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  1. Member
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    Apr 2021
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    Atlanta, GA
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    I am transferring VHS tapes to DVD using a Toshiba D-VR610KU. The copy process works very well. I would like to have a finished DVD that will autoplay with no titles on a DVD player. In other words, I would like to be able to insert the disk in a player and have it automatically play the video with no titles.
    Also, I see a lot of tutorials on line for the Toshiba D-VR620KU but not the D-VR610KU. Does anyone know if the flow for dubbing VHS to DVD is the same.

    Thanks for any assistance.

    Bob W.
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  2. Like most surviving Toshiba recorders, this one wasn't actually made by Toshiba but by Funai Corporation under contract. The same basic DVD/VHS unit was sold for several years under various model names and slightly changing appearance but remained the same under the hood. So there is very little difference between the Toshiba 610 or 620 (or similar recorders sold under the Magnavox, Sanyo or Funai brands).

    This recorder design does not offer the option to code finalized discs for autoplay, bypassing the menu. You can, however, make a copy of the disc in your PC and use a utility to change the disc programming to straight autoplay (menu only comes up if you press the menu button on your remote). The recorders I use myself have another common design flaw: they create discs with no auto-run functionality at all (load a disc in the player, and nothing happens unless you press a remote button, put it in a PC, and software players can't play it). This is annoying, so I routinely "reprogram" my recorder discs in my PC.

    While fairly simple to do, re-programming the disc with your PC is somewhat time consuming because it requires making a copy of the original recorder disc to the PC, changing a couple codes with a utility, then re-burning a new corrected copy (total about 22 mins extra time to create each dvd). Additional copies of the corrected disc go quicker: as fast as your PC burner can work (about 10 mins for each addl copy).

    The workflow goes like this:

    Download and install the pgcEdit utility from the VideoHelp software library.

    Make the original disc in the recorder using a DVD-RW blank (-RW finalizes closest to a "real Hollywood dvd" and can be erased /re-used: do not use the +RW variety or things get more complicated). Put the disc in your PC, open it in Windows and copy it to your hard drive.

    Run the pgcEdit utility, and use silver disc icon button at top left to open the VIDEO_TS folder of the dvd copy on your hard drive. A bunch of technical gibberish will appear in the multipaned window: you don't need to know what any of it means, just the simple commands to make the disc changes you want.

    In the larger main window, double-click on third line down from the first line.

    The first line usually reads "********pre-commands:", two lines below that is the line you want to double click, it usually reads as "2 (JumpSS) Jump To VMGM PGC 1".

    A grey pop-up box appears. Click on the "Alphabetically" menu and choose "jump to TT". The grey box will disappear and you'll see the wording in the main window change. The dvd copy has now been set to autoplay beginning with the first video on the disc, bypassing the menu unless the user deliberately presses the menu button on their player remote.

    Click on the save button (next to the open button, has a graphic showing a silver dvd sticking out of a folder). This saves the changes to your dvd copy.

    Quit pgcEdit.

    ***IMPORTANT: open the VIDEO_TS folder, and delete the new pgcEdit backup folder that shows at the top of the list. If you don't delete it, it will be burned into the dvd and some players can get confused by it.***

    Now, you can burn your permanent copies of the corrected dvd to archival DVD-R or DVD+R discs. For best results, use the free ImgBurn utility, tho other burning utilities should do fine. When you've made as many dvds as you need, delete the dvd folder from your PC hard drive.

    The original DVD-RW from the recorder can now be erased and re-used to make another "original that needs correcting" dvd.

    An alternate workflow would be to open the recorder DVD-RW directly in pgcEdit and make the changes on the actual disc, but I don't recommend this unless the disc is only needed for temporary use. RW discs tend to 'go bad' over a few years time vs -R or +R which is more durable. Recorder -RW copied to PC HDD, corrected, then re-copied to -R/+R is the best way to go for videos you intend to keep permanently in your library.
    Last edited by orsetto; 15th Apr 2021 at 00:38.
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  3. Member
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    Thanks so much, orsetto for your explanation. I appreciate your detailed instructions. I will give it a try.

    Thanks again,
    Bob W
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  4. It just occurred to me the wording in the pgcEdit utility changes somewhat depending on the brand of recorder that made the dvd. The description I gave in my earlier post was for my Pioneer/Sony dvds, on a hunch I just looked thru my stacks for a disc made in a Toshiba to compare. Sure enough, the pgcEdit info display changes around a bit for Toshiba-made discs, so I went back and updated my earlier post to be Toshiba-specific as follows:

    A Toshiba-recorded DVD will have an extra folder labeled VIDEO_RM: this can be ignored, you only need to copy the standard VIDEO_TS folder to your PC, make the change with pgcEdit, delete the pgcEdit Backup folder from the modified VIDEO_TS folder, then burn the modified VIDEO_TS folder to a new blank DVD-R or +R for your permanent copy. It takes literally 30 seconds to make the change in pgcEdit, 99% of the task time is devoted to simply copying the original recorder dvd to your PC and then copying the modified disc info back out to a new dvd.

    Below is a screenshot of what the pgcEdit main window looks like with a Toshiba DVD-R loaded. You want to double click the line that reads "2 (JumpSS) Jump To VMGM PGC 1". When the pop up box appears, click the "Alphabetically..." menu then choose "jump to TT". That will reprogram your Toshiba disc to bypass the menu and autoplay starting with the first recording on the disc.
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    Last edited by orsetto; 15th Apr 2021 at 00:56.
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  5. Member hech54's Avatar
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    Creating a DVD with no menu is also really easy by making a movie only copy in DVDShrink.
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  6. Originally Posted by hech54 View Post
    Creating a DVD with no menu is also really easy by making a movie only copy in DVDShrink.
    Yes indeed : I totally forgot that solution (oops)! That might be the simpler way to go, PTC Bob, if you're quite sure you'll never want the menu to be available at all under any circumstances (i.e., there's only one video on the disc, like a two hour movie).

    The slightly less easy method using pgcEdit allows more options to remain on the disc: the instructions I outlined will give you a dvd that bypasses the menu and just starts playing from the beginning, BUT the menu still remains optionally available if you press the menu button on your player remote. This can be advantageous if the VHS you copied to disc consists of several episodes of a TV series or a dozen music videos: sometimes you might want to play all of them thru automatically, other times you might want to directly access a specific clip. Leaving the menu intact on the disc (but hidden until needed) keeps your options open.

    Both methods require the PC disc copying shuffle, which is the most time consuming element. Making the settings in DVDshrink or pgcEdit takes mere seconds.
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