Trying to choose between Apex 9000 and Sharp DV-RW2U

[Buck9419]

Plan is to get an inexpensive tabletop DVD recorder as a replacement for a second VCR that died. So goal is for it to do what you do with a vcr but on DVD and be able to play the reuseable disk in another DVD player if the recording unit is not available. From what I have read here both these units produced good recordings but each have +'s and -'s in relation to one another. I know they have limited flexibility but I am just looking use it as a replacement for a vcr.

[mrlar]

Get the Sharp over the Apex.
See my recent post "For anyone interested, my comparison of home dvd recorders" just a few posts back.
I tried them all, wound up getting the Sharp.
The Apex had good video quality, but shipped unable to record VHS tapes. There is a firmware update for it, but it's cheaply made, and doesn't have a lot of features -- and what company would release a home dvd recorder unable to handle VHS tapes.

The Sharp is now $349 w/rebate from PCMall.com, you can't get much cheaper. The 2nd best machine (in my own opinion) was the Panasonic, but it didn't have the features of the Sharp, and didn't do RW (only RAM).

Anyway, if it were me (which it was) I bought the Sharp over the Apex. And I compared a bunch of them, see my recent post.

[mopar7]

my choices at this time would be the panasonic or the apex, I eliminated the sharp and the magnavox due to picture quality comments I have seen., I had a poor picture quality vcr many moons ago, it went back. At this time my apex's (3 of em'), are doing better then my friends pioneer, I will give it a chance, but only from Walmart or Target who both have 90 day return policies, probably around Christmas....

[Buck9419]

I am leaning toward the Apex since I could get it at Wallmart and it would be alot easier to return if there is a problem. The Sharp I would have to ship back.

[mopar7]

So far I haven't seen many complaints from actual apex owners, I don't mean the ones who bought it and immediately took it back without doing the firmware upgrade for tapes. I don't like the 30sec pause delay on the Sharp, like I want 30 secs of commercial if I record a show I will only get on tv. But everyone does have different needs

[Bob W]

Get the Sharp over the Apex.
See my recent post "For anyone interested, my comparison of home dvd recorders" just a few posts back.
I tried them all, wound up getting the Sharp.
The Apex had good video quality, but shipped unable to record VHS tapes. There is a firmware update for it, but it's cheaply made, and doesn't have a lot of features -- and what company would release a home dvd recorder unable to handle VHS tapes.

The Sharp is now $349 w/rebate from PCMall.com, you can't get much cheaper. The 2nd best machine (in my own opinion) was the Panasonic, but it didn't have the features of the Sharp, and didn't do RW (only RAM).

Anyway, if it were me (which it was) I bought the Sharp over the Apex. And I compared a bunch of them, see my recent post.

How do you get the rebate at PC Mall? If I click on the "buy now" button it says the price is $399 not $349.

If you can't record VHS tapes to DVDR with the Apex IMO that makes is useless.

[piano632]

You have to print out and mail in the rebate form to get the $50 back, which is on the same page where the Sharp recorder is. Click on "Save!" in flashing red letters to download the rebate form.

http://www.pcmall.com/pcmall/shop/detail.asp?dpno=137370&action=rap&promo_id=4313

[Bob W]

You have to print out and mail in the rebate form to get the $50 back, which is on the same page where the Sharp recorder is. Click on "Save!" in flashing red letters to download the rebate form.

http://www.pcmall.com/pcmall/shop/detail.asp?dpno=137370&action=rap&promo_id=4313

DUH thanks. I think I'm going to order the Sharp recorder today since I can't find it anywhere here in Reno, Nevada. I can live with the 30 second delay problem plus I assume they will fix this down the road with a firmware update.

[piano632]

I can live with the 30 second delay problem

It only delays on stopping however. It starts recording immediately within 1-2 seconds after you press record. When you press stop it keeps recording till it reaches a 30-second mark (either at :30 or :00). So in other words, if you press stop when the counter reads 59:39 - it will stop 21 seconds later at 60:00. If you press stop when the counter reads 29:25 - it will stop 5 seconds later at 29:30 You can PAUSE the recording at any time. I wouldn't consider this a major issue, since no recorder without a hard drive is going to start and stop perfectly on cue. :/

[lordsmurf]

If you can't record VHS tapes to DVDR with the Apex IMO that makes is useless.

Firmware upgrade fixes this.
http://www.apexdigitalinc.com/downloaddetail.asp?linenumber=3

My concerns are the 30-minute setup for new DVD media. I read in the Apex manual that a DVD+R could take "up to 30 min" in order "to prepare" the disc for use. What the hell is this? Besides money, that's why I don't have a recorder yet. I don't understand what this is for.

DVD recorder owners... does it really take 30 minutes to "prepare" a new disc? I'm not sure I can live with that. A VCR is still insert->record with no delays. And it's not just the Apex that says this, I've seen the warning in Pioneer and Panasonics too.

[piano632]

DVD recorder owners... does it really take 30 minutes to "prepare" a new disc?

I would hope that is a misprint! I can't speak for the Apex, but the Sharp doesn't seem to take more than a minute to initialize a new disc. Maybe they meant 30 seconds instead of 30 minutes.

[thoots]

DVD recorder owners... does it really take 30 minutes to "prepare" a new disc?

lordsmurf,

I think we can help you on this one!

I've got a Panasonic DMR-E50, and it sure doesn't take any excessive amount of time to "initialize" a blank disc. When you load a blank disc, the machine "reads" it, showing you a little onscreen box saying that it's "reading" the disc. You definitely have to wait until it's done reading the disc and deciding that it's ready to go, but this only takes a few seconds -- about the same time a DVD player takes when first loading a disc. I've never timed it, but this is maybe ten seconds or so.

