[xxtimbo]

Hi,
I was thinking that it would be cool
to record a TV programme on DVD recorder hard drive, and then have the ability to transfer that file to my Computor hard drive.

The programme might be 700 meg.. it will play on the DVD but why not the comp too ?

I wonder if there are any DVD recorders on sale now that might have such compatabilty ?

[flagpole]

i think you are confusing nomenclatures.

record a tv program to the recorder's hard drive, then copy that program to your computer's hard drive. this is very possible. but where does the dvd come in to it.

[Chasing Shadows]

Everything that you think "it might be cool" to do....


....you can do.

Why do you think that it is not possible?

Use some DVD ripping software (such as DVD Shrink) to rip the contents of the DVD disc to your PC hard drive, then use DVD playing software (Power DVD is a good one) to open the folder on your hard drive where you saved the rip from the DVD - and your PC will play it just as if it was playing it from a DVD disc.

[xxtimbo]

Im talking about the hard drive in a DVD recorder.
I think my hard drive in there is 20 gig, full of TV programmes, it would be great to be able to get them onto the hard drive of my computor.

[grahamlthompson]

Originally Posted by Chasing Shadows

Everything that you think "it might be cool" to do....


....you can do.

Why do you think that it is not possible?

Use some DVD ripping software (such as DVD Shrink) to rip the contents of the DVD disc to your PC hard drive, then use DVD playing software (Power DVD is a good one) to open the folder on your hard drive where you saved the rip from the DVD - and your PC will play it just as if it was playing it from a DVD disc.

If the DVD recorder is set to record in Video Mode there's no need to rip the disc. Just stick it in a PC DVD drive and copy the Video_TS folder to a PC. Loads of players will play back a Video_TS folder. Ripping is only required to remove copy protection.

[grahamlthompson]

Originally Posted by xxtimbo

Im talking about the hard drive in a DVD recorder.
I think my hard drive in there is 20 gig, full of TV programmes, it would be great to be able to get them onto the hard drive of my computor.

You can, burn the content to a RW disc in Video mode. You can then do as above and copy the Video_TS folder or simply copy the .vob files from the Video_TS folder to your PC. Simply re-use the disc to transfer more content.

[xxtimbo]

I tried that method once before, I burned the tv prog onto a dvd re usable disc .... it would play ok in the computor drive, but I could nt get hold of the basic file and whiz it onto my comp hard drive as a stand alone file.

I used to hire dvd s from love films and found I COULD get hold of the basic files on those discs and whiz them onto my computor hard drive, then play the files in bs player, or any other player.

If you can get hold of the basic file of a movie, say 700 meg, then you have the ability to edit, take caps etc

[Chasing Shadows]

Originally Posted by xxtimbo

but I could nt get hold of the basic file and whiz it onto my comp hard drive as a stand alone file.

Yes, but why couldn't you?

Because, as Graham has already explained, that is exactly what you need to do to be able to watch the recorded content on your PC.

Why couldn't you get hold of this "basic file"? Were you not looking in the right place on the DVD disc (i.e. in the VIDEO_TS folder, for VOB files)?

[grahamlthompson]

Originally Posted by xxtimbo

I tried that method once before, I burned the tv prog onto a dvd re usable disc .... it would play ok in the computor drive, but I could nt get hold of the basic file and whiz it onto my comp hard drive as a stand alone file.

I used to hire dvd s from love films and found I COULD get hold of the basic files on those discs and whiz them onto my computor hard drive, then play the files in bs player, or any other player.

If you can get hold of the basic file of a movie, say 700 meg, then you have the ability to edit, take caps etc

You need to use Windows Explorer to explore the drive as just the data files it contains. Shut down any DVD playing software that starts up to play back the disc as a DVD.

The video and audio is contained in .vob files in the Video_TS folder. There may be more than one. It's very easy to join them into a single file if you need to.

[xxtimbo]

I just got the impression that when the dvd player wrote the files to the dvd rw disc it was all encoded for the dvd player.

when I put the disc into my computor I just could nt get hold of any files, it would play ok, but it seemed to be all in one central file that somehow I could nt access and transfer to my comp hard drive.

