Dual-Layer DVD Burner?

[Sprucemoose]

I figured someone on thiss board would have some good information about this topic.  

Is it possible to have a dual layer dvd burner for consumers?  From what I understand a dual layer dvd is actually 2 thin dvds bonded together to add the extra storage for movies over 120 mins.  Is this correct?

Also, what do you guys know about "blue ray" dvds?

Thanks

[mkdevo]

i definitely wouldn't expect a dual-layer burner anytime soon... imo..

[eightbit]

I don't think its possible to burn 2 layers my understanding of that process is that they press those thin layers. They do have double sided disks but you have to get up and flip it over, which is unacceptable to me. I usually just re-author(remove misc junk) and or recompress the movie to make it fit. I don't have a huge HD TV or fancy sound system so I can't see or hear the quality difference when I compress a dvd to make it fit.

I've never heard of a "blue ray" dvd.

[DeathMonk]

Dual layer DVD burners are possible but like mkdevo said, I wouldn't expect them anytime soon..  I think they may have a dual layer DVD-RAM burner..

[hyiu]

from what I read from other sites recently....

there're still no plans to produce dual layer burners for general public....

but software nowadays is good enough to compress a 7G disc to a 4G.... (quality is still acceptable...)

but if you want no loss.... burn it on 2 discs... and get a 5 disc player.... then no need to get up....

 

[Frostillicus]

I don't think its possible to burn 2 layers my understanding of that process is that they press those thin layers. They do have double sided disks but you have to get up and flip it over, which is unacceptable to me.

Reminds me of laserdisks...what a crapload of crap that stuff was.  

Mass-produced DVDs are pressed, not burned, and I've never heard of the technology that allows you to burn dual-layered discs.  Thought that would be cool, no doubt.
 

[shmokes]

Blu-Ray (not a typo) is a pretty new type of DVD that uses blue lazers instead of red lasers.  Blue light is apparently thinner or something so they can fit a lot more onto a disc than regular DVD can.  A LOT MORE.  A single disc will hold 27 gigs or something compared with 4.7 gigs or whatever regular ones hold...I think those numbers are correct.

Anyway, it's not so much a technology that's down the road.  It's here.  Blu-ray recorders are currently on the market, at least in Japan, but they're super expensive.  A few thousand dollars I think.  Don't go out and buy a recorder now, though, since you might burn the entire movie of Das Boot to a single blu-ray disc, but your DVD player with it's oldschool red laser won't read the disc.  

I wonder if blueray will eventually replace DVD as movies with 7 channel soundtracks and 1080i resolution are released for home consumption....   Probably not.  By the time we make the next major media jump for movies away from DVD, blu-ray will probably be old news.

[bionicbadger]

Reminds me of laserdisks...what a crapload of crap that stuff was.  

What's wrong with laser disks?  They were a great medium for well over 20 years.  All these people who in the last couple years are excited about "extras" and "special editions" on DVDs, and 5.1 surround sound, multiple audio tracks, etc. are too ignorant to realize that those things were available on Laser Disk 10+ years ago (except the 5.1 sound cause that wasn't invented yet, but pretty close).

Yes I've owned a laser disk player for many years and was happy with it.  It's time has passed, but they were far from "a crapload of crap".  I still watch some LDs every so often and can't complain.

[shmokes]

They were just so big and unweildy and interrupted you in the middle of your movie to flip it over.  For all those reasons they never caught on, which made them even suckier cos you couldn't rent them with any kind of reasonable selection and you couldn't borrow them or loan them to your neighbor cos they didn't have a laserdisc player and had never even heard of them.  Did I mention that they were expensive?

What a crapload of crap!

[DaveMMR]

Reminds me of laserdisks...what a crapload of crap that stuff was.  

What's wrong with laser disks?  They were a great medium for well over 20 years.  All these people who in the last couple years are excited about "extras" and "special editions" on DVDs, and 5.1 surround sound, multiple audio tracks, etc. are too ignorant to realize that those things were available on Laser Disk 10+ years ago (except the 5.1 sound cause that wasn't invented yet, but pretty close).

Yes I've owned a laser disk player for many years and was happy with it.  It's time has passed, but they were far from "a crapload of crap".  I still watch some LDs every so often and can't complain.

Well although I adopted the Laserdisc format late in it's life, I embraced it and (around 1996) predicted DVDs would never take off.  Shows how much I know...

But Laserdiscs did often have extras but not quite the same as DVDs have.  Usually they'd have a trailer and maybe some commentary but that's about it.   Even when they had nothing it was like $40 per movie (!!!)

I still have a few LDs leftover -- but only when it hasn't been released on DVD.   The only time the LD was better than the DVD counterpart was the original Austin Powers (the LD has a few more special features that the DVD doesn't).  

Yes, I love DVDs a lot more than I ever liked Laserdiscs.

[Magnet_Eye]

Hey, speaking of burning DVDs...What software do you guys use to make backups of your movies?

