I purchased a Pioneer DVR-225 (aka Pioneer DVR-220/DVR-320) recently. I would like to record TV shows and movies in VR mode, edit them and then copy to a DVD-R. I would also like to do the same thing, copy them to my PC and encode them to Divx.

I learned through various trials not to finalize the DVD-VR disc on the Pioneer recorder because my drives (Plextor PX-708A and Hitachi DVD-ROM GD7500) on my pC won't read them.

I was able to successfully edit out commercials on one TV show and convert the .VRO file to MPG using TMPGEnc DVD Author.

The problem I'm having is with movie recordings. When opening the DVD file in TMPGEnc (using my Plextor), it gives me the recording information, hours and minutes, and file size.

When I go to option settings I select the 'Reading Chapter Information" and "Copy the Clip Video data to the HDD". When copying the DVD data, approximately 4479 MB, the copy stops at 383 MB. This only gives me about 9 minutes of video. I have also tried this with a 30 minute TV show and I only got 8 minutes of video 15 289 MB.

In Windows Explorer, my DVD_RTAV folder shows two files, VR_MANGR.IFO and VR_MOVIE.VRO. The VR_MANGR.IFO file size is 43.4 KB and the VR_MOVIE.VRO file size is 383 MB. My understanding is that there is supposed to be a .BUP file in this folder. But, I don't see it anywhere.

Could someone explain why this is happening, or what I'm doing wrong. I know it has something to do with the 383 MB file size. But, the disc does have a complete video recording. Does it have something to do with the way I'm recording. Do I need to split the recordings on my DVD recorder before trying to conver them with TMPGEnc.

I also experience this issue with Ulead DVD Movie Factory 2. I have tried Memorex and Fuji DVD-RW with the same result.

Any information would REALLY be appreciated.