Can I add clips/menus to DVD over time? Multisession?

[wthess]

I have several video projects I am planning for my church. Basically, it will be videos of various church events over time. What I would like to do is be able to author the DVD, take it to church, and play it. Then after the next church function, drop the new video to the same DVD, adding it to the "menu". Is this possible? I know with an audio CD you have to close the disc before you can use it in a CD player, but is this the case with DVD?

I guess what I'm getting to is can I create multisession DVD's and add the new clip to the menu each time and be able to play it as I go along? If so, how would I go about doing this. I'll be using tmpGenc, Ulead MovieFactory or DVD Lab and Nero.

[tim6661234]

I don't think so. Why not use DVD-/+RWs. You can then erase the disk and write the project to the disc again including the new material.

Hope this helps

[SLK001]

Tim666 is correct. There is no multi-session capability for DVD. Try his eraseable media method - it's the only way.

[wthess]

The church's DVD player is stand alone. I haven't checked its specs to see if it will read DVD -/+RW. I'm 95% sure my home system (JVC XV-85GD) won't. Several web pages I've read said it wouldn't, but I did run across one that said it would read +RW but not -RW.

If I was to do this, based on my previous post, how would I accomplish this?

[wthess]

I guess I should have specified a little better in my lost post. If I decide to do the erasable thing, how would I go about it? Would I copy the files from the DVD back to HD and add the new files and edit the menus or would I have to have some kind of DVD ripper to drop the files back to HD to add to them?

[tim6661234]

Try not to think of DVD R as a VCR. You prepare your project on your computer. Then create / burn the DVD file to a disk using your prefered software then add/edit the project and produce another disk.


I'd always keep my original files on my HD if a project is on going, they are the best quality you'll ever get they sould always be the source from which you produce your DVD releases. Although Movie Factory 2 has an option to import video from a DVD.

[wthess]

I didn't realize you could lose quality by ripping. I thought since it was digital..... Uh, never mind, I just realized what I was about to say. It just came to me, if I rip video from DVD, then I'm probably going to wind up recompressing it again, thereby losing quality. Is that what you are saying?

On the other hand, what format do rippers rip to anyway? mpeg2?

[SLK001]

You don't loose any quality by ripping - as you said, it is an exact digital to digital transfer. Where you would loose the quality would be when you had to compress everything more to squeeze it onto a DVD-R. I would only compress things once (to the quality level that was acceptable to me), and only add additional clips. When I got to 4,700,000,000 on my disk, I would begin another series on another disk.

[wthess]

That's what I'll do. I'll estimate the bitrate based on the number of minutes of video I want to finally put on the DVD after all is said and done, then move on to a new disc. Thanks for your help. I'm going to check the church player right now. Thank God for people willing to share information such as yourself!

[tim6661234]

You understand me correctly. Your rips will be just as good as the DVD but you can never get better quality than your original source files, it can only get worse.

SLK001 is correct. And once you've filled the DVD RW you can burn it onto a DVD R if they are cheaper at your supplier.