My SO has a VCR & DVD-recorder combination unit. Recently she mentioned that she can’t figure out how to record TV shows, edit out the commercials and record it onto DVD as a single continuous track(?). When she tries, each section ends up being a separate track on the DVD. I’ve never owned a DVD recorder myself so I couldn’t really understand what’s going on, let alone provide a solution. So:
[ul]
[li]Should it be possible to do what she’s trying to do, with the recorder she has now?[/li][li]I notice newer DVD recorders have built-in hard drives. Would one of these solve her problem (or make things significantly easier)?[/li][li]If so, what features should I look for? Any recommendations for a specific model?[/li][/ul]
I’ve got a Philips DVDR740. If I record something I can then go to the disk and mark areas to be hid. This doesn’t delete them it just means that during playback you don’t see that section. If I record a programme and want to keep it I hid all the ads that way. I can’t delete a section a track however.
I’ve messed arounf with a DVDR with a hard drive and there was a facility to delete sections from the HD. You couldn’t do it if you transferred to disc but once the file was on the disc you could chop bits out.
In conclusion I don’t think you can delete sections of tracks from a disc from what I’ve see but you can hide it at least on some models.
I suppose it differs over different models/manufacturers.
Thanks. So how exactly does it look when you play back this disk? Does it skip the hidden section automatically? (Instead of, say, stopping right there and forcing you to go to the menu to select the next part, or anything like that.) Does it work when played back on a regular DVD player?
I think another way to do it, but quite tedious, is to watch the film you have taped on VCR while you are recording onto DVD and when a commercial comes, simply press PAUSE on the DVD and then continue to record when the commercial is over.
A couple of problems with that - first of all, the quality of the VCR probably isn’t all that good so I don’t know if it is worth the effort to then copy to DVD.
You have to watch like a hawk to make sure you don’t screw it up, and you have to have agile fingers and quick reflexes. I think after you do one film, that will be your last.
yojimbo’s idea sounds best, assuming your DVD recorder has that feature.
It just skips it. No break in payback. I’ve just tested it with my older DVD player and the player skipped over the hidden section as it did on my DVDR. The player is a Philips* as well though so I don’t know if it would work on all players.
*A relation managed a Philips store and he sold me store models for very good prices so most of my electronic stuff is Philips.
Sorry I’m not much help, because I burn my DVDs on my computer, but try this. You should be able to plug the model number into google and come up with the manual. Perhaps there it may describe how to do that with the unit.