Mike, THX for the reply.....

First I have a lot of video sitting on my HD that I just copied right off the Mini-DVD (DVD-Video format). Was waiting for the right tool to edit. But when I play the video from the HD with PowerDVD 5. I see 16:9 but as soon as I run it through Nero or Ulead Movie Factory (old I know), the output is 4:3. When you say another file, I assume you mean the .IFO or .BUP (one in the same, BUP = backup). So that is what's odd to me if the IFO is playing 16:9 with PDVD, then it looks like Nero (and most others) are changing the IFO to 4:3 .... does that make sense ? ?

Could you or anyone gives any reviews of the two SW tools you mentioned with the output from DCR-DVD403. Or point to reviews already written regarding these tools.

Many THX in advance for the help !!!!

__________________
DW
Sony DCR-403

When you copied the DVDs, did you just copy the .vob files or the whole structure (.vobs, .ifo, .bup etc.) ? In a standalone .mpg file the aspect ratio info is a flag in the sequence header, but in a DVD structure it is kept somewhere else. (I'm not sure where). If you were playing the video from the file structure on your hard drive, the player was clever enough to see this flag, but Nero and Ulead were not. Ulead VideoStudio 10 does see the flag in the DVD structure but Womble does not and it has to be added before or ater editing to the .mpg file using fix12c.
Better than reviews, why don't you download free 30 day trials of the programs and play around with them yourself.
http://www.womble.com/
http://www.ulead.com/vs/trial.htm

Regards

Mike

Hi Mike, which one do you like best - Womble or Ulead? Thanks, Joe.

__________________
Joe Louvar -
Sony DCR-DVD405
Ulead VideoStudio 10+

Hi Joe

My trial of VS 10 expired today and I decided, however much I liked it, to stick with Womble as I couldn't justify the cost and Womble does what I want and does it well. Ulead VS 10 has more features, but runs a bit sluggish on my system, whereas Womble is lean and mean. So to answer your question, if I had to buy a package today, I would probably go for Ulead because of the extra features, but I like Womble as well. Familiarity breeds content.

Regards

Mike

Thank you Mike.

__________________
Joe Louvar -
Sony DCR-DVD405
Ulead VideoStudio 10+

This may help with editing....Record on -RW discs...cut the fat before finalizing....

this program rocks and it's free...mpeg stream clip 1.0.1...google it...

From the disk I load it into stream clip...it's one long pieced together file....after loading to streamclip i select pieces that i want and i change them to mpg files with mpeg2 audio...save all your clips in a file...

and i have a cheasy mpg editing software i bought for cheap at best buy $40 two years ago...any will do...mine is called movies on dvd and cd-magix....

clip the mpg files together edit add whatever and burn your cd...note i'm not a professional, but it pumps out somewhat good results for the forgiving eye... ps in streamclip you have to use fix time code breaks to view all clips...good luck

Hi there ... i am trying to copy few movies on to a regular DVD R from few mini DVD RW's. The names of the video files are the same in all mini DVD's so i am not able to copy the contents of more than one Mini DVD on to a regular DVD R. Have anyone faced this issue ?

I have formatted the vob files using fix12c already do i have to format the other file types also along with vob ?

If you have used fix12c on them I assume you have copied the .vob files to HDD. You only need the .vob files. You don't say what software you are using but I assume it is something like the lite version of Nero or similar. You can just rename the .vob files so that each has a unique name, preserving the naming format. So you will have VTS_01_1.VOB, VTS_02_1.VOB, VTS_03_1.VOB, VTS_04_1.VOB etc. You should now be able to burn these. You will not have menus on the resulting DVD. To get these you need to use a DVD authoring program like NeroVision etc. Look here for free authoring software, guides etc:

http://www.videohelp.com/author

Regards, Mike

Hi Mike, thanks for your suggetsion. yes i did copy the mini dvd contents to the HD and then used fix12c on them. I was using Nero7.5 demo version to burn the dvd with titles but i am facing a different problem. The total number of titles have gone beyond 100 and i had used 3D tiltle slide because of which even after 11 hrs the CD was not successfully burnt. Is there by any means i can rid off these many number of titles, Nero automatically adds titles i dont have control on it.

I am not sure of how to cut the DVD with only .vob files, will it play on a DVD player if i cut it just like a data CD, i did try but it gave a warning msg that its not a movie DVD and will not play in any player. Please advice.

regs
Ganesh

You will have to join your clips together using a editing program like Womble mpeg wizard or Ulead VideoStudio 10+. You can only get about 1hr of video on to a 12cm DVD, after that it will get re-encoded to a lower bit rate. Both Womble and VS10 have DVD authoring built into the program, so you can set up your menu etc in the program. You can also cut out any unwanted bits, and even put in titles and add sound tracks plus more. Womble just creates an image that you have to burn with eg. Nero, but VS10 burns the DVD for you as well. Both will import the .VOB files straight off the 8cm. DVD.

You're right DVDs have to be "authored", you can't just copy files to it and expect it to play in a player.

Regards, Mike