DVD Thinpak and other Slim Cases - Page 12

I know many people (myself included) that used binders for CDs, and years later found the CDs to become gradually damaged. Discs that were hardly used were magically scuffed up years later.

Not worth the gamble, IMO.

-Dave

^ Not worth the gamble, IMO.

Agreed in general, that's why I'm so excited about these new inserts, a lot more stable.

Fred, you'll be glad to hear then that I've been in touch with the folks at UniKeep and learned that the product has been deemed "viable" and has moved into full production. What MicroCenter has is but the first wave made (evidently) before they knew if the product would be "viable." It is (yay!) and so there are more on the way. Soon there will be the pages available in refill form, so if you already have some UniKeep binders you'll be able to just buy what you need. Meanwhile easiest to just order from MicroCenter. I'm hoping to find some more sources for them too, but so far that's all that's made it to google, you know.

About the binder concern raised by Dave - I think that history of unexpected wear on binder-housed discs is largely due to most binders being soft like a leather suitcase, which allows for the pages to move and put pressure and wear on the discs inside. The discs inside are put under pressure, there's nothing to protect them when the "suitcase" is bent or picked up or sat on or whatever.

But the UniKeep cases are hard plastic sealed on all four (um, six) sides, so the inside pages aren't getting any wear and tear when one picks up/moves the binder. The binder can't bend or flex, so the pages inside aren't putting pressure on the discs. I think this is a winner. We'll see.

My cases arrived today.

Let the trimming begin.

Go, Mike! Some words of encouragement:

When I first started, I had all the same reservations. I didn't want to devalue (harm the original artwork) my collection. And what if I wanted to sell a title off on eBay?

So I started slowly, with my kids' collection. I figured we wouldn't be selling any of their DVDs anytime soon, so I even converted my daughter's coveted Little Mermaid.

When I saw how much space I was saving, I picked up more steam and delved into *my* collection. The keepcases went pretty fast. And even though not every title lined up on the spine perfectly, it was close enough and I was still able to read 99% of them.

I even did my Criterions. Converting those double alphas to double thinpaks saved a ton of space. And in the end, I decided enjoying the movies should take precedence over maintaining the collectability of them (although it took me a while to get to that point).

Next, I did sets like Indiana Jones (Nexpak Slim 4's), From the Earth to the Moon (slim 4), Godfather Trilogy ("Wade's Super Slim" 5-disc cases), Taken (super slim 6-disc cases). I also converted Brotherhood of the Wolf (3-disc Canadian version), Cleopatra, and Back to the Future Trilogy to slim triples (size of a single keepcase).

And then the big space saver... TV shows. I converted all my Sex and the City sets, Ultimate Carson Collection, Toy Story Ultimate Toy Box, Fantasia Anthology, and Frank Herbert's Dune to slim triples; and Sports Night, The West Wing, Stargate SG-1, Battlestar Galactica, and Robotech sets to super slim 5 or 6's. I still have B5 to do. (Legal-size glossy paper from eBay helps a lot for these.)

I've done almost all of my collection. I estimate I've converted nearly 400 titles in my collection, at least. I have about 20 snappers that didn't already have artwork on DVDCA, so I'll have to scan those and make them myself. But almost everything else that I couldn't just trim, I found on DVDCA, adjusted the spines, and printed on my printer.

I've yet to convert most of the titles that came in slim double amarays to double thinpaks. I might get to this eventually, but it's way way on the back burner.

Titles I have not converted yet are my STTNG seasons (in 7-disc alpha cases with Ric's art), LOTR:FOTR EE and LOTR:TTT EE (which I will probably do eventually), and Memento Limited Edition (because it's my favorite movie and the packaging ties in so well with the movie). Also, I haven't done my Disney tins yet, but I will. I'll keep the tins, of course, in a cabinet and just take the discs out of the double alphas and put them in double thinpaks or slim double amarays.

I'm waiting for super slim 7+ cases to be invented (or become available). I really hate those digipaks that you have to open up and fold out for a mile to get to the disc you want.

