Hello
I am totally confused by the number of video formats that exist. I am thinking of buying a DVD Recorder/VCR Recorder combi. I have some DVD's that I made on my computer and when I explore one of these I find that the folder is called VIDEO_TS which contains various .BUP .IFO and .VOB files. Will any DVD Recorder/DVD Player play these files or do I have to search for specific recorder/players to enable me to play these files. Is this the best way to burn to DVD or should I burn using another format.
Many Thanks
Andrew Wilson

Whatever you record on a set-top recorder can be played on a regular DVD player, as long as you "finalize" the disc.

I'm not sure quite what you mean by other "formats"? The VTS files (.VOB, .IFO, .BUP) are all files that are used to play the disc.

I'm not quite sure what you're asking or saying, but I hope I've helped.

To try and simplify. I have made a number of DVD's using Nero Vision Express on my computer which are all made up of the VTS files (.VOB, .IFO, .BUP).
Will these play on any DVD player/recorder that I am going to buy or does the DVD player/recorder have to support a certain format to play these DVD's.
Thanks
aw56001

Video and audio TS folder structures are the standard format for dvds....they ALL have them....the audio folder is always empty and the Video TS folder will have the .VOB, .IFO and.BUP files....depending on your player....most newer players play dvd-r ...some of the older players might not be able to play it.....remember ANY other format then Video TS and audio TS folders is NOT a standard dvd.....all dvds are mpeg 2 compression...and it is contained within the .VOB file as well as the audio.....other formats might be like compression and containers which for the most part are more compatible with PCs...like Divx, Xvid,WMV,H.264 etc....these are all types of compession using the newer mpeg 4 algorythm, they can be housed in several different types of "containers"....IE.....AVI is Audio and Video Interlaced....OGM,MKV are containers that can hold multiple audio and subtitle streams in the same file......mpeg 4 is similar to mepg 2 in that they are both "Lossy" formats, but retains a better quality at higher compression rates. at around 4 times the compression of mpeg 2...which is why satellite HDTV are switching to make the most of thier bandwidth.

Andrew,
Simply, yes you can burn a DVD with the TS_Folders that you found. An example of a burn program that uses TS_Folders is Pinnacle's Instant Copy.

NOTE: using TS_Folders to create a DVD is not the same as creating and burning a video image.

For your information :
BUP files are backup files. I have yet to figure out why they are needed but without them your DVD will not play.
IFO (Information) files are your information files. These are just like bookmarks that tell the player where chapters, subtitles, etc. are. Without these your player will not play the DVD
VOB (Video Objects) files are all the actual video and audio files that are mutiplexed (streams put together). 9 times out of 10, if you rename a VOB file to .MPEG, the file itself will play on your PC with any media software that you have.

I hope this helps. If you have any other questions, please feel free. I've been buring DVDs for moire years than I'll readily admit :>)

Many thanks for your replies. I am much clearer now. I now know that I can play the DVD's that I burned on my computer on any DVD Recorder/Player.
Regards
aw56001

sorry to drudge up an old thread, but - i've tried backing up a couple of my DVD's using DVD Shrink(?i'm not at my home pc right now). after downloading the free software i go through the steps of burning the DVD but am left with the _TS files as described above and cannot figure out what i am to do with them in order to copy the movie onto another disc for playback...? any advise is appreciated!

thanks, Christian

I'm not too clear as to what you're asking, but I'll give it a stab.

I take it that you've either opened the files or opened the disc, let it analyse the disc, then chose you're compression settings.

Next, there are a few options.

(1) You can back them up to files and copy them to the disc. For some reason this doesn't usually work too well.

(2) If you have Nero installed, you can just write to the disc from within DVD Shrink.

(3) This is my method--when you select how to back it up, under the backup menu, have the backup saved as an image file (.ISO). Then simply write the ISO to a disc. Note that you cannot just drag and drop it...you must use another software to do it. Usually the software that comes prepackaged with the computer/burner will do it. If you don't have such a software, do a Google search for "ISO writer," and find some freeware. Check out CDBurnerXP Pro.

if you want an EASY program to use...try CloneDVD2 by Elbybytes...and AnyDVD bu slysoft....VERY easy to use...[Link: slysoft.com]

Thanks for bumping the thread Stealth X....:)

Am I losing something in quality if I don't create a video image first? I used to go through the work of creating an image but got lazy once and found that I didn't need to.

But they're not free. Shrink is free.


I don't think so. For me, images are easier to burn, but I couldn't imagine that it would affect the quality.

Cheap @$$!!...LMAO

Just try using magiciso to make dvd video iso file from Video TS folder. then you can burn dvd video iso file to dvd with magiciso. It works fine for me.
http://www.magiciso.com/

Shrink will also turn files from a Video TS folder into an ISO for free.