When adding a disc to Profiler it does not tick the Dual Layer check box but VSO inspector reports the disc as being Dual Layered

So do i tick the box or not?

Sometimes Profiler will add the disc as a single-layer, when in actuality it's physically a dual-layer.

Warner for example often used dual-layer Blu-ray discs on many of their early releases—for whatever reason—and the actual disc data was only pressed on the 1st layer of the disc. The 2nd layer is actually blank with no data on it. The Profiler program usually reads those as single-layered, although other programs will show it as a dual-layer.

I'd check the actual disc size in VSO Inspector, and another program(s) if possible, and put that in the notes.

Quoting Taro:

Quote:
DVDp doesn't always read the number of layers correctly. I've noticed it's safer to use other software (like VSO inspector), check the size of the data on the disc and write that in your contribution notes.

If I remember correctly, profiler doesn't read the number of layers at all. It reads the disc data size and guesses the layers accordingly. Of course this guess can be wrong.

I don't change what Profiler reports, even when AnyDVD sometimes reports two layers instead of one. The reason is that the data is mainly useful to tell the disc size. If one extra (unused) layer is present is really not useful information to me. But I have no problem if someone else wants it differently...

Quoting Kathy:

Quote:
I always look at the disc itself too - it is quite easy to tell if there are one or two layers.

+1.  If you see 2 barcodes on the disc, it's dual layer.  1 barcode, it's single layer.

Quoting KinoNiki:

Quote:
I don't change what Profiler reports, even when AnyDVD sometimes reports two layers instead of one. The reason is that the data is mainly useful to tell the disc size. If one extra (unused) layer is present is really not useful information to me. But I have no problem if someone else wants it differently...

^ This

Somewhat off topic, but I'd like to know if there are any other practical reasons for tracking SS/DL?

Quoting widescreenforever:

Quote:
and IF we are tracking SS/DL  we should be listing somewhere where that layer change takes place..

Wow...until you mentioned this I had completely forgotten about one of my biggest pet peeves when I first got into DVDs: the dreaded pause at the layer change.

Now that I do all my viewing on a PS3, I haven't noticed a layer change in years!

Quoting bigdaddyhorse:

Quote:
I'd vote yes for this. Haven't been bothered much by layer changes lately, although a couple discs still give the BD player hiccups now and then.

In quite some cases it is not the layer break that causes the problem (hiccups), but an overly aggressive copy-protection which is outside of the official DVD specs. Like "ArCCoS" on some Sony/Columbia TriStar DVDs or a manipulated DVD structure as on some Disney/Buena Vista DVDs.