Domestic DVD Recorders and VRD - any suggestions?

[KingJasper]

Hi all,

The above title hopefully says it all, but I'll try and elaborate.

I'm going to be getting a DVD recorder for the living room soon, and wanted to make sure that the stuff I can record on that I can then edit in VRD and then create my own DVD's.

I know this should be a breeze, but before spending the cash, I thought I'd ask if anyone has had any experience with this and any tips on useage/compatability of disc types (is it better to record to DVD-RAM or one of the RW types?)/compatability of recording types (ie, XP/SP/LP etc).

I'm currently looking at the Panasonic DMRES10 and the LiteOn 5006B.

Thanks,

KingJasper

[Anole]

I have a friend who bought an older unit with a Walmart house brand name, supposedly built by LiteOn.
(well, by older, I mean a year ago )
It records on +R only.
Plus R media is less readily avilable, and I would recommend a unit that can record on both +R and -R.

It operates in 2 hour, 4 hour, and 6 hour mode.
The owner tried all three, and rejected the 6 hour mode as garbage.
She saves movies off the hard drive of her satellite receiver in 2 hour mode.
For regular TV shows, she uses the 4 hour mode.

I've looked at the 4-hour mode produced by that unit, and it is what's called half-D.
That is to say, the resolution is about 352 by 480, and you can see the loss of quality when compared to the two hour mode.
If you were going to try to re-edit shows to remove commercials, I would NOT RECOMMEND using the 4-hour mode.
(the editing doesn't introduce any more loss, nor reduction in quality, so if this mode is adequate to your needs, by all means go for it )

She also will save a single episode to a particular disc, as it is aired.
Once she has four shows, she finalizes the disc and it's ready to play.
If you do that, be sure you keep the disc in its case, shielded from dust, and marked with the program series.

I know it sounds tempting to use re-recordable media.
The problem comes when all your media is full and you don't have the time or energy to reprocess it.
With the cost of blank DVD media in the 20-cent to 50-cent range, I would suggest you burn to that, and if you later wish to edit and re-record, you always have the option.
(plus the fact that r/w and dvd-ram media is less or non-compatable with some/many DVD players)

[bitter_old_man]

I also have a Wal-Mart rebranded LiteOn (an ilo DVDR04).


Plus R media is less readily avilable
I haven't found that to be the case.


It operates in 2 hour, 4 hour, and 6 hour mode.
The owner tried all three, and rejected the 6 hour mode as garbage.
There is hacked firmware which enables a 3 hour mode (half D1, but a higher bitrate than the 4 hour mode). The 6 hour mode is VCD resolution, but with 48K audio.

I record everything on +RW, edit with VRD and then burn to DVD (+R and -R).

Barry

[Anole]

I believe the ilo also has a 1-hour speed.
What's that? DVD resoluton, but twice the data rate?
If you let it digitize an analog signal coming in, is there any actual difference between the 1-hour and 2-hour speed?

Oh, that thing will take a firewire connection from your camcorder, too.
Maybe it matters in that mode?

Any trouble playing the 1-hour format discs it makes?

Just curious. It must have some use. :)

[bitter_old_man]

I believe the ilo also has a 1-hour speed.
What's that? DVD resoluton, but twice the data rate?
If you let it digitize an analog signal coming in, is there any actual difference between the 1-hour and 2-hour speed?
Yes, double the bitrate in the 1-hour mode.


Oh, that thing will take a firewire connection from your camcorder, too. Maybe it matters in that mode?
I don't have a camcorder, so I don't know if it makes a difference.


Any trouble playing the 1-hour format discs it makes?

Just curious. It must have some use. :)
I've only recorded a couple of minutes in the 1-hour mode, but my Pioneer player has no trouble with it, even though it shows the bitrate occasionally going over 10Mbps.

Barry

[bidmead]

Useful responses from folks here -- here's my 2c.

The four and 6 hour modes may be OK if you just want to watch the output on a small TV. If you have a big screen, the low res of anything but the 2 hour mode will show up. But, of course, many movies are longer than 2 hours.

Hard drive DVD recorders let you record at more or less any length, but to get the data off the drive you probably have to break it up to DVD size. And may even have to recode inside the recorder. This is a drag.

All the DVD recorders I've seen to date only have analogue tuners. If you want to record DVB-T you need an extra set top box. Here in the UK the STB connects to the DVD recorder via a SCART link. This means the signal will be going out of the digital domain into the analogue domain (to travel via SCART) and then back to the digital domain inside the DVD recorder. This is OK for ordinary TV viewing, but not if you're aiming at optimal recording.

If disc reusability is what you're after, nothing touches DVD-RAM (100,000 rewrites, as opposed to 1,000 rewrites for DVD-RW and +RW). But with the cost of DVD-Rs having fallen to near zero this isn't much of an issue these days.

As a direct VCR replacement a DVD recorder is fine. As a portal for files edited and archived on a PC a much better bet would be a DVB-T PC add on. This allows you to record the incoming MPEG2 content directly onto your hard drive with no messing. I strongly recommend the Nebula kit (http://www.nebula-electronics.com), which works wonderfully -- except for unfortunates living in the US... :-) For them there's is other stuff, eg from DViCo (http://www.dvico.com).

Hope this helps.

--
Chris