A response I received on another board, after I asked about long titles, text-only menus, and the possibility of having different menu configurations (number of thumbnails per screen):

I think you will like this answer..

On the Pioneer 53x/633

the finalized menu has 3 options

1) 3 Vertical thumbnails,with 3 vertical boxes of 2 20 char lines.

2) 4 Thumbs in a quad with 2 20 char lines under each.

3) 6 Thumbs 3 per line w 2 20 char lines under each

each option has 3 color pattern choices

On the normal HDD/DVD menu the first 34 characters always display with the final 6 on a second display. You input names using the Cell phone keypad and it doesn't take much to learn to use it quickly. The input line is 40 chars long but char 21 lines up with other graphics on the screen so its easy to split the line accurately.

There is no text menu.

You can record your videos to HDD and then copylist them (all at once) to DVD-R at high speed (up to 12X) you can then use the disk backup feature to replicate your -R's at high speed.. copy image once to hdd at hi speed then copy to as many blank -R's as you like at hi speed.

Additionally you can record your music in LCPM mode rather than compressed Dolby for maximum audio quality at 1 hour per DVD-R or 1.8 hours per DL DVD-R which the 53x/633 supports.

And if you do edit your videos, you can do so accurately and seamlessly on this DVR by following my instructions on the thread "SUCCESS!! Clean NLE Edits on DVR"

Enjoy!
Well, I've decided that there is no one "perfect" solution, so I've opted to have two recorders. For the time being, I'm going to keep the Toshiba, and leave it hooked up to my home theater system for recording Dish, and dubbing VHS, with the DVD-RAM option to port to PC for editing.

Based on your comments above (and the fact that the 533 supports dual-layer burning, if and when the media price comes down), I'm going to audition a Pioneer 533. OneCall has it on sale for $359.10 net, including 3-day FedEx shipping. I'll set up another system for doing laserdisc and VHS dubbing and try it. I only wish the Pioneer units supported DVD-RAM. *sigh*

Query #1: With the two lines of title space, is there a way to insert a line break, or must you pad with spaces to force content down onto the second line? I figure that rather than take the chance of "Artist - Song Title" breaking at an inopportune position, that a standard of 1st Line: "Artist" 2nd Line: "Song Title" would work as well, if not better.

Query #2: I'm still using an ancient version of Ulead MovieFactory 2 to do my editing on the PC (hey, it works and its a workflow I'm used to). The workflow is outlined step by step here: http://www.thewholewideweb.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=500. I tried this same workflow with a DVD-RAM from the Toshiba and it worked fine. However, when I tried using the same workflow extracting video from a finalized DVD-R from the Toshiba, it fell over. The final product produced no audio, just video. Is there a different authoring approach and/or software package that I need to be looking at to use .VOB files for the video source? Are there any inherent advantages or disadvantages to authoring from a DVD-RAM .VRO file as opposed to a DVD-R .VOB file?

Thanks,

-Dan