Geeky How-to: Hack DVD Sleeves Into Proper Cases

I haven’t made the leap to Blu-Ray for my movie purchasing just yet for two reasons. Firstly, I’m still waiting to see if the whole HD downloading/streaming thing is gonna take off properly – the iTunes store is getting there, but there’s still not enough movies available as yet, and Netflix isn’t available at all in the UK either. Secondly, no one out there seems to make silver, and affordable, Blu-Ray players anymore, which is essential to me as I don’t want a big black lump messing up the nice light feel of my living room. Of course, the impending release of the Star Wars movies might just change all that, but I digress…

I’m also not quite ready to ditch physical media for my movie collection just yet, as GeekDad James Seddon has done, as the little lady (and to a lesser extent, her Mum) wouldn’t be able to get the movie playing on her own!

So what I’ve been doing is buying the ‘Combo’ packs that many studios are releasing these days. Combo packs include both a Blu-Ray disc and a regular DVD version and a sometimes an iTunes digital copy too. I give the Blu-Ray disc to my Dad, who’s already got a player, for when my daughter is over at his house and keep the DVD copy at home. Now, I’m a complete neat freak and in the days when I still brought CDs, I always hated ones that came non-standard CD sleeves and cases, as they never fitted nicely in any racks. So I used to grab a craft knife and cut up the cardboard sleeve or Digipak and make it fit inside a standard CD jewel case. Most of the Combo packs come with an extra outer cardboard sleeve, which is basically just a duplicate of the regular sleeve for the Blu-Ray, so I’ve now started doing the same thing for my DVD copies – all you need is a sharp craft knife, a steel rule, a cutting board, a bit of tape and a spare DVD case.

Read on for the simple step-by-step…

Get your knife and carefully cut the sleeve open on the edge that has the hole in the middle.
Open the sleeve out and locate the part where the two ends were stuck together. Push your finger under the flap that was glued and carefully rip it off. If you fold it over flat and parallel to the table there’s less chance of ripping the good part of the sleeve.
Starting with the ‘front’ of the sleeve, position your ruler about 2mm from the crease and cut off the edge.
Moving left, cut the front section free again about 2mm from spine.
Cut the spine just inside the creases on both sides.
For the ‘back’ of the sleeve, cut about 2mm in from the creases on each side. This should leave all the text intact with a bit of luck.
Discard all the cut away pieces so that you’re just left with the front, back and spine sections. Don’t forget to recycle the cut-offs! Turn the three sections over, with the front piece on the left and back on right. Line them up so that they’re touching and stick them back together with your tape.
Et voilá, slip the sleeve into your spare case and the DVD is ready to take its place on your shelf or storage rack.