No REc pause, bad ommision

[kevs]

I did notice when I got my new Sony recorder there was no record pause. If you are dubbing from a vhs tape you must hit stop, then wait, and create new title.

Now I went into circuit city and sales guy said this is normal for most units, only that Sony may take longer than most to write to disk.-- so I let it go.

But today, was just looking at reviews of unit, and a lot of people complaining about lack of this feature. Wondering, is this a crazy ommision from Sony or par for the course?

[samijubal]

I've never used one that doesn't pause on record.

[kevs]

So have you seen the Sony? what is your opinion of this?

[ACLUguy]

Kevs,
cnet.com has a great deal of in depth reviews that you can compare to the reviews here.

Among, the major problems they outlined with the recent Sony's was this exact drawback.

The Panny i have (DMR-ES25, chosen over the Sony GX330) will pause. When you pause and then resume recording: it simply makes a new chapter after the pause point (specifically on +R/-R/non-RW disks, it creates a new chapter... on RW and Ram disks you can edit and create chapters). Of course you can compile any disks and edit them on the comp.

It seems to be a common feature with Sony's, and their quality (while being superior to VHS) isn't as good as other brands.

Frankly, as many have outlined Panny's are not always the best of quality, but when you compare VHS to pretty much any DVD recorder, you will find that they all surpass the quality of VHS.

It's a matter of function, ease of use and what exactly you are looking for in your recorder of choice. If you are still able to exchange, i would look for a Panny (easy to use, good quality), Pioneer (great quality, fairly easy to use) or the whole JVC vs Toshiba vs Polaroid debate.

I hope that rambling helps a bit,
ACLU guy

[samijubal]

So have you seen the Sony? what is your opinion of this?

I haven't used Sony. I'm not a Sony fan, I don't own anything made by them.

[kevs]

ACLU
thanks, panny is panasonic, right? I tested one, and the layout was not nearly as easy and fluid as Sony. could you please provide the cnet link on that review for me? thanks

when you hit pause, how long is the wait to record again? you have to wait for writing, right?

still what you are saying is that the Sony which does not pause, it's an asinine ommission, right?
Like building a car without air, or electric windows, it's nuts or is some hidden logic? How could they do that then. This isn't Bob's DVD players, it's Sony,-- unless that have a good reason, we can't figure out?

[ACLUguy]

ACLU
thanks, panny is panasonic, right? I tested one, and the layout was not nearly as easy and fluid as Sony. could you please provide the cnet link on that review for me? thanks

Yep Panny is Panasonic

The Panasonic's are extremely user-friendly, aside from the medium you are recording on and the finalizing after record, it's the same as a VCR (but a somewhat-new layout to learn)...

when you hit pause, how long is the wait to record again? you have to wait for writing, right?

When you pause a recording and then resume, i don't see any time elapsed from pressing the resume button to the time recording starts again. What it does is makes a new chapter/title on the menu (like you would get making a menu in nero or on a purchased/rented dvd chapter list [several images]) (example of 6 chapters : http://www.dreamscapes.ie/Images/DVD%20Chapters.jpg )

The thing is, after you record, and use the disk management menu (under functions) you will see three options, among finalizing there is "where disk starts playing." You can set it to start playing with those chapter menus or with the first title. If you chose first title, (ie: autoplay) you will never even see the new chapters it makes (making this paragraph really moot and only an elaboration on what it does to menus when you pause and resume). After all, when you finalize a disk it will create chapters to skip to every 4 minutes in the disk... Sorry i digressed and rambled for a moment.

still what you are saying is that the Sony which does not pause, it's an asinine ommission, right?
Like building a car without air, or electric windows, it's nuts or is some hidden logic? How could they do that then. This isn't Bob's DVD players, it's Sony,-- unless that have a good reason, we can't figure out?

I have no idea why they made the recorders like this. It does seem idiotic and a sign of inept engineering.

I hope that helps, the wild were playing tonight so it has been beer o'clock for a while. If any of this is incoherent or is in need of elaboration, let me know, i'd be glad to answer more.

ACLU guy

Postscript: here is the link to the sony GX330 review on Cnet, it shows user opinions where several mention the lack of record-pausing...
Sony GX330: http://google-cnet.com.com/Sony_RDR_GX330/4505-9141_7-31789597.html?tag=sub

The unit i use (same as es15 but with HDMI or 45 but without VHS): http://google-cnet.com.com/Panasonic_DMR_ES25S/4505-9141_7-31904063.html?tag=coco

Post-Postscript: Those were the two recorders i had broken my choices down to on the basis of my needs and price concerns. If you want to spend more or get a HDD recorder, the Pioneer 640H-S looks spectacular. Others will point to LG as another top brand, or polaroids / jvc / toshibas.

Sadly, Sony really isn't a top tier recorder (maybe when it comes to blu-ray or HD-DVD they will be first to innovate, but they are not leading the curve in DVD recorders now... Panny was the number one, and still has a huge following at avs forums, but others have surpassed them marginally in quality. (when compared to vhs there is still no comparison)

final thought: make sure you finalize your disks after you record, this is a pivitol point to be made, which has been made again and again here. Best of luck my friend!

LATE EDIT: I believe i may have been wrong when i stated that pausing creates a new title/chapter. It may be the stop button that creates a new chapter/title when you start recording again. Sorry for the confusion, i have yet to really screw around with RW/Ram disks while pausing or stopping.

[kevs]

Thanks AC