Is there a way to not have to finalize a DVD after burning?

[EagleW]

In both SONY Movie studio 9 or Authoring Works 4 I cannot see a way to avoid finalizing a DVD burn. I can do this on my SONY hard drive video recorder though. With home video now going on to Blu-ray I find I am wasting a lot of space on the disk with short movies. I know I could just save them up and burn to a re-writeable if I wanted to watch them on another player but I am just curious.

[guns1inger]

No, is the short answer. You can avoid finalising on a DVD recorder because it has methods for adding to the existing disc without using multiple sessions. However this comes at a cost, which is that the disc is not usuable in other players until it has been finalised. On a PC it is possible to write to a disc and leave it open for subsequent sessions to be written, however almost all DVD players will not read multiple sessions. Most read on the first session, and few read on the last session. I have yet to see any that read multiple sessions, although I have read here of reports of a handful of obscure players that *might* read more than one session.

Bottom line : discs are pretty cheap, so the cost of the wastage isn't high. If it is too high for you, either move to RWs until you have a disc full, or be patient and only write the disc when you have enough data

[EagleW]

Thanks for the reply 'guns1inger' it makes sense I guess about the mulitiple sessions. Makes the HDD video recorder a rather unique tool wouldn't you say. I note your interesting location, not one I am familiar with 'guns1inger'. I guess you are in Massachusetts somewhere. Good Blu-ray disc media is still a bit pricey here in New Zealand at US$9+ per BD-R. Thanks again for bothering to reply, cheers.

[guns1inger]

Actually, just over the water in Aust. The location is from Lovecraft.

Yeah, BD is expensive at the moment. Your subject read DVD, so I took it to mean standard DVD blanks.