I want to get a DVD-9, dual layer, produced. Is there any software I can use to make such a disk? Or am I forever relegated to double-sided DVD-5s?

They have to be pressed, they can't be burnt on home DVD burners. Some replicators will press discs from DVD general media. Generally, they are made from DLT tapes. You may be able to have a tape made by giving your files on your hard drive to a replicator or a studio with a DLT drive.

I know about DLTs - my question is about authoring software. For instance, all consumer DVD authoring software I've used doesn't support anything other than 4.7GB disks. For dual layering, the DVD files themselves need to be specially made by the authoring software. I want to know if there's any PC software that will do that.

The new Adobe DVD software, Encore, supports DLT. Search the topic and you'll see an existing thread on the topic.

I heard that the DVD-R dual layer or DVD-R 9 are available in limited suppliers, but I also heard others that the -R verison is a cheesy flip over type of disk. Any truths to these rumors?

A home DVD burner can not burn a dual layer disc. DVD-9's are pressed, not burned. There is DVD media being made that you flip so that you can burn on both sides. I've used it and it works fine in computers and I back up media files, graphics etc.

Yeah, double sided DVD-R is pretty cool and works well. It's also pretty cheap.

But no there's no way to burn DVD-9s because they're two disks pressed together. You'd think someone would've figured out how to focus the laser to burn one layer or another (just like they do to read one layer or another) but I guess it's too difficult.

More practically, most DVD videos sold in stores, especially the newer ones are dual layer so that it's impossible to duplicate an exact copy easily on a home DVD burner. Those wishing to make a workable copy must go through the process of reencoding for hours which won't put off the hardcore pirates but Mr. Average Joe might think twice or not have the technical know-how to do it.
Just my $.02.


Matt

Actually there is a tool for Windows (forget what it's called) that will compress the data from a DVD9 to put on a DVD5 DVD-R. It does a damn good job, looks great, and it makes it fit with only about 15 to 20 minutes of encoding, not hours. Of course you lose all of the menus and fluff. But the menus are the worst thing about a DVD that you buy in the store. Who wants to sit through unskippable animated intros navigating every single time they want to watch a movie? Menus should be made far more basic. Like I said, they are the worst part about commercial DVDs. I am not condoning piracy, just mentioning what is available and possible.

I think DVD Studio Pro on the Mac lets you choose DVD9 as your authoring format. Lemme check.... yes it lets you select among disc media, the largest being "DVD 8.54G".

Sonic Scenarist will do a DVD9 Authuring.

How could anything possibly compress 8 GB of video to fit onto a 4.7 GB disk with only fifteen minutes of encoding? DivX encoding would take forever. Does it downsample to a lower resolution or something? And can it only be watched on the computer then?

There is a program called dvdXcopy, http://www.dvdxcopy.net that allows you to make legal backups of your own dvds. Basically it can either strip down a dvd enough that in some cases can make it fit onto a dvd-5 from a 2 layer disc.

This means it removes say, DTS track, extras, subtitles, well anything you can choose or do an auto detect. It will then just adds a basic menu in txt to each chapter, and everything else, as it is, not always it will strip it down enough.

Or you can make a copy with everything, it simply puts it onto 2 discs. It doesn't do any re-encoding, it is an exact copy. Except for the fact it is on 2 discs.

It seems to work pretty well. Took me around 10 minutes per a layer to rip down onto the HD then the usual 15 minutes at 4x burning per disc, so around an hour to fully copy a dual layer dvd.

Anyways,

Zac

DVDXCopy Plus is the other product these guys have, but it is more like a DVD VCR, you lay the DVD and record it on the PC while playing.

I don't know what the program is called, but it does re-encode the video and is playable as a DVD on a DVD player that can play DVD-Rs. You don't get chapter stops or menus, but it does seem to preserve the AC3 track fine and dandy. I'm pretty sure that subtitles, extra audio tracks, etc are deleted as well. The encoding is what takes around 20 minutes (on a very fast computer, mind you). Not the ripping or burning. Tack on a bunch of extra time for that.

The results look tremendously good.

i believe it is called dvd2one

found here
http://www.dvd2one.com/

Ok that makes sense. Except for the super-high bitrate disks like Lord of the Rings, a two hour movie should fit on one disk - the extras are what pushes it into dual layer, I guess.

By the way, someone said it was a legal backup. Sure it's legal for you to do it, but the people who make that software are opening themselves up for liability just like DeCSS. So don't be surprised if that software disappears sometime.

A good VBR multi-pass hardware encoder can do 2 hours to one disc. But most software encoders have a noticeable loss of quality with programs over 90 minutes. There are exception, of course, but you'll probably see a quality loss if you go 2 hours.

Hi
For Your information, http://www.mrbass.org/dvdshrink/rmat has the program DVDshrink, that will compress, up to a 9GB dvd, to a single dvd-r, gives up to 8 levels of compression, keeping everything or You can just do the main movie.
The disc will then "burn" using Record Now Max, or any prog that will burn AC3 audio.
It takes about 32 minutes to encode on a 2000xp processor.Then whatever speed Your burner takes to record, quality is very good I.M.O.

Hope this helps.


Best Wishes.

Peter.

The Adobe Encore information does mention dual-layer and DLT, but it does not specifically say that the product will author a DVD-9. My experience so far is that if a product does author a DVD-9, the vendor specifically says so. If the product doesn't, the information is usually vague.

Adobe's information is vague.

I've tried to confirm this one way or the other but haven't been able to yet. Does anyone else know for sure? DVD-9 at a $500 price point is huge news if it's true.