Looking for DVD-R help!

[jonnyGURU]

My mother bought me a Panasonic DVD-R for my entertainment center. She wants me to convert all of my DV's of my daughter over to DVD.

So I've hooked it up and read the manual and I'm confused. I press record and it says it's recording, but then when I hit stop, it sits for about a minute saying that it's writing. Why can't they make it where I stop, tell it I'm starting a new chapter, and then continue with the next chapter... Or can I and I just don't understand how???

Also, my kid is DESTROYING all of her DVD's. I wanted to make copies of them but the DVD-R says they're copy protected. So I copy them to VHS and then try to make a DVD and I get the same thing! Is there some sort of filter that bypasses this BS! I can understand wanting to thwart piracy, but if I can't back up my DVD's that's really going to piss me off. I REFUSE to pay another $19.95 for The Wiggles Toot Toot Chugga Chugga Big Red Car. 🙁

 

[Baked]

Gonna send you a PM.

 

[tomt4535]

for backing up dvds:

DVDShrink + DVD Decrypter == :thumbsup:

 

[mugs]

$60 DVD burner > set top box

 

[jonnyGURU]

Baked and tomt4535: Thanks, but this isn't a PC burner. That's why I posted in OT. It's set top. 🙁

I was going to sell this thing off and buy one for my PC.. but it was a gift I didn't have the heart. I figured it's be easy to just daisy chain with a VCR or another DVD player and start making DVD's... but nothing seems to be easy with this thing. 🙁

 

[jonnyGURU]

Anyone have experience with these: http://www.xdimax.com/dvd/dvdredpro.html ???

 

[AnitaPeterson]

Dude, that DVD Red Pro seems to be an amazing gizmo, but I bet if you sell the set-top unit and get a computer drive, you'll find that you'll have lots of extra cash left, and you'll be able to copy any DVD without headaches. And since you're only converting DV tapes, not analog, if you have FireWie in your computer, you can get a couple of freeware or really cheap Avi to MPEG2 converters... and even the lowest DVD authoring/mastering tools available on the market put any set-top unit to shame...

 

[Night201]

Do you have a digital video camera (MiniDV or Digital8)?

 

[jonnyGURU]

Yes.. I have a MiniDV. I didn't say I was ONLY converting DV's. If that's ALL I wanted to do, I wouldn't have bothered posting. I already make VideoCD's using Pinnacle Studio and those work in DVD players. If I got a DVD-R for my PC, I could put more hours on a DVD, but when I got this set top DVD-R I just thought it was convenient to be able to pop in a VHS or DVD and copy it. Problem is.. It doesn't work that way! Everything is copy protected!

And even if I find something to copy that's not copy protected, like something I recorded off TV, the stupid Engrish manual doesn't really tell me how to break up the chapters. 🙁 Grr....