Once the machine is done reading the disc, you just hit the "Record" button, and it starts recording immediately. Bottom line, I'd call it a few seconds longer than it takes a typical VHS machine to load up a tape and be ready to record, but really, "just a few seconds longer." Nothing to be worried about in the slightest.

The only other times you have to "wait" would be the following:

After starting a recording, you get a "new chapter" when you hit the "Stop" button, then hit the "Record" button to start recording again. As opposed to hitting the "Pause" button, which doesn't make a "new chapter" nor even a "chapter mark." At any rate, when you hit that "Stop" button, the machine has to finish "writing to the disc." This takes just a few seconds -- again, something less than ten seconds, I'd call it. The same thing happens when you get to the end of the available space on the disc -- it just stops recording, and finishes writing, again just a few seconds.

Finally, when you're done recording a disc, you'll "Finalize" it to make it compatible with other DVD players. I've been making one-hour "XP" recordings, and it takes four minutes to "Finalize" each disc. Before you do this step, though, you'll usually want to set a name for the disc, and name any chapters that you've made. I usually name the disc right at the beginning, before starting to record on it, rather than waiting until the end to do it

That's the story in regards to "waiting" for a Panasonic recorder to do something. Absolutely nothing that I'd call a "show stopper" in regards to getting one of these machines!

thoots

[lordsmurf]

Thanks for the info.

That "30-minute" thing just blew me away. Since I'd never owned one, and only seen pre-used discs when testing, I didn't know any different. I think I'll get around to buying one of these sooner than later. Just need a bit more cash. Maybe a good sale.

[thoots]

lordsmurf,

Yeah, the standalones (at least as far as the Panasonic machines are concerned) are really pretty similar in operation to normal old VCR's. There's nothing really strange or difficult with them -- you just add the parts where you get to make chapters and give them names, give the discs themselves names, and then the few minutes at the end to "finalize" the disc when you're done.

I'm definitely happy with my Panny E50!

thoots

[Bob W]

lordsmurf,

Yeah, the standalones (at least as far as the Panasonic machines are concerned) are really pretty similar in operation to normal old VCR's. There's nothing really strange or difficult with them -- you just add the parts where you get to make chapters and give them names, give the discs themselves names, and then the few minutes at the end to "finalize" the disc when you're done.

I'm definitely happy with my Panny E50!

thoots

Is that the E50 or is it the E50s? also I see an E50k so whats the difference with all the similar model nembers?

[piano632]

Is that the E50 or is it the E50s? also I see an E50k so whats the difference with all the similar model nembers?

No difference except for the color:
s = silver color
k = black color
h = has hard drive

On another note, I have timed the initialization process on the Sharp. With -RW discs it takes 20 seconds to "load" the disc once the tray is closed (this is to see if there's anything previously recorded on an unfinalized disc). If the disc is new, it takes another 30 seconds to "initialize" the disc before it can use it. After eject is pressed, it takes about 5 seconds to write the last recorded position on the disc (so it knows where to start recording when the disc is inserted later). This all applies to unfinalized -RW discs. It takes 3-5 minutes to finalize a disc in most cases. Finalized discs will load almost immediately.

[next]

It looks like the manual writers may have confused "30 minutes" with "30 seconds". 30 seconds sounds right and seems to be consistant across brands.

[mrlar]

Just a few notes:
The 30-second stop delay on the Sharp is ONLY in DVD-R mode. If you use it in VR mode with an RW-disc, you can stop when you want (I believe so.. most of my recordings have been with -Rs). Again, each machine I tried had flaws. I didn't like the Pana's inflexibility with chapter markings, and it not being able to use RW. In the end I picked the Sharp. The Apex seemed like junk to me (felt like junk, seemed like junk). I was fair when I wrote I was impressed with its video quality (of course at the time it could NOT work with any VCR -- a new firmware update will supposedly fix it) but the quality of the Apex was no better than the Sharp or Panasonic. IMHO, I rated the video quality of the Sharp, Panasonic, and Apex as the same (excellent). It was only the Philips/Magnavox I noticed was sub-standard (actually, really really bad). But the Apex just seemed like junk. And.. what kind of product makes it to market when you can't even hook a VCR up to it to work right? Sorry, but especially considering the Apex isn't $150, it's $375 or thereabouts (the same price as the others), I don't see a reason to get it over the much better made Sharp or Panasonics. Just my own opinion.

As for the price of the Sharp, maybe they took the rebate away? I don't work for PCMall. I bought mine from Goodguys.com when it was on sale for $399, no tax, no shipping. Then a week or two ago PCMall.com had it for $399 - $50 rebate = $349. Maybe the rebate's over? ANyway, this was just for price comparison to show that you can get a good unit for the same or less as the Apex.
MrLar

[thxkid]

by the way if you hit stop on the Pannys they stop(except the 30 sec writing time), no extra time and once a disc is loaded they start when you hit record no time delay either and rams have no time delay once stop is hit either and rams can be erased any where on the dics you want from 30 seconds to length of the program and that spaced then can be used to record on again as a whole, meaning if you cut 7 different places on a ram that time is totaled up so you can use it again as one time recording, great when I am trying to get videos only from GAC.

[draganong]

I have an Apex 9000. I have used so far only +RW disks. There is no 30 minute delay on anything and it records quite well off the VCR after the FW upgrade.

[thoots]

One more piece for this thread:

I timed the "initialization" time for my Panasonic E50 -- from the time I pushed the button to load a blank DVD-R disc, to the time the machine showed that it was ready to record, was right around 20 seconds.