Recently, I got some video files from a friend. He recorded them from his DVR to a combo VHS/DVD recording unit, onto a DVD. What type of files are these? How can I put them onto DVD? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
If he recorded them to a DVD±R and finalized the disk, then the files are in standard DVD format and should be playable in another standalone player (or PC with suitable media player) - but he has to have finalized the disk in the recorder or it will be unreadable and unplayable.
They will not play on anything other than the machine he recorded them on. I don't know if this is the case, but if he recorded them in Super Long Play mode, would it make a difference?
DVD recorders use one of a couple of formats that are supposed to be compatible with regular standalone players, but I don't know how true that really is. What I can tell you for sure is that if it's not finalized a regular DVD player definitely won't be able to play it. If it has been finalized you may have to copy it like it was a commercial (encrypted) DVD. I've heard of this working with discs from a DVD recorder.
I can't tell you how to finalize a disc because it varies by recorder and since I don't have one I'm not familiar with any of them.
Windows can not read these files. I will check tomorrow to see whether or not the disk was finalized. Now that I think about it, the only reason not to be able to read these files at all would be that the disk is not finalized. I have Any Video Converter, and it could not touch it. There was just a message that said the files could not be read by windows.