Andrea:

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

I had already done my Fox Demo discs and my music/concert titles with two six-packs I had gotten at Wal-Mart. It was that success which led me to order in bulk on-line. My collection currently stands at about 250.

The comparisons between your story and mine are many.





Exactly. I started alphabetically. 1776, A Beautiful Mind, All That Jazz... Everything was going great. The space on the previously filled shelf kept getting larger and larger. It was great. I felt a great sense of accomplishment. Emboldened, I continued.


Wasn't going to do it, but that double alpha of Armageddon was soooooo big now sitting next to all those THINpacks, I decided "what the hell" and went for it. It looks great. And those "common" Criterion titles like Armageddon and The Rock aren't going to be all that valuable or rare, right?--I kept telling myself.

So, my top shelf was done. Except for my snappers: Analyze This, Anchors Aweigh, Animatrix, etc. Originally, I wasn't going to do them. I thought "too much work" and "They're pretty thin already". But now I'm thinking I've got to figure out how to get covers. DVDCoverArt is the way to go, eh?

And that brings me to my next problem area. On that first shelf are: Almost Famous: Bootleg; Amadeus: Director's Cut; Amelie; Band of Brothers; Carson: Ultimate Collection; etc. I am reallllllly having a hard time thinking I'm going to cut these packages up. I happen to admire when packaging is done "right".

I know you converted your Carson set. Did you get cover art from somewhere and then pack the original away somewhere? How about releases like Amelie or Amadeus? What did you do?



I'm looking at the Indy collection and am torn. Huge space savings vs. new, nice-looking box set. Same question: did you save the original packaging? I was going to leave the Godfather Trilogy alone figuring it was really already packaged in thin digi-packs. But, that's the coward's way out, isn't it? I also will need to study earlier posts to find out how to get ahold of the 3, 4, 5, and 6-disc slim cases.



My LOTR:EEs I wasn't planning on touching! Same thinking as your Memento reasoning (Or rationalization?! ) But, I have Band of Brothers to deal with and Ken Burns Baseball (10 discs -- each in its own keepcase tucked in a cardboard box). Could be huge spacesavers, but also the "crown jewels" of my collection.

Thank you again for the "words of encouragement" It was just what I needed to hear. Hopefully these posts will help others with the same thoughts/questions. I guess I am asking for more similar words of encouragement to keep going and tackle some of the more difficult projects. As well, I'll take any advice on how to proceed with some of that other packaging.

Mike, I save all the original boxes and digipaks for stuff I convert (which I'm still considering dumping just to clear out my closet), but give away the regular Amarays and doubles, etc. Rather than cutting up some of the nicer cases like Amadeus and other SE's, I either download from dvdcoverart or scan them in and use the templates from that site to make printable covers. In my experience, I've had no trouble printing them out at Copyworks or Kinko's once I explain what I'm doing (i.e. not bootleging). One of the guys at the place has even started doing it himself.

Mike,

I've tossed all the original packaging. I've been on a "Clean Sweep" (the TLC show) kick and have been purging like mad lately. I did keep some booklets that were too big/thick to fit in the new cases, but that's it (and there were just a few of them). When/if I convert Band of Brothers, I'll keep the tin. And when I convert Akira and the Disney Treasures, I'll keep those tins. But all the snappers and digipaks have been tossed. I put all the single width keepcases that I replaced up in the attic. And most of my multi-disc cases I advertised here and on DVD Talk for shipping costs only. They all went pretty fast. I have a box of the snapper trays that I figure might help someone with broken spindles, but I haven't had time to advertise it yet (and prepare shipping materials, etc.).

And, DVDCoverArt is definitely the way to go for printing covers.

Wade are you around anywhere? I've sent you a couple of e-mails and haven't gotten any reply..

ChadP2K, YGM.

Well, I've been watching this thread for awhile. Anyone know if the 7 or 8 slims will be available in smaller quantities or if they are available from a U.S. source. I really want some for my TNG box sets...

I would just like to update that every keepcase I own (except, honestly, for my Ken Burns Baseball set and Disney titles) has now been converted to THINpacks.

