I'm definitely new to all of this, but I was just wondering - it seems most of the more recent DVD's are well over the 4.7 gigs. So, how do the movie companies get 8 or 9 gigs on a DVD that only holds 4.7? And, when you have to use SHRINK DVD to compress these large DVD's, does that mean loss of quality is almost certain? It kind of sucks to know all my backups are going to be sub-par.
Hello: I'm new to this too, but I'll try to answer your question and ask a similar question as well. I recently stepped on an out of print Criterion title and, after purchasing a burner to correct this problem in the future, was very frustrated to find that most Criterion titles (and most dvds with special features) will not fit on a standard 4.X Gig dvd...Anyway, from what I've read on this forum, it seems the movie companies don't 'burn' dvds but press them in a special machine, and that makes them different right off the bat from the blank store-bought media you are using. A lot of times, like with most Criterion titles or long movies with lots of special features, they will use dual layered disks, using both sides of the dvd to hold more data. So, basically they are using 'bigger discs', not squeezing more data onto a 4.x gig disc. Also, the general answer to the quality question I've found on this forum is: you shouldn't notice a difference with anything over 80% on DVD shrink unless you've got an expensive HDTV. I don't, so I've found this to be true in the thirty or so movies I've backed up in the last month. Hopefully I've given a correct answer here...What *I* don't understand, even after searching on these forums, is if every DVD-9 (or the next size up from the discs that hold 4+ gigs) is necessarily a dual layer disc, or if these terms are mutually exclusive. Also, I hope someone could confirm that a DVD-9 could be used to make perfect copies (no compression) of those larger movies...
Thanks for the response... That does make a lot of sense. I knew I'd heard the term 'press' in regards to DVDs. I suppose that's where it comes from. As far as your question... I'm not sure. I didn't even know there was any kind of blank DVD other than the 4 gig one.
Pavement answered your question very well. just remember the DVD's that are original are on a DVD9 disk which is the same as a Dual layer disk. Most methods used in here and what most of us use because DL media is just a little expensive right now is on a DVD5 disk (single layer) you could back up your movies on a DL disk and retain the same quality and menus as the original, but this is just not very cost effective right now. As far as quality on a single layer disk I have found that if you only put the main movie onto the disk (no menus or extra crap) then you can get perfect or almost perfect 1:1 copy of the original movie. Most movies fit on a DVD5 with no compression at all.. Hope this helps you out
It does help...and I just realized I have a dual writer in my new computer. I also just made a post regarding this ten seconds before I saw your response, so ignore it...
