DVD Recorder Question

[wmyatt]

Just to get this out the way, I have a looong history with VideoHelp. My user name was Erwin, but I haven't been here in over 10 years and I forgot my password and I don't use that email address anymore. Anyway, I have a Panasonic DVD Recorder that is "non responsive". I took it apart because it was refusing to eject a disc. It's not making any moving sounds. It won't close or open. The dvd lense will briefly flash. It stinks because they don't make DVD recorders anymore. I basically record some shows to DVD-Rs. I can't believe we live in a society that makes it so difficult to just simply record video to DVD. Thanks in advance everyone.

[Vidd]

You could bring the broken Panasonic DVD recorder to a Panasonic outlet store or service center to have it repaired. Another option is to find a local reliable repair shop.

DVD recorders from Toshiba and Funai are still available for purchase as DVD/VHS combo units.

[usually_quiet]

If your DVD recorder can be repaired, it will likely cost more than you want to pay to do that. Even a replacement DVD drive in good shape won't be cheap. However, you can still get a DVD recorder made for the USA with a digital TV tuner, a 1 TB hard drive, and a manufactuer warrany although it is not made by Panasonic.

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Magnavox-MDR557H-F7-1TB-Hard-Drive-DVD-Recorder-with-Digital...Tuner/36246088

You can get an imported Panasonic DVD recorder with no HDD, no manufactuer warranty, and without a tuner that works in the USA for the same price. (It can record NTSC signals from a set-top box with its composite and S-Video connections.)

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/620022-REG/Panasonic_DMR_ES18_DMR_ES18_Multi_Sys..._Zone_DVD.html

[wmyatt]

I remember only paying $98 for this DVD recorder at Target in 2008. There is like nothing out there now. I can't believe they did away with DVD Recorders. Did Tivo bully all the makers? I just want a device I can record my shows to a permanent source. Thanks for the replies.

[usually_quiet]

I remember only paying $98 for this DVD recorder at Target in 2008. There is like nothing out there now. I can't believe they did away with DVD Recorders. Did Tivo bully all the makers? I just want a device I can record my shows to a permanent source. Thanks for the replies.

Tivo did not bully them out of existence. Tivo doesn't have that kind of power. Tivo has a difficult time staying in business.

The problem was not enough units sold each year, period, end of story. Most people in the US who tried one found a DVD recorder too hard to use for recording digital cable/satellite, or had no interest in recording programming for posterity on shiny plastic discs.

[wmyatt]

I've seen this one device on Amazon http://www.amazon.com/Mediasonic-HW-150PVR-HomeWorx-Converter-Recording/dp/B00I2ZBD1U/...ct_top?ie=UTF8

People claim that one can make a DVD-r from the recordings

[usually_quiet]

I've seen this one device on Amazon http://www.amazon.com/Mediasonic-HW-150PVR-HomeWorx-Converter-Recording/dp/B00I2ZBD1U/...ct_top?ie=UTF8

People claim that one can make a DVD-r from the recordings

I thought of suggesting one of those, but did not know what you recorded with a DVD recorder. They won't do the job for someone who needs to hook up a cable box or satellite receiver to their DVD recorder to record. They are fine for recording over-the-air TV from an antenna. They record the transmission as is, without down-converting from HD to SD resolution and the recordings are easily transferable to a computer. Recordings from high-definition channels use 5-6 GB of storage space per hour and those from standard definition channels use 0.5-1 GB per hour. You can store recordings on optical media of sufficient capacity, although of course they won't be playable with a DVD player. A Blu-Ray player might play them. It depends on the Blu-Ray player.

I record using a TV tuner card installed in my computer, which makes recordings with very similar properties to those the HomeWorx boxes make and have made playable DVDs from the recordings. First, you will first need to use a program to compensate for transmission errors in the recording. Otherwise audio and video will not be synchronized on the DVD or the DVD conversion may even fail. VideoReDo Plus or TS-Doctor are recommended for that. They can remove commercials as well as compensate for errors in the recorded transport stream. Both have free trials so you can find out which one you prefer before buying. AVStoDVD is an easy to use free program that works for creating a playable DVD from the corrected recordings. It took between 2-3 hours to convert a 1-hour HD recording to DVD on my old 3 GHz dual core. A more powerful computer would do the job faster.

Bottom line, if you need playable DVDs, a DVD recorder is way more convenient.

[Edit]One more thing I should mention, the DVD recorder-VCR combo units from Toshiba, Funai, Emerson and Magnavox have no tuner. If you want to record using the composite video and stereo audio connections on a cable box or satellite receiver, they can work. If you want to record from a direct connection to a TV antenna, they won't do that.

[wmyatt]

I am probably one of the last people left who don't use a cable box. I refuse to. It's just not necessary when my tv will show all the hi-def channels through it's coaxial cable connection. You are right about the DVD Recorder. It's one of the reasons I went with a DVD Recorder back in 2003 with my first Panasonic. Back then, the Panasonics had issues with a "bleached out" appearance in recordings and they took care of this issue in their later models. It looks like nothing has changed much with having an alternative to DVD Recording. It kind of surprises me that they still don't have a way that one can just record video live on a computer without having to encode the footage for hours on end before it's playable on DVD player. See, I mostly only record the Simpsons and put them on DVD-rs. I've been recording them since 1992 (loooong time). I still record them because they have yet to have them all on DVDs; they are taking forever. They just released Season 17 which is way behind it's current season 26. It's easy to download them on the internet in MKV format. I would like to know how that person does that and with what device. Somehow, these files are less then 500MB, but yet they look better than my recorded programing on a DVD-R.