Old LG DVD Recorders - Still Very Useful

[hech54]

For those of you who still want the simplicity of "recording" SD material via a DVD Recorder....the old LG (RH-100 for example) units are still very useful even though the built-in DVD burner is most likely dead by now.
I have the Medion version/clone(MD81335) of the LG RH-100 with a 160GB HDD that I have been experimenting with the past few weeks and it's very nice....thanks to it's XP record mode AND the ability to hook up the HDD to your computer (via special, free, tiny software) and pull the recording off of it via regular Copy & Paste.
It records to .VRO files that are simple to work with....I happen to use MPEG-VCR.
Here is an example:

Complete name: G:\Hits On Video Winter 1993\0401010101 TITLE 1WINTER 93.vro
Format : MPEG-PS
File size : 8.61 GiB
Duration : 2h 26mn
Overall bit rate : 8 414 Kbps

Video
ID : 224 (0xE0)
Format : MPEG Video
Format version : Version 2
Format profile : Main@Main
Format settings, BVOP : Yes
Format settings, Matrix : Default
Format settings, GOP : M=3, N=12
Duration : 2h 26mn
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 7 991 Kbps
Nominal bit rate : 9 396 Kbps
Width : 720 pixels
Height : 576 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 4:3
Frame rate : 25.000 fps
Standard : PAL
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Interlaced
Scan order : Top Field First
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.771
Stream size : 8.18 GiB (95%)

Audio
ID : 128 (0x80)
Format : AC-3
Format/Info : Audio Coding 3
Mode extension : CM (complete main)
Duration : 2h 26mn
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 256 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Channel positions : Front: L R
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Bit depth : 16 bits
Video delay : -80ms
Stream size : 268 MiB (3%)

The removal of the internal HDD is very straight forward. Remove the top cover of the recorder(there are screws on the sides and on the back of the unit, and I only replace the 4 side screws....that's really all you need), 4 more screws hold down the HDD(I only replace 2 of them). The only "sticking point" is that the ribbon cable between the HDD and the unit's circuit board runs UNDER the HDD and is "stuck" to the bottom of the HDD with mild adhesive. Be careful with that. I covered the adhesive part of the cable with normal tape to ensure it does not stick to the HDD again....and removed the little pad under the HDD.....like all of those screws it is not necessary to be THAT careful with an old unit like this.
The transfer software you are looking for is located on this web site:
http://ifndef.altervista.org/index_eng.html
and they are the last two ZIP files in the PROGRAM section of the website.

All of the information I just typed is also on the above web site(including photos and guides)....I just simplified it a bit and left out all of the crazier stuff people used to do to these units.

If you can pick one of these up CHEAP and are not afraid to take stuff apart(a little bit - trust me it's easy)....they do come in handy. I wish it would record audio in LPCM instead of AC3 but hey.....the mpeg bitrate is very high in XP recording mode and leaves a bit of room for simple filtering.

Only problem I've encountered:
DO NOT BUY ONE WITHOUT A WORKING REMOTE. You will need it to run this thing. You've been warned.

[UltraQuickstart]

Hello

I have the DVD recorder without HDD,.
Worked fine, then says "READ" and keeps spinning
and I can´t record.

What can I do?