How many people here burn with Dual Layer Discs???

[orbital517]

I was wondering how many people here consistently burn DVD movie backups to Dual Layer Discs? I still think the price is too high for blank Dual Layer Discs, so i'm kinda waiting for the prices to start dropping before I start burning DL discs. For those of you who are already using DL discs, how is the compatibility with DVD players playing your discs and are there any freezing or skipping problems?

Also, how much and where are you guys buying your DL discs? the lowest i've found so far is $19.00 for 5 DL discs at meritline.com

[BSpielbauer]

I was wondering how many people here consistently burn DVD movie backups to Dual Layer Discs? I still think the price is too high for blank Dual Layer Discs, so i'm kinda waiting for the prices to start dropping before I start burning DL discs. For those of you who are already using DL discs, how is the compatibility with DVD players playing your discs and are there any freezing or skipping problems?

Also, how much and where are you guys buying your DL discs? the lowest i've found so far is $19.00 for 5 DL discs at meritline.com

Consistently? Heck, no. I have done 20 successful burns, though. I do not plan to do any more until the price approaches the $1.00 to $1.50 mark. The twenty I did were of very special discs, for archival purposes and because I did not wish to risk damage to some highly coveted titles.

Freezing? Skipping? Nope. I have viewed all of my burns from start to finish at least once. (This was the only way to test the discs, until I find a way to determine exactly where the layer break is... I am still trying to determine this, to save a bit of time.) Twenty burns, and so far they all seem to play fine on three different players in my house, and they definitely play fine on my Panasonic standalone, from start to finish. No detectable difference from the originals, on a carefully calibrated 65 inch Mits.

Where do I buy? I always check Rima, Meritline, Supermediastore, Shop4tech, and NewEgg, and look for any sales, or coupons, and compare prices carefully, after shipping.

Brands? I have used Verbatim, and also Ritek. Both worked for me, and my Pioneer burner, and my standalone players. Lots of others claim problems with every other brand except for the Verbatim, though. Many have decided not to even try any of the competing lines until they hear better reports. After all, even one coaster can hurt the wallet quite a bit.

-Bruce

[dap]

I've only done two,both Verbatim, and they play just fine on my newer equipment, even the cheap one that I bought my kids. There is some stutter on my old panasonic player that is six years old.
I think I paid $9.00 per disk in a package of 3. I won't buy any more until the price comes down.

Right now I'm very happy with the results I'm getting from DVDrebuilder and CCE.

[Zen of Encoding]

A repost of mine from another thread:

I burned a DL copy and a standard DVD+R copy of the last few
movies I've backed-up. Seems that the only difference that my
family notices is that the DL disc regularly hangs-up at the layer
split point (it's our player, not a disc problem), other than that I'm
the only one who notices the image quality is better.

So why spend $4 a disc if almost nobody notices the improvement?

[mats.hogberg]

Count me out. When my trusted NEC 1300 croaks, I might (I don't think there's any choice now) get a DL burner, and then, I might buy and use DL media if the price is right, just to avoid the time transcoding takes. Like Zen says, it takes a trained eye to spot the difference between original and a moderately shrunk backup.

/Mats

[Byronleehk]

I've burned 2 DL discs thus far, both Ridata DLs and the result was 50/50.

The one that worked was a backup of a 3 hour long DVD (F-1 2004 Season review) and it played flawlessly on my Sony player as well as on my Panasonic DVD recorder.

The other one that failed was a backup of a PS2 game. It's not the disc's fault, it's just the game was constructed in a way that it can't be backup as this time.

I paid $25 for a 5 DL pack + a bonus DVD+RW.

[lordsmurf]

Show me some blank DVD-R DL, and I'll show you some burns.

[Shocker Milwaukee]

Curiosity got the best of me, so I bought the Verbatim 3-pack to backup my Star Wars trilogy. I used Decrypter to burn with my LITEON 832s (812 with hacked firmware). I did one ISO READ --> ISO WRITE. I did the second by ripping to files, then using Shrink to replace the FBI warnings with the movie poster & create an ISO. I did the final disc by ripping to ISO, using Shrink again to modify & create a new ISO. I left the 'calculate optimal layer break' box checked. All three copies play fine (slight pause at the layer break) in several DVD players, including: Sony DVP-F21, Sony DVP-NS425P, Apex AD-1010W, Apex AD-600 & my buddy's Panasonic (don't know the model#). I am impressed with the results, especially considering that the Apex AD-1010W won't play regular DVD+R.

[Mawdryn]

I've burned about 40 DL disks so far (30 Verbatim and 10 Ritek) and they all work perfectly on all but one of my players. One player, a Philips 642, sometimes rejects the Ritek disks. (One day, the disk plays fine. Another day, the very same disk gets spit back out or plays with a lot of skipping. Only with the Riteks. Verbatims always play perfectly. Riteks work perfectly on other 3 players.)

I've mostly bought them online with rebates, from Amazon.com, Newegg, and Meritline. I've also bought some from Best Buy. The first ones I got were about $13. The best price I've gotten was $15 for Verbatim 3-pack (after rebate). I've seen Riteks a bit cheaper, but I try to stick with the Verbatims. Aside from the slight compatibility issue, they burn at 4x instead of 2.4x on my Pioneer 108.

[leebo]

I did the final disc by ripping to ISO, using Shrink again to modify & create a new ISO. I left the 'calculate optimal layer break' box checked. All three copies play fine

I have three questions:

What program did you use to burn the Shrink processed DVD's?
Whats going on about 30 inches lower in your avatar?
Why would anyone want to quote Paris Hilton, unless it was to enrich our lives with her views of foreign affairs?

[Shocker Milwaukee]

I used Decrypter to burn with my LITEON 832s (812 with hacked firmware).

#2 I don't want to get the boot.

#3 Why not?

[MACCA350]

Ive had the best results with Mitsubishi, 15 play perfectly on all 3 of my players. 3 Verbatim play perfectly on 1 player, skip on the second layer in 2 of the players. 2 Ritek plays fine in 1 player, Skips on second layer in 1 player, and wont even load in the other. All DVD's were burnt the same way and a few were the same movie

Although Mitsubishi and Verbatim have the same media code they must be produced on different lines or something to cause a variation. I spoke to my DVD Media supplier and he's going to see if he can find some info about this.

cheers