DVD Thinpak and other Slim Cases - Page 14

Thanks Greg. That answered my questions. Some of my Pakpal cases have already broken in the spine area and in the clasp that holds the case closed. They seem a bit cheap. Being the tight wad that I am I will probably stick with the Pakpal cases.

Scott

I just wanted to share what I've moved on to, in converting multi-disc sets to something more manageable.

In this photo, which is intentionally low quality so as to keep it within the forum's KB size guidelines, you're reading the title right if you discern the title "ALIAS: THE COMPLETE FIRST AND SECOND SEASONS"

There's 12 discs in one inch of space.




The product is a UniKeep Disc 10 with Safety Sleeves. The UniKeep Disc 10 costs about two dollars (they sell them in five packs in black or clear, for $12.

The height is a bit more than the height of a CD case, but generally speaking it looks and feels like an oversized CD case of some kind.

The cover is 5.127" x 13.25" so I needed to use real legal sized paper (actually I just cut up some 11x17). I had a lot of fun making the custom cover (based on source images from dvdcoverart.com) but I imagine some people would not have as much fun as I do in that regard.

Hello all. I am putting together a group buy on PakPal cases over at DVDTalk.com. This buy is for the slim double and triple cases at this time.

Here is the link:
http://www.dvdtalk.com/forum/showthr...hreadid=353095

I hope to order as soon as possible. If you are interested, please give me some way of getting in touch with you.

Thanks.

Will,

I like it! I just wish they would make something a bit taller to be closer to regular DVD dimensions (and that you could put a booklet inside). I suppose sooner or later we'll see them... I prefer sooner!

Ric

Those do look pretty cool, Will. I've always been a little leery of the "sleeve" type holders, but those don't look too bad.

Finally got brave and started tossing out original packaging (digipaks, etc) for sets that I've made covers for. Scanning them all in at 600 dpi before tossing them made me feel a little more secure in case I have to migrate to some future style of case.

Personally I'm pretty leary of putting discs in sleeves like that. We've used a variety of sleeves to store cdr's at work, and regardless of the type of material the sleeve is made out of, the discs seem to acquire far too many scratches for my liking. Since we've started using dvd-r media, I've put my foot down and insisted we use jewel cases rather than sleeves. (The sleeves on cd-r media was a boss decision).

Shoot, I just stumbled across this thread last night, those Oz cases are just perfect for my needs. If there is another group buy in the future, I'll certainly place an order. The pakpal cases look alright, but I'll shell out a bit more for something I like.

The cases just arrived. I am shocked as they weren't supposed to be here for another week to 10 days.

I have emailed or PMed all who ordered.

Please lmk if you did not get your payment info.

Thanks

Greg

Will's post above got me to writing to the company, to request they develop a similar case, but the same height as a DVD.

Here's what I wrote them...



And here was one of the responses I got back...


I suggest that anyone that might be interested in a taller DVD sized case, please drop Ross a line. It couldn't hurt.

Ric

Thought the people on this thread might be interested in this...
Shop4Tech has some pretty good pricing on the slim cases, or at least the best I've seen, and free shipping to boot.

Slim Single Black:
qty.____price___per unit
25______$9.75___[$0.39]
50______$16.50__[$0.33]
100_____$31.00__[$0.31]

Slim Double Black:
qty.____price___per unit
25______$9.75___[$0.39]
50______$16.50__[$0.33]
100_____$31.00__[$0.31]

I ordered 50 slim doubles so I can start storing my DVD+\-R burns of TV shows and things shown on TCM that will probably never make it to a normal DVD release. Once they come in, I might post some more information on them if anyone's interested.

Following up on what Ric and I have mentioned, I am making some of my Unikeep Disc 10 cover art available to everyone here. I've uploaded some of my covers to my own site (see link below). I am not worried about bandwidth because I am pretty sure I am the only person (so far) who is using this solution.

But check it out in any case if you're interested. There's also links to where you can get the cases:

www.beyondcommunion.com/willb/#dvd

They're 2 inches shorter, and one inch "deeper" than a DVD case. But they *feel* similar (plastic, snap shut, clear overlay). And they're only like 2 bucks each (sets of 5 in a really nice cardboard slip case only cost like $12).

I've seen them sold at brick & mortar MicroCenter stores if you don't want to get them online.

Since they come in sets of 5, it is easy to swap a page or two out (Alias needs 12 pages, not 10, whereas Sex in the City only needs 8 or whatever, so it all works out if you have a few).

At first the height and size difference really bothered me. But then one day I was like, what's the harm in having my television series look different? I could start a trend! So I went ahead, and I'm happy with the way they look.

I just got 600 of the slim (single) cases from Shop4Tech and I like them a lot. I can't compare them to the Thinpacks, but compared to the thin cases that come in the Futurama/Simpsons DVD sets, these are MUCH better.

For one, they have the clips on the inside to hold the inserts and the hubs are VERY secure. They lock, as opposed to the ones that Fox uses, which are just stubs that the DVD slips over.

Greg S., got my cases yesterday - a big thanks to you!. They are very nice - it shouldn't be so hard to obtain them. One son already has his "Rocky" collection in one of the "fives" and the other wants to put his "Aliens Quad" in them.

This is a somewhat esoteric request, but has anyone found clear slim triples?

-Dave

Or black ones for that matter!

Does anyone have a template for the 4,5, and 6 DVD Cases from Oz? I am in the process of printing some custom covers for some of my tv series, and would appreciate it if anyone has a template already.

