Copy HDD content from 1st DVD to 2nd

[summerboy97]

Can anyone advise please? I've just bought a Panasonic HD Freeview Blu-Ray disc recorder with 500Gb hard disk (DMR-BW880) and want to copy across TV programmes I have on the hard disk of my older Panasonic 250Gb Freeview (not HD) DVD recorder (DMR-EX87), before I sell it.

I can do this in a slow way by playing the programmes from the old player to the TV, then activate the new player to record from the TV, but have to do that programme by programme, hence it takes a long time.

Wondering if there's a quick method of copying the programme files between hard disks on the two DVD players without having to play them? Much like it's done on a computer ie copying a movie file from one part of the hard drive to another...

[guns1inger]

Not really. DVD Recorders are not meant to be used for long term storage or as your video library. They do not provide friendly tools for managing the content, and most do not encourage the storage of external footage unless the purpose is to record it from a device such as a camera or tuner. You options are to burn everything off you old drive to disc, or do an analogue transfer (play and record) from the old to the new (and drop a generation while doing it)

[summerboy97]

Many thanks guns1inger for the quick response! I think you've confirmed what I found out already and said ie that I have to play each TV programme from the old player to the TV and then record it real-time onto the new player. A pain, but at least it's do-able...

Cheers.

[intracube]

I can do this in a slow way by playing the programmes from the old player to the TV, then activate the new player to record from the TV, but have to do that programme by programme, hence it takes a long time.

So a 1 hour program takes 1 hour to copy across?

Why not burn a set of programmes to DVD-RW and transfer the videos to your new recorder that way? DVRs usually have a 'high speed copy' option that avoids re-encoding - this is much quicker, a 1 hour programme should only take around 10 minutes to burn, and there's no loss in quality.

If you have a pair of DVD-RW discs, you can be burning videos to one while reading them off the other.

[summerboy97]

Great idea, intracube, I will try it out!

It sounds like it will work but I have a feeling a DVD-RW disc will only take an hour's worth of video at the highest quality, which is the quality I always record off the TV as I'm fussy about quality, and programmes like Coast look awful at lower quality...

[guns1inger]

A lot of recoders won't copy files off DVD onto the HDD, or only hold one disc for the purposes of duplication.

[intracube]

It sounds like it will work but I have a feeling a DVD-RW disc will only take an hour's worth of video at the highest quality

An hour sounds about right.

A lot of recoders won't copy files off DVD onto the HDD, or only hold one disc for the purposes of duplication.

I didn't realise that. I've just tried on a Pioneer DVR which can do this; you play the title you want to copy from a DVD, then press 'One Touch Copy'. The recording is transferred back to the HDD and appears in the normal menu.
I haven't found a way to do a high speed copy - so a 1 hour programme takes an hour to copy back. Not very useful for the OP.

On another forum someone suggests using DVD-RAM discs, which might allow high speed dubbing with Panasonic DVRs:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=14606112#post14606112

[summerboy97]

Thanks guys for all your info. I'm doing the slow route, seems the only choice – playing each programme and recording it to the second recorder. Have about 24 hours of programmes...

Best wishes

[summerboy97]

One last comment: I've worked out the best way to do this, maybe if anyone else wants to do the same in future, I think it's the solution:

I simply select 'play' on the (old) DVD recorder, the one with the 25 hours of programmes I want to copy from, then I switch to (meaning I select via my TV screen) my new recorder and simply create a new 'record' event, set it for 4-5 hours, make sure the connection is AV2 (I've connected both recorders together with a SCART cable), then click 'Go', and my new recorder very smoothly goes ahead and records what's playing on the old one.

At the end, I have a 4-5 hour long recording on my new recorder, which will comprise anything between 3-5 programmes or films, all will play as one long recording. So I simply go through it and where one programme finishes and the other starts (often with a 1-2 minute commercial break between), I choose 'Divide Title' from the Edit menu, and thus split up this long recording back into its constituent parts. Can then put in a new title via the 'Edit Title' facility, can selectively delete commercial bits, and other extraneous stuff from both the front and end of the programme, and hey presto, the programmes are all transferred over, with the least agony.

One small point is, whilst you can switch off the recorder being recorded TO (my new one), have to make sure the old recorder (recording FROM) is NOT switched off, as that will immediately stop its programmes being available for recording to the new machine.

A second, but not so serious, point is that the old recorder will carry on playing after the 4-5 hour period set on the new one, so need to simply switch this off at end of session's recording.

Thanks again guys, for all your input, I think we came up with the best solution for this.

[Gavino]

Are you saying you can simply press 'Play' on your source recorder and it will play recordings consecutively from the hard disk without intervention? With mine, at the end of each recording, it always returns to the hard disk menu.

[summerboy97]

Yes, that's right. I too like you expected that at the end of a discrete programme (say, one hour long), the source recorder will simply stop. But for some unknown reason (albeit to my benefit!), it just plays on into the next, and next, etc, right through my whole hard disk. As far as I know, I didn't select any setting which allows this option, maybe it's just a quirk of the Panasonic recorder. Having said that, when I play back a recorded programme to watch it, normally, the recorder does as you say, ie stops at the end of the programme and returns to the hard disk programme menu.

Maybe because I've connected the two recorders together with a SCART cable, that's changed the setup? Or maybe because I select the recording-to recorder (HDMI), and the sourcing recorder somehow goes into the 'background', and the programme end notification doesn't then work...