Transfer of Video Footage from a Sony DVD 101E to a Hard Drive

[FearasEirinn]

I have set about Transferring video footage from a Sony DVD 101E to a new Hard Drive (bought for the task). Some Discs creare no difficulty - the information goes across immediately with no difficulty encountered. Others are unfortunately presenting with the message "Format Error" or simply that the infoirmation cannot be seen at all by the programme I am using which is Sony Home Memories. The next disc inserted will generally transfer across, no problem. By that I mean that 2 discs might fail to transfer but the next disc will transfer. Their is no reason that I can see or am aware of that could be causing these problems. Any assistance is very, very welcome.

[Anonymous]

Hi there,

Hopefully a community member can help.

Best wishes,

M

[FearasEirinn]

Thank you for your reply.

I can only hope that you are proven correct.


Slán (Gaelic for Goodbye)


Patrick

[darkframe]

Hi @FearasEirinn,

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@FearasEirinn  wrote:

Some Discs creare no difficulty - the information goes across immediately with no difficulty encountered. Others are unfortunately presenting with the message "Format Error" or simply that the infoirmation cannot be seen at all by the programme I am using which is Sony Home Memories. The next disc inserted will generally transfer across, no problem. By that I mean that 2 discs might fail to transfer but the next disc will transfer. Their is no reason that I can see or am aware of that could be causing these problems. Any assistance is very, very welcome.

Well, is it this camcorder which you're talking about? Maybe an update to "Imaging Edge" (link available on the shown site) could be of help.

Anyhow, obviously sometimes it's working and sometimes not. I personally do not know that camera, however I found that it obviously is important whether you're trying to write to a finalised disk or not, whether you're using an RW disk or not and more.

Are you using different brands and/or types of disks? Those types are available:

• DVD +R / DVD -R (you can write to them only once)
• DVD +RW / DVD -RW (those DVDs allow to be formatted again and to be Re-Written)
• DVD-RAM (this is a rarely used and special format)

There's a great difference between DVD +/- R, DVD  +/- DL (dual layer), both being writable only once and DVD +/- RW, to which you (normally) can write several times. DVD-RAM I do not consider here as they're rarely used. Also, the DVD101 camera obviously offers an additional option, called VR mode, about which I do not know anything, sorry.

"Format Error" according to the manual which I've found for the DCR-DVD101 camcorder points to a problem with a DVD RW being formatted in a format not being suitable for the camera. A closed (finalised) RW disk might lead to the same problem.

More information can be found in this PDF manual. On page 74 of that document you'll find the instructions on how to format a disk. Of course this will only be working with disks that are RW (readable/writable). DVD +/-R can't neither be formatted nor re-written.

Hope that leads us somewhere...

Cheers

darkframe

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[FearasEirinn]

Afternoon Darkframe,

Thank you for your thoughtful reply.

I recorded the material on DVD -R and DVD -RW. Discs.

All of these were branded discs as in Sont, Maxell & TDK.


All of your email was both helpful and well researched bar for for your
very last comment which says that you do not need to "finalize" a DVD-R
Disc. I do not believe this to be correct - if it is can you clarify why
you say this. It could be important.

I do realise that you can not re-write on a DVD-R Disc.

Thank you as I conclude for making a 100% genuine effort to resolve my
difficulty - very much appreciated.


Kind regards,

Patrick

[darkframe]

Hi @FearasEirinn,

thanks for your kind words!

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@FearasEirinn  schrieb:
All of your email was both helpful and well researched bar for for your
very last comment which says that you do not need to "finalize" a DVD-R
Disc. I do not believe this to be correct - if it is can you clarify why
you say this. It could be important.

Well, actually e.g. DVD recorders as well as your camera can write to a DVD±R/RW without finalising it. Regarding your camera this is necessary as otherwise it would not be able to write to the same disk again the next time you're recording a video. Now, some DVD readers can read those disks without problems. Others, maybe most, can't do so. In that case you need to finalise those disks beforehand.

Just to be clear: Normally, especially regarding DVD Video, it's essential to finalise disks because otherwise most 'normal' players won't be able to read them.

Now I've got a question. Maybe I didn't get you right the first time. Do you use the camera for transferring movies from the disks to your new harddrive? If so, that should normally work without trouble, provided the DVDs were recorded by the same camera or at least by a camera of the same type.

In case the problem exists because a disk has not been finalised beforehand you may try to finalise it by means of the camera. In case you do not have the manual anymore, you'll find it here. On page 65 of the manual you'll find the description.

In case you're reading the disks by means of a DVD drive in your PC it is most likely that those disks causing trouble haven't been finalised by the camera.

If you still have the camera it would then be necessary to finalise those disks. If you don't have the camera anymore you'll need a DVD burner being able to read disks which have not been finalised and a burning programme offering the possibilty to finalise those disks.

Okay, curious to hear your answer. Hopefully we'll find a solution.

Cheers

darkframe