DVD-RAM from E50 to LG4040B

[johnny_walsh]

I have a Panasonic DMR-E50, on which I mainly use the DVD-RAM quite happily for time shifting the watching of television programmes. Sometimes I want to keep some programmes more permanently, so I bought an LG GSA-4040B for my PC, with the intention of extracting programmes from the DVD-RAM discs and re-recording (after maybe some editing) onto DVD -R discs.

The problem is that I can't find anything to encode the files from the DVD-RAM disc into MPEG2 on the PC. I can see the directory structure (top level DVD_RTAV, with three files named VR_MNGR.IFO, VRMGR.BUP, VR_MOVIE.VRO), but I've tried about 8 different rippers, and they all give the identical error messages 'No IFO file found in directory', if I point them at the disc, and 'Unable to parse as an IFO-file', if I point them at the IFO file.

PowerDVD, as supplied with the drive, will play the disc fine (both sound and vision), so I downloaded the trial version of PowerDirector2. This extracts the video (when I use import file), and shows different programmes as separate clips, but loses the audio from them. None of the other authoring programs seem to offer an import facility.

So despite many hours effort trying variations and searching the net, I'm stuck. Anyone any suggestions as to what to try next?

[Bob W]

I use NeoDVD Plus to re-author any files from DVD-Ram from my E50. I had to first get a DVD drive that reads DVD-Ram. I just copy the VRO extension files to my hard drive then change the extension from VRO to MPG then import them into NeoDVD Plus do any editing I want, add a menu, chapter points, and have Neodvd do the burn back to DVD-R for me on my Pioneer 105 burner. Easy to do and always works on all my players at home.

[ktton]

TMPgenc author also accept .vro file plus it is so easy to use. there's a demo that you can try.

[johnny_walsh]

Thanks. Easy when you use the right tools, isn't it?