Sony Handycam DVD305 Media Conversion Issue - Please Help

[camp14]

Hello Everyone,

I am new to the forums and new to my Sony DVD305 Handycam. I would appreicate it if anyone had suggestions how to fix this issue. So i purchased a spindle of ritek 1.46 mini dvd-r from allmediaoutlet.com foy my new handycam.

The problem is I can't get the media to play in any dvd player or pc. I can watch the recorded video on the the handycam itself but I can get it to play in a standalone of pc dvd player. I tried finalizing the disc but that doesn't work. I don't beilive dvd-r have to be formatted anyways.

All I want is to be able to transfer the recorded mini-dvd-r's to my pc then burn a normal 4.7GB dvd-r. Any software suggestions? The usb connection works fine.

Thanks
camp14

[guns1inger]

Finalising and formatting are not the same thing. Formatting is for clearing a rewritable disc for re-use. Finalising is closing the disc so that nothing else can be written to it, and so it can be accessed on other devices.

If you open the disc in Windows Explorer, can you see any files or folders ?

If so, what ?

[camp14]

I tried finalizing the dvd-r (I know you shouldn't need to but I figured nothing else would work). When I put the mini-dvdr in the drive nothing comes up. Correction I just tried another disc and the full VIDEO_TS folder and files come up. This is great. Any suggestion on the best format to convert the files to? I was thinking to convert to avi files then create the dvd.
Thanks

[guns1inger]

You already have a DVD. If you want to combine a couple of these into one larger DVD then you have a couple of options. It really depends on how complex a DVD you want to create.

1. Simple : Copy the Video_TS folders to your HDD and use DVD Shrink in Re-Author mode to combine the titles into a single DVD. You won't get any menus with this option, but it is fast and simple.

2. Medium : VOB2MPG to extract the video/audio as program streams (mpg files) to your HDD. GUIForDVDAuthor to author a simple disc with menus.

3. Complex : DVD Decrypter to demux the video and audio streams, then author with the tool of your choice to create a complex DVD.

Do not convert to AVI unless you have no other choice. If you feel you need to edit the video, look at a dedicated mpeg editor such as VideoRedo or Womble Mpeg Wizard.