Playing unfinalised DVDs

spheric

Looking around again, (this one got to me) - it looks like ImgBurn, once you've popped the original in, has a tools -> drive -> close session/track/disc option, which sounds like it'll finalise it.

If we can't get away with just finalising the disk and hoping it works... Then I'll point you back towards IsoBuster. Yes, its a complicated piece of kit, but it really can work wonders in a variety of situations... Some kind soul has left a step-by-step tutorial for dealing with an unfinalised DVD here: http://www.satellite-newbie.co.uk/sat1/non_finalized_DVD.htm

spud17

BurnAwareFree has a 'finalise' option, it is available by pressing F10 to get further options, it works 'cos I used it to do exactly that last evening.

Gillor

Many thanks for all the helpful suggestions.

I will work through each one over the weekend and let you know how I get on.

WhiteChristmas

I did the same job a few years ago using Nero Recode; I can't remember the details though, sorry.

One thing to consider - were the discs recorded in "standard time"?

DVD recorders work differently to PCs when you try to squeeze more than 2hr onto the disc. They change the way the data is written to the disc and, in most cases, become almost impossible for a computer to copy. The discs will play OK because the player software compensates for errors, but trying to copy the files results in cyclic redundancy errors.

WhiteChristmas

BTW, if you put the unfinalised disc into a different manufacturer's machine, it will usually give you the option to change the format to that of the new machine. Do this ONLY as a very last resort because the success rate isn't good, especially for long-play discs.

Gillor

Just a quick update and thanks for everyone who came up with such useful suggestions.

It has taken me four days of trial and error but I have eventually got there......not so much a steep learning curve, more like total immersion

Firstly, as far as I can see it is not possible to finalise an unfinalised DVD which has been recorded on one machine so that it plays on another of a different make. The information on the disc was either not recognised or considered corrupt by the majority of DVD cloning-type programmes, even the TS/VOB/MPEG files, and although some software would recover enough information to play on a computer with something like VLC Media Player (a brilliant programme by the way) the challenge was trying to salvage what I could from the damaged files and download it in a form that was recognisable/playable as a video on a bog-standard DVD player..

Anyway I tried all the programmes everyone suggested, and a few more as well, but the combination that worked for me was Nero Recode which effortlessly recovered and encoded the information in MP4 form from the unfinalised disc, followed by a video conversion programme such as as Any Video Converter (AVC) to convert it into MPEG2 Pal format suitable for downloading to DVD and playing on a proprietary DVD player.

I didn't actually use AVC as for some reason somewhere along the line during the conversion process the volume of the video mysteriously doubled in size and it would have meant me splitting it onto two discs. This probably would have been better but by this time I was getting a bit p**sed off with the whole process so instead I used a trial version of a cracking piece of paid-for software called Wondershare DVD Creator which has the facility to set the output volume to suit the disc capacity, albeit with some loss of quality and a watermark on the final video.

Once again many thanks for all your help; whether the result justifies the effort is a mute point but at least it has been an interesting intellectual exercise - I must get out more!