Im just wondering, that as time goes on, the DVD Recorder makers might make their hard drives PC friendly and we could link up to them with cable and they would be like linking to a usb drive and the tv programmes in there would be encrypted say in mpeg 2 or something, files that we could easily get hold of and use on our computors.... and even edit !

[grahamlthompson]

Originally Posted by xxtimbo

I just got the impression that when the dvd player wrote the files to the dvd rw disc it was all encoded for the dvd player.

when I put the disc into my computor I just could nt get hold of any files, it would play ok, but it seemed to be all in one central file that somehow I could nt access and transfer to my comp hard drive.

Im just wondering, that as time goes on, the DVD Recorder makers might make their hard drives PC friendly and we could link up to them with cable and they would be like linking to a usb drive and the tv programmes in there would be encrypted say in mpeg 2 or something, files that we could easily get hold of and use on our computors.... and even edit !

DVDs have two folders Audio_TS (empty) and VIDEO_TS this folder has the following file types .vob containing the video and audio. .ifo which have the navigation data that provides menus and chapter markers and .bak which provide a degree of protection against damage to the disc.

Depending on the version of Windows try finding the drive icon in Windows Explorer, right click and choose Explore. You should be able to see all the files just like any other data disc.

On win 7 Start choose computer. Right click on the DVD Drive Icon and choose the OPEN option. Click on Video_TS to see the files or just drag the folder to another Explorer Window open to a location on your PC's hard drive.

Some pvrs like the Humax models let you transfer recording files direct to a PC. You don't normally see this on DVDR's

[xxtimbo]

Thanks for that info, but isnt windows explorer a browser ?
should nt I be looking into the my documents folder ? where the dvd rw will be ?
or "my computor "

[xxtimbo]

Thinking about it, could nt I get a cable from my sky sat box and record
direct into my comp hard drive ? cutting out the DVD recorder completely ?

[grahamlthompson]

Originally Posted by xxtimbo

Thanks for that info, but isnt windows explorer a browser ?
should nt I be looking into the my documents folder ? where the dvd rw will be ?
or "my computor "

Windows Explorer is the name of the file browser in Win 7 You need a file explorer don't confuse with a internet browser.

The DVD will appear on your computer as a Hard Disc Drive with a name like E: depending on how many drives you have. My computer is the same thing.

Open My Computer you will see a list of Drives one of which will be your DVD drive. Insert a DVD and the DVD name (label) will appear. My Documents is just a location on your Hard Disc where by default Photos etc get saved by default. You can Create your own folders eg My DVD's and create nested folders one for each Video_TS you copy to your PC.

[grahamlthompson]

Originally Posted by xxtimbo

Thinking about it, could nt I get a cable from my sky sat box and record
direct into my comp hard drive ? cutting out the DVD recorder completely ?

Not easily, your computer is unlikely to have any inputs you can record from and it would need to convert a Sky Box analogue output to digital. (The job the ADC in your DVDR does)

[xxtimbo]

I put a dvd in my computor drive, my own finalized dvd made with my
dvd recorder.
I went to ..... my computor....
The dvd icon is there, I hit it and the disc began to play in media player.

Thats all very well, but I want to get hold of the files pref in mpeg.

I right clicked and , looking at the drop down menu I noticed......
,..... browse in xn view...
I did just that.... bingo, all the files appear vts 01 vts 02 etc, about 9 seperate video files.

I right clicked on one and saw the option... copy to folder...
I did just that and got a file in my documents of 585 meg.
It still did nt play in BS Player so I got up.... any video converter ... ( free software )

I converted the file to mpeg2 and bingo... I can play the file in bs player,
take caps, edit the file in V Dub if I wish.

So thats progress, Ive got files of home made dvds onto the comp in exe quality.

Maybe next step is to record some of the stuff on my dvd recorder hard drive onto a dvd-rw and go thru the same process.

[webbie]

If you download "DVD Shrink" and run that it has the option to create one big file from a dvd which is easier to use than multiple files. When DVD shrink has finished you can just rename the VOB file to MPG but most video playes understand what a VOB file is. It doesn't need converting - it's already in MPEG2 format. Try Videolan as a player - its very good.

