Stand Alone DVD record Won't Play on PC?

[rkersh409]

I have converted several of my parent’s old VHS tapes to DVD. Now after a few weeks other family members want copies of the DVD. I thought no problem I can copy them on my pc, wrong. Is there some program that I can load onto my pc so my DVD burner in my laptop can read the DVD? If not is there an easier way to make copies without using the stand alone burner?

Thanks,
Robert

[Noahtuck]

Did you "finalize" the disc in the standalone recorder ?

A lot of times you need to instruct the standalone to do so for it to be seen by other dvd players and PC dvd drives.

[jagabo]

Until a disc is finalized there is no master table of contents.

[Bjs]

Only -r or +r need to be finalized ... rw media dose not

Use imgburn ... just click "write image file to disc" ... then Tools > Drive > Capabilities > check the read attributes and compare to media that was used

On occasions you may fall victim where a drive lack's the support for a particular format ... either - or + ... should this happen your left with 3 options

1: Use a friends system to make the iso images
2: Get an external burner ... relatively cheap
3: Replace the internal burner in the current system ... not so cheap if this is in a laptop (go with options 1 or 2)

Where the drive may be picky on the brand of media used you could try and see if isobuster can pull the data back

[usually_quiet]

DVD+RW media doesn't require finalization. DVD-RW media is a different story. I always have to finalize DVD-RW or it won't play on a DVD player, or copy to my PC without resorting to a data recovery program. Maybe it's different for VR mode recordings, but my recorder only allows video mode on DVD-RW.

[rkersh409]

I used a DVD-RW this time, so can I put it back in and just finalize it? I don't remember seeing an option to finalize the disk. Where would I find this option? Can you normally see a stand alone burn on PC's?

[MOVIEGEEK]

If you used VR mode and are using XP then you need UDF Reader. If you used Video mode then try IsoBuster.

[rkersh409]

If you used VR mode and are using XP then you need UDF Reader. If you used Video mode then try IsoBuster.

Whats the diffrence between VR and Video modes? And how would I know? All I did was put in the disk and tape and hit record.

[MOVIEGEEK]

A couple of weeks ago I wrote a lengthy post on the differences but I can't find it(new website format), basically VR mode uses UDF 2.0 and Video mode uses UDF 1.02. Video mode will work on any DVD player while VR mode only plays on DVD recorders.

[rkersh409]

Thanks moviegeek for the info. Just one other question, where might I find the option to finalize the disk, and can I pop the disk back in and finalize it?