Terapin comments

[telemike]

I bought a Terapin a month ago and am pretty well satisfied with it. I have foudn that the S-Video input picks up some distortion effects from macrovision, I notice some intermittent blurring from the high input level that macrovision puts out at certain video frequencies. The RCA input does not seem to ahve this problem. The video looks pretty decent on my 43" HDTV monitor as well. For $260 this is a nice video machine that uses real cheap medie.

[jimkis]

I've had the Terapin for about 2 weeks and have been happily backing up tapes and other media. Results are quite decent -- depending on the source material. I burned a VCD of a Showtime special I taped in 1984 (that's right, 18 years ago!) -- and it turned out fine. In fact, looks better than the old tape! The Terapin does not seem to notice macro-encoding on some sources -- so far.
I've had good results with Imation 80 minute CD-Rs. I've tried some unbranded ones and the Terapin rejected them (after seeming to burn on them). It will not recognize my 90 minute or 99 minute CD-Rs, however.
It took me a while to learn how to get it to record, and I'm still trying to figure out how to create menus, but otherwise I'm very satisfied with the Terapin. I use it as well as a DVD burner -- as it is often more economical to burn on a CD-R -- when quality is not a big issue. The Terapin is a good investment and you can get one for under $250 on ebay most days!