If the DVD has been "authored" (using a program such as DVDA), then you'll need to reconstitute the mpegs from the vob files before you can do anything with them. If you simply take a mpeg file and burn it to the DVD using nero or roxio without authoring (like you do a cd-rom) then the file will look just like it does on your hard drive, but your DVD player more than likley won't be able to play it.

If it's a copyrighted DVD then you may have problems even trying to copy the files from the DVD to the hard drive due to CSS, but I'm assuming that you're talking about a video you created.

MIchael

I have a Pioneer DVR-501HS and it can write to DVD in 2 different formats. VR mode is different from normal DVD and is suited to editing the disc contents and adding menus (I don't use this mode at all so I'm not sure of the details). The other one is Video mode which creates what looks like a standard DVD except that there is no Audio TS folder (which is often empty anyway).

I can take a Video mode DVD and rip the VOB files onto my PC, same as any DVD that is authored on the PC. These files are easily converted into other formats using readily available software. In fact Vegas can accept VOB files (although they are no fun to work with), but since the DVD recorders usually use Dolby encoding for the audio, you would still need a way to convert this into wav files because Vegas can't handle AC3.

In short, you can get a pretty standard DVD from the recorder, and it is quite easy to pick up the software and the skills to edit the content.

Another possibility is that you can output from the recorder via firewire and capture this in Vegas as an AVI file. Not all recorders support firewire output, but the Pioneer decks do. This method removes the need to burn a DVD at all.

Richard Hunter

Thanks for answers !
Perhaps JVC´s DRMV1 which also have DVD-ram burning in VR mode can make it easier to import burned material into Vegas?
This model also have VHS player recorder function which can be useful
if you have old valuable VHS tapes to edit and safe.
Regards
Aje

Thanks for answers !
Perhaps JVC´s DRMV1 which also have DVD-ram burning in VR mode can make it easier to import burned material into Vegas?
This model also have VHS player recorder function which can be useful
if you have old valuable VHS tapes to edit and safe.
Regards
Aje

Hi Aje. Do you have a reason to think VR mode is easier to access on a PC than Video mode? I'm not saying that it isn't, I just don't know what this format puts onto the disc. And of course, you will also need a DVD-RAM compatible drive on your PC if you want to use this type of media. Some recent DVD burners are OK, but many are not as they only support +/- RW and not DVD-RAM.

Richard

Hi Richard!
No I have no reason - I don´t even know what VR mode means
thats why I´m asking.
I know that LG has a new cheap dual burner that also write/read ram discs.
Aje

If you're planning on editing the material there's no point in encoding to mpeg-2, it's a pain to edit and you're then you're going through two layers of encoding, much better to capture to HD as AVI using any one of a number of devices.
What they do seem useful for is making a quick DVD, you can pull the VOBs into DVD2AVI and get out a single mpg file and use that with DVDA to reauthor a decent looking DVD or even do basic edits on the mpg file with Wobble.