Why DLT ?

talk to the replicator you intend to deal with, and they may accept burnt discs, they might just have to create a DLT of it to put on their system, but for Dual layer, what else are you going to give them other than 1 (for some scen compatible replicators) or 2 or more DLT's?? Enf...

I think it has a lot to do with the history of DVD production. The ability to burn a DVD is relatively new, in the beginning the best choice was DLT.

and the more advanced features of DVD (ie copy protection) is not possible with DVD (cept DVD+R/DVD-R(A)) and price wise for media: we pay au$125ea for DLTtape IV, ~au$40ea DVD-R(A) DLT are write many, DVD-R write once, and DVD-R(A) can easily become unreadable with scratches, whereas the tape in the DLT is hidden from most accidents. Enf...

Thanks very much for your answers, guys, very helpful. Feel more confident to tackle the Replicators now !

Excellant Relevant Link 

Found an outstanding document covering these issues courtesy of a Mr. Kevin Wiener : h**p://www.dvdmadeeasy.com/subscriber/articles/02062001-2/page_1.html

And also they get errors from the dvd-r when making the glass master. Sometimes you have to give them several dvd-r's.So they'd recommend DLT because it will be error-free when making the glass master. ...this is what the replicator told me:D deepa:)

DLT drives are actually quite fast, possibly faster than 1x DVD-R, but i would have to check that up DVD-R is more fragile, yes, scratches mainly, DLT is in a fairly solid cover, but is still fragile, but its hard to easily damage the data surface (unlike the exposed surface that is DVD-R) DVD-R (DVR-S201) takes a hell of a lot longer to 'verify' than DLT, trust me ive tried, and i gave up waiting for the DVD-R ;) from the quantum site (for DLT4000 which is what is most commonly used for DVD mastering, it supports 20gb uncompressed on DLTtape IV media): "* Native capacity of 20 GB at 1.5 MB/s" so DLT is ever so slightly faster than 1x DVD-R, the lead-out and rewind times of the respective media are basically the same, i dont time them, i hit burn/write and walk away. Enf...

So if we are very very careful with our DVD-R disc images and do not drop them, they should have the same integrity as a DLT ? I don't have a DLT drive and can't see the point of paying $ 325 to have a tape made from my DVD-R image. I have to send a master to Paris and I hate the thought of magnetic tape going through the mails, more vulnerability there for a DLT than for non-magnetic media for sure... Thanks for the comments so far