DVD Recorders (VHS to DVD Recorder then record raw footage and finalize)

[aeafisme23]

I am using a DVD Recorder that I have "transfered/copied" the contents of the vhs tape from a VHS Player to the Recorder to put onto a dvd-rw.

We then plugged into the dvd recorder a camcorder and recorded at the end of the "unfinalized" dvd-rw a segment of us talking. Everything works fine and dandy. We then finalized the disc and put into our dvd players and they all work ... still fine and dandy.

However, I am trying to figure out a few things to make this quicker and more efficient. Right now the recorder is recommended to go to 4x but we are using a 2x disc. Will getting a 4x dvd-rw make the time go half as quick. Secondly, when adding a new input and "stopping" after the vhs tape transfer all new recordings are automatically put onto a seperate chapter, we want it to be merged into one chapter (i found only dvd-ram) can do this now is that still true. Also do you recommend any industrial DVD Recorders as i have looked up and down and im going in circles to what might be best. Thirdly, i know if i take out the unfinalized disc it is not "recognized" any other devices besides the dvd-recorder it was created in, is this true for all dvd-recorders and or special software for a pc to see an unfinalized disc..... The reason i ask is i want to duplicate unfinalized discs that have the contents of a 10 minute movie many times like oh i say about 10,000 times I did try finalizing the disc and i put it back into the dvd recorder and it let me unfinalize it so i figured i would copy the finalized disc in nero but it apparently has its own standards of authoring/finalizing which would not let me unfinalize in the dvd recorder. Any suggestions to any of what i said would help greatly!

[LJB]

I read in this forum that if you are going to make more than 1,000 copies, you should price out the cost of pressing rather than doing a bulk copy on a pc. With that said, I would not use nero for burning this project. As I have learned from this forum, nero does funky stuff with the file mapping. No matter what you use to author the project, use imgburn to burn the project.

[aeafisme23]

Ya i have a mac as well and was also thinking about testing it using Toast, do you think Toast or Imageburn as you have replied will keep the (unfinalized coding from the dvd-recorder) or will it all change it to some type of finalizing that the dvd-recorder can not unfinalize. Basically i want to make the exact same replica dvd no added coding from a burning program, 100% exact.

Also just a added reply topic, it has probably already been answered but im assuming ALL Unfinalized discs from a dvd-recorder can not be copied or recognized by any computer? This would save me a step of having to take the finalized disc that is copied on a computer and taking it over to the dvd-recorder and undo finalize (we want it to be able to still be edited at a later date with out messing with it then)


thank you ljb for your response and look forward to other replys

[jman98]

I am going to be blunt here. I'm not trying to insult you, but you need to understand very clearly what you are doing.

DVD recorders were designed for convenience and for non-technical people to use to get stuff on DVDs. Yes, we have techies here who use them - for convenience sake and because some of them transfer VHS tapes to DVD and some recorders have pretty good filters for this. It saves a lot of time. Nobody is using them for professional use. If you need 10,000 copies, you need this done professionally.

Second, dude, you need help. I don't mean you are insane, I literally mean you need help with this task. What you need done is to record this stuff to a PC properly, edit as necessary, create an image and burn from that. It's pretty obvious to me from your post that you really do not have a very good understanding of what needs to be done or how to do it. I see a colossal disaster in your future. Note that unless you create your image properly, it will not have 32k gaps between the BUPs and IFOs, which means that a single block failure can ruin your entire disc. If you have no idea what I am talking about in that sentence, that is a sign that you are in over your head for a project that is going to have thousands of copies.

Pay someone to do it right for you and pay someone to press these. I'll barely mention the "fun" you will have when you do it yourself to DVD+/-R or (even worse) DVD+/-RW discs. People will report that "I can't play your DVD. You suck!" (they won't be so kind as to say that you suck. They'll use much worse language.) and you will have no idea why. The reality is that if you use burnable media, there's no 100% guarantee it will work.
And I'm not even touching the whole PAL vs. NTSC issue which might be another problem for you if you sell this worldwide.

I've never seen an unfinalized DVD that a PC can do anything with. Your attempt to save time will fail.

If you just refuse to see the light and you are prepared to accept that perhaps as many as 10% of the DVDs you make will be returned as "unplayable" when in fact the problem will be not with your DVD but with the customer's DVD player, then go for it. Buy a mass DVD duplicator (they exist). If you use quality media, like Taiyo Yuden DVD-R discs, you'll reduce the chance of returns a little, but you'll still get them. The only discs that are guaranteed to be playable on all DVD players are pressed ones and you have to pay someone to do that for you.

[aeafisme23]

Thanks Jman98 i know your bluntness is really supposed to be more constructive criticism rather than being mean

Anyways thank you for clarifying some of the points that i have asked such as finding a way to take a unfinalized disc and making copies on a pc to recognize this, i dont mind if this process is skipped.

However, small clarification for anyone who cares, im representing a non-profit child safety education program that aims to prevent sexual exploitation of children as well as kidnapping so the cause is great the moneys are little. Second none of this is being profited on, all costs come out of the foundation and are not being sold they are given away free to all children "free" so we can help keep kids safe by forms of entertainment....

Next, ntsc and pal not a prob we are in the USA they will have to deal with it there and the probability of dvd's working in a computer and or dvd player has been discussed and we think we will be okay with the numbers as i have in house reproduced (copied) our 10 minute movie over 10,000 times from a pc and have not had one returned, in the beginning i learned the i had to change the book-typing to dvd-rom so we're good now.

Sorry got away from the topic a bit but i guess we will have to hopefully find a way to duplicate these finalized discs so i wont always have to transfer from vhs to dvd recorder for every duplication that would take forever as the only tech person here Thanks again and all comments are appreciated and taken as constructive no matter how blunt thanks again

[aeafisme23]

by the way the 10,000 copies would be over time, realistically 300 an event would be probable that would need to be done which would be manageable if we had 10-15 dvd-recorders going at one time