Burning Dual Layer DVDs

[lordsmurf]

- I still use PowerDVD for playing DVDs. Better than freeware. The free players are best on files.

- Burn DVD+R DL discs at 4x max, not 6x-8x.

- Only use Verbatim.

- Carefully pick where a layer break goes.
I explained this while helping somebody at http://www.tvpast.org/forum/video-tech/19960-ulead-dvd-workshop-2.html#post83990

[harishkumar09]

- I still use PowerDVD for playing DVDs. Better than freeware. The free players are best on files.

- Burn DVD+R DL discs at 4x max, not 6x-8x.

- Only use Verbatim.

- Carefully pick where a layer break goes.
I explained this while helping somebody at http://www.tvpast.org/forum/video-tech/19960-ulead-dvd-workshop-2.html#post83990

Thanks lordsmurf. I use Verbatim only. And thanks for the link regarding choosing the Layer Break. That was very useful.

[harishkumar09]

Thanks Seeker47 for warning me about Verbatim DL disks going out of supply. I am going to start stockpiling them.

Meanwhile, any idea when the price of Ext HDD of 150,250,300,500 GBs and 1 TB capacity will start falling down ? Flash Drive prices are plummeting like anything, I do hope they don't end up being cheaper than HDDs. I am told floods in Thailand are responsible for the high cost of Ext HDD especially of 1 TB capacity. Any idea when their prices will start coming down ?

Two years back I bought one for $120, the price is still the same. I would expect it to cost at least $60 by this time, if not $30 ( I think prices should be halving with each passing year, it is even faster for flash memory.

I hope they relocate those factories to Taiwan or India or Singapore.

[Seeker47]

Thanks Seeker47 for warning me about Verbatim DL disks going out of supply. I am going to start stockpiling them.

Meanwhile, any idea when the price of Ext HDD of 150,250,300,500 GBs and 1 TB capacity will start falling down ? Flash Drive prices are plummeting like anything, I do hope they don't end up being cheaper than HDDs. I am told floods in Thailand are responsible for the high cost of Ext HDD especially of 1 TB capacity. Any idea when their prices will start coming down ?

Two years back I bought one for $120, the price is still the same. I would expect it to cost at least $60 by this time, if not $30 ( I think prices should be halving with each passing year, it is even faster for flash memory.

I hope they relocate those factories to Taiwan or India or Singapore.

Thumbdrives do seem to be an exception. Sale prices of 30 bucks for a 64 Gb. stick ? That was unheard of, a year or so ago.

I go to Fry's -- a rather good local electronics superstore -- about every two weeks. About every other time I go, I inquire with a couple staffers I know there about the status on this. The news is not very good. They say it could easily be another 6 months or so. Stocks have not been rebounding that fast or that well. It's almost like the companies (but mainly Western Digital) are in no hurry for the market to become competitive again, like the way that it was. They'd like to keep collecting the price levels they've had ever since the floods. Maybe the prices are dropping a little bit, during very brief sale specials, but it's pretty underwhelming. I sure hope WD in Thailand learned something about redundant factories and locating them on higher ground ! In any case, I may have to take another look at Seagate, which has had its ups and downs. I tend to stay away from Iomega, Hitachi (can't forget the old "Deskstar" line, which for a time was being dubbed the "DeathStar" line by displeased purchasers), Toshiba, and whatever else is out there. I look for the best reliability I can find, when it comes to HDDs.

Where the production lines are seems to matter HUGELY, when it comes to quality control. In the days of primo SCSI server-grade HDDs for business, the old IBM units from Hungary or Singapore were as close to bulletproof as you were going to find. They cost more, but they were worth it. I'll never buy another HDD that was made in China, nor probably from Malaysia either -- not if I have any choice in the matter. I've had pretty good luck with the WD drives from Thailand -- mainly the Caviar Blues -- so I'm inclined to stick with those. I've bought a couple of the Raptors, but they don't seem to be the best candidates for the Shuttle SFF boxes that I favor.

[harishkumar09]

Thanks for the information Seeker47.

[lordsmurf]

I go to Fry's -- I inquire with a couple staffers I know there about the status on this.

In my experience, Fry's employees don't know their ass from their elbow.
I still remember the idiot that insisted DVD+R had better audio quality than DVD-R did.

Sadly, that's the average knowledge level of a Fry's, Microcenter, or Best Buy employee.

They just sell stuff. They usually don't know tits about it.

[harishkumar09]

- I still use PowerDVD for playing DVDs. Better than freeware. The free players are best on files.

- Burn DVD+R DL discs at 4x max, not 6x-8x.

- Only use Verbatim.

