Unsupported Format

[Quedgeley Les]

If this is the wrong department please re-direct. Up to quite recently I had a Toshiba DVD Hard Drive Recorder. I thought I had set it up correctly in relation to copying onto DVd, finalising etc. That one went faulty, so I went and got a Panasonic DMR - EX769EB. It rejects all my Toshiba discs as Unsupported. Now I don't know much about file types, all I can do is put down my observations. Toshiba files carry 3 folders - DVD_RTAV, TS_MANGR and TS_THMNL. The Panasonic has only 1 folder named Video_TS. Is there a simple way (I'm a bit long in the tooth for hi-tech these days) of re-recording through a PC onto a format that the new DVD will recognise? All the discs recorded on the old machine will play through the PC. A lot of films i have recorded will re-appear on TV or I have the option of buying an original. What are more difficult to retrieve is documentaries, which may re-appear.

Thanks to anyone who can give me a simple way to convert old to new, or put me in the right direction>

[admin]

Sounds like you recorded to DVD-RAM (although Panasonic players should support DVD-RAM as well), or at the very least, recorded using the DVD-RAM video structure. Was this on a DVD-R disc? If so, this may explain why the Panasonic fails to read it (even though it supports DVD-RAM), since it may expect a normal DVD structure (Video_TS folder) on a DVD-R disc. If the DVD-RAM video was recorded on DVD-R, I suppose one quick thing to try (if you've go the DVD-RAM burner and blanks) is to copy the recording to a DVD-RAM disc and then try reading it in the Panasonic.

Otherwise, this guide may be of help in converting the DVD-RAM structure to a DVD-R structure, although it does use commercial software:

http://www.btinternet.com/~james_lancaster/ramtor.HTML