JVC DR-MH30s Overwriting problem

[piannetta]

Hi there,

Let me start by saying I love this machine, works really well.

My only gripe is the fact that unless you physically select "title save", there doesn't seem to be any way of preventing it from automatically overwriting previous recorded items.

My wife and I travel a lot and with such a high capacity device, we thought it would solve the problem of being able to record heaps of shows but only having a max. 5 hour VHS tape. This machine can record heaps while we're away, but because it's not smart enough to detect that a previous recording hasn't been watched, it doesn't really solve the problem at all.

Unless I haven't figured it out properly, does anyone have any advice? Am I missign something or is this a design flaw with the machine?

Ta,
Pete

[tangerine]

You have a week for watching a show. If that is not long enough you have to make individual recordings to keep them longer.

[piannetta]

Thanks Tangerine. We're often away for longer than a week. I guess the point is, the machine knows it's a new recording, so why does it overwrite it?

I just think it's strange and poor design.

Pete

[donpedro]

I could not believe that there is machine like that so I read manual and it seem that JVC made the BIG MISTAKE with this overwrite function.

I bought Pioneer HDD DVD recorder (one of the reasons) to "fix" VCR problem with capacity when I am on 3 weeks vacation. And it does just that. It keeps all the episodes from each day.

If you still have a chance... return it and go with another brand that lets you see all episodes of your favorite show while on vacation.

Realy, realy bad design....

[Stampe]

When you program timer recording and choose the daily or weekly option I'm pretty sure you get the option of overwrite or don't overwrite. It works for me.

[donpedro]

Based on manual there are two options... (I will pick mon-sun for example)

1. MON– SUN (FOR A WEEK) - in this case Moday recording from second week will overwrite Monday recording from first week and so on...

2. MON– SUN (OVERWRITE) - in this case recording will be overwritten every day.

So only recomendation will be to set (in case of 3 weeks vacation) 3 timer recording MON– SUN (FOR A WEEK) with start and end date only for one week.

So it does ovewrite allways difference is only in frequency.
Stampe, maybe you can test it and let us know if it does same think on your recorder.

[tangerine]

Based on my DR-MH20 (I guesss it is the same machine with 80GB HDD)
there are 8 options.

1. ONCE
2. WEEKLY(OVERWRITE)
3. MON-SUN(FOR A WEEK)
4. MON-SAT(FOR A WEEK)
5. MON-FRI(FOR A WEEK)
6. MON-SUN(OVERWRITE)
7. MON-SAT(OVERWRITE)
8. MON-FRI(OVERWRITE)


donpedro is right. If one wants to record (i.e.) a serial for 3 weeks, (starting next monday, and broadcasted on weekdays) then he has to setup 3 recordings "MON-FRI(FOR A WEEK)"
First is at 3rd Oct., the second is at 10th Oct, and the third is at 17th Oct.
So you will have 15 records on 21st Oct. (corrected)

[JAB285]

donpedro is right. If one wants to record (i.e.) a serial for 3 weeks, (starting next monday, and broadcasted on weekdays) then he has to setup 3 recordings "MON-FRI(FOR A WEEK)"
First is at 3rd Oct., the second is at 10th Oct, and the third is at 17th Oct.
So you will have 15 records on 17th Oct.


teh firs

Good works guys. You had me worried for a moment. So it is possible to record for three weeks or four or five or whatever. It is just more involved because you have to program each week individually. It's more time consuming, but it does work. One of the reasons I bought this unit was the large hard drive and the it's ability to store many programs. It would have been unfortunate to have been limited to only one week of recordings.

[donpedro]

Tell you the truth... I like Pioneers way much better. I have to setup timer recording only ones and if the series go on for a year... I am set. No need to worry about it every week or so Still big MINUS in my eyes for JVC

[JAB285]

Well of course you like the Pioneers way much better. You've got one after all. But the original question was whether it will work on the MH30. For all of us that like our JVCs, it's good to know that it will work on our machines. I would hate to have to throw mine away. I've gotten kind of use to it.

[piannetta]

Thanks very much everyone, your time is really appreciated. I really should have thought of these suggestions myself - guess I just needed to think more.

Much more relieved about my JVC. I do have to still agree with Donpedro that it's bad design on the part of JVC - at least there's a worka round, but Pioneer seem to have nailed it functionally.

Thanks again to you all

Pete