DUAL-LAYER standalone dvd-recorders

[Pedro Neves]

Hello:

I am not sure if i should use a standalone dvd recorder or if i should use a capture devicer connected to my PC. My main concern is related with the final quality of the video. Some people tell me that the standalone dvd recorders give much better quality. Is this true??

What about dual-layer standalone dvd recorders, are they in the market?? When are these recorders supposed to be produced???

Thanks in advance

Regards,
Pedro Neves

[twodogs]

What is your source? TV, VHS, DV Camera?

[Pedro Neves]

It depends. Usually, my sources are mainly the TV and VHS tapes.

What do you think?

And the dual-layer dvd-recorders, are there any chance of being expected in the market?

Pedro Neves

[lordsmurf]

DVD recorder "better" than PC route? No, not really. This depends on equipment and user knowledge. A DVD recorder simply allow those that know nothing to also make DVDs. Or for those that do know something, to make it easier. Hey, even I have two of them!

Dual layer recorders? Fat chance. Not anytime soon.

[Pedro Neves]

Thanks fo replying

I have a PCI capture card Pinnacle Studio AV/DV Deluxe and i am not very happy with it. When i see the capture in my TV, the result is satisfactory. But when i see the capture on my PC it is very bad. On the other hand, a friend of mine has a standalone dvd recorder (Yamada DVR8000) and it gives a very good result (in the PC and in the TV). Is it my Pinnacle pci card that is a zero?

Resuming, do you think i should by a good stanalone dvd-recorder or another external device (for example, studio moviebox or other one that is good) to capture?

Thanks

Regards,
Pedro Neves

[yoda313]

Hello,

I get excellent captures in dvd mode with my hauppauge wintv pvr250. I think it probably is the capture card. The pc can produce excellent dvd when the source material is captured/authored correctly.

Kevin

[jg0001]

I'd have to agree that dual-layer CONSUMER standalone DVD-recs may be a little while in the making. Key reason -- dual layer blanks are very expensive. Nevertheless, they should start showing up in 3-6 months.

For SIMPLE, ease of use - but not a lot of customization, a standalone DVD recorder will be MUCH easier for most people. Unless you like playing with tons of settings, dealing with innumerable shareware programs, etc., you'll find that to be a safe bet.

I (and many others) don't mind the tinkering and do record our own things using our PCs. For everyone that has a good, working, solution, there are surely 5-10 others that have constant conversion, a/v sync, burning, authoring problems, etc.

I've been through about 8 TV capture cards. Frankly I like my Creative Digital VCR the best HOWEVER, trying to make the recordings into DVDs is a nightmare. My recently acquired ATI AIW 9800 PRO seems to do a very NICE, simple job of making DVD compliant videos BUT both the non-All-In-Wonder ATI capture cards (I have both the new TV PRO one and the one prior to that) had constant problems and never recorded both audio and video without some sort of glitch.

The SIMPLEST most foolproof way to get good TV video recorded to your PC? Use an analog audio/video TO DV converter that plugs into your PC via firewire. The canopus 100 seems to be a favorite, I have another brand and like it as well. You'll then have an easily edittable video, but you'll have to run it through some program to convert to DVD compliant MPEG2 (which takes a lot of time), and then use another program to burn it.

Don't like all the work? Buy a standalone. Simple.

[Pedro Neves]

And the final result of the standalone dvd-recorder is perfect? Or the Canopus will produce a better result?

Regards,
Pedro Neves

[lordsmurf]

Converting VHS with DV tends to leave color artifacts. Some people cannot see them but I can. It's a 4:1:1 problem.

A good recorder (JVC) tends to make flawless discs, and the pre filters also clean it a bit too.

[Pedro Neves]

But the JVC only works with -R media. What do you recommend using +R media??

Do you have an opinion of the Yamada DVR8000 or about the Philips DVR70???

Thanks

Regards,
Pedro Neves

[Byronleehk]

Hopefully by the time the DVD recs are available, the blank DL media will be less than $5/each (wishful thinking) :P

[Pedro Neves]

Regarding the dvd+r standalone dvd recorders, what do you think i should buy?

Pedro Neves

[lordsmurf]

Why must you insist on a certain kind of media?
Are you more concerned about the quality, or the discs?

[Pedro Neves]

I am sorry to be boring...it was not that my intention.

I normally use dvd+r media, but i will follow your advice and start to use dvd-r media.

I will try to catch a JVC somewhere in a store here in Portugal...i live in a small country

Thanks

Regards,
Pedro Neves

[jg0001]

The quality of the standalone players that I have heard about has been very good. The bonus that any monkey can use these players is key.

Trying to use a PC to do the same job is certainly possible, and you could probably achieve the same video quality, but beating it (noticeably) will take enough know-how that IF you have to ask, you probably do not have. Unless you want to invest quite a bit of time tinkering, go with the standalone.

Regarding -R and +R, if you use a standalone and really have to have the finished product in the other media type, simply use a PC DVD recorder to copy it to the other type. That isn't hard at all.

[gshelley61]

Another big advantage the JVC DVD recorder has is that it also captures in standard DVD-Video format to rewritable -RW's...

You can always rip the contents of the recorded -RW to your computer, edit it, re-author and burn to a final DVD on whatever type of disc you like - all with no quality loss at all. That's what I do.

I'm a convert from about two years of fiddling around with computer capturing, editing, filtering, frameserving, encoding, authoring and burning video-to-DVD projects. It is a very time consuming way to get the job done.

I now use the DVD recorder as a real time hardware MPEG2 capturing device that happens to store files on optical discs. I also have been experimenting with various hardware video processing amplifiers, filters and correctors to avoid time consuming computer software filtering and correction of less than great sources. So far, the results are very encouraging.