asdfasfdsafa

Lots of great help here. I used Tivo Desktop plus to transfer my recordings from the Tivo to the computer. Yes - I know the price of drives is getting low. In fact - I just bought a 500 GB hard drive to swap out in my series 2 Tivo. (Until I know I can do it right, I don't want to mess with my Series 3 and possibly screw it up and definitely void the warranty. Not all my shows are HD, so storing some of the series 2 is fine). My computer had nearly 400 GB of free space when I started transferring shows - and its' almost full now. So with my habits, even a 1TB external drive will get filled up. I may use one to store HD movies and things where the HD matters more. But recording sitcoms, American Idol and my daughter's kid shows doesn't require HD. So I need to get some of these shows off all hard drives since they'll be filling up and get some to DVD-RW disks (I'm assuming that in a couple of years my daughter won't want her Hannah Montana shows, etc). I looked at the computer's dvd player and it didn't say DL or dual layer. I have to figure out how to get to windows explorer and I'll doublecheck about writing dual density. I got the computer in Jan. 2008. I think I will need something like VideoReDo. Not sure if I'd still need DVD Shrink in that case or not. I'll check it out. Urlee - does your DVR also have a Tivo? I really like the Tivo. perhaps I should get a Tivo DVR with builtin DVD burner. That would simplify this whole process - but I think it would cost a lot for the unit and then again for Tivo Service. If I don't have a DL DVD burner in my computer, I wonder if it's worth getting one? Sure could help to get movies and 2 hours shows burned in one dVD. Thanks. Lynn.

Use Smartripper (or some other DVD extraction software) to extract the .VOB files from your DVD. Use DVD2AVI to open the .VOB files and save them as a project (a .d2v file). Then use TMPGenc to open the .d2v file as the video file to convert to an mpeg, and then go to "other settings", select the Advanced tab, then make sure that Video Arrange Method is set to "full screen (keep aspect ratio)", then click next a few time and start the conversion. The Video Arrange Method needs to be set that way so it'll keep the proper aspect ratio. If for some reason it still isn't doing the right thing you can try the other settings. Smartripper, DVD2AVI, and TMPGenc are all freeware that can be found by doing a Google search for them.

jdbillp to the rescue again! LOL! I can't believe we didn't think to check it......but yes, the "open" button on the remote was stuck in! (only the tiniest bit, but enough to keep it opening all the time. It has those little soft rubber buttons). Now I don't have to go buy a new DVD player today. Thanks so much jdbillp!