DVD-RAM Panasonic LF-M621 -> MovieAlbumSE -> M

[corryn]

It would be nice if in addition to sorting my problem someone could tell me what the correct forum for my post would have been

I have a DVD-RAM disk created on my Panasonic DME-30 Video Recorder.
The source was an analogue video camera recording some old family cine films.
They appear as 18 separate programs corresponding to the different reels of cine film.
I did basic editing of the 'programs' on the video recorder - just to take out bad bits of film.

Now I'd quite like to make a DVD-R version for other members of the family so with this in mind I've just bought a Panasonic LF-M621 muti-recorder drive for my Windows XP machine. The first thing I did was use the included Panasonic DVD-MovieAlbum Copy Tool/VRCopy to copy the disk contents to the hard drive which worked fine, creating a DVD_RTAV directory with a single VR_MOVIE.VRO file. That seemed to be a dead-end as the DVD-MovieAlbumSE program seems only able to work from the RAM disk itself and having resorted in desperation to the documentation I had worked out that I needed to Export the programs in order to create a DVD. So I start up DVD-MovieAlbumSE with the original RAM disk in the drive. I can view all 18 programs and they seem fine.

Next I choose File Export / All Programs Export and this results in 18 .mtv and .mpg files and starts up MyDVD to continue the process. However despite the fact that all programs have the same origins MyDVD complains that there are some types of file that it cannot handle and I end up with 14 _ses directories and 14 .ses files. How can I progress this? I can't see why it should object to 4 of the programs [2]. I've been browsing the dvdrhelp archives and have seen a few different approaches like renaming VRO files as MPG ones but as I starting point I'd really rather get it all working with the provided software [1]. Any suggestions?

TMPGENC seems much recommended and I gather could work on the hard drive copy of the RAM disk files but if I can avoid buying anything else that would be good . I'm already confused by the amount of video software I've got

Regards

Neil Shadrach



[1] Included software
B's Recorder GOLD5 BASIC
B's CLiP5
DVD- 3
MyDVD 4
WinDVD 4

[2] Dialogue
The file exporting was completed successfully
Do you wish to create a dvd-video or mpeg file disc?

When you choose to create the disc in either type, this application software will be automatically finished, and the utility tool software for writing on the disc will be executed [YES|NO]

Export to disc
Set the disc you want to burn and click start

Data Path: "C:\Documents and Settings\Neil\My Documents\MyExportPlus\AAAAA, BBBBBBBBB, CCCCCCCCCC; DDDDD 1966-1967\VrExport.inf"

Disc Title : "AAAAA, BBBBBBBBB, CCCCCCCCCC; DDDDD 1966-1967"

No=1 FileName=AAAAA
Title= BBBBBBBBB, CCCCCCCCCC; DDDDD.mp...
Copy gets "AAAAA, BBBBBBBBB, CCCCCCCCCC; DDDDD 1966-1967"

Sonic MyDVD
MyDVD
One or more files could not be imported:
MyDVD does not support this file type.
Check the user guide for details on supported files
[OK]

[corryn]

Ok. Here's an update. I decided that the problem was probably with importing the files into MyDVD rather than exporting from MovieAlbumSE.
So I downloaded a trial copy of TMPGenc DVD Author to use for the second step. It imported all the files produced by MovieAlbumSE and while it was a bit clunkier to use than MyDVD it did allow me to create the VIDEO_TS and AUDIO_TS files. I selected [Write] in the DVD Writing Tool and it set of writing to the DVD-R. Unfortunately 49% through writing to the disk it gave an error - which I didn't make a not of but was something like "invalid number". I then went back to MyDVD to try and burn the disk but it complained that there were things in the files that it couldn't deal with. Back to the TMPGenc writing too and select [Write] again. This time I got "An error occured during reading" while "Writing sector 16 ( of total 2084860 ). Luckily it hadn't started writing to the disk. On a whim I selected [ Create ISO Image ] then [ Write ISO to DVD ] and this worked and I've tried the resultant disk in my video and it appears fine. I have to say that I'm disappointed with the process all round. I chose a Panasonic drive because I have a Panasonic video and I hoped to use the supplied software so that the process was "single-source" from end-to-end. Not sure what approach I'll take next time. I could set the VBR on the video as suggested elsewhere but the export from MovieAlbumSE is support to sort that out anyway. It's a huge shame that I can't produce a DVD from the DVD_RTAV copy on the hard disk.