I want to put my home movies onto DVD's and I want to be able to
display a chapter menu so I can choose which scenes to watch when I
watch it. I have had 2 different machines here over the last week and
can't make either one do what I want it to do.

I've had a Samsung DVD-VR357 from WalMart and now a Zenith XBR716 that
came from Radio Shack. Both of them recorded fine from my camcorder
to a DVD and all that and both will display a Title Menu but not a
Chapter Menu within the Title. I have discovered that I can divide my
video into various Titles and make a Menu that way but that is time
consuming and a hassle. I am recording on DVD+RW and DVD-R. I know
the -R won't take editing but the +RW should so I figure I should be
able to divide the Title into Chapters and display the first scene of
each chapter in a Menu. I know how to divide into Chapters. It's
displaying them in a menu that I can't seem to do.

Does anybody know of a DVD recorder that will display a Chapter Menu?

Thanks.

Wayne

"wayne.deloach@gmail.com" wrote:
On panasonics, in England anyway, the machine automatically creates a
set of chapter marks when the disc is finalised. If you wish to add
marks to an RW or RAM you can add them as you're watching it, placing
them exactly where you wish, just by pushing a button. On the machines
with a hard disc if you record to the hard disc first you can add the
markers where you wish then use fast copy to put the recording onto a
disc and this time finalising does not affect where you have placed
the markers.

I can't speak for other brands but I am wondering if the machines you
mentioned may have done something similar that you were unaware of. I
am given to understand that +RW doesn't need finalising so you would
probably have to add chapters manually but I am wondering if you have
finalised your -Rs?

--
Paul (We won't die of devotion)
-------------------------------------------------------
Stop and Look
http://www.geocities.com/dreamst8me/

On Jan 26, 6:28*pm, Paul Heslop <paul.hes...@blueyonder.co.uk> wrote:
Yes, I know about placing the chapter marks and have no trouble doing
that. And, yes, both machines will place automatic chapter marks
every 5 or 10 minutes. The problem is they are not where I want them
to be so I place my own. Either way though I can't get them to show
up in a menu anywhere so I can just click on the thumbnail image and
go directly to that chapter. That's the problem.

Wayne

"wayne.deloach@gmail.com" wrote:

I think, although the panasonic does have an option to look at the
individual (untitled) chapters in a menu I am not sure that it
transfers the option, so when playing in a make other than their own
there's only the advancing method you mentioned. Maybe this is just
another pipe dream for now.

--
Paul (We won't die of devotion)
-------------------------------------------------------
Stop and Look
http://www.geocities.com/dreamst8me/

wayne.deloach@gmail.com wrote:
To do what you want, you will need to invest in a re-author program like
Pegasys TMPGEnc DVD Author (TDA). Basically, you create the DVD files
on your
recorder, then copy the disc to your computer. You can then use TDA to
trim the
video, add chapter marks (exactly where you want them) and create a
menu. You can
have both a top and chapter menu.

The latest version of TDA (Version 3) will allow you to add subtitles.
I use it to add the
date and approx time that the video was shot. The subtitles can be
turned on and off
like a normal DVD. This works great, but I also wanted to preserve the
actual date/time
stamp that digital camcorders record on every frame of video. To do
this, I make a
second copy of the tape with the date/time burned into the video. You
have to use the
s-video cable to do this. I record this copy in the lowest quality
setting on my recorder.
That way, you do not have to compress the main file very much to fit
everything on the
disc.

-Bill

On Jan 27, 9:26*am, xeaglecr...@att.net wrote:
Thanks for the info but I don't think I want to go through all that.
Guess I'll just have to live with what comes on the recorder. Thanks.

Wayne