can't view/use DVD_RTAV files on my laptop

[florenceishere]

Hi.
I captured some film on a Sony Carl Zeiss Handycam, recording it to dvd and when I put it on my laptop it appears as a DVD_RTAV file containing 3 files called BUP, IFO (both 32KB) and VRO (0.99GB). How do I change these so I can edit the film on Windows Movie Maker? The dvd works fine on a dvd player.
I finalised the disc, which didn't seem to make much difference. I also tried downloading MPEG_Streamclip but I don't know what program to open it with.
Any suggestions much appreciated. Please try and explain in detail!
Thanks.

[minidv2dvd]

you could try renaming the .vro to .vob or .mpg. another thing you might try is to use vob2mpg and see if it will convert the vro to mpg, or the rename it vob and convert to mpg.

[usually_quiet]

I work with VRO files now and then. VRO is not exactly the same as mpg or VOB. Renaming may not be sufficient. I don't use WMM so I don't know what file formats it accepts. Assuming WMM can take .mpg files, unless you need to convert your video for some reason, leaving as it is, in MPEG-2 format would be best.

I have used MPEG Streamclip at times. You would open the VRO file and allow it to fix the timecode breaks. then use "Convert to MPEG" to export the VRO to a .mpg file. (This is done losslessly.) MPEG Streamclip has other options too, that allow conversion to other video formats if necessary. It can also do rough editing.

DVD-RAM discs are like a mini HDD and can compensate for bad sectors. Files can become fragmented as well. Every once in a while I have had a VRO file that can't be copied to my HDD and which MPEG Streamclip can't read properly, since it expects files to be contiguous. I use Cyberlink Power Producer to export those problem VRO files as .mpgs.

[florenceishere]

Thanks very much.
Renaming it to .vob worked and the file is now watchable on VLC Mediaplayer. But when I try and import it into WMM it is only the first 5 or so second clip that is imported.
MPEG Streamclip doesnt seem to work. It downloads onto my desktop as a word file and will not open. The same happens with vob2mpg. They both say the file has parts missing.
I downloaded Cyberlink Power Producer but I can find anyway of converting through it. It seems to be a way to produce a dvd with very limited editing capabilities, unless you buy the full version which I cant afford.
However once I had converted it to .vob I downloaded a video converter called Any Video Converter and converted to MPEG II. That has worked!! Brilliant.
Thanks for your help.