DVD Video to HDD which recorder?

[BernieR]

Hello,

1. Which DVD recorders with HDD allows recording of NON encripted commercial video DVD's or DVD-R's to be copied to the hard drive?

2. Which DVD recorders with HDD allows recording of a NON encripted DVD movie which is playing in the DVDrecorder to be recorded at will? For example while the DVD is playing in the recorder and outputing the movie to the monitor I want to be able to push the record button and record one small clip off the DVD to the HDD.


thanks!

Bernie

[Frobozz]

The Pioneer DVR-420H and DVR-520H do the first but not the second. However, it will do a high speed copy to the hard drive so it doesn't take long to duplicate the movie to the hard drive from which you can edit the clip you want.

[Captain Satellite]

You can do both with A Panasonic. Note: He said record/copy not dub.

[Frobozz]

I need to correct my previous post on this subject regarding the Pioneer units. If the DVD is finalized then the high speed copy to the hard drive is not available. With finalized discs, individual Titles can be separately copied in real time to the hard drive, each in their entirety. Therefore, the Pioneer models are not a good choice for what you want to do.

[BernieR]

Thanks.

Interesting! So lets take for example a commercial pressed DVD movie NON encripted. Can either the pioneer or the panny make a bit for bit copy of such to HDD ?

and if the answer is no, why not? Legal issues or restrictions or ???

thanks!

Bernie

[Frobozz]

Other than what I mentioned above, the Pioneer can make bit-for-bit duplicates of non-encrypted DVDs. It copies them as a disc image to the hard drive, asks you to eject the DVD and lets you make additional copies. However, you cannot play or edit the disc image that is on the hard drive.

[BernieR]

Fro,

you cant even play the disc image??

Bernie

[Frobozz]

That's right, Bernie.
Maybe it will help to point out there are three copy options available with the Pioneer DVR:
1. HDD to DVD.
2. DVD to HDD.
3. DVD to DVD.

High speed copying is available with options 1 and 2 under certain conditions. Otherwise the copying is in real time. High speed is always available for option 3 but there is no way to play what's written to the hard drive as part of the DVD duplication.

[nmtk]

That's right, Bernie.
Maybe it will help to point out there are three copy options available with the Pioneer DVR:
1. HDD to DVD.
2. DVD to HDD.
3. DVD to DVD.

High speed copying is available with options 1 and 2 under certain conditions. Otherwise the copying is in real time. High speed is always available for option 3 but there is no way to play what's written to the hard drive as part of the DVD duplication.

Under what conditions is high speed copying with #2 possible? I just tried it without success on both a finalized and unfinalized Video Mode disc which I'd originally made on the Pio... did I do something wrong?

And, to clarify, both for Bernie and for myself... real time copying is undesirable because it's not really a copy anymore, it's a re-encode?

[Frobozz]

I was able to do a high speed copy from a VR-mode DVD-RW, and this probably is the only format that works for high speed copying from DVD to HD on the Pioneer DVR-510H-S.

Real-time copying is re-encoding the video. Pioneer points out that real-time copying at a frame rate greater than the original will not improve the video quality. Therefore, it can only be near the same or worse depending on what setting you choose. Now I'm curious what happens if the original is recorded at 320X480 and you copy at a 640 X 480 setting. Does this result in a 320 X 480 video or a 640 X 480 video? It's worth some experimenting.

Another note: the DVD to DVD copying only works for finalized video mode DVDs.

[TomJones]

Frobozz,

Wish I knew your secret trick for doing the high speed copy of a VR-mode DVD-RW. The manual specifically says this is possible, but when I attempt it a "cannot complete copy" message is given. A real time copy will be allowed.

Real pleased with my 420H from Costco. But I don't understand why DVDRs are so restrictive about getting 1st generation non-encrypted titles on the HDD. Software packages like Nero allow complete control over this type of material. Why should hardware devices be any different?

[Frobozz]

I Don't have any secret trick. But I agree the whole copying thing is funky. I had a movie on a VR DVD-RW that I decided I wanted on a finalized Video mode DVD-R. The Pioneer wouldn't let me to a DVD-to-DVD copy so I chose DVD to HDD and the High-Speed option came up as the default. After I copied to the hard drive, the Pioneer would not let me burn back to a DVD in high speed, however. Apparently there is some information the recorder writes when it is recording in real time that isn't there after a high-speed copy. So I had to resort to writing the new DVD-R with a real-time copy.

The manual describes the high speed feature as "you can transfer back and forth without having to worry about the quality getting worse with each copy 'generation'." Their meaning of "back and forth" is quite different from mine.

[ChrisX]

Hello,

1. Which DVD recorders with HDD allows recording of NON encrypted commercial video DVD's or DVD-R's to be copied to the hard drive?

2. Which DVD recorders with HDD allow recording of a NON encrypted DVD movie which is playing in the DVD recorder to be recorded at will? For example while the DVD is playing in the recorder and outputting the movie to the monitor I want to be able to push the record button and record one small clip off the DVD to the HDD.

thanks!

Bernie

My DVD recorder, a Pioneer DVR-510H can do both 1. and 2.

On the 1. the recorder can do this in ‘real time only’ as I press ‘One Touch Copy’ on the remote control to copy a DVD disc or a finalized DVD-R disc when playing it.

It goes back to start when beginning to copy.

On the 2. can be done from an external DVD player on a small clip and unable to do so on its own and only can do a full copy as on 1. above.

If you do a full copy, you can then edit the recording for that clip only.

However, this depends on the DVD disc played due to the nature of copy protection system in the unit, CPRM.

This really depends if the disc got copy protection on it and not necessarily having Macrovision or not.

I don't think I'll bother too much on copying on something I own unless I want to backup on it.

ChrisX