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[woofb]

Is it easy/possible to add/remove chapters without writing the whole disc again? I'm looking into getting a set-top dvd recorder to go in the front room, and it would be a nice feature if I could get a cheap one with DVD (+/-) RW or DVD-RAM and use Toast for post-processing: go to so many minutes in, add chapter mark for advert break, go a couple of minutes forward, add chapter mark, chapter-mark beginnings and ends for consecutive programmes to go past trailers, that sort of thing.

My boyfriend thinks that with DVD editing it's only possible to do this sort of stuff by re-doing the entire disc, and spending between 15 and 30 minutes on this is a waste of time.

I want a *decent* VHS replacement, something that 'works like a disc' (random access), and have been put off the digital terrestrial PVRs by the fact that they *all* seem to be flaky, and we can't get Freeview reception where we are, and my boyfriend points out that the aerial (RF or whatever it is) connector would lose quality.

I can't use a TV tuner because the computers are upstairs and it's easy to carry a Mac mini but it's not easy to carry all the peripherals it needs to run properly (hub, external discs, power supply, display...)

I know the Panasonics set-top recorders are good for video editing, but they're three times more expensive than the cheap models.

If it's easy enough to spend a couple of minutes tweaking a disc so it has the chapter marks (and if possible titles and time-date-channel info) required, or even spend a minute somehow logging it to a piece of cataloguing software in the same way as iTunes stores audio CD information in "CD Info.cidb", the simplest solution would be to take the disc upstairs as soon as it's recorded and make sure what's on it is somehow catalogued. Ideally, I could change the titles to reflect what's on it and it would still play in the set-top machine attached to the TV, but I'm not sure that's even possible. None of the information I've found online about home DVD recorders is exactly forthcoming about how the files are stored, and the information in the shops seems to imply that you use the first frame of the recording as an index (and therefore don't have time/date/channel info stored in the files; not ideal, especially if the first frame is a logo saying BBC 1 and won't help you figure out what the DVD actually has stored on it).

Can anybody shed any light on this?

[tsantee]

I use a Pioneer standalone DVD recorder in combination with Toast 7. I'm a little confused by what it is you're asking (and about some of your boyfriend's advice).

If you make a DVD on a standalone recorder that has no chapter markers, you can extract the video from that disc using Toast and Toast will add chapter markers in 15-minute increments when it authors and burns and new DVD. You can also have Toast create a menu that describes what's on the disc and choose the menu thumbnail picture from the video's frames.

However, Toast cannot edit the video nor can you use Toast to place specific chapter markers.

If you use the VR-mode recording option on the standalone recorder, you will be able to trim out commercials and place chapter markers using the recorder itself (depending on the recorder's capabilities). This mode also enables the chase play feature where you can start watching a program from the disc while the disc is still recording. However, VR-mode discs can not be played on other DVD players so some people prefer recording in Video mode even though they can't do the editing, chapter marking and chase play in that mode.

Toast can extract the video from either a VR-mode or Video-mode disc. Toast will automatically place a chapter marker wherever you cut out commercials (or whatever) from a VR-mode disc and will retain any existing chapter markers automatically placed by the recorder on a Video-mode disc.

Some computer DVD drives may not read VR-mode or DVD-RAM discs. For example, I use a Firewire LaCie drive for extracting the video from my VR-mode DVD-RW discs because the built-in drives on my G4 iBook and G5 iMac won't mount them.

I very much recommend you save up for a DVD recorder that includes a hard drive. You can use the hard drive similar to a PVR. When you want to keep something on disc you can edit on the hard drive before burning to DVD. If using VR-mode you can place chapter markers manually while previewing on the hard drive and those will be transferred to disc. Some recorders may not have that capability, however. The Pioneer DVR 640H-S is getting very good reviews from users.

I don't know what your boyfriend means by quality loss due to RF from antenna. Whether you are using Cable, satellite or over-the-air the signal comes into your home via RF.

In summary, you can use Toast to reauthor DVD's created on a standalone recorder. However, it does take time and you can't use Toast to edit commercials or manually place chapter markers. You need to do those things using the recorder itself which only can be done when recording to an internal hard drive or to a VR-mode disc.