Registered: Dec 2003
Location: Chicago Area
Posts: 4

DVD-RW VR to Regular DVD

Here's one for you. Forgive me if the subject matter isn't very TiVO oriented. Currently I dump my TiVo shows to DVD using a Sony RDR-GX7 DVD recorder. This recorder only can edit DVD's in VR mode. OK, so say I record a show I like, and cut out the commercials, and have it just the way I want it, life is good. Only problem I have now is that my disc can only play on VR compatable equipment. Anyone familiar with a way to convert a VR disc to a standard +-R/RW type DVD?

Thanks!

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Registered: Jul 2002
Location: Cambridgeshire, UK
Posts: 9266

Do you mean with a PC or some other way? If you got a VR-compatible DVD player, you could play the disk on that an re-record it on to a DVD*R.

A PC with a DVD writer could convert it, although it might be quite time consuming. dvdrhelp.com has lots of How-to's etc covering all sorts of DVD conversion scenarios.

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Registered: Dec 2003
Location: Chicago Area
Posts: 4

Right, I meant with a PC. Doing it manually from VR to DVD-Video is gonna be lossy and time-consuming. dvdrhelp is my next best bet, but I looked in there once and there wasn't anything about it. I think that this VR format is pretty rare, although some new DVD players and software DVD players for the PC are starting to support it.

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Registered: Jul 2002
Location: Cambridgeshire, UK
Posts: 9266

Is VR the same format that DVD-RAM uses for its .VRO files? I have the Panasonic recorder and a matching DVD writer in my PC. The files from RAM are a bit of a pain. You have to use DVD2AVI as a 'frameserver' for TMPGEnc, which can recompress the stream into a normal MPEG-2 file. This takes my p3/667 about 6:1, which is not fun (a whole day to recompress one disk?), but people with very recent machines say they get closer to 1:1, which is a bit more bearable.

In the end it seemed easier to do the edit when copying from the TiVo to DVD - at least that way I can still use my PC!

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Please do not PM me asking for TiVo backups. I don't have any.

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Registered: Dec 2003
Location: Chicago Area
Posts: 4

I don't believe it is. You record a VR disc like any other, then you can make a playlist and edit it. You can combine titles into one, cut titles, make chapters, remove a portion (excellent for removing commercial blocks), simple editing like that. The playlist takes up very little room, it's just instructions for the player as to what to play. The original recording is still intact. So, if you remove a commercial block on the playlist, when playing back, there will be a slight pause where it used to be while the player jumps to the next place. I'm hoping that converting to a standard format will also alleviate that.

BK

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Registered: Jun 2003
Location: Decatur, Ga
Posts: 74

VR is a format that is compatible with a standard dvd player, but some players do not support the RW discs. I just copy the VR disc with Nero and burn it to a DVD-R disk, and have no problem with DVD players. Also, if you want to edit the +RW disk on the computer, you can use ULead Movie Factory 2 (a free trial can be downloaded from ulead.com). I have used this method on many dvds.

John

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