samhill5215

Ever since I mentioned DVDShrink all replies have concentrated on that program's deficiencies. Now in my original post I wrote that I have had 100% success with HP and Memorex discs - a claim that I was taken to task for - but that I could not burn DL discs with ImgBurn because it expected a layer break when none of my other burn programs required it. So far nothing has changed that. It was suggested that I burn the files instead of an ISO because somehow DVDShrink was corrupting the ISO. Well I just tried that, twice, with two different projects. On neither project was DVDShrink used. ImgBurn complained about the layer break on both. It even complained that one project would not fit on a DL disc (not true, it fits fine). Both projects burned fine and verified fine and played back fine when burned with Nero. Folks, I have to say that the weak link in my mind is not DVDShrink but ImgBurn, at least when it comes to DL disks. Granted, I am not a scientific tester but neither do I have the inclination, resources or time to be one. All I want it the ability to rip a movie, edit it in a variety of ways and burn it back to disk and I've found ways to do that with a variety of tools, including ImgBurn. I've done this in over 700 projects. Perhaps all who swear by Verbatim and ImgBurn are following a certain methodology that yields successful results for them. That's fine but there are also many ways to skin a cat and it seems I've found a chink in ImgBurn's armor. Is anyone willing to consider that? And if that's the case wouldn't ImgBurn ultimately benefit from that discussion?

I just wanna know what in God's name you'd need DVD Shrink for if you're not shrinking anything? But you see that's exactly what I'm doing: shrinking in order to fit on a disk and I talked about that in the post you just answered. What I hear is a general belief that DVDShrink is at fault for creating an invalid DL ISO and I'd be willing to buy that if I had problems verifying my burns or playing my disks on various players. Let me say this though: I'm in no way married to this program and am aware that it has not been updated in some time. But, and this is a big but, I have found nothing to replace its compression capabilities. It would be more constructive to move the conversation in that direction and I'll be monitoring this forum with interest for any suggestions.

You may not be entirely familiar with this program because it DOES support DL ISO creation. And that's what I use it for primarily, ISO creation. There are other tools out there but I have found none with the versatility of DVDShrink. It can convert easily between file structures and ISOs (DVDecrypter is equal to it here) and if need be it can compact video as well. This last part is important to me because I record video at a little over 3GB/hour. Extend that to the max 2 hours that can be reliably fitted on a single layer disc (or 4 hours on a DL) and you can see that some type of compaction is necessary. Video effects, cleaning, tweaking, etc add more overhead. If there are other tools like it I'd be more than happy to try them. Besides I don't know why ImgBurn or DVDecrypter should care what program created the ISO. It will be either valid or not and as long as Nero and Goya can burn it I'm sceptical that the problem lies with DVDShrink. Besides they don't complain when I burn SL ISOs with them. BTW I checked some of my DL disks with DVDInfopro and they checked out fine.

It is ImgBurn that complains that my ISOs are not split correctly for DL disks. That's not exactly the language the program uses but that's the essence of it. It apparently needs to know at what point in the ISO it needs to start on the second layer. I create my ISOs with DVDShrink. No other burner complains of such a thing. It is exactly that issue that led me to this forum. And I can claim my 100% success rate on HP and Memorex discs BECAUSE I verify each and every burn, whether it's SL or DL. I subsequently test them on three different computer DVD drives and four different DVD players. I should add that I tried other brands before I settled on those two. Verbatim was one of them and they worked fine but can be more expensive than Memorex. HP are the highest priced but also the slowest burning. The absolute worst: Matrix. At best they offer a 10% success ratio.

Another expert. Gotta go now to deposit my cheque from Verbatim. I fail to see the relevance of your comment. It addresses neither my success rate with discs other than Verbatim or speeds other than 2.4X, nor my question on splitting an image file. Anything else does little to advance the discussion.

Having just upgraded to the latest version because I had been unable to burn DL disks I read with interest this thread. My problem has been a message that I haven't been able to decode, that is that my image file has not been correctly split for the two layers. I still haven't found an answer to that question but I will add this to discussion: all who claim that Verbatim is the only reliable disk and that you should only burn at 2.4X are just plain wrong! And I'm not dissing Verbatim, I'm sure they're fine disks. But I've been using HP and Memorex disks with 100% success rate and at 8X. Of course I don't use ImgBurn because it quits after the first layer. I use Magix Goya or Nero and both work fine without requiring a previously split image file. I would prefer to use ImgBurn, and do for single layer disks, because it's so fast, but until it can be a little more idiot proof I'll stick with the tried and true. And if anyone has info on this splitting image file thing let me know.