DVD Camcorder - Collecting and reusing video material

[RainyDay]

Hi folks - I have a Sony DVD camcorder which uses the mini DVDs. I don't want to have to keep a pile of the mini-DVDs, so I was hoping to transfer the video material onto my laptop hard drive.

However, when I copy the recorded DVD, I can't seem to play the resulting files with Windows Media Player or Intervideo WinDVD . There are very large .vob files (which presumably contain the video materials) and also .bup and .ifo files.

Are there any applications will will play these files, or is there any way of converting the files to a more usable format?

 

[DrMoriarty]

The VLC media player will play them (and almost anything else); [broken link removed] a tutorial on converting them to .avi files with AutoGK (Gordian Knot). Alternatively, you should be able simply to burn them to standard DVD-Rs with Nero or whatever — but I'm guessing you want to be able to edit them a bit?

 

[RainyDay]

THanks Doc - The VLC works great. As it happens, I don't really want to get into editing at this stage. I just want to make sure I'll have ongoing access to my archive materials, without having to retain the mini-DVDs for ever.

Cheers