I would like to call on anyone who can help. I recently decided to buy a DVD Recorder (Panasonic DMR-E55) for my lounge and as I only have 2 DVD-RAM discs, I would like to backup my recordings to DVD-R through my PC. I know I need to edit the recording to remove adverts etc and have heard of TMPG DVD Author, DVDLab etc but these are quite expensive and I was hoping for a straight forward solution like copying to my PC then copying this to a write once DVD so I can watch it on my bog standard DVD player but obviously this isn't the case...... I see on a thread below lots of software but can someone rate these, preferably for a freebie / shareware version. HELP....please!!!
I've got the same setup. I copy the RAM files to the computer and then use a program called VideoReDo to edit out all the commercials etc. VideoReDo will accept RAM files (which a lot of programs won't) and output them as Mpeg2. It's frame-accurate and only recodes at the cut points, so it's very quick too. There is another option if you aren't too fussy about frame-accuracy, and as it's free you've nothing to lose by trying it. I have the same DVD recorder and you can record onto DVD-RW if you like (you can't time-slip with DVD-RW though). The advantage with DVD-RW is that you will have DVD files all ready to be copied onto the computer, rather than RAM files. When I've used DVD-RW I then use VOB2MPG to copy the files to the computer as you get one Mpeg file for each recording (if you've recorded two films VOB2MPG will output two seperate Mpegs very quickly). To edit the Mpegs there's a free OK-ish Mpeg editor on the Hauppauge (WinTV) website: http://www.hauppauge.com/pages/support/support_pvr250-350.html Scroll down to the WinTV editor and download, Not quite frame-accurate but like I say OK-ish. You would need the NET framework to use VOB2MPG if you decide to go that way- but give VideoReDo a try! There's a long trial period so you'll see it's advantages. PS I don't know if this is something you have considered but I have a network cable running from the bedroom to the lounge which feeds an LVD 2010 media player. This will play all your media files (video, photos, mp3s/wma) direct from your computer without all the burning to disc you need to do otherwise.
Quick Edit: I've just discovered the WinTV editor doesn't support AC3 audio. It's fine with mpeg audio but that's not a lot of use in this situation.
I've just been road-testing another freeware mpeg2 editor: Mpeg2cut. One word- dreadful. It outputs mpegs that will not be accepted by authoring programs! My advice would be, If you're planning to do a lot of video editing get VideoReDo; if you're not that bothered about commercials go the DVD-RW route (miss out the editing part obviously).
Hi weepiglet, Hope this thread's helped. Just wanted to point out that you wouldn't need VOB2MPG if you weren't planning to edit your files when you recorded to DVD-RW - you'd just copy them to DVD-R through your computer. The Panasonic will finalize your recordings on the DVD-RW disc before you transfer them to the PC, otherwise the PC won't recognise them.