All I have left are my snappers and digipacks. I will soon be turning to DVDCoverArt.com to convert the snappers. Then, we'll see about the digis.

I am VERY pleased with the appearance of the cases AND with the less-crammed look of my shelves.

Thanks to everyone in this thread for the info and support.

Anyone tried the Nexcase AMII3-CLR and the inserts AMII-PAGE-CLR as slim tripples from tapeandmedia.com? How thick are they? Kinda wanted to order all the cases at once instead of ordering the slim triples off ebay.

One more thing can you find the slim 4's in clear? Thanks.

ChadP2K, YGM

I'm still looking for the 7's and 8's with no luck so far.

The guy who sells the slim 3's and slim 6's on ebay (pakpal is his username, I think) emailed me that the slim 7's and 8's would be available in a month...

Way cool!!

Hmm, then we'll just need Ric to work his usual miracles and redo his covers for the slim packs. That's my only real complaint with his covers, the cases just take too much space up (and obviously, that's not his fault).

I picked up the first season of Roswell the other day, and came across a different type of thinpak used for three of the DVDs. They're made by a company called Scanavo (link ) and unlike the Nexpak single thinpak, these have a flower-style hub that I like a bit better than the solid bump that Nexpak uses for their hub. has anyone run across a site selling these types of thinpaks?

I looked at that Scanavo site. At .87 inches (22 mm), it looks like they have the slimmest 4-disc case spine I've seen so far. And the documentation for their 3-disc case says it's "part of our new multiple disc system which can be upgraded to include up to 8 discs." Interesting!

I have ordered the 3's and 4's from them - very nice...smaller than a double amaray...

Def look into them!

Hmm, personally I think any company making overlapping disc design cases needs to be boycotted so they can understand the error of their ways. This is not something that should be encouraged!

Hard to tell from the pictures, but those hubs look a lot like the ones in my farscape season sets, which I personally really didn't like (at least the ones in the non-ultralight single cases).

Gotta agree with Gary about the overlapping-ness of those multi-cases...I don't like that at all. The singles seem to be real solid, though.

Michael, did you order directly from Scanavo or some retailer selling their stuff?

I'm dying to see some 7's and 8's as well.

http://store.yahoo.com/ezlabel/nesc4in1ovdv.html

They really arent that bad...they are a little difficult in getting the discs out (the hubs) - but overall, I'm happy with them...

If anyone here is interested in the Scanavo cases (3 & 4's), let me know...I bought way too many (oops) and need to get these suckers out of my office

I have 25 of the 3's, and 10 of the 4's...

This could be a great chance to see if these fit what you are looking for...

-Mike

So, anyone done a conversion for the slim 6's for B5? Otherwise I'm going to have to sit down and figure something out for myself. (Ok, yeah, I'm lazy, and not ashamed to leach off people.)

any word on the availability of the 7 and 8 slim disc cases yet?

The 5 & 6 'ers from Wade are great but I need BIGGER cases for things like I Love Lucy's 1st season

What is the width of the slim 6? I know that 6 ThinPaks are the same width as the Babylon 5 cases.

Anyway, I'm making my own cover art. I can't bring myself to destroy the original cover art, but I do need to recover shelf space. I printed out some black and white versions of some ThinPak covers I made (no color printer) to see how they look, and they turned out pretty good. Just hacking together covers from DVDCoverArt to get it done. I'll go to kinkos to print out the final versions of covers.

I'm a stickler for uniformity, so I'm going to use slim-doubles for movies with 2 discs or series of movies where some of them have 2 discs.

Yes, Jupiter from DVDCA made some awesome art for B5 and sized it down to fit a super slim 6 for me.

It looks like this:

http://www.dvdcoverart.com/dvdcovera...em.php?id=8251

Except the spine is sized for a slim 6 case. I have seasons 1-4, if you're interested. The files are roughly 2.7 megs each.

It's about 15/16 of an inch.

Hmm, it's not bad looking, but I think I might try something else. Just not quite for me. Thanks anyways.