Best upgrade for this year?

[westbrookmedia]

I currently own a Pioneer DVR-210 and it has been working fairly well. I haven't used it a ton. It's been a sideline to transfer a few VHS, 8mm and DV tapes to DVD. WIth the exception of some faulty media, the discs have played on everyones DVD player (beginners luck?). The -RW discs never worked. I'm looking to upgrade now and want to buy a machine with the best transfer quality and compatibility with other DVD players. I plan on doing a lot more of these transfers.

Anyone doing transfers to DVD (these are home vidoes of course) being distributed to the massive possibilities of DVD players out there? What's working for you?

I have read through the DVD player faults posting and I didn't see much in the way of play back compatibility issues.

[lordsmurf]

JVC DR-M100S

[westbrookmedia]

Thank you. I just checked out the postings here and the JVC web site and it looks good.... except it only records -R. Not an issue until I bump into someone who cannot play -R on their player (like my mother). When I am burning DVD's on my PC, the solution is easy... I just burn it to a +R.

What's the easiest way to take the -R from the JVC and create a +R for exceptions?

[lordsmurf]

Just burn a copy onto a DVD+R on the PC. Use a DVD-RW if you don't want to waste a DVD-R middleman disc. You can re-use the RW discs.

You will not find a DVD recorder that does DVD-R and DVD+R and .... and..... has high quality. Quality first, discs second. Easy to make a new disc for the few people who will be unable to use DVD-R.

[westbrookmedia]

You will not find a DVD recorder that does DVD-R and DVD+R and .... and..... has high quality. Quality first, discs second. Easy to make a new disc for the few people who will be unable to use DVD-R. Just burn a copy onto a DVD+R on the PC. Use a DVD-RW if you don't want to waste a DVD-R middleman disc. You can re-use the RW discs.

Absolutely, makes sense. I reference your article on "nomorecoasters" for buying my media.

So, have you found that you can distribute these -R discs burned on the JVC to a large audience with few problems? I distributed DVD's burned on my PC Sony burner to over 60 people for a job I did for a school last year on -R and not one came back. (luck?) I need that kind of reliability

[lordsmurf]

I rarely use JVC discs as-is. I use it mostly as a capture device. Then edit out unneeded footage, and author with a nice menu or no menu. But the JVC discs as-is have never been a problem.

Just remember to hit PLAY or MENU when you put in the disc. It does not have a firstplay command. And then it auto-plays the first title if you hit PLAY, or it goes to the menu if you select the MENU button.

It's a nice, simple text-line menu with an attractive background. It does not have that clunky MS-DOS look of Panasonic. It also does not have the space-limiting thumbnails.

[KeepItSimple]

It's a nice, simple text-line menu with an attractive background. It does not have that clunky MS-DOS look of Panasonic. It also does not have the space-limiting thumbnails.

I like my animated Panasonic thumbnails with sound. In fact I take the discs burned on my JVC and finalize them in the Panny just so I can get those thumbnails instead of those older style JVC ones. After filling the disc up on the JVC there still seems to be plenty of space left for it.
See Panny and JVC can get along quite nicely!

Oh BTW the JVC records at 720x480 and the Panny DMR-ES10 at 704x480 but the JVC recorded/Panny finalized discs work!

[westbrookmedia]

I rarely use JVC discs as-is. I use it mostly as a capture device. Then edit out unneeded footage, and author with a nice menu or no menu. But the JVC discs as-is have never been a problem.

I'm sure it's already posted out there... could you point me to how you are doing this and what tools you are using with the JVC discs? This is something I would like to be able to do too. Can you also do this with DVD's recorded from non-DV sources??

I just perused through the documentation for this model and the manual indicates in the fine print that (for non-DV) "recorded quality will be less than original". Well, ok, when going from analog to MPEG2, isn't it always less? Since most of the tapes I get will be non-DV (8mm, VHS, Hi8) what is your opinion of the quality of the non-DV stuff?
Thanks in advance.

