Topic: Newbie DVD Authoring Questions

[Brian_CT]

I've got a standalone DVD recorder with 80G hard drive arriving in a couple days and want to convert some VHS concert tapes that I've acquired. I'm assuming it will be best to copy to the hard drive first then burn to DVD. Unfortunately, it looks like adding chapter stops on the player will result in a far from seamless viewing experience, and there will be no menu.

I'm thinking that I'll burn it as one long track, than extract the DVD onto my PC.

I'm looking for a freeware program that will allow me to rip the files from the standalone-created DVD, let me separate the video into chapters, and add a basic menu.

I know about http://www.videohelp.com/ but am looking for feedback as to which specific programs work the best and are easy to use.

Any help you can provide would be much appreciated.
Thanks.

-Brian

[Evil Taper]

I'm not sure if there's a single program that's free which has all of those abilities.  DVD Decrypter is free and copies the dvd to your pc...but from there...no clue.

[the yokel]

Quick outline:

1.Extract the vts files with dvd decrypter/dvd shrink(to extract & reauthor a single vts).
2.Open the main vob file with VOBedit
3.Click demux>click the checkboxs for all video streams & all audio streams
4.from here you can import the resulting .mov & .wav/mpeg/ac3 files into your favorite dvd authoring app.  I use encore but i'm sure there are some freeware authoring apps out there. 

Needed shareware: 

DVD decrypter: http://fileforum.betanews.com/sendfile/1011845169/1/SetupDVDDecrypter_3.5.4.0.exe
DVD shrink: http://files.dvdr-digest.com/encode/dvdshrink32setup.zip
VOBedit: http://www.videohelp.com/download/Vobedit06.zip