DVD Thinpak and other Slim Cases

Andrea, send 'em back. Can you warn us which etailer did the switcheroo?

I ordered them from US Plastic. I was ordering a bunch (130) of single thinpaks, and as an impulse buy, I threw 10 doubles into my cart. They didn't do a switcheroo; I was just too stupid to click on the "double" link to see a picture of what I was ordering. I didn't even know those types existed. I thought there was only the other kind. Doh!

Thanks to everyones comments on this thread, I ordered 120 thinpaks. I think thinpaks are the greatest thing since sliced bread. It is amazing how many keepcase covers lined up with the spline after a slight trim on each edge. I wish they would come up with a better design for the twinpak. I have put in about a dozen cover requests on dvdcoverart for titles that did not line up correctly. It is so nice to free up more shelf space for my collection.

Where can the non-accordion style doubles be found?

-Dave

Dave, I ordered the slim doubles from here:

http://www.genesysdtp.com/doubledvdthindetails.htm

I took my accordion doubles and cut them down the middle and made two singles out of each of them...

anyone have a source for the ThinPak SLIM4's?? and the Amray/Alpha Slim Triple? (three discs in the space of a single Case)

Rick, I ordered the NexPak Slim 4's from here:

http://www.tapeandmedia.com/detail.a...id=4DVD3-DKGRY

My order has come yet, but it's scheduled to be delivered today.

I didn't know there was an Amaray Slim Triple. That sounds great. I'll have to look for those...

I love ThinPak, i wish all FOX TV series use that. I bought 4 buffy seasons and 1 angel season and all got 1 or 2 loose disc (and ALL the package i've tested in store revealed a loose disc). Most people got the Spike disc loose in the Buffy Season 4 set. For now, Futurama S1, Family Guy and Futurama Season 2 i've got no loose disc!

Well......there are a few titles that I don't face the binding outward...

How much trimming needs to be done? Does this adversely compromise the cover? Dee do you think you could post a pic of the cover out of it's jacket so I can see the trims

Thanks

Dave,

My post here on the previous page might help you. You need to trim approximately 1/8" off each side. But I found I took more off the front than the back on most of them.

OK I'm not a big Photoshop guy. I loaded the template from this thread into Photoshop 6. How do I import a scanned DVD Cover into it?

Dave, here's a good FAQ for scanning your cover in at 300dpi:

Scanning instructions, etc.

But the key bit of info not included in that is that after you've scanned the cover, and you've got both the blank template and the scanned picture both open in photoshop:

Select the scanned image. Go to Photoshop's Layer menu (do you see the Layer menu? If not, go to WINDOW > SHOW LAYERS. There it is!) Now just grab the layer (put your mouse on it and click down and stay down) and drag it over, quickly, to the mostly blank .psd template. If you do it quick enough it will magically appear there on the template. Don't worry if it is off-center (or wildly off center) - we'll handle that later.

Sometimes you need to practice a bit but the concept is you just drag it over from one image to another, no different than dragging & dropping paragraphs in a Word document really.

You can ignore the scanned image now, from this point on I am just referring to the .psd (the template which now has the scan, waiting to be tweaked into shape to fit a ThinPak).

EDIT > FREE TRANSFORM. You can now move the image around within the template, so please do so. Move the image patiently and carefully so that the _front_ cover is exactly where it should be. Don't worry about the spine being too wide or the back cover going off the back edge, just concentrate on the front cover being where the front should be. Good. Press enter to let it know you're done with moving it around.

Now let's do the back cover. Go to LAYER > DUPLICATE LAYER in the top menu that runs across the top of the screen. You've just made a copy of that whole layer, front and back, though you wouldn't really notice if you didn't have the layer menu open, which now shows a new layer exists. All we really need is the back but we'll delete the extra front later. Gently slide this layer so that the BACK cover is perfectly where it should be.

"But...but...this covers up the front cover! Now the front cover is going off the edge!" you protest. Well indeed, so get rid of that right-half of the image (I mean, the redundant front cover which is now wildly off) by using the rectangular marquee tool (the same tool you use to crop photos, but in this case you're NOT cropping the whole image, you're just going to select the right half of the image and simply press the delete key, so you can see what's underneath. And what is underneath is of course the properly aligned front cover which you did earlier.