I am going to buy a DVD burner and haven't decided what the best software is for burning DVDs.

Any opinions appreciated!

Thanks.

[DaveMMR]

Totally stumbled across this:

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=technologyNews&storyID=3555197

[u_rebelscum]

They were just so big and unweildy and interrupted you in the middle of your movie to flip it over.  For all those reasons they never caught on, which made them even suckier cos you couldn't rent them with any kind of reasonable selection and you couldn't borrow them or loan them to your neighbor cos they didn't have a laserdisc player and had never even heard of them.  Did I mention that they were expensive?

There were dual side read LD readers, so you didn't have to flip.  [shrug]

And big?  Who cared about that, while LP records were still being sold?  Now it's a factor with people used to CD sized disks, but back then, no.  I thought they were better sided than VHS tapes.  [shrug]

But expensive and low selection I agree were low points.

[menace]

Everything you ever wanted to know and more go here dvdrhelp.com.  This is my other hobby when I'm not maming.  You can learn the latest news technology and how to--and..they are almost as friendly there as they are here!  Just recently I transfered the original star wars trilogy laserdiscs to dvd---so naaa naaa george lucas

[Frostillicus]

Reminds me of laserdisks...what a crapload of crap that stuff was.  

What's wrong with laser disks?  They were a great medium for well over 20 years.  All these people who in the last couple years are excited about "extras" and "special editions" on DVDs, and 5.1 surround sound, multiple audio tracks, etc. are too ignorant to realize that those things were available on Laser Disk 10+ years ago (except the 5.1 sound cause that wasn't invented yet, but pretty close).

Yes I've owned a laser disk player for many years and was happy with it.  It's time has passed, but they were far from "a crapload of crap".  I still watch some LDs every so often and can't complain.

Heh. Apart from the fact that you have to flip them over, and that the sound isn't too great, oh and that they are HUGE, and that when I hit eject on my pioneer LD8000 (picked up 2 working units from PSU salvage for 30$ total thank you very much ) I expect steam to blow out from the back, klaxons to go off, and a soothing woman's voice saying "Now ejecting Disk...Please Stand Clear", it does have some good things for the technology...um...well...OH yeah I can hang a movie on the wall and pretend I have a platinum hit record.

Kidding aside - Yes I own an 'industrial strength' (read 'unwieldy'), so with a real home model YMMV slightly.  But the things were soooo expensive back then, like thousands for just the player.  I don't think it was worth the price/feature ratio.  The quality just wasn't the massive leap like when DVDs came out.  Much like TaeBo killed Jazzersize did the DVD whollup LDs, however cool they appear to be these days.  

I stand by my poetic "Crapload of Crap."

[DaveMMR]

Laserdiscs appealed to a very small but dedicated group of movie lovers who had the money to spend on the technology.  Compared to DVDs today, they don't offer much, but back in 82, they really blew VHS and BETA out of the water.  

Many argue that LD's are still better quality than DVDs, the same way that many audiophiles state that LP records sound better than CDs (which I agree with -- listen to Dark Side of the Moon on a good record player and there's just no comparison).    But DVD is still all around better than Laserdiscs ever were.

[shmokes]

That don't make no sense.  There is a reason LP's sound better than CD's.  It's not just some romantic thing vinyl lovers like to pretend.  DVD's have a higher res picture and far better sound the LD's.

[DaveMMR]

Back around when DVDs were coming to the market, there were independent tests done that stated LDs had a slight advantage over picture quality.  That really no longer holds true today, due to advancements.   The word in my post should have been "argued".  

But the better sound still belongs to LD if you're compaing Dolby Surround.  Of course DVD has (a) more sound choices and (b) newer sound technolgy.  And when it comes to Dolby Digital - DVD wins out.

http://www.dvddemystified.com/dvdfaq.html#2.7

[eightbit]

Hey, speaking of burning DVDs...What software do you guys use to make backups of your movies?

I am going to buy a DVD burner and haven't decided what the best software is for burning DVDs.

Any opinions appreciated!

I use 2 programs, dvd decryptor and dvd shrink. They are both free and superior to any commercial tool I have tried and I have tried many of them. Not that all the commercial tools are bad but most of the one click solutions work most of the time but not always. You don't need dvd decryptor but I prefer to rip the dvd to the hard drive before doing reauthoring/compressing it. I refuse to allow a dvd backup to span 2 disks. I am not going to get up during the movie to flip it or change disks. So I rip out extra stuff I don't want and audio sound tracks in different languages. Then I compress it just enough to fit.

You then take the files you created and can burn them with most burning software, my choice is nero

[eightbit]

I figured someone on thiss board would have some good information about this topic.  

Is it possible to have a dual layer dvd burner for consumers?  From what I understand a dual layer dvd is actually 2 thin dvds bonded together to add the extra storage for movies over 120 mins.  Is this correct?

Looks like it was closer than I thought. I just read this for the first time today- http://www.cdr-info.com/Sections/News/Details.asp?RelatedID=4206