How do I virtually 'delete' a DVD-R, so that I can add other Video_TS to it?

[bonkabonk]

The situation:
I have a DVD-R with one low quality movie on it, there's still room available on it.

I wanna put a high-quality version of that movie on the DVD-R, by either:
1. adding the high-quality version to the dvd-r.
2. making the first session invisible, so that I can burn on the free remaining space on the dvd-r.

ad 1. I don't care if the added movie is in DVD-video format or normal data (ISO?) format, like an Avi file. In fact, I added it already, but it doesn't show in my standalone dvd player. The player can handle Avi-Divx-xvid files.

ad 2. Yes, i know that we cannot really delete or erase DVD-R's but I don't wanna do that, I wanna surpress the first session, so that the 2nd session/track becomes visible,


So, add or erase?


And yes, I'm aware that I could buy a new disc, but for various reasons (lack of time, we're effing snowed in), just going to the store is not really possible ....

Thanks!

[Capsbackup]

You could use a program like Roxio Easy Media Creator, and when you start Creator Classic with the disc in your DVD burner, it will ask you if you want to "Import" the previous session, which you would click no.
Then your previous session, though still on the disc, will not be visible. If you said yes, you would have access to both the new and previous recorded files.
Of course, this is all based on the disc having enough space left to record another session.

[bonkabonk]

thanks, i'm downloadink this, so i will try it, I indeed remembered vaguely somethink like this about Roxio, nice to get confirmation.
I just hope it works on discs not created by Roxio....

[bonkabonk]

You could use a program like Roxio Easy Media Creator, and when you start Creator Classic with the disc in your DVD burner, it will ask you if you want to "Import" the previous session, which you would click no.
Then your previous session, though still on the disc, will not be visible. If you said yes, you would have access to both the new and previous recorded files.
Of course, this is all based on the disc having enough space left to record another session.

hmm, i tried it, but it didn't give me a "No"-option, it just popped some balloon pointing to a button with "do you wanna import the first session?". So my options were 'yes' and doing nothing.

Anyway, I added another session, twice, and each it made the previous session invisible. Sadly, not to the standalone DVD player.

There goes the dream of re-using half-empty DVD-R's ......

[mpucoder]

Standalone DVD players do not support multi-session, and most burning programs, if they recognize DVD-Video format, will not try to write a second or later session.

[Ghitulescu]

In addition to that, in order to sucessfully write a second session you need a valid pointer to it, pointer located within the first session. Most DVD burning software simply do a DAO, which means that pointer is NULL.

For data DVDs, only linuxes and windows from XP onwards may read the second/third session.

[bonkabonk]

In addition to that, in order to sucessfully write a second session you need a valid pointer to it, pointer located within the first session. Most DVD burning software simply do a DAO, which means that pointer is NULL.

For data DVDs, only linuxes and windows from XP onwards may read the second/third session.
thanks, both.

well that really sucks then. especially cos it makes kinda sense, with the valid pointer and all that.

but aren't there some programs which would make the first session unreadable or even invisible to standalone dvd players?

[Ghitulescu]

The problem is that multi-session DVDs are not standard, or at least to my knowledge.

But for CDs this was easy done: when authoring the next session, simply select that the TOC of the previous one is not to be imported. How to do this is software dependent. So, despite the files are actually there and taking up space on the CD, any MultiRead compatible drive would simply use the last TOC (and since no links to the previous files are present, those remain hidden). Earlier drives could read only the first session, so draw yourself the conclusions....

[bonkabonk]

The problem is that multi-session DVDs are not standard, or at least to my knowledge.

But for CDs this was easy done: when authoring the next session, simply select that the TOC of the previous one is not to be imported. How to do this is software dependent. So, despite the files are actually there and taking up space on the CD, any MultiRead compatible drive would simply use the last TOC (and since no links to the previous files are present, those remain hidden). Earlier drives could read only the first session, so draw yourself the conclusions....
Can you tell of a software program that does this, the not importing of the TOC?