Burning DVDs of films off-air

[RogerS]

I've got a Sony HDD/DVD TV recorder but am stumped.

I go into a shop and buy a DVD of a film. Single DVD. No problem.

I record a film on my HDD but when I try to burn it to the DVD, it tells me not enough room on the DVD. So what gives? Is ther anyway around this?

 

[TonyW]

Unable to answer your question directly Roger. However if you do not get a reply here you might want to post question on http://www.avforums.com/forums/index.php - I am sure you will find the solution there.

I am sure you have looked in your manual - remember that recording is referred to as "dubbing" i.e. copying a title from internal HDD to another disk

Cheers
Tony

 

[motownmartin]

You have to choose the quality that will fit onto a dvd, the highest quality will only record an hour onto a dvd, the second highest quality will allow you to put 2 hours onto a dvd and so on.

Hope this helps

 

[Smudger]

Martin is quite right - I have the same DVD HD. The biggest drawback is that whereas a 2 hour recording (the highest quality, not 1 hour) is done in a couple of minutes anything longer is done in real time, so a 3 hour movie takes 3 hours to burn. Apart from that I haven't seen any quality issues on longer recordings.

 

[RogerS]

Martin is quite right - I have the same DVD HD. The biggest drawback is that whereas a 2 hour recording (the highest quality, not 1 hour) is done in a couple of minutes anything longer is done in real time, so a 3 hour movie takes 3 hours to burn. Apart from that I haven't seen any quality issues on longer recordings.

Dick..are you saying that you can burn a 3hour movie to DVD? Originally recorded on HDD at SP quality?

 

[Raggy]

You will never fit a full film onto a standard recordable DVD as they are 4.4Gb. Commercially bought films are on dual layer discs which are 8.5Gb. They need to be compressed and the quality will be reduced a little.

 

[Smudger]

Martin is quite right - I have the same DVD HD. The biggest drawback is that whereas a 2 hour recording (the highest quality, not 1 hour) is done in a couple of minutes anything longer is done in real time, so a 3 hour movie takes 3 hours to burn. Apart from that I haven't seen any quality issues on longer recordings.

Dick..are you saying that you can burn a 3hour movie to DVD? Originally recorded on HDD at SP quality?

Yup. At least on my model, which simply adjusts the recording mode to suit the length of the programme. I don't know if I've gone out to 3 hours, but certainly almost (a complete Grand Prix + intro = 2-3 hours) and no visible reduction in quality. I think that even longer is possible.

 

[RogerS]

Martin is quite right - I have the same DVD HD. The biggest drawback is that whereas a 2 hour recording (the highest quality, not 1 hour) is done in a couple of minutes anything longer is done in real time, so a 3 hour movie takes 3 hours to burn. Apart from that I haven't seen any quality issues on longer recordings.

Dick..are you saying that you can burn a 3hour movie to DVD? Originally recorded on HDD at SP quality?

Yup. At least on my model, which simply adjusts the recording mode to suit the length of the programme. I don't know if I've gone out to 3 hours, but certainly almost (a complete Grand Prix + intro = 2-3 hours) and no visible reduction in quality. I think that even longer is possible.

Do you record direct to DVD or to the HDD first? My model is the RDR-HX770.

 

[cant-weld-wood]

i use computer to do it its quicker.
if you have a dvd recorder in pc (lap top)
you need nero to do the burning and then a program
called dvd shrink to do the compresing to fit disc.
dvd shrink does all the work for you and is easy to use

 

[Smudger]

i use computer to do it its quicker.
if you have a dvd recorder in pc (lap top)
you need nero to do the burning and then a program
called dvd shrink to do the compresing to fit disc.
dvd shrink does all the work for you and is easy to use

No it isn't!
I record to the HDD, edit as necessary and then burn the whole thing onto a DVD-R. Allows me to set chapters, thumbnails and all sorts. I can even stitch different recordings together via playlists.

My recorder is a RDR-HX510, a few years old now. On a single-layer DVD-R it gives the following recording capacities direct to DVD (and I think they are the same when dubbing from HDD):

HQ - 1hr 48 min
HSP - 2hr 42min
SP - 3hr 37min
LSP - 4hr 31min
LP - 5hr 25min
EP - 7hr 14min
SLP - 10hr 51min
SEP - 14hr 28 min

 

[Lincolnshirebodger]

The ultimate tool for mastering a DVD is Sony Vegas (a semi pro video editor) and its companion DVD burning software, Sony DVD Architect.

 

[Smudger]

Possibly. But if you read the original post you will see that Roger has already got his DVD recorder! He doesn't need mastering software.
I also believe he is a Mac user - am I right?

 

[RogerS]

Possibly. But if you read the original post you will see that Roger has already got his DVD recorder! He doesn't need mastering software.
I also believe he is a Mac user - am I right?

Got it in one, Dick!

 

[gidon]

Roger
On my Toshiba HD DVD recorder there are two setting for copying content to a DVD:
High speed dubbing - which will only work for a film recorded at a quality appropriate for the DVD
Conversion dubbing - which will do a real time conversion to fit on a DVD
The best method is to choose the correct quality when you set the film to record - my box has an Auto setting which will adjust the quality so that it will fit on a DVD if you choose to ultimately copy it across.
You could also split the recording to fit on two DVDs.
Cheers
Gidon