DVD Backup Guide

Now that you have your movie backed up to your hard drive in either VOBs or an MPEG2 file you have a range of options for media. You could, if really bored, break up your movie into a number of portions and store them on CD-R for playback on your computer. But the two main options will either be leave it on your Hard Drive or store it on some type of DVD Media. Because we are backing up our movies for playback chances are we are aiming to store our movies on some form of DVD Media. There lies a huge problem, which DVD media to use?

Lets take a look at the basic media types that are available to the consumer today:

DVD-R (DVD-5 or DVD10)

Can be Single or Double sided, Single Layer
Write Once Media
Single Sided 4.7GB (4.38GB usable) Double Sided 9.4GB (8.7GB Usable)
~92% Compatible with Box Top DVD Players
First format introduced for DVD-Video burning
Supported by the DVDForum

DVD-RW (DVD-5 or DVD-10)

Can be Single or Double sided, Single Layer
Multiple writes
Single Sided 4.7GB (4.38GB usable) Double Sided 9.4GB (8.7GB Usable)
~75% Compatible with Box Top DVD Players
Supported by the DVDForum

DVD+R (DVD-5 or DVD-10)

Can be Single or Double sided, Single Layer
Write Once Media
Single Sided 4.7GB (4.38GB usable) Double Sided 9.4GB (8.7GB Usable)
~86% Compatible with Box Top DVD Players
Supported by the DVD+RW Alliance

DVD+RW (DVD-5 or DVD-10)

Can be Single or Double sided, Single Layer
Multiple writes
Single Sided 4.7GB (4.38GB usable) Double Sided 9.4GB (8.7GB Usable)
~75% Compatible with Box Top DVD Players
Supported by the DVD+RW Alliance

DVD-RAM

!Not! supported by most Box Top DVD Players or DVD-ROMs
Used mainly as a removable storage solution
Can utilize hard drive style random access, defect management
Optional protective cartridges

Now you may have noticed the use of DVD-5, DVD-10, and maybe you have heard people referring to DVD-9. Here is a quick breakdown:

DVD-5: (DVD-R/-RW DVD+R/+RW)

DVD-5 is single layered and single sided. This means that there is one side for data and the other side you can write on. On the side for data there is only layer of data that provides 4.7GB of space of which 4.38GB is useable. (1 kilobyte is 1024 bytes.) 4,700,000,000b/1024 = ~ 4,589,843 KB / 1024 = ~4,485 MB / 1024 = ~ 4.38GB)

DVD-9: Most Consumer DVDs

DVD-9 is dual layered and single sided. Two data layers are sandwiched together on one side to provide more data space. DVD-9 disks can hold about 8.5GB or 7.95GB that are usable. Most movies that are made today fill up a standard DVD so the dual layer format is needed to provide special features or more room for the extra long movies. DVD-9 was made to be friendlier than DVD-10 which required you to flip the disk over for the other content.

DVD-10: (DVD-R/-RW DVD+R/+RW)

DVD-10 is basically a DVD-5 except both sides of the disk are used for data. This doubles your capacity but also limits you to labeling the DVD on the inner circle of the DVD as labeling else where would destroy data or hinder the reading of the data.

DVD-18: Some Consumer DVDs

DVD-18 is starting to be used with some commercial DVDs. It is a DVD-9 disk but both sides of the disk are utilized giving you essentially 4 DVD-5s on one disk. 17GB of data or 15.9GB of usable storage are provided by this media. This media is extremely hard to manufacture and is slowly being faded out in favor for box sets using DVD-9 disks.

How to Identify the Type of DVD

Some movies will have a portion of the back panel of the box dedicated to information and specifications of the movie and DVD. Sometimes the format type can be found here. If not a possible way to find out is to look at the DVD. If the color of the DVD is gold chances are it is a dual layer DVD. If it is silver like a regular CD then it is probably a single layer DVD, but this is not always true. Sometimes there is no indication of what the format is, but you can always put the DVD in a DVD-ROM and get the total file sizes. Then you can narrow down what disk format it is. Chances are if there is only 2GB of data a movie studio would not waste money putting it on a DVD-9 (dual layer) disk.

On top of the DVD disk types you may have also heard that DVDs have regions and can only play on players that are from the same region. Movie studios have agreed to divide the world into zones. Each has their own region number. Right now the numbers range from 0 to 8. The system basically corresponds with the movie studio’s distribution facilities. The other thing with regions that you need to check is the format. There are two formats which are NTSC which is what the US is on as well as Japan, and then there is the PAL format which most of the European Union uses. Some DVD players can take both formats while others will refuse to play a DVD in the wrong format.

Conclusion

Right now many of the features that are available to large companies are not available to a consumer who just wants to make a DVD. Features like CSS encryption and dual layer disks cannot be used by consumers without a costly trip to a DVD duplication facility. So what is my recommendation after all of the above? I use DVD-R disks by Fuji film. I have burned DVDs of my college’s sporting events and sold the product to parents and the school and have had no one as of yet say they haven’t been able to play my disks. This includes people who live in the UK. (The version I gave to them was a PAL but it was still on a DVD-R.) Because of this I have never used other formats because I have had such great success with this one. I have read many forums that have people saying they can only get DVD+R disks to work. The only true answer I an give you is to visit this site and do a search for your DVD player to see what formats it supports. If you cannot find your model then I encourage you to test the media yourself and post the results for others.