[westbrookmedia]

Lordsmurf -
Looking for the best quality and maximum compatibility with other DVD players, I purchased and received my JVC M100S. I set everything up, the dubbed a two hour standard 8mm tape, all went great, but the DVD won't play in my DVD player. Everything I have ever thrown at it (-R or +R) has played so far, but the JVC disks won't play. Any suggestions why it won't play or what to perhaps to change in the record settings? If it doesn't play on my recorder chances are good that someone I give a disk to won't play since the DVD's are going to so many different places. I must have high compatibility.

Please let me know if anything comes to mind regarding a setting that perhaps makes the disks more/less compatible.

It will play on the computer, on the JVC and on my Pinoeer DVR-210.

westbrook media

[JAB285]

I have a JVC M30s and I have made copies for at least fifteen people and never had any complaints. As long as I finalize the disc, people don't seem to have any problems.

It's a nice, simple text-line menu with an attractive background. It does not have that clunky MS-DOS look of Panasonic. It also does not have the space-limiting thumbnails.

I like my animated Panasonic thumbnails with sound. In fact I take the discs burned on my JVC and finalize them in the Panny just so I can get those thumbnails instead of those older style JVC ones. After filling the disc up on the JVC there still seems to be plenty of space left for it.
See Panny and JVC can get along quite nicely!

Oh BTW the JVC records at 720x480 and the Panny DMR-ES10 at 704x480 but the JVC recorded/Panny finalized discs work!

I'm afraid I don't understand this fellas. The M30 has clips with motion and sound. Don't all recorders have this?

[westbrookmedia]

I have a JVC M30s and I have made copies for at least fifteen people and never had any complaints. As long as I finalize the disc, people don't seem to have any problems.

So, I am wondering if I did something different or wrong...

I recorded a standard 8mm tape via composite to the JVC at default settings. Before I finalized, I added a title. I tried TDK, Ritek, and BeALL disks just in case media was an issue. They play in my Pioneer DVR210, a LiteOn from Costco, the computer and, of course, the JVC I recorded them on.

The DVD player it won't play on is an older one... it's played everything else I've recorded (-R or +R) on the computer and Pioneer. When I hit 'play' the message comes back as 'Disk is dirty' and it won't play.

Any suggestions? Do you think there is anything I can do differently?

[JAB285]

......Any suggestions? Do you think there is anything I can do differently?

The only thing we are doing different is that I'm using Sony media. I don't know if media is the reason for your problems. I've also got an older Sony dvd player that I've had for about five years and my JVC dvds play on that too. I've used the composite, SVHS and DV inputs with no problem. If your only having problem with one player and that player is an older one then it's probably the player at fault, not the JVC. I think you're automatically assuming you'll have trouble with other players because of the problem with the one at home. That may not be the case. This could be an isolated incident. Maybe the lens is dirty? Maybe your player is too old? I don't know for sure, I think it's your player.

BTW, Your Hi8 recordings are similar in resolution to svhs and should give you about 400 lines of resolution. They make great dvds on my M30. Very close to the DV ones. Some people even say just as good. In fact, some people prefer to use svhs and Hi8 rather than DV when making dvds . The vhs and 8mm make good dvds too, but the picture is better with the Hi8 and the svhs. You can't expect the same PQ from vhs and 8mm that you get from DV, svhs and Hi8.

[Mark F]

If your recording won't play on an older player, you may want to check if you are using VR-Mode. I have a JVC DR-M100S, and I can play back VR-Mode DVD-RWs made on it with my Pioneer DV-260, but not on my older Pioneer DV-250. Although I haven't yet tried it, I suspect the DV-250 would play it if I recorded in the Video mode.

[westbrookmedia]

I checked and I am not using VR mode, I am finalizing the disks... If the player is too old... what would be the problem? What part would not be compatible?

Edited:
I removed some information and questions since they were unrelated to original thread (the purchase of a DVD player) and I will post them elsewhere.