Greg00

Does anyone know where to find generic (blank) slipcases to hold multiple slimline DVD cases?

Michael Corvin

What it sounds like is you are looking for a box to hold slim cases? Like a tv show box set?

If you are just looking for cases to hold 2-12 DVDs check genesysdtp.com

Mike Adams

Like many of us, he's looking to reproduce the look of many TV boxed sets. Unfortunately, many folks have posted looking for that kind of thing, but as far as I can tell, nobody makes such a thing.

Mike Adams

Hmm... maybe I should have said "not MANY companies make such a thing" since I didn't say "many" enough in that original post.

Actually, it's more accurate to say NONE, so I hope I didn't get anyone's hopes up. Just giving myself a hard time there.

Greg00

Yes, that is exactly what I am trying to do. I'm converting my entire DVD collection to all slim cases. So far, I've converted all of my singles, doubles, and snappers to the new slim cases, and, just from that, I've managed to get back more than half of the total space that the original cases were taking up, while retaining all of the original artwork with the DVD's. I say more than half, because some of the original cases were equal to three of the slim cases (e.g. the Star Trek movies). Now all I have left to convert are the TV show box sets and those cheap, annoying fold-out digi-paks, some of which require the space of an entire desktop just to remove a single disk (I hate those!). Also, I have some homemade DVD's that could be put into box sets. The conversion of these last three types (box sets, digi-paks, and homemade sets) will require slip cases to accomodate the new slim DVD cases. Somebody out there must make these things before they are printed. After all, where does the movie industry get them from?

Michael Corvin

Why not just use the 1" cases that hold 6-8 dvds(available at the site I posted above)? They are perfect for DVD sets and are usually about half the size of the original packaging, if not more. Not only that but you are printing probably 6-8 covers for one season when you could be printing 1. That is a lot of ink and paper.

Not to mention this is a standard in the cover world and there are many great designs already out there for this purpose. You mention Star Trek, and fellow DVDtalkers Ric & Jupiter came up with some brilliant designs. Check them out at RixGrafix.

Mike Adams

I'm with Michael, I think the 1" spine cases would be much better for sets of several DVDs. Slimlines are great for individual titles, though. I'd be much more apt to do something like that if it weren't for the fact that inkjet-printed artwork isn't anywhere near as durable as the real thing. I realize you're not doing this, but it's kind of like burning all your DVDs to DVD-R just for the sake of it. Sure it saves money, but a DVD-R probably won't outlast a pressed disc. Again, I'm not saying you're doing that, just that when you scan artwork and print out a replacement, it might look exactly the same at first, but it's not gonna last nearly as long.

Mike Adams

One more note to add, though. There are some cases that have about a 1- or 2-inch spine, but there's no actual hubs. It's just a big hole where you stack however many discs you have in the hole and close the case. I would NOT recommend that kind of case, if for no other reason than it's very inconvenient to lift out almost all the discs to get to disc 7 or whatever. The ones I recommend (and probably what Michael was suggesting) were the ones that are always 1" deep, but you can order them with only as many hubs as you need.

EDIT: Just to be clear...

RECOMMENDED: http://genesysdtp.com/index.htm?12dvddetails.htm

*NOT* RECOMMENDED: http://genesysdtp.com/index.htm?acecasedetails.htm


Actually, THESE are what I'd really recommend:

http://www.bagsunlimited.com/cart/de...ct_id=cdvdsl6k

...of course they max out at 6 discs. Definitely seem to be better quality, though.

Greg00

Hey guys, thanks so much for the suggestions and links. I will probably have to go this route for the multiple (3 or more) DVD sets, if I can't find generic slipcases for this. However, with regard to re-printing the covers, I am not doing this. That would of course be more trouble and money than it's worth, as you both have pointed out. I have found that trimming the original cover 1/12" on both sides will allow it to fit perfectly into the slimline case. There are a few instances where the outer margin is so small that perhaps 1 or 2 characters of 1 or 2 finely-printed sentences at the bottom of the back side get cut. This is hardly noticeable, and, at least for me, insignificant. In most cases, the outer margins are wide enough to be trimmed, and, since equal widths on both sides of the cover are trimmed, the spine remains perfectly centered. Again, there are exceptions where it is not perfectly centered, but this can be adjusted by trimming off another 1/24" inch or so, on one side or the other. Even though the text is a bit larger, because of the thicker original spine, it is surpisingly very readable, when looking directly at the spine. In fact, without close scrutiny, one could hardly tell that the spine was designed for a thicker case. I have not had any problems with the individual titles that I have converted so far, and they really look nice in those slim cases. Plus, it is saving me so much space.