So now you've got the back cover where the back cover should be, and the front cover where the front cover should be! All you need now is the spine.

I think you can figure out where to get the spine from on your own. They key is that the spine should be a layer of its own, just the vertical strip of spine above the other layers. You can then either squish the spine layer (using EDIT > FREE TRANSFORM and grabbing the edges with your mouse) so it fits the ThinPak spine, or painstakingly rework it, your choice.

Save this under a different name (like "Porkys2.psd"). Print it.

This may sound complex but it really only takes a few minutes once you know the drill.

Yeah that is a major pain the butt you had me until the spine part. Thanks for posting that anyhow.

Another source for the NexPak THINpak™ Double DVD Packaging - Clear is TapeAndMedia.com.

I have ordered clear and black singles and clear doubles from them repeatedly.

Rich, stop giving away my source! I can't complain though - I just cleaned them out of 390 clear thinpaks this weekend that shipped to me yesterday. Thankfully, UPS ground is only a day away for me.

muahahahahaha!

Rick, is this the slim triple you're talking about:

http://www.inetdvd.com/store/tmp_pro...03.asp?id=6164

It doesn't look like it's the size of a single case. It doesn't look much slimmer than the Nexpak Slim 4.

Andrea,

The Slim 4 is actually slimmer than the Alpha Slim Triple. According to Nexpak's website, Slim 4 has a 1" spine and Slim Triple has a 1 1/16" spine.

Nexpak's website

I'm waiting for the transparent plastic Slim4s to ship. So far only the dark greys are out.

God I'm a nerd.

Also, I don't think I have any use for Slim4s at the moment.

Does anyone know where to find transparent slim double Amarays? They seem to be completely sold out everywhere.

Eric,

I thought the Slim Triple didn't look all that slim compared to the Slim 4. Is there anything that holds 3 discs and is slimmer than a Slim 4?

Will,

I have some black Slim 4's. There is a clip on the inside for inserts. So there really is no need for it to be clear, unless it's an aesthetic thing. The main (only) reason my thinpaks are clear is so I can see the insert when I open the case. That's not an issue with the Slim 4's.

Nope.. that's not it.. I'm working only from a description, but it's supposed to be the same thickness and a single amray/alpha, with one disc on the back panel (per normal) and a 'page' that holds one disc on each side. A few inserts on DVDCoverart that are made for them and they are sized for a standard thickenss case.

I'm staying away from the Slim4's for now, but that triple amaray you're describing Rick sounds pretty good.

For large TV sets, etc. I'm using Thin Doubles. I use them for FOTR also, 2 doubles is slightly thinner than a Slim4 and less bulky.

Andrea,

It's possible. I'm only going by the insert dimensions on nexpak's website.

I received my test 50 pak of Black single thin paks last night. I succesfully trimmed 50 of my disks artwork to fit and I think they look Great. I Like the black over the clear because the black case is more forgiving of trimming errors. I'm not too concerned over the inserts and now it seems companies have stopped including them. I'll slowly convert over my singles first, then my snappers, then my dual disk releases., and finally I'll consider what to do with box sets. With almost 600 disks I have to go slow

Well, count me among the recent converts as well. Usually just lurk around here, but wanted to throw out a proper thanks for all of the tips and tricks mentioned in this thread. I've converted about 350 discs to a single thinpak, and another 100 double-thins have recently been done. Now ordering another 300 from usplastics.com to be here next week.
It was either this, or finding more storage space for my nearly 2000 disc collection. Maybe renting out another apartment for the DVD's and home theater?
Mostly just trimming covers, but there's been a great deal of scanning for the snappers and double cases as well.

So, thanks again for the idea and the specifics.
Joel

Found this in a post over at DVDTalk. Didn't say where to get these slim triples, though.

Bump.

Anyone find the slim triples yet?

Just a heads-up that U.S. Plastics now has the Slim-4 available for preorder in both dark and clear.

I got some slim triples on eBay today. I should have them by next week. The smallest lot I found was 50, so I'll have a lot of extras. I'll post here when I have them in hand. I'll be willing to sell onesies and twosies from my extras if anyone is interested.

I Wish I could find some thin Paks they seem to be sold out everywhere.