Finalizing a Pio/Sony disc with Nero

Yes it can be done!!

Here is the deal. I recorded a 55-minute concert broadcast in XP-PCM mode on my Sony RDR-HX780. I prepped the program cutting out unwanted stuff, titled the disc and chaptered the songs. I purposely did not finalize the disc just to see if I can finalize it in my PC.

Here are the steps I took.

1) Popped the disc in PC. PC did not recognize the disc in the DVD drive.

2) I started Nero Recode and pointed to the disc drive and Nero immediately recognized the un-finalized disc in the drive.

3) Nero would copy the disc and ask me to insert a new disc and Nero would burn and finalize the program on the new disc.

4) Nero did not “recode” the MPEG-2 files and in fact kept the chapter marks intact. Of course there was no menu, as I didn’t create a menu using my RDR-HX780. Now that the disc is finalized as DVD-Video - any PC program including Nero can create a menu.

So if anyone has a broken Pioneer or Sony with the Pio/Sony operating system and you have unfinalized discs – you can finalize them without recoding using Nero.

I wonder if Nero will work with unfinalized discs from a Panasonic or other recorders?

Only 999 more Pioneer tips and I'll catch up to you.

One thing that surprised me is that the unfinalized video retained the chapter marks. I always thought that the chapter marks get added at the finalization process, creating the IFO files with the chapter pointer marks. Guess I was wrong - the marks must be created when the recorder states writing data to disc or something like that at the end of the burn, before finalization.

If anyone has a broken Pioneer / Sony with the Pio Sony OS and you need additional info just ask.

If anyone has a different brand recorder and Nero, please try this and report so others with broken recorders and unfinalized discs can be helped.

My Nero version is 7.11.10.0.

Yes I wish someone with a different recorder would try this to see if it works.