- Carefully pick where a layer break goes.
I explained this while helping somebody at http://www.tvpast.org/forum/video-tech/19960-ulead-dvd-workshop-2.html#post83990

I might have to burn an ISO image to DVD DL. Does the layer break issue crop up there too ?

[Seeker47]

I go to Fry's -- I inquire with a couple staffers I know there about the status on this.

In my experience, Fry's employees don't know their ass from their elbow.
I still remember the idiot that insisted DVD+R had better audio quality than DVD-R did.

Sadly, that's the average knowledge level of a Fry's, Microcenter, or Best Buy employee.

They just sell stuff. They usually don't know tits about it.

I've met more than my fair share of such examples.

But you haven't been to the location I go to, or talked to the 3 or 4 people I look for there (one in the Video Dept. actually, another one a networking specialist). This was the end result of a considerable winnowing process. Not your students working part time to help pay their tuition, or recent hires. I've gotten more than a few good leads there that really panned out.

[harishkumar09]

I have added some 8 .avi files to my DVD DL disc with ImgBurn. Now if I want to add one more .avi file (there is sufficient space) is it possible ? In the list of drives, it is listed as "0 Bytes Free" out of 6.17 GB.

[lacywest]

If it was a regular DVD5 Disk ... and you didnt close the session before you started the burn ... I'd say yes. But your dealing with a DL disk where the layer break is an issue ... I got a feeling that the layer break issue will keep you from adding on more video files.

[usually_quiet]

I have added some 8 .avi files to my DVD DL disc with ImgBurn. Now if I want to add one more .avi file (there is sufficient space) is it possible ? In the list of drives, it is listed as "0 Bytes Free" out of 6.17 GB.

Did you burn the 8 .avi files on that DVD DL disc before trying to add one more, or have none of the .avi files been burned to the DVD DL disc yet?

[Edit]Re-reading your question, it appears that you did burn 8 files on the DVD+R DL using Imgburn before trying to add one more .avi. file. Unlike Nero, Imgburn always closes the session when it finishes, and that means it isn't possible to add more files later on.

[lordsmurf]

I might have to burn an ISO image to DVD DL. Does the layer break issue crop up there too ?

Yes.

[Seeker47]

Side Note: It is looking like the 8X or 10X rated version of the Verbatim DLs have become very hard to find.

[harishkumar09]

I might have to burn an ISO image to DVD DL. Does the layer break issue crop up there too ?

Yes.

Thanks and I guess I follow the same procedure ?

[harishkumar09]

Side Note: It is looking like the 8X or 10X rated version of the Verbatim DLs have become very hard to find.

Well, then I better start stocking up on them. Thanks for the information. As an aside, when it comes to the SL 4.7 GB DVDs, I have been using Sony, can I switch over to Verbatim ? Are they superior ? Verbatim DVD-R is rated at 16x and I own a Dell Inspiron that is 1.5 years old, would 8x be a good burning speed for the SL DVD-R ?

[harishkumar09]

I was just backing up a movie to a 4.37 GB DVD-R (Verbatim) using ImgBurn and I have the following image just before burn:



You will see that the Image Size is more than Size (which I believe is the blank DVD capacity) by 548,925 bytes or 536.05 KB.

Then how is it the burn took place successfully ?

The Size comes to 4.3722 GB which I believe is the Blank DVD Capacity and
The Image Size comes to 4.3727.

So how is a larger image, larger by almost half-an-MB is getting burnt into a smaller space ?
Doesn't ImgBurn abort a burn if the image size is larger than the blank DVD capacity ?
Is this a test we have to do ourselves ?

[harishkumar09]

I backed up a movie first to the HDD as an ISO and MDS file combination one year back. I don't remember the software I used. I then recently burnt the ISO and MDS file combination to a DVD DL and when I watched the movie, this is how it is visible, a small box in the center. Even if I play the ISO directly through VLC Player, it is visible in the same way. I remember watching the movie in the original DVD and I don't think it was like this.


I wonder what could be the reason ?

Got it ! The ratio was wrongly specified in the ripping software itself. My brother replicated the ripping from the original DVD with a different software and it is playing correctly.

[harishkumar09]

Is it mandatory to have the .BUP and the .IFO files for the DVD Player to play the movie ?

[lacywest]

Is it mandatory to have the .BUP and the .IFO files for the DVD Player to play the movie ?

I am curious ... why are you asking this ??

When I burn a DVD ripped to my hard drive it says ...

AUDIO_TS
VIDEO_TS

I just tell [point] my burning program to the folder where I've got a DVD Folder at ... it looks for the VIDEO_TS

and I start the burning session to a blank DVD.

