DVD-VR vs. DVD-Video. Conversion?

[me]

I recently bought a standalone DVDR. (Sansui DVD4005 DVDR-VCR combo). It records to DVD-R and DVD-VR.

I had previously done DVD burning and authoring with my computer.

I found out that the standalone recorder has two modes, when you use a DVD-RW disc--DVD-VR and DVD-Video. (With a DVD-R disc you can only use the DVD-Video mode.) The default for RW discs was set to DVD-VR.

I quickly found a major problem with recording to the VR format--lack of compatibility. Even after finalizing, the disc will not play in a standard DVD player (one that doesn't record). So I couldn't watch it on the DVD player in the other room. So I switched the default to DVD-Video, which creates a DVD (after it's finalized) in the standard DVD format.

I saw that there are some advantages of the VR format, such as being able to add titles, etc. on the DVDR itself, plus I think some other minor editing possibilities. But--I didn't think that that was nearly as important as the loss of compatibility.

On further reading the manual yesterday, however, I see some more major advantages of using the VR format for RW discs. You can "unfinalize" a disc previously finalized, which I discovered yesterday cannot be done with the DVD-video discs. After being "unfinalized", you can record more video to the disc, if there is room. That would be a very useful feature for me. I usually record (from VHS or standard TV cable shows) in the lowest quality mode, SLP. (I find the resulting quality is actually quite good.) I sometimes record short TV shows, a half hour or hour long. Then I might finalize the disc, so that I can watch it in the other room on the other DVD player, or on my computer. Since there is still space on the disc, I might later want to record more video to it, and it would be nice to be able to unfinalize it and record more to that disc that still has space. With a DVD-Video disc, it cannot be "unfinalized" once it is "finalized", so the only way to record more video to it is to format it and wipe out everything already on it. Nice to be able to add video to what is already on it.

Also, with VR, you can delete individual titles from the DVD. Cannot be done with DVD-Video, again you can only format the whole disc and wipe out everything. Another big plus.

Again--large compatibility problem if I record to DVD-VR though. That's the dilemma.

I'm wondering if there's some way around this. If I make VR the default method of recording to a RW disc, is there a way later to convert it to DVD-Video? I know that cannot be done with the standalone player, its only way to convert the disc is to reformat it, and wipe everything out. But how about on the computer? Is there any software that can open a DVD-VR disc on the computer, and save the video on the computer in DVD-Video format, so that I can burn it to another disc in that standard DVD format?

I would appreciate any help with this. Thank you.

[Synergy]

This topic has been discussed many times, the following link is just one of them:

https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=211743

As standalone DVD recorders become more affordable, we'll difinitely see more newer DVD players with DVD-VR playing capability. Other than Panasonic, Pioneer, and Sony, RCA/Thomson also plans to add the DVD-VR compatibility to their new products. If you prefer to spend more time on your computer, then using either TMPGEnc DVD Author or Ulead DVD MovieFactory 3 software can suit your needs.

[me]

Ulead DVD MovieFactory[/url] 3 software can suit your needs.

How about Movie Factory 2? (I have that, haven't used it much. Came with my Adstech DVD Express capture device.)