Why do I have to "shrink" my DVDs

[123fish123]

Thanks to the help of many of you out here, I have successfully been able to backup my DVDs with DVDshrink and then burn a backup with Nero.

My question however is...WHY do I have to shrink at all? If I am backing up a single DVD to a single DVD...why won't it just fit the whole thing?

I am backing up onto 4.7GB DVD+R discs. Is there something I can do to just backup the entire thing without losing video quality?

[Baldrick]

Most commercial dvds are on dual layer dvds, 8.5gb. But if you are only backuping single layer dvds, 4.7gb, you don't have to shrink anything.

[123fish123]

Oh thanks! So can you purchase dual layer DVDs anywhere so you don't lose the quality during backup? I am assuming Nero could handle backing up a dual layer DVD.

[redwudz]

Dual layer discs are still pretty expensive (About $5 US each) and not all players can read them. The newer versions of Nero can burn them, if you have a dual layer burner. But you still can't copy a commercial DVD directly if it has copy protection. You have to remove or disable that first. DVDDecrypter or DVDFab Decrypter can do that, among other programs.

[waheed]

But you still can't copy a commercial DVD directly if it has copy protection. You have to remove or disable that first.

I think that AnyDVD does allow you to copy a commercial DVD directly without ripping it using any burning application.

[ebenton]

If you are a newbie and have been running DVD Shrink successfully, but don't know why you need to shrink a DVD, you should probably just continue running DVD Shrink until you educate yourself a little more. When it is in automatic mode, if it doesn't need to shrink a DVD, it won't.

[garryheather]

Dual layer discs are still pretty expensive (About $5 US each) and not all players can read them. The newer versions of Nero can burn them, if you have a dual layer burner. But you still can't copy a commercial DVD directly if it has copy protection. You have to remove or disable that first. DVDDecrypter or DVDFab Decrypter can do that, among other programs.

... and you need a writer that's capable of writing to dual layer discs, too - there are still a lot of drives in the market place that don't.

The above post just sort of "slipped it in" in a matter of fact sort of way that I didn't see the first time I read it, so I thought it might not be a bad idea to emphasise it.

[Denvers Dawgs]

Dual layer discs are still pretty expensive (About $5 US each) and not all players can read them. The newer versions of Nero can burn them, if you have a dual layer burner. But you still can't copy a commercial DVD directly if it has copy protection. You have to remove or disable that first. DVDDecrypter or DVDFab Decrypter can do that, among other programs.

What? $5? BestBuy has Verbatim DL 10 for $20($2 each) and Staples has deals that 3pack for $5 on occasion...

To back up Dual layer dvds, onto Dual layer +dl, just use dvddecrypter Iso read, iso write.

[redwudz]

Denvers Dawgs, yeah, I don't keep up. I just grabbed that price from rima.com for a single Verbatim disc. I am thinking about trying a few DL discs. It's nice to see the price get down to a reasonable range.

[drjtech]

[What? $5? BestBuy has Verbatim DL 10 for $20($2 each)

Was this a special sale in your local area? The price I see is $34.99. Still, $3.50 is less than $5.00 each.

Verbatim 10-Pack DVD+R DL Double-Layer Disc Spindle

-drj

[BSpielbauer]

Was this a special sale in your local area? The price I see is $34.99. Still, $3.50 is less than $5.00 each.

Nope. It was nationwide. It was a sale, and it has now ended. It was actually the second time in two months that Best Buy has offered this same price on these discs, although the first time their supply reportedly ran out in only hours. The web site sale said "Sold Out" only 4 hours after it was posted. My local store was sold out by the time I drove over, at 1:15 that day. Others reported similar occurrences. This time, the supply was apparently pretty good, as many bought multiple boxes, and reported this widely at the various forums.

The same price (roughly $2 per disc) has now been offered on these same Verbatim dual layer DVD+R discs at Staples, but only regionally; also at Compusa, nationally; and that sale just ended (I think was began about 7 or 8 days ago); and from two on-line vendors that I know of.

I bought a 20 pack of these for $39.99 awhile back, online, it was either from from Supermdediastore or from Meritline -- forget which. It was with one of their on-line coupons, which anyone can use if they just check the page, first.

And, I recently bought a 20 pack of these same discs -- only they were the more expensive printable ones -- and I paid only $3.60 per disc for those (they often go for around $5 each because they are printable, at the few dealers who carry them).

The "non-sale price" for the non-printable 2.4X Verbatims (DVD+R dual layer discs) from Supermediastore and Meritline tends to run around $3.40 to $3.50 right now. Their sale prices also usually bring them close to $2.00 or $2.20, in the past few months.

Hope this helps,

-Bruce