single-layer DVDRs are much cheaper and more reliable than double layers.
There are several tools listed here under DVD backup, eg DVDshrink, that do exactly that.

Often you are able to back up the complete main feature with no extra compression, by omitting unneeded soundtracks (a few hundred MB each), and extra features, menus, previews and such. Often it seems they have been deliberately bloated to fill a double layer to make it harder to copy to a single, or just so they can charge more.

As a bonus, you get a disk you can insert, press play, and watch the movie without sitting through flashy menus, insulting FBI admonitions, ads for other movies, etc.

If after omitting these items you still are over 4.7 GB (or 4.3 GB if you're binary), DVDshrink can compress the video. While there is a quality loss here, many find this imperceptible, worth trying at least.

[dan101]

That was odd, I just finished the first sentence to my reply and the typed line just disappeared when I hesitated to look at the screen. Now I am using notepad to prepare my thoughts before cut/pasting into the forum reply box.

I'm following the ideas expressed by members and I do use compression/specific editing to make fit on a standard DVD. But it has drifted away from the original question. Based on the replies, I can't use the notes on DVD player box, manual or their Customer Service people to determine if a player will show +R DL disc's. One Company, Magnavox (same as Emerson,Sylvania and Heaven knows how many others) said that the model I asked about can't see through two layers. Yet it seems that many newer units will play them. I prefer to keep 100% quality, but if only half the current players will read the disk it is moot. When I make the 1st copy to the Verbatim +R DL DVD,I am going to take it to HH Gregg or similar place that has display units set up and see for myself how many will successfully play it. I will be back in about 7 days and post the result (if anyone cares). Originally when I posted the question I thought the answer was more clear cut, alas not.