Just to try it for the heck of it ... I guess I could remove the ... .BUP and .IFO and then see if the program I use for burning which is CloneDVD would process it ... but I'm pretty sure ... CloneDVD will say there is an error.

[usually_quiet]

Is it mandatory to have the .BUP and the .IFO files for the DVD Player to play the movie ?

Yes it is mandatory. An IFO contain instructions the DVD player uses for playing the VOBs associated with the IFO. The BUP files are a backup in the event the IFO file it is associated with becomes unreadable.

[Seeker47]

At the moment, I'm working on a re-purposed computer, trying out 64-bit W7 Ultimate for the first time. 8 Gigs of RAM, nearly new burner, latest ImgBurn. Most things have been going quite well,
with the possible exception of the last two items. So far, I have only tried to burn one DVD disc: a Verbatim DL. This failed, about 2/3 of the way through, and ImgBurn responded with its "Oh Noooooo !" I'm bummed about that, since those blanks run up to $2. each, my stock of them is dwindling, and neither Rima nor Fry's seem able to get more of the 8X or 10X version of these right now. (The burn was at 4X -- what I generally use for DL.) This is a tiny sample, and it may just have been the occasional bad blank. But, I'm not gonna burn any more DLs in this rig for awhile until I find out. I have burned a couple CDs, and will try some SL DVDs. Perhaps I'm getting another visit from that "limited failures" issue where a burner continues to handle some optical media types but begins showing failures on others ? Unfortunately, the way I read the IB Help FAQ, a simulated burn run may not really answer such questions.

[jman98]

Newegg often has 6x-10x Verbatim DVD+R DL in stock. These ONLY come from Singapore.

I've noticed some oddities in Verbatim discs in the USA in that about a month ago their inkjet printable BD-R LTH line essentially vanished from North America unless you were willing to pay over $70 for a 20 pack from the few sellers that had them. It was actually cheaper for me to go to
http://www.nikonekoya.com
and buy them straight from Japan. Verbatim may also be doing funky things with their DVD+R DL media right now. Not sure. My local MicroCenter is also selling Verbatim labeled BD-R LTH discs really cheaply in what I think they marked as a closeout. It's made me wonder if Verbatim is dropping some lines of discs in North America.

[Seeker47]

Newegg often has 6x-10x Verbatim DVD+R DL in stock. These ONLY come from Singapore.

I've noticed some oddities in Verbatim discs in the USA in that about a month ago their inkjet printable BD-R LTH line essentially vanished from North America unless you were willing to pay over $70 for a 20 pack from the few sellers that had them. It was actually cheaper for me to go to
http://www.nikonekoya.com
and buy them straight from Japan. Verbatim may also be doing funky things with their DVD+R DL media right now. Not sure. My local MicroCenter is also selling Verbatim labeled BD-R LTH discs really cheaply in what I think they marked as a closeout. It's made me wonder if Verbatim is dropping some lines of discs in North America.

Rima can still supply the Verb DL (MIS) 6x -- at least for now -- and at a good price. But they can't obtain the 8X or the 10X. (I only use the MIS, and always have.) Fry's has very sporadically had 30 or 50 spindles of the 8X on the shelf, but has had no stock for about 3 - 4 months now. I don't know if the 10X version ever came on spindles; I've only seen pricey 5-packs or 10-packs of those. The nearest McroCenter is about an hour's drive from here, but if I knew for certain that they had the 50-spindles in stock, I'd probably take that drive.

[Seeker47]

Newegg often has 6x-10x Verbatim DVD+R DL in stock. These ONLY come from Singapore.

I've noticed some oddities in Verbatim discs in the USA in that about a month ago their inkjet printable BD-R LTH line essentially vanished from North America unless you were willing to pay over $70 for a 20 pack from the few sellers that had them. It was actually cheaper for me to go to
http://www.nikonekoya.com
and buy them straight from Japan. Verbatim may also be doing funky things with their DVD+R DL media right now. Not sure. My local MicroCenter is also selling Verbatim labeled BD-R LTH discs really cheaply in what I think they marked as a closeout. It's made me wonder if Verbatim is dropping some lines of discs in North America.

I just had the Fry's I go to run a check on this. After querying their supply chain, a manager there told me that Fry's will have NO Verbatim optical media of any kind for the forseeable future. But no info as to Why. So, something is definitely going on, and your theory may have some merit.

I will go ahead and see what the story is at Newegg. At the same time, if anyone else reading this has a recent line on other reliable vendors that currently have stock of the 8X (MIS) Verb DLs -- preferably the 50-spindles, though I'd settle for the 30-spindles -- or any configuration of the 10X, PLEASE POST THIS HERE.