several DVD recorder questions

[Muffyn]

(I have searched though past posts but still am a bit confused on a few things, sorry if this repeats)

I purchased a DVD burner for my PC this year with the intent of (like most people) transferring old beta & vhs home movies to a DVD. I still have not had the time to play with it all, but have used a couple convert programs for other things & found them to be very time consuming, when it works right.

MY understanding for the DVD recorders is that I can SKIP the capture,convert & author steps by using this.. correct???
just plug the vcr OR camcorder into the DVDR & *poof* it records to a DVD all set to pop into the computer , or whatever... correct?

soooooo IF I want to do all the fancy stuff , like editing this can just be done on the computer with another program, when I ever have time to do this,, correct??

questions...
1.what format does it copy to the dvd?? is the file mpeg2 or what?
2.can you plug in any vcr or camcorder (VHSC or digital/firewire) into the dvdr??
3. is the only complaint against archiving using the RW & Ram dvd's because they may not play in all players?
4. the -R,+R, -RW, +RW,, these only hold about 1 to 2 hours of (best speed) video? so if I have a 6 hour vhs tape I need 3 to 6 dvd's?
5. how much does a dvd-RAM disk hold?? can you use this for putting the old vhs stuff on?? pros & cons of this please?
6.I have a DVR with my tv cable system , so I wasn't really looking to buy a DVDR with a hard drive,, can I hook up the DVR to the DVDR to burn some tv shows saved on the DVR's hard drive? & IF the DVDR does not have a HD that means I have to start, stop record etc by hitting buttons at the right time, yes?
7. when I use a program for editing, on my PC, with one of these newly burned DVD's does it work with the WHOLE movie file that is there at one time??, meaning, I had ran into problems where , when you were trying to capture & convert the file could only be up to a certain size & besides it took a gazillion amount of space on your HD, & some how you had to glue each section to each other??( did I make that clear?)
8. oh & this may be the stupidest question,, does the DVDR machine PLAY the dvd's?? or just records??

thanks!!!!!!!!!!!!

[donpedro]

1.what format does it copy to the dvd?? is the file mpeg2 or what?

mpeg2 authored as DVD-Video in case of +/-R so you are looking on .IFO .VOB and .BUP files. In case of +/-RW you can come across VR Mode which is little bit less compatible but it will allow you more editing functions. And finaly RAM format which have it's own format. From all of these you should be able with more or less pain extract mpeg2.

2.can you plug in any vcr or camcorder (VHSC or digital/firewire) into the dvdr??

Yes and no. Yes you can plug in VHS and S-VHS VCR, camcorder or any source that is sending signal via composite or S-Video connection as soon as material is not copy-protected. Firewire... you might be fine with camcorder or PC, but I was reading somthing about Digital VCR that you can't record from that one.

3. is the only complaint against archiving using the RW & Ram dvd's because they may not play in all players?

not sure what do you mean.

4. the -R,+R, -RW, +RW,, these only hold about 1 to 2 hours of (best speed) video? so if I have a 6 hour vhs tape I need 3 to 6 dvd's?

best qality is 1h. 2h is still good and maximum is 6h. So you can record anything between 1-6h. All depends on what quality you want.

5. how much does a dvd-RAM disk hold?? can you use this for putting the old vhs stuff on?? pros & cons of this please?

Same as any other format. Cons-price, can't play on majority of players.

8. oh & this may be the stupidest question,, does the DVDR machine PLAY the dvd's?? or just records??

Yes and almost all of them are progressive.

[Muffyn]

1.what format does it copy to the dvd?? is the file mpeg2 or what?

mpeg2 authored as DVD-Video in case of +/-R so you are looking on .IFO .VOB and .BUP files. In case of +/-RW you can come across VR Mode which is little bit less compatible but it will allow you more editing functions. And finaly RAM format which have it's own format. From all of these you should be able with more or less pain extract mpeg2.

so is there anything I need to do WITH the file when I want to edit it on the PC??? meaning, do I just open an editing program & it recognizes the file? this goes with my main question from my post

""""MY understanding for the DVD recorders is that I can SKIP the capture,convert & author steps by using this.. correct???
just plug the vcr OR camcorder into the DVDR & *poof* it records to a DVD all set to pop into the computer , or whatever... correct? """""

[donpedro]

What I did was extractinf video and audio stream with Smartripper so I could re-author it on PC. Other people have more experience with this process. For example with RAM you can just copy files and renaim extension. With VR Mode you might be able to use some programs and do editing directly on +/-RW. But again others know more about this.

[macleod]

with a set top recorder (I have the E30 - panny), the recorder records any non copy protected source (VHS,TV,cam, etc.). With dvd-r, it caps it mpeg2 and if you finalize the cap, makes it dvd compliant. With dvdram(my choice), it makes vro files, which then are converted to dvd compliant files on your pc and then burned to dvdr (I use tmpgenc dvd author).

The problem with the recorder(s) is that the compatibility of the final product may not play on a number of players.