Thanks in advance

Edit - doh I figured it out, now off to print out some more covers :-)

In America at last. This design has an "M" lock type of disc hub. Click here.

So, who's going to be the first one to describe what an M lock type hub is? Or at least point me to a reference.

Haven't found any clear triples yet, but was able to make a couple by replacing the tray in a couple of thin double Amarays (clear ones obviously) with the double-DVD tray from the OZ cases.

Picked up the Kids in the Hall set this week, and really liked the packaging...thinpaks with hubs identical to the OZ cases. I couldn't find any indication of a manufacturer on the cases to try and get more, though.

You can find a picture of 'M' type hubs
here . Basically, the DVD is held only by a couple of flaps of plastic. Pushing down on the center releases them. They're ok, but there's a lot better out there.

M-Locks are sh*t.

I have quite a few 4 disc slims that use that hub and the dam thing is flimsy as hell. It does a decent job holding the disc and its VERY EASY to push it in and get your DVD out w/o beniding it in half but the crease in the middle of the button becomes weak and flimsy after a short while and in fact breaks eventually. Basically the longevity of M-Locks IMHO is very questionable.

Greg

M-locks also, by virtue of them only applying pressure to 2 points in the disc's hub, can damage the hub of a DVD-R. This can happen if you don't push the disc all the way into the tray... If you then engage the M-lock, the M-lock's two pressure points will shove themselves into the strata of the recordable DVD, seperating the thin plastic outer layers -- like unpeeling a fruit.

Putting it simply: The M-lock is too aggressive.

Personally I am looking to convert my DVDs from what they currently are to these.

I like the Aerli cases and all because they fit in cd height shelves, which makes a huge difference on space. I don't like not having a spine though. I wish there were those NexPak cases that held more than two. Oh well.

Clay

P.S. Anyone want to buy a lot of Aerli Cases.

Clay, good choice. They do have a spine though, it is not like they are two dimensional.

There ARE quad and 5-CD cases nearly exactly like that, but about a quarter inch taller, and - and this is what bites - no outer wrap for cover art:
Look half way down the page:
http://www.mediacases.com/multiple.htm



If only that had an outer sleeve for cover art!!!

Will,

I think I might be closer to finding something, how about these?

Here is a six disc case with no sleeve. Here

So close. I may have to just work with a combination of the fours, twos, and ones, even though they are different colors, they seem to be about the same height.

Clay

hmm...reading this thread has peaked my curiosity. i may have to give this a shot. but, the thought of cutting my sleeves just gives me the shakes.

anyway, a couple of questions for all of you.

1. what do you do with the "extra stuff"? also, for dvd sets where the dvd slides out of a box (sorry, don't know the technical term...something like the black hawk down se), what do you do with the box?

2. are the single and double dvd slim paks the same thickness? i was wondering if it wouldn't be smarter to just buy all double dvd paks?

3. for those who print their own covers, do you use any special kind of paper or ink?

thx!

Ted, you don't have to do everything. Even doing some titles will cut down on space immensely.

Things like the 2 disc DVD's that come in the single case (like Star Wars). I just leave the way they are, as well as the box sets like The Simpsons, Family Guy, Band of Brothers, etc.

Do what some have suggested (which helped me out). Start by cutting up the titles that you really don't care about. I started off with my Sponge Bob DVD's. At first I was a bit worried, but then I was so into saving space, I was even hacking up my more favorite titles just because of the extra shelf space I was seeing.

It really didn't bug me too much about the artwork getting cut because you don't see it when it's on the shelf. As long as the spine is lined up, that's all that really counts for me. You'll even realize that you don't have to cut as much as you think. I just cut about 1/8" from both side. You know how some of the DVD covers have rounded edges? I found that just cutting off enough to get rid of those rounded edges was enough. You won't lose any text because there's usually an 1/8" of safe area that they don't put text in. You'll even start to notice that 1/8" line that runs down the side of the cover. Just lop that off on each side and you should be golden. I printed on regular paper with my laserprinter. I even printed on draft setting (to save ink). I guess it depends on how good you really want the DVD's to look. The draft setting made the art a bit lighter, but it didn't bother me much. Especially considering my DVD shelf is in a dark corner.

thx mark. i think that's a good idea. i know i have dvd's i could give a whoop about. i guess every little bit counts. looking at the pic andrea (?) posted showing her 38 dvd's cut down was a real eye-popper.

sponge bob??!!??

laughs and runs away ... then remembers he has spy kids and mona lisa smile in his collection ....

I'd been using very nice glossy paper, until one day I realized that the plastic overlay makes ANY paper appear to be glossy. So now I just use whatever is on sale that is at least semi-glossy.

Honestly the pain is printing and then having to wait a day for the ink to really dry before putting it into the case. If you don't it gets all wet looking, as if moisture was trapped beneath it (which is in fact what it is).


No. The ThinPak single is really really thin. The ThinPak double is a bit thicker -- still thinner than a regular DVD case though.

ALERT! Target is now selling an imitation ThinPak single. It is in black rather than clear, but same dimensions. Good impulse buy for folks who want to try them out. They're in the section near the DVD and CDs, where the CD cases and CD pouches are sold. They're in ten-packs. No blank discs inside, just the cases.

ALTERT II! MicroCenter is now selling 20-packs of imitation ThinPaks in CLEAR. They look very good, basically an exact copy of the ThinPak. About 50 cents each.