Mike Adams

Ouch!!! I'm sure you're not the only one who does this, and you're right, it's definitely better than printing new covers, but I don't think I could ever do something like that. I agree that it looks very feasible with most covers, but to me having one or two characters at the end of a sentence cut off would be worse than not having the cover at all. Still, compromises must be made, so I'm not knocking what you're doing. I'm just too anal to even contemplate that. The fact that I have so many DVDs with covers that were actually designed for slimcases would probably make the ones cut to fit stand out too much. Maybe not, I don't know. Anyway, I'm all for buying new versions of DVDs just to get it in a slimcase ("Ghostbusters", "The Buddy Holly Story", etc.), but I couldn't see myself cutting covers in order to do that. I can definitely relate to how satisfying it must be to have all your DVDs in slimcases, though.

Greg00

Sorry for the "Ouch!!!". It's truly interesting to read how many different view points there are on maintaining DVD collections. That's what makes this forum so great. Your comments raise an interesting question: Is the movie industry finally getting around to putting individual titles in slim cases? I thought that this was only being done for the box sets. I looked for this the last time I was in a Best Buy store about 2 weeks ago, but I didn't see any.

canaryfarmer

I think Panic Room is the only regular DVD sold in a thin-type case (and it's more of a single-disc digi-pak than anything).

Mike Adams

No problem. Like you said, everybody's got a different point of view. Actually, you're right. I haven't seen any individual titles released in slimcases. The "Ghostbusters" and "Buddy Holly Story" DVDs I have were both from the "Ghostbusters 1&2" and "The Buddy Holly Story/La Bamba" boxed sets respectively. It would be nice for the studios to move to slimcases, but a big reason they don't is the perception of value. It's okay to pack a TV season set into a fold-out Digipak or a set of slimcases, but if it's just one disc, a slimcase gives the impression that it's cheap. The $1 DVDs at WAL-MART and other discount stores are sold in slimcases, which only adds to the slimcase = cheap equation.

Of course as you can tell, Blu-ray and HD-DVD titles are indeed released in a kind of slimcase, although their slightly smaller surface area compensates for the thinner case. It's all about proportions, so I think studios will continue to release DVDs in full-size Amaray cases instead of slimcases. A really good indication of this is the fact that Ghostbusters and Ghostbusters 2 were promoted (demoted?) to regular Amaray cases when released separately with the new cover art, even though Sony already had covers for slimcases and it would have been easier to just break open some existing boxed sets.

Speaking of Sony, because of their stupid policy involving a switch to single-sided discs (actually, I only think it's stupid when they opt for fullscreen instead of widescreen), I had to buy a used copy of "The Buddy Holly Story" in the regular Amaray case to replace the fullscreen-only disc I got in the boxed set. Of course La Bamba was widescreen-only, which as luck would have it was the one movie out of the two I didn't want to keep.

Mike Adams

It may be interesting to note that there actually were single-disc releases distributed in slimcases, but not at retail. I don't recall a slipcover ever being released for them, but the later "Collector's Edition" TV DVDs from Columbia House were sold individually in slimcases. I have the first volumes of "M*A*S*H" and "Sanford & Son", plus the first and second volumes of "FRIENDS", and all are in non-boxed slimcases. Earlier titles like "Knight Rider" and "Airwolf" were in full-sized Amarays.

EDIT: I should point out that the M*A*S*H, Sanford & Son, and FRIENDS DVDs from Columbia House are NOT just individual discs from the retail boxed sets. Only Sanford & Son used slimcases in the retail set, and even so the two versions of the first disc are completely different in terms of label art, menus, and even the episodes. However, it can still be said that studios don't offer individual titles in slimcases at retail.

Mike Adams

Actually in terms of slim Digipaks, there are at least a couple others offered that way:

"'Weird Al' Yankovic LIVE" - slim Digipak
"Genesis: The Video Show" - slim Digipak in carboard slipcover

Actually, I'm thinking of many more, so I guess we can say slim Digipaks yes, but slim Alpha/Amaray cases, no.