Why won't my DVD+R DL discs make free space when I delete something?

Question

I'm in the process of transfering my VHS tapes to DVD. While I was deleting footage using my DVD Recorder, I noticed that the disc space wasn't increasing. When I erased everything, the remaining space was the same as when it had been full! I can't reformat it on my DVD Recorder. Any ideas?

Answer 1

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Unfortunately, these discs are write-once deals. By deleting things on the disc, you are actually just changing the disc's internal "playlist" to pretend the recording isn't there. The actual free space on the disc does not change, nor can it be reclaimed.

If you had a DVD-RW disc, you could delete things on the disc and use that space again, but it's a bit cumbersome and there's a chance things will overrun and you could end up recording over a portion of another recording - I think. Like if you had three titles in a row, and "replaced" title 2 with another, it might run late and corrupt title 3... but I cannot be sure of this. DVD-RW's are not as compatible as regular DVD-R's and might not be worth the effort, too.

I've owned a couple DVD recorders before for the purpose of archiving old VHS recordings. It's rather stressful having to "get it right" the first time. Using DVD-RW's was better for me, in that I could dub the entire tape at once and then use the "divide title" feature numerous times to seperate episodes and create unique thumbnails and such.

Now I use a Hard-Drive DVD-recorder combo. I dub the tape onto HDD for editing and such, then eventually record the final archive onto a DVD disc. It's far less stressful.

Asker's Rating:

Asker's Comment:

Ah, I get it now. Thanks for the long response. Very informative.