Philips recorder HDRW720

[Zeluis]

Greetings.
I'm doing some research on DVD standalone recorders - I have plenty of VHS tapes (non-commercial - recorded from TV) which I want to port to DVD, and then I will also want to go on recording from TV as I do now.

From what I see now, the real issue is disk capacity - to record pictures from TV into DVD I will surely need more than 2 hours time per recording:
- because of the time added by the advertisements,
- because I record many pictures shown late at night, when I am asleep, so I must leave plenty of additional time, as the times rarely match those announced in the newspapers (currently, when I program recordings I use 4-hour VHS tapes).

That's a problem, as I have read that in order to have similar-to-VHS quality you cannot record more than 2 hours in DVD. Is this right?

If it is so, I will surely have to go for a recorder with HDD!
Currently there is only one available around here, the Philips HDRW720, which is fairly new.
Does anyone have any info on this? (data, please - no comments like, Philips suks. As I read somewhere, it is pointless to say such or such brand is trash - we should speak of specific models).
- Is this Philips first model with hard disk?
- It seems latest models from Philips are better than the previous ones, which generated plenty of negative reviews. Does anyone agree on this?

Thanks for your help,

[WaxDeo]

Hi!

I have a Philips DVDR70 (no HDD), and I can recommend this one!

You wrote: "That's a problem, as I have read that in order to have similar-to-VHS quality you cannot record more than 2 hours in DVD. Is this right?"

No, you can record up to 4 hours, and it will still looka better then VHS!
If you record in the 6 hour mode then you will see some pixel/mosaic patterns. It is still better then VHS, because the picture has no grain or fuzziness (sorry for my bad english, I'm Swedish), and the sound is perfect (Dolby Digital 2.0). I only recommend the 6 hour mode if you record a "non fast" movie/show!

I hope you understand what I mean!

[Zeluis]

Thanks, WaxDeo.

I find nothing wrong with your english - I'm Spanish myself, and I could understand everything.

I'm glad your DVDR70 is good - it seems Philips is improving. I can also find that model here, but I think I will go for the HDRW720 (about 800 euros against the 400 euros of the DVDR70 - but I will need to do some editing and it seems better with the hard disk).
Have you had any incompatibility problems with +R in other DVD players?

[SatStorm]

Let me clearify something:
If you use a DVD Standalone (aka desktop), and you record from TV, you can feet 4 hours on one disc, in about SVHS quality.
But if you use a DVD standalone to convert your VHS tapes to DVD R discs, then to succeed results virtually like the original tape, you must rise the bitrate and you end up with 2 Hours per disc.

This happens because the VHS tapes have a noise a TV transmission don't has. And the more "clean" the source is, the better compression. It needs less bitrate. And the less bitrate, the more on a Disc!

[WaxDeo]

Have you had any incompatibility problems with +R in other DVD players?

No problems so far...

[Zeluis]

If you use a DVD Standalone (aka desktop), and you record from TV, you can feet 4 hours on one disc, in about SVHS quality.

I didn't explain myself correctly. It's not that I want to convert 4-hour VHS tapes to DVDs - it's that I usually use 4-hour tapes to record 2-hour films:
- I don't trust the showing times announced by the TV channels, as sometimes they begin showing a picture about 1 hour later than announced! - or half an hour earlier...
- So if I want to record a picture announced for 1:30 AM (at which time I'm sleeping), I set up a program to begin recording at 1:00 AM, and set the end time after 5:00 AM, so the tape reaches the end and rewinds automatically.
- With DVD, I would want to set up my recording programs in a similar manner. Now you say I can feed 4 hours directly from TV into DVD, with good quality: I'm happy! I like that!

So I understand I have two choices:
- I can use a recorder with hard disk, and afterwards record directly into a R disc, or,
- I can use a non-hard-disk recorder, to capture from TV into RW discs, then connect my DVD player to the recorder and record the picture in a R disc,
in both cases, skipping the parts before & after the picture (and possibly the commercials).

Can I hear some opinions on the pros and cons of each approach?

[Lucien]

I think the 2nd approach is bad as if I understand correctly you will connect those 2 using analog cables which in turn will cause more loss of quality. Also since it's probably 4 hours you record on DVD you're already using high compression.

Hard disk recorder definitely seems the way to go. However not sure if the Philips HDRW720 is a great machine. First of all I didn't have great quality with DVDR72 in 2/4 hour mode (they may have improved on that), 2nd there's no flex recording so you can't optimize the recording to exactly fit on 1 disc.

Another thing to check if you need to have a TBC (like JVC). Don't have experience with this but with my computer I definitely get dropped frames from VHS and need to be careful with audio sync issues.

If not you could also check the Sharp DV-HR300 which is quite cheap (around $450). But again I'd double-check if you can do without the TBC (don't have that experience).

[Zeluis]

Thank you, Lucien

[handyguy]

I read Philips stop when they detect snow in a signal, did they ever change that?

Also, left column, dvd players or writers, should have a recorders section. I wish they kept it in it's own section as they did before.

[Zeluis]

Handyguy,
can't tell - I don't think I've come across snow yet.