DVD recorded on Standalone - but want to finalise on PC

[amaze_me]

Hi there

I've taken the plunge and am beginning to transfer my VHS tapes over to DVD. I'm certainly no expert, so for convenience I'm recording them with my stand alone DVD recorder - Sony RDR GX 120. Everything's working fine so far. Except for when I wish to name my recordings and finalise my disks.

I don't like the basic and tedious facility on the standalone machine for doing this. I'd rather take my disks out and put them into my PC and create a neater looking menus. Is this possible?

I ask the question because I know that it is with RW+ disks. These can have a new menu created using Ulead Movie Factory. But I can't see how I can do it with ordinary + disks.

Can anyone help

[Scorpion King]

With mine I can record with RW disks then put the disk into my computer and copy the files over to the HDD then do with them as I like. But if I use an R disk I then haft to finalize the disk in the recorder before the computer is able to read the disk. I think if you finalize the disk in the DVR then your computer will be able to read it. Using RW disk is better for this because they can be erased and used over many many times.....

Hope this helps.

[amaze_me]

With mine I can record with RW disks then put the disk into my computer and copy the files over to the HDD then do with them as I like. But if I use an R disk I then haft to finalize the disk in the recorder before the computer is able to read the disk. I think if you finalize the disk in the DVR then your computer will be able to read it. Using RW disk is better for this because they can be erased and used over many many times.....

Hope this helps.

Thanks for your reply.

I've got a large stock of R+ disks that I want to make use of.

Also if possible I don't want to have to copy everything over on to the HDD (if at all possible).
I just want to be able using a software package to create a better looking menu than I'm able to create using the Standalone Recorder. Plus I find it a pains taking process trying to name recordings on the Standalone, and would much prefer to be able to type my titles in on the PC.

[ZippyP.]

Also if possible I don't want to have to copy everything over on to the HDD (if at all possible).

Simply not possible, you cannot edit a dvd disk directly.
Copy the video to your hard disk, edit, re-author and burn.

[FulciLives]

What you want to do make sense ... I do the same with my stand alone DVD recorder.

Basically the process goes like this:

1.) Record to a disc with the stand alone (best to use a rewritable like a DVD-RW or DVD+RW)
2.) Rip the DVD you recorded in the stand alone to your computer's HDD
3.) Re-author using software such as TMPGEnc DVD Author or Ulead Movie Factory etc.
4.) After re-author you create a ISO file and burn to a DVD-R or DVD+R using the computer's DVD burner.
5.) If you used a DVD-RW or DVD+RW or DVD-RAM in the first step you can now re-use it and do this over and over and over again.

Now you say you want to use a DVD+R in your stand alone DVD recorder. Well that is fine but what's done is done. You have to rip that to the computer and re-author so basically you end up throwing that DVD+R away when you are done.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman