I'm reviewing a new VCR/DVD Recorder (Samsung) for my web magazine and burned a DVD-RW-VR in order to edit out a couple chapters. Now it won't play on any of my other DVD players, even on my iMac. On the iMac it is labeled DVD_RTAV and has three files: VR_MANGR.BUP, VR_MANGR.IFO and VR_MANGR.VRO. Can I convert those to video files that would work after burning onto a standard DVD-R? I did finalize the disc. Is there any other way to delete sections from a VHS tape copied to a DVD and still have the DVD-RW as playable as a DVD-R? Also, I copied part of a hi-quality VHS tape at SP speed and again at XP double speed. On the DVD-R I used I can't tell any difference on my 56" display - how come?
There's information here about .VRO files. http://tinyurl.com/6oohgo Drag the .vro file onto the desktop, thence into DVD Flick. DVD Flick outputs a folder with the familiar DVD files (.VOB .IFO etc). Note that DVD flick recognizes the source file as MPEG-2 compliant, therefor there is no recoding involved, it should run quite fast. If I want to edit the new files, I use DVD Shrink in 'Re-Author' mode. Again, it outputs an edited DVD file to a folder - again with no recoding. This VR format is best suited to standalone players, the menu does not work on a PC and the content is lumped in one file. As far as quality between SP and XP , only conjecture - I assume the input is buffered for conversion to the digital format, perhaps the speed is not relevant in that case?
I have a collection of home VHS tapes, about 20 in all, going back 20 years that I want to copy to DVD. My first attempt about, two years ago, was to purchase a Canopus ADVC-100 analog to digital converter. While the Canopus box worked superbly in getting some of my VHS video to my hard drive (as avi files), the remaining steps (edit, encode, author and burn to a DVD) along with the learning curve was cumbersome, time consuming and the resulting video was not as good as the original VHS images. I got discouraged and dropped the project. But time is running our for this old geezer and my VHS tapes, which still play extraordinary clear, so I decided to kill 2 birds with the same stone. I would buy a top quality DVD recorder/VCR combo (Sony RDR-VXD655) to replace my current 10 year old VCR machine and equally old DVD player - both having seen better days. I could then dub all my VCR home movies to DVDs without a fuss. Each tape is 2 hours or less. Once all my tapes are on DVD I have a permanent copy (goal # 1) but I also want to copy certain events from these movies (now on DVD) and paste them onto new DVDs to give to our children, grandchildren and family members. I have the computer horsepower to do this. My question (before I spend more $$), what is the best and most lossless way to copy the files (from the DVDs produced by a VHS to DVD dub) to my computer? Will simply renaming the files on my PC allow me to edit them say in MS MovieMaker2? Is there an easy way of doing this (e.g. DVD-Shrink?) or does it require multiple steps? Any help/suggestions will be greatly appreciated. Retired geek
Assuming the video is being copied to DVD-R, then the files will be in the standard .VOB format (not .VRO as in the original post where they were copied to RW disks). DVD Shrink can be used to rip the contents of the DVD to a folder ok and even be used to select clips from a DVD and create a new compilation - of course it cannot produce any effects like a real editor. I'm not familiar with MS MovieMaker2 - can it open a DVD folder and import the files, or is it like Windows Movie Maker which prefers an .mpg file? Vob2mpg can convert the contents of a DVD folder to one large .mpg file, which can then be edited with the likes of WMM. http://www.videohelp.com/tools/VOB2MPG
attar is correct about the VR-video format: it won't play in many DVD players or with other software. They look for the DVD-video format, and his suggestions on conversion from VR to DVD-video ought to work. As for the lack of difference in picture quality from SP and XP, the quality is limited by the source in the VHS format. Although XP may sometimes show better encoding quality than SP on pristine video content, VHS does not have enough initial resolution and color purity to show a difference in the encoding schemes. Once analogue video is digitized at the best possible quality, there should be no loss in the picture quality after editing sections of digital video unless the bit rate is reduced from its original rate or artifacts crop up through multiple conversions. After the VHS tapes have been copied--use the highest encoding rate possible--that means about 70 minutes of video per DVD, not the full 2 hours of a VHS T-120--make sure that any subsequent edits from the DVD sub-masters are also encoded at the same rate, about 70 minutes per disc. (Keep the VHS cassettes. Don't discard the masters! There is sufficient evidence that good VHS tapes can outlast DVD discs over time, assuming that any VCR will last long enough to play them.)