[xxtimbo]

thanks for the info.

In ... "any video converter"... theres an option to convert to "customised mp4 "

could that be a form of mpeg 4 ?

converting a file to that , the final result looked better and smoother than when converted to mpeg2 .
only one prob... no sound ! the sound was there in the output folder .. but in a seperate mp3 file !

Conversion to mpeg 2 looks ok, just a slight sign of narrow vertical lines in sudden movement.

(Mpeg 4 .... I believe, compresses files more than mpeg 2 ) resulting in a smaller file in megs )

[webbie]

If you've recorded it onto a dvd on your dvd recorder then the file is already in mpeg2 format. It doesn't need converting to mpeg2 at all. The original file in mpeg-2 format should be the best quality - if you use any video converter to convert it to mpeg2 I'm guessing that the converter is compressing the file at the same time and making the video look worse. Just copy the VOB files from the disk and try double clicking on the first VOB file and see if it plays. If it doesn't, download videolan. If it still won't play, rename the .VOB extension to .mpg and try again.

[grahamlthompson]

Originally Posted by webbie

If you've recorded it onto a dvd on your dvd recorder then the file is already in mpeg2 format. It doesn't need converting to mpeg2 at all. The original file in mpeg-2 format should be the best quality - if you use any video converter to convert it to mpeg2 I'm guessing that the converter is compressing the file at the same time and making the video look worse. Just copy the VOB files from the disk and try double clicking on the first VOB file and see if it plays. If it doesn't, download videolan. If it still won't play, rename the .VOB extension to .mpg and try again.

The OP's description sounds to me as if he's creating DVD's in VR mode.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VR_mode

A normal DVD-Video format disc does not have transport stream files. The mpeg2 is as you say contained in .vob files. Recompressing with mpeg4 will make the files smaller assuming the same or similar bitrate is used but the double codeing will reduce the quality somewhat.

[xxtimbo]

DONT FORGET that these files are made by a panasonic dvd recorder.
yes they come in as vob files and they do play... but strangely they play a kind of 25 second thumb nail, even though the file might be 350 meg.

When converted to mpeg 2 ........ I might end up with a 12 minute video.

Remember , when I record dvd discs from tv I usually record bits and pieces... 10 mins of this 6 mins of that.... its not a continual recording.
I record in best quality and get 1 hour per disc.

Just put a dvd-rw disc in and got the files off in similar way.

[jjne]

Using Freeview?

MythTV is your answer.

[pavier]

I've recorded over a thousand dvds on my HDD/DVD recorder and transferred hundreds to an external usb hard drive via a pc and all play on a pc using VLC player or windows media player.

I place a finalized DVD-R disc in the pc and close any autoplay functions which launch. I right click the drive, open it and copy the whole VIDEO_TS folder to the hard drive.
When the transfer is complete I can locate the folder from VLC player and play it as if it were a normal dvd, with full menu support. It's not quite so straight forward with media player. I have to open the folder and drag any of the vob files (VTS_01_1, VTS_02_1 etc) onto the media player icon which launches and starts playing the dvd. Or just double click the vob file if media player is set as the default player for this file type.Once media player starts playing the dvd from the hard drive you can right click on the window and bring up the main menu.

I rarely use a RW disc but from what I remember there is sometimes an additional empty audio folder which I don't bother copying, otherwise it works the same but I always use -R or -RW discs, never +.

All the above works even after I rename the VIDEO_TS folder.

[xxtimbo]

just thought Id record a few things from the dvd recorder HD onto a dvd-rw disc.
Theres about an hour selected... I thought it would write the stuff onto the disc in 6 or 10 mins, looks like its recording it in real time, the tv programme is playing.
Tried to abandon it, but cant switch it off.

[xxtimbo]

Ive finally solved the prob of no sound on the ....customized MP 4.....
that ... any vid converter... converts to.

I downloaded the latest version of ...any vid converter... and bingo I got an MP 4 file with sound !

It converts to a very small file too
original file from the dvd 46 meg.... the mp4 ...file 4.7 meg !

Stangely the tiny mp4 file plays better , the pics look better and sharper than the same file in mpeg2 !