First, though this is my first post, I'm not new to video editing, graphics and DVD Authoring.

Well, yesterday I got a Verbatim Double Layer Kit from BestBuy to try out a DVD+R DL recording on Sony DRU-700A burner. It comes with one DVD+R DL disc made by MKM, 8 DVD+R discs made by MCC and one DVD+RW disc made also by MKM (!!!). For the test burn I decrypted the DVD files through DVD Decrypter to VIDEO_TS folder and later burned them with Nero Burning ROM that came with DRU-700A in DVD-Video mode. The test film was "Bram Stoker's Dracula" Superbit NTSC edition (I own this disc).

First the good news:

1) Indeed, if you use the LiteOn BookType Utility v1.0.6 bitsetting tool, it will successfully work on Sony DRU-700, because of the LiteOn hardware inside of it. I had no problems setting DVD+R DL to DVD-ROM book type. After the successful burn both DVDInfoPro and DVD Decrypter showed the book type to be in DVD-ROM format. Even my Pioneer DVR-A03 had no trouble recognizing recorded DVD+R DL disc, while it would never recognize even a regular DVD+R unless it was bitset to DVD-ROM book type. It was also recognized and played by Pioneer DV-535, Pioneer DV-533 and Sampo DVE-631CF standalone DVD players. I will go at some point to BestBuy again and try it on their DVD players. My Sony DRX-500ULX though could not recognize the recorded DVD+R DL until I updated to the latest firmware. My old Toshiba SD-M1202 DVD-ROM drive could not recognize this disc, but it also cannot read DVD-RW nor DVD+RW (it only reads +R/-R). So my guess is, if your DVD player can physically read RW DVD formats, it will almost certainly read DVD+R DL discs (especially if it was bitset to DVD-ROM book type). On the other hand Sampo DVE-631CF standalone player is usually very picky with +RW/-R DVD's, but had no trouble with DVD+R DL. Go figure.

2) On those drives and players where DVD+R DL disc was recognized, the playback, fast forward and rewind were flawless. No problems at all accessing menu, skipping between chapters, etc. The burn visually is very solid. Basically speaking, MKM and Philips did an outstanding job making this technology possible and working incredibly well right with the first generation of discs and drives. So the issue is not the burning quality or hardware...


Now the bad news:

A) So far it seems that Nero is the only software that supports Double Layer recording of VIDEO_TS structures (I'm not talking about ISO and other images). I usually like burning VIDEO_TS folders vs image files, normally with RecordNow DX, because with VIDEO_TS method it's easy to add extra artwork and other files into a DVD-ROM part of the disc. So, as always with Nero, with all the good things you also get a big can of worms. On the first attempt to burn, right after starting the recording it gave me some SCSI error which I've never seen before, but thankfully it did not destroy this EXPENSIVE DVD+R DL disc. The second attempt went well and after recording and verification Nero reported that everything was successful.

B) Well, Nero was advertising how well they manage the layer break and so forth, but in reality they did not do crap to make sure that this layer break is compatible with DVD-Video specifications. On the computer DVD players (WinDVD and RealMagic Hollywood Plus) the layer break was not a problem at all, you wouldn't even know where it was. That was also the case with Sampo DVE-631CF standalone DVD player - no problems with layer break. Basically, my guess is if your player is never showing any delay on commercial DVD's where there's a layer break then you're in luck.

The problem came into play with both of my Pioneer standalone DVD players. Again, if you skip between chapters, fast forward or rewind even through a layer break point everything goes smoothly, but if you just let the movie play, once the layer break point comes in, the Pioneer DVD players freeze on the last frame before the break. My educated guess is that this is happening because Nero did not automatically insert a Layer Break flag into the DVD-Video structure. So the newer players, or software based players will ignore it, but those that honestly follow DVD specifications, like my Pioneers, will choke on the layer break.

Usually on commercial DVD's in the place where there's layer break, the older Pioneers will pause for a second and show the word SEARCH in the display window before switching to the second layer. I'm sure something similar happens with a lot of older DVD players that don't have a buffer (so the layer break is not noticeable). So, to put it shortly, with the current version of Nero you cannot burn your VIDEO_TS folder to DVD+R DL and know that it complies with DVD-Video specifications - it doesn't. If some players do like the switch and some don't, that is certainly not good enough for me, nor anybody who would eventually put their own productions on DVD+R DL for their clients, etc. Pioneer DVD players are quite forgiving when it comes to some rules (for example they will play DVD's that have Video_ts in lower case letters instead of in CAPS like VIDEO_TS, where other players will refuse to play those discs). But even if such forgiving players are not happy with Nero's layer break then it's definitely screwed up.

Since I don't have another DVD+R DL around (I don't feel like spending another $30 for the Kit), I cannot test how would nero burn the ISO dual-layer files authored with DVDMaestro for example. Would Nero really switch where DVDMaestro inserts the layer break into ISO, or would it screw everything up again by doing its own layer transition in the place where Nero feels it should make a transition??? I'm asking this because I hear Nero is trying to make both layers the same exact length, while I know that in DVDMaestro, as long as the second layer is smaller in size, it's OK, so they don't have to be the same exact size. Anyone can guess how this whole thing might work? Also, Nero DID NOT write the whole disc to its full 8152MB capacity, as it was explained by them in order to make disc compatible even if the source material is not nearly as much as the Double Layer disc can hold. The film was of the smaller size, only about 7400MB and there's quite a bit of unburned space left on the outer edge of the disc where it turned back to record to the opposite track (the second layer).

C) The other thing that really sucks is that Sonic Solutions was advertising their new HyperMuxDL engine with INTELLIGENT Double Layer recording for DVD+R9 discs, with really well done layer breaks tailored specifically for DVD-Video, and that it's already available on their consumer line of products including RecordNow (according to their March 2004 Press Release). Well, I purchased their latest version of RecordNow Deluxe Suite 7 this May and it burns single layer discs nicely (though I don't like its interface and options nearly as much as the old RecordNow DX that came with Sony DRX-500ULX). However, the damn program does not even recognize DL disc as blank in DRU-700A burner. That means that those Sonic people are big liars. I'm sure their HyperMuxDL engine will work much better than Nero, but where the hell is it???

I hope that at least for the ISO DL files maybe DVD Decrypter will at least be a smart program for the recording and observing the layer breaks that are written in the ISO. I heard that Alcohol 120% now supports DL burning, I'd like to try that too, but again Alcohol 120% only does it with images instead of also burning VIDEO_TS folders.

I guess I will not do much testing until I can pay at least somewhat less than $30 for a luxury to have a single DVD+R9 DL blank disc.

But I'm curious to hear as to what other people might think and maybe suggest something about this annoying layer break issue.