Restoring DVD files

[anamandy]

Hi everyone, I'm new here so I'm not sure if this is the right forum for the problem I'm having. I transfered VHS (VCR) tapes (multiple family movies) to one DVD-R using a Samsung VCR\DVD recorder. Unfortunately, before I had time to finalize the disc (I wanted to add more family videos) the recorder broke and I was not able to finalize it. Sadly, a lot of the movies involved family members that are deceased and I had stupidly thrown out the VHS tapes right after I transfered the movies to the DVD so I can't purchase a new VCR\DVD recorder to redo the process.

I took the advice of this forum and used ISOBusters and managed to extract 19 tracks of ISO image files (not sure why so many since it was only 6 movies ranging in size from 10 minutes to 2 hours), saved in a sub-file called Open Session 1 which was saved in a main file called DVD-R. My question is what do I do now? I'm totally lost on how to proceed or what to do next since I'm not tech savvy. I'm not even sure if extracting the files was the right way to start. How can I get all these movies on to one dvd-r and finalized? Any help greatly appreciated since I am heartbroken over the loss of these family momentos.

[lordsmurf]

That's not restoring -- that's just data recovery. Not the same.
This can get complicated quickly.

[anamandy]

Isn't the point of Isobusters to recover video files? I would appreciate any help from anyone who can offer a step by step on how to recover these home movies.

[themaster1]

There are softwares for dvd/cd data recovery most are commercial; i know i tried one for a cd once it worked quite well.
google is your friend

[anamandy]

I did use google, that's what brought me here. Besides, there are so many programs I don't know what is best for my situation of getting multiple family movies back onto one finalized dvd.

[sanlyn]

Let's see if I understand the amount of video you have. You say you recorded several VHS tapes to one 4.7-GB DVD-R disc? I read in your post, "6 movies ranging in size from 10 minutes to 2 hours". How many hours are you talking about? If you exceeded 2.5 hours of program into one DVD on a Samsung DVD recorder, the quality of what you recorded is far below the "quality" of the VHS original. Most DVD recorders will record video in excess of 2 hours at a low data rate and a small 352x480 frame size (which will lose about 15% of the original VHS frame). At 3 hours, the bitrate is down to 2500 kbps, which has very low resolving power and poor motion handling; at a 4-hour rate the bitrate is down to 2000 kbps, which is the minimum bitrate for DVD. If you recorded more than 4 hours, then you recorded MPEG-1. So what you're trying to "recover" would be either very low quality MPEG2 or even lower quality MPEG-1.

An "ISO" file is an image file that can can be burned directly to disc using disc burning software that can read an "image" (ISO) file. It is possible to find software (not free) that can recover VOB files from DVD image (ISO) files. Once you extract a VOB from an ISO image file, simply rename the .VOB to .MPG . If you can locate someone who owns the same Samsung recorder, your disc would likely finalize in that machine. At a 4-hour to 6-hour data rate, I don't think you'll be overjoyed at what you get.

[davexnet]

You should be able to open the ISO files in isobuster itself to check their contents.

[anamandy]

It was on SLP (6 hours) with a little over an hour left on the disc. I don't know. The quality looked okay to me. But then again, all home movies on DVD look better than the 8mm many of my family's home movies were originally on. LOL!

I'm not a stickler for perfection since many of the movies were originally recorded with equipment that is inferior by today's standard. Some of the movies were originally on 8mm than transfered to VHS. I then transfered the VHS tapes to the DVD.

Is there some program where I can just transfer the contents of this DVD to another DVD?

[anamandy]

You should be able to open the ISO files in isobuster itself to check their contents.

Im using the trial version of isobuster and have no idea how to do that. As I said in my original posting I used ISOBusters and managed to extract 19 tracks of ISO image files (not sure why so many since it was only 6 movies ranging in size from 10 minutes to 2 hours), saved in a sub-file called Open Session 1 which was saved in a main file called DVD-R. My question is what do I do now?

[davexnet]

Hello - I think it's simply a case of file/open image (or similar).

Nobody can really answer "what do I do now" without knowing what is inside the ISO files.

[sanlyn]

If you have DVD burner software (most PC's come with a free version of Roxio or similar), see what your documentation instructs for burning ISO image files. You might have to burn all of them in one batch to make it work, or maybe you can burn one at a time, etc. Depends on the software. A popular free DVD burner is ImgBurn http://www.imgburn.com/ . If you're able to burn a successful DVD image, you then have to see if that burner software can finalize the disc to make it readable (it should be able to).

Effectively, burning the ISO image to disc will make the VOB files recognizable. You can copy VOB to a PC and change its extension to MPG or MPEG and work from there.

If you want to know what a burned DVD structure is supposed to look like, try this http://www.doom9.org/index.html?/dvd-structure.htm or this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVD-Video#Directory_and_file_structure .

The only other method I can think of to retrieve individual VOB's or other video format from the ISO files is to get software (probably not free) that can do it.

[loster]

slysoft had a free iso mounting program that would make a virtual drive.

[usually_quiet]

Hi everyone, I'm new here so I'm not sure if this is the right forum for the problem I'm having. I transfered VHS (VCR) tapes (multiple family movies) to one DVD-R using a Samsung VCR\DVD recorder. Unfortunately, before I had time to finalize the disc (I wanted to add more family videos) the recorder broke and I was not able to finalize it. Sadly, a lot of the movies involved family members that are deceased and I had stupidly thrown out the VHS tapes right after I transfered the movies to the DVD so I can't purchase a new VCR\DVD recorder to redo the process.

I took the advice of this forum and used ISOBusters and managed to extract 19 tracks of ISO image files (not sure why so many since it was only 6 movies ranging in size from 10 minutes to 2 hours), saved in a sub-file called Open Session 1 which was saved in a main file called DVD-R. My question is what do I do now? I'm totally lost on how to proceed or what to do next since I'm not tech savvy. I'm not even sure if extracting the files was the right way to start. How can I get all these movies on to one dvd-r and finalized? Any help greatly appreciated since I am heartbroken over the loss of these family momentos.

You might these find useful

https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/334109-Is-there-any-way-to-get-video-off-unfinalize...=1#post2072862

https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/310357-Unplayable-DVD-because-it-wasn-t-finalized-properly

I have family coming for a visit and I won't be available to offer personalized help with your problem for at least a week. Good luck.