Hello all! Thanks in advance for your help. I'm working on a video archiving project to get all of our old home VHS movies archived to DVDs. As part of this, I want to edit the videos on my computer.

I'm hoping to use my Panasonic DVD Recorder and DVD-RW discs. (although I would be willing to use other discs - the key is, I don't want to have to finalize the discs... if that's possible)

I've recorded one of the videos onto the DVD-RW and now I need to know what to do with the files in order to get the video clip on my hard drive. The DVD recorder created 2 folders... Video_RM and Video_TS. Within the RM folder there are some IFO, DAT and BUP files. Within the Video_TS folder, there are some BUP, IFO and VOB files.

Anyone know how I can rip these onto my hard drive in an editable format and lose as little data as possible? I'm trying to avoid finalizing the discs because I have a ton videos to do and I want to reuse the RW discs until I have the videos edited and then I'm going to burn the edited video onto DVD-R discs.

Thanks!
Bill

I don't see why you wouldn't want to just finalize the DVD-RW's. After finalizing, rip the DVD onto your computer and afterwards just reformat the DVD-RW on your Panasonic DVD-Recorder for reuse. I do this all the time with shows and movies that I want to archive by removing commercials.

As far as ripping the DVD you can use DVD Decrypter(somewhat out of date but still good) (http://www.videohelp.com/tools/DVD_Decrypter) or DVDFab HD Decrypter. (http://www.videohelp.com/tools/DVDFab_Decrypter)

Yeah, what Jerome said. An RW disc made on the Panny must be finalized in order for it to play in the pc drive. Now if your pc has the newer Super Multi Drives, that can play RAM discs, then you can dub your home movies to RAM, and go right to the pc, since RAM discs don't have to be finalized. Not, you'll need a dvd software program that can handle the RAM format. TMPG is one-there's a free 13 day trial version availabe to use, look for it at download.com.

You can ignore the Video_RM folder - it contains working copies of index data that are only of interest to the recorder. Just work with the Video_TS folder as usual with DVDs to access the actual end result.

From there it depends what format you want to end up with on your computer. If you want the MPEG-2 vob files on your computer, there's no need to use a special copying program like DVD Decrypter since the recordings are unencrypted - just copy the Video_TS directory off the DVD. If you want to end up with an avi file, you'll need a converter. AutoGK does a good job converting DVDs to an MPEG4 avi file, but it's a slow multi-pass process using a lot of separate utilities patched together. FairUse Wizard is quicker and simpler, but has a size limit untill you pay to register. There's even a version of of our old friend VirtualDub that will do the job on single vob files, called VirtualDubMPEG2. There are many other, such as EasyDivX - check the Tools section at Videohelp.com.

Thanks you three.

Things I didn't know that are easy as heck that solved my problem...
1) I didn't realize that you could just rename the vob files to mpg and be off and running. We're doing that and then pusing the mpg files into Movie Maker and we're on our way!
2) On my Panny with a DVD+RW disc if I just create a menu, I can view the DVD on my computer or other places without finalizing. I see Jeromes and Westly's point about not worrying about finalizing since I can easily format the disc so thanks for that, but I think it saves me a few minutes not having to wait for the disc to finalize (plus I don't have to worry about ripping... I can just drag the file from the disc to the hard drive), so I think I'm moving forward with that.

I cannot BELIEVE how many different ways there are to get these silly VHSs converted to DVDs. I've learned so much in the past few days.

Thanks again.

I didn't realize that you could just rename the vob files to mpg and be off and running.

I use a Panny to do the same thing you are doing here - record and then edit on a PC. I use a freeware tool called VOB2MPG to extract the VOBs to the HDD. It works well, runs quickly, and is free. You can find it here if you're interested:

http://www.videohelp.com/tools/VOB2MPG

Gene