Changing titles of video - DVD dubs

[scitec#1]

Hi.
I work as a science Techn. in a school. We have a large amount of videos to transfer to DVD, so therefore bought a Sony RDR-VX420 video – DVD dubber. I have transferred some video material already onto DVD RWs already. The RDR-VX420 has a basic on screen editing facilities to split and tidy up recordings and I’m happy with doing this. What is taking some time to do is changing the names of the resultant default titles. It’s done using an on screen keyboard which you navigate using the remote, so you can appreciate is taking some time and is very frustrating. So my BIG questions are - (1) what file/s on the DVDs hold this info. (2) is there any piece of software (preferably free) that I can use to edit them on a PC and (3) can I just copy the file/s back to the DVD afterwards.

Thanks
Scitech

[guns1inger]

Assuming this is creating actual DVD structures playable in any DVD player, then you can't just change a few characters. The titles will be encoded as part of the video. You will have to create new video footage with the new title, extract the video from the DVD, edit in your new titles in place of the old ones, then re-author.

That's a very general description based on the very general details you have given. Depending on how the DVDs are structured and how the titles are created, you may be able to use something like VOBBlanker or PGCEdit to add new titles or replace existing titles if they are created in separate cells to the video itself. If the titles are simply part of the menu then it is probably easier to just re-author with a new menu.

You need to provide more information if you want better answers, however the short answer is that it's not something you can just do in notepad. It will take some time and effort on your part.

[scitec#1]

Thanks for you thoughts and I agree I’ve probably given basic info on what I’m getting at. I’ll try to explain a little better and include some images.

I basically put one of our VHS tapes in the RDR-VX420 video – DVD dubber then using the quick dubbing facility dub over the material to DVD either as a whole programme or as separate ones.

The deck then has facilities to break up the whole programme into titles, to trim them using in/out point editing and finally change their names. The problem I have is with the on screen facility for renaming the default programme files it produces (see attached pic1)

As you can imagine it’s fiddly and time consuming using the remote, shame there’s not a connection for a keyboard and mouse but hey this is a domestic machine after all. I’ve looked at some free software and it’s either inappropriate or too complicated. I don’t really want to get into re-authoring a whole DVD as I have no experience of this and again this will again take time. I just need something to change the relevant menu files. It’s a shame that Sony don’t supply some software to allow you to do this on a PC.

I’m just off to check out these bits of software you recommended. Any more thoughts/help would be welcome.

Thanks
Scitec


pic1.jpg