Hi. I hear that you can take a file off the Topfield and make a DVD from it. If I bought a Topfield I would be interested in doing this. However, I am not very computer literate and do not have a lot of money to spend on this.

Is there a 'one stop shop' piece of software I can use? I just want to be able to load the Toppy file, edit out adverts, and burn to DVD. I don't want to do anything complicated and don't want to use loads of pieces of software.

I tried this on a more general posting, but didn't get a good response, so I thought I'd try it in this forum.

Also, does the Toppy come with software to do all of this?

The Toppy does not come with software with turn your recordings into random things you might want. Because they hate you. They do, however, give you some nice hardware that can play the files it records.

Software companies haven't (yet?) made a decent, complete, idiot-proof, one-click solution for writing DVB files to DVD. Probably because they hate you, too.

As ever, all the information you need to know about this can be found on www.toppy.org.uk, where you'll find downloadable guides and plenty of experienced people who can help with problems.

Thanks for everyone's answers. If there isn't a one stop shop, what's the simplest and cheapest route?

Womble or VideoRedo possibly.

VideoReDo TV Suite (just in Beta/Pre-release status) is getting there though, it will accept the .REC file from a Toppy (after it has been transferred to your PC of course), you use it to edit off any padding before and after the programme, manually edit out ads (or use the automatic AdDetective feature which attempts to identify the ad breaks and allows you to review the suggested cuts). You can then either save it in a form that other DVD authoring applications can read, or you can use the in-built DVD authoring feature to create (and then optionally burn) a DVD. It does a pretty good job.

The original VideoReDo Plus has all of these features apart from DVD authoring/burning.

The website still has the old (non-authoring) VideoReDo Plus, but I am sure that you can download a trial Beta copy of TVS via the forums, although it will be a time-limited trial at the moment - just ask on the forums before you do anything.

http://www.videoredo.net/msgBoard/showthread.php?t=5363
www.videoredo.com

Videoredo looks good. They let me load a .rec file, edit and burn the DVD all in a one-stop-shop. Because they love me.

You burn with Videoredo?

Mine can't do that. I recommend it though as it's very easy to use to trim your files to exact length, remove adverts, etc.

Then I use Power Producer to burn to DVD - I find it much quicker than the standard Windows software on my laptop.

J

There is an upgrade available to registered users, and to everybody in the near future (or possibly already) which is a complete DVD creating package.

Aha - thanks.

You can nearly do it with freeware, is a bit more long winded but it is the method I have used.

You need:-

1. - ProjectX
2. - PVAStrumento
3. - MPEG editing software eg VideoRedo, Womble MPEG Edit family of software.
4. - DVD-Video authoring software.

Stages 1 and 2 are taken from malc's guide Making DVDs with ProjectX and Nero (Windows) on the Toppy forum www.toppy.org.uk.

Stages 3 and 4 are just using the software I already had.

I've just converted over to TVSuite as it seems the easiest way to go.....

Hope that helps.

I don't think a toppy is for you.

Maybe you should buy another PVR !