DVD-VR Compatibility (1 Viewer)

[Sean Lavery]

Hello all

A not so quick question regarding DVD-VR:

I have a stand-alone DVD recorder (Pioneer DVR7000) which supports the DVD-VR mode (only recording to DVD-RW). I'm planning on transferring VHS tapes to DVD with this machine. Each VHS is greater than 2 hours necessitating the use of the VR format in order to fit it on one DVD disc. The "video" format supports only 2 modes (1 and 2 hours).

Here's the rub: Jim Taylor (of the DVD FAQ fame) has indicated to me that the DVD-VR format is logically incompatible with 99% of existing (2003) players.

I'm planning on re-authoring the on-screen menus in the DVD's that I create with this machine, which necessitates extracting the assets from the RW media. I was planning on burning the assets along with the new menus back onto a DVD-R (not RW) with my computer, but I'm just not sure if the above mentioned compatibility issues will hinder my workflow.

In other words if I extract the assets from the RW produced on my stand-alone machine, and then re-burn them to a DVD-R disc using my computer's DVD burner, can I then burn those assets to the DVD-R using the "Video" format (as opposed to the VR format that was extracted) to increase logical compatibility?

I understand that DVD-VR still uses MPEG2 compression, but there appears to be something to the VR format that makes it quite useless on all but a few machines. I'm looking for wide compatibility here.

Thanks for any info you can provide in this regard.

Respectfully,

Sean Lavery

 

[Jack Briggs]

Welcome to HTF, Sean.

FYI, the DVD Etc. section is specifically for discussing articles and reviews with the staff of DVD Etc. magazine. The A/V Sources section is where you post this sort of question.