adding chapters to DVD on Pioneer 520 (1 Viewer)

[John Morgan]

I finally made the plunge and got the Pioneer DVR-520H DVD recorder. It has a hard drive, and so far, so good.

I have a lot of video tapes and laser discs I want to transfer to DVD. I primarily want to make DVD-Rs to be played on other machines. Just for my own peace of mind, I put the contents on the hard drive and then transfer it to DVD.

I had thought chapter encoding would be transferred from what I do to the material on the hard drive, but it seems chapters are not transferrable. Since I often have two shorter films to put on one DVD, I would like to somehow chapter mark where the second movie starts. Is this possible on a regular recordable DVD? (I sent the bit rate manually for the length of the program so I utilize the most space on the disc.)

So far, I have been just straight copying, but if I set up the two titles in a play list, will that do the trick? I haven't got that far as I am kind of a nerd in these things and was hoping for a straight, easy to understand explanation from the knowledgeable people on this forum.

Thanks..
John

 

[Elizabeth S]

John,

I have the Pioneer 420, which is identical to the 520 except it lacks the DV-in.

Yes, you can burn the 2 separate titles onto a DVD as separate titles. When you go into your "copy list", every title you "add" to the list will be considered a separate title. Chapters are divisions within a title which can be added by pressing "Chp Mark" on the remote during viewing, or inserted later in the copy list. You can choose a representative thumbnail and name for the menu for each title in your copy list.

For example, I archive "Lost" onto DVD. After I have three episodes on the hard drive, I go into the "copy" menu, choose HD to DVD and add the three titles to my copy list. While viewing the show, I have already marked chapters around the commercials. I go into "erase section", and delete the commercial sections from each show. I then have 3 commercial-free episodes in my copy list as 3 titles. I can choose a thumbnail for each title, and name it. Then simply burn onto DVD choosing a menu which shows 3 thumbnails on a page.

If you burn multiple titles onto a DVD and there are no chapter divisions, when you're playing a title and press the next chapter button on the remote, it will take you to the beginning of your next title. Or you could navigate from the top menu and highlight whichever title you want.

 

[John Morgan]

Thanks so much, Elizabeth. Yes, I really only need a chapter mark at the beginning of each program.
And, for safety and my bumbling, I think I would like things all set up on the HDD and then burn the complete DVD without attendance.

So, to get this in my head, if I have two 63 minute films on a single tape, I put only the first one on the HDD, and then restart the tape for the second film and put that on the HDD as a separate/another title. I can then line them up and have both films burned on my DVD. I can add the title of each film where it starts on the DVD.

One more thing: I have used the manual bit rate to get the best quality of whatever I burn on the DVD, so when choosing the bit rate/time, I should add up the total time of both films. So the total, using the above example would be 126 minutes or a little more.

Thanks....
john

 

[Elizabeth S]

If it's easier to just run the tape and record both shows onto the hard drive at once, you could do that. You can then use the "divide" function at the end of the first movie to split the recording into 2 titles on the hard drive. (Careful -- it cannot be joined back together!) Or, simply stop the recording after you record the first title. When you push "record" again for the 2nd movie, it will start recording as a new title.

And yes, that's exactly correct -- add up the total time of the films to choose the best bit rate.

Have fun!