HELP ! Frustrated with settops!!!

[wolfdon]

OK can someone please shed some light on my problems. I have a cheap ilo recorder that says it records with DVD+R +RW discs. I have tried repeatedly to get it to work. I can record and playback only on this machine. Even after finalizing my DVDs rarely work on other units or work sporadically. So I try DVD-Rs Guess what !!! They recorded OK and played back on all my other players.......... untill I decided to go for the BIG production and filled the DVD up to capacity and take the time to fumble through making all those menu titles with the tiny remote...... then I get the message ERROR !!!!!! Disc not compatible !!! Question !!!! if I spend more $$$$$ and buy a 300-400 unit will these problems be solved ?

[solidsnake]

I have an Ilo dvdr04 and i've never had a problem like you had. I think the ilo dvdr05 is a crappy recorder, but idk i dont have any personal experience with that or cyberhome (which i believe are the same thing) Maybe the +r discs are not compatible with your dvd players, I know my toshiba absolutely will not play +discs from either my dvd recorder or pc dvd burner. It plays dvd -dash media perfectly however, and I have players