recording settings

[devdev]

hi

im after a dvd recorder that let me record in quality setting thats less than 1hr (ie known as xp in many models)
ideally a quality setting of say max 30 mins would be great

does anyone know if such a dvd recorder exists?

[jjeff]

AFAIK even if you found such a recorder (which I don't think there are any) the DVD's wouldn't play in most DVD players. I think 1hr/DVD is about the fastest bitrate than standard DVD players will play. Even at that some older DVD players (such as my 6 year old Apex) will not even play XP discs because of the bitrate. It will only play discs in a speed of about 1:20 min/disc and above.

[olyteddy]

You also should consider the source. NTSC or PAL video only has so much to offer and throwing more bits at it with a higher bitrate isn't going to change that.

[edDV]

The DVD spec is limited to ~9.8 Mb/s and audio takes some of that so as said, the 1 hour setting is close to maximum. See http://www.videohelp.com/dvd

A computer digitizer can be set all the way up to uncompressed (140-270 Mb/s depending on format).

The BluRay standard maximizes at 36Mb/s and all of that can be used for SD video.

The Digital Betacam broadcast tape standard records 10 bit 4:2:2 SD video at ~90 Mb/s (about 3x compression).


PS: And for reference, the DV standard records 8 bit 4:1:1 or 4:2:0 SD video at ~28 Mb/s (about 5x compressed) with uncompressed PCM audio. ATSC SD encodes 8 bit 4:2:0 SD video at ~3-4 Mb/s MPeg2. DVB is similar. MPeg4 AVC/wmv can compress 2-3x more than MPeg2. That sums up SD standards.

[CrazyCanuck]

The Sony 715 has a "HQ+" setting (45 minutes) on the hardrive but recordings at that setting cannot be copied to disc. Great for timeshifting quality but no go for discs.

[jjeff]

Nice idea on the Sony, yes recording to HDD you could see speeds above 1hr/disc, heck I think in Europe or Japan you can even record HD to the HDD but AFA offloading to DVD you still need to stick within the DVD spec edDV spoke of. Of course if you didn't care about being compatible with standard DVD players you could record in a HD format like AVCHD(using a computer) which would have higher bitrates but you'd need a BR player to play the discs back. I think you can get ~45 min. of 1080i HD video using AVCHD to a 4.7 GB DVD. It would be nice if DVDRs would record in this format but I doubt we will ever see this in the US. Copyright holders would have a fit

[edDV]

Nice idea on the Sony, yes recording to HDD you could see speeds above 1hr/disc, heck I think in Europe or Japan you can even record HD to the HDD but AFA offloading to DVD you still need to stick within the DVD spec edDV spoke of. Of course if you didn't care about being compatible with standard DVD players you could record in a HD format like AVCHD(using a computer) which would have higher bitrates but you'd need a BR player to play the discs back. I think you can get ~45 min. of 1080i HD video using AVCHD to a 4.7 GB DVD. It would be nice if DVDRs would record in this format but I doubt we will ever see this in the US. Copyright holders would have a fit

HD broadcast video arrives pre-compressed as ATSC or DVB muxed transport streams MPeg2 (10-19 Mb/s) or some form of MPeg4 @ ~5-9 Mb/s. These can be captured directly to HDD or DVDR (assuming no encryption). They will play on a computer and some media players but not a Blu-Ray player unless the native files are converted to AVCHD or demuxed and authored to a Blu-Ray supported form of MPeg2/h.264/VC1.

A single layer DVD 5 can hold ~35-40 min of 720p or ~ 30-40 min of 1080i MPeg2 streams as broadcast. A typical 30min TV program has ~22min of content. A 60 min program requires more than one DVD layer unless the file is recompressed.

[devdev]

thank you all
v helpful