What I do (for compatibility and to make the dvd look nice) is:

1. capture with dvdram from Svideo VHS player UP TO 2 hours per disc
2. put it in my dvdram compatible reader ($30 on newegg.com) and rip it to my hard drive
3. use TMPGENC DV author to author and burn

[spiderman2k1]

I just talk to "lordsmurf" by email he bought the APEX DVD+RW DVD burner he said it's very good you can get one a WalMart. Or www.amazon.com. I just bought the Panasonic E80H from www.6ave.com heard it very good but some DVD player's do not like Panasonic DVD-R's

[DaveS]

so is there anything I need to do WITH the file when I want to edit it on the PC??? meaning, do I just open an editing program & it recognizes the file? this goes with my main question from my post

""""MY understanding for the DVD recorders is that I can SKIP the capture,convert & author steps by using this.. correct???
just plug the vcr OR camcorder into the DVDR & *poof* it records to a DVD all set to pop into the computer , or whatever... correct? """""

Muffyn - just to clarify things - you're actually not *skipping* all those processes, you're just doing them all at once, in a very user friendly way, but they all happen....

if you want to edit on your PC after you make a dvd on the set top, you rip it to your hard drive (e.g. dvddecrypter) to get the VOB files w/ the video and audio, then extract the mpeg video and audio files from the VOB files on your hard drive (several progs can help you do this, e.g. mpegvcr, maybe vobedit or others). The result is an mpeg file the same as if you had captured to AVI and encoded to mpeg or as if you had captured to mpeg real time, although when done by the set top, it is fairly good quality and at real time, and fairly easy to do.

You can then do some limited 'editing' (e.g. cuts, joins, fades, etc.) on these video files and can also author them in much more creative ways. (some will say more complex editing can be done on mpeg but more would say that mpeg isn't good for complex edits) E.g. you could automatically detect scene changes and automatically create scene menus, etc. which the set top won't do w/ analog source.

hope this helps...

[Muffyn]

if you want to edit on your PC after you make a dvd on the set top, you rip it to your hard drive (e.g. dvddecrypter) to get the VOB files w/ the video and audio, then extract the mpeg video and audio files from the VOB files on your hard drive ....

I want to copy all the raw footage from my VHS (home movie) tapes to DVD. I didn't want to lose anything by doing editing on the DVDR,, I wanted those as like 'master' tapes , & then do the editing & making new DVD's from picked scenes out of them.
so copying over the newly made movie file to the computer HD is not as simple as putting the dvd-r(or dvd-ram) in my computer & hit *copy* from windows explorer,, huh ?(didn't I read somewhere you just rename the VOB files to MPEG?? & then work with them with tmpgne?
what I also need to know is, since i have windows 98 system am I going to have problems moving the files over to the computer hard drive?? ( the 4 gig limit & all??) or if the the file is under 4 gig.. ( is that under 2 hours of dvd-r file?) it should go over peacefully? & then when I have several of these files on the computer use somethign like tmpgne author to join them together & edit things? or will I never be able to have any movie (mpeg) larger than the 4 gig limit to work with as a whole? OR since the files are already made it doesn't matter?? < that just applies to NEW captures?? >(now did I get way too confusing??),, gee this is hard asking what I need to know

[hech54]

I use a Philips DVD Recorder...use +RW discs...and put in lots of chapter markers in my home movie stuff. That way I can just rip the parts I need keeping the files under 4gig(only for my FAT32 HD) and re-author....OR....use Ulead Movie Factory 2's "Edit Disc" function and edit the RW on itself. I use the 1 hour mode on the Philips only for this process though. MF2 seems to give me problems with DVD's recorded at any other quality setting.

[GbMedusa]

so copying over the newly made movie file to the computer HD is not as simple as putting the dvd-r(or dvd-ram) in my computer & hit *copy* from windows explorer

If you use DVD-RAM, it works exactly that way. As for DVD-/+R that has finalized, I have found decrypting works better for me than straight copying.

didn't I read somewhere you just rename the VOB files to MPEG?? & then work with them with tmpgne?

Actually, it's VRO files (from DVD-RAM recording) that gets renamed to MPG. VOB files are used "as is" (as are?). And if you use TMPGEnc DVD Author, you don't have to change the extension on the files.

what I also need to know is, since i have windows 98 system am I going to have problems moving the files over to the computer hard drive?? ( the 4 gig limit & all??)

Not very familiar with working on video in Win98. As a guess, I would say you could copy or decrypt the file to your hard drive, possibly edit it, but may not be able to save the edited file unless it is under 2 GB. If you use a finalized DVD-\+R, this will not be a problem since the files will be under 2 GB anyway.

or if the the file is under 4 gig.. ( is that under 2 hours of dvd-r file?)

It depends on the quality setting used on the recorder. The lower the quality, the smaller the file size for the same length of time recorded. For example, on my Panasonic E30, the highest quality setting uses the full 4 GB for 1 hour of recording. At the lowest quality setting, the 4 GB holds 6 hours of (really awful) video.

[handyguy]

What kind of computer if its SE then you must have a pretty old computer? Windows SE is too old, you should get XP.

[Muffyn]

What kind of computer if its SE then you must have a pretty old computer? Windows SE is too old, you should get XP.

I upgrade & replace MB & stuff as needed over the years,, latest MB is a year old. but I still want to use win98. I have too many games (adventure fanatic) & other sutff that has heebies if I try to get it to run on XP. (yes I tired EVERYTHING installing some of these to my daughters computer , but they still wil not run).
I 'could' use her computer,, but the HD is too small. I do have a 100 gig HD on my computer that I 'might' make XP, to have a dual boot,,, I just didn't want to have to go that route ............yet............
but IF I am not going to ever get a mpeg bigger than 2-4 gigs on a dvd-r anyway,, what I have is alright,, yes??

[Gil T Pleasure]

DVD+R/+RW (+VR mode) are DVD Video compatible so the VOBs are broken up into 1GB size. Same goes for DVD-R and -RW (in compatible mode).

On the other hand, DVD-RW (VR mode) and DVD-RAM do not break up the VRO files so you could end up with > 4GB VRO file (depending on how much you have to record and what recording quality you use). But then I read that the Panasonic recorders have a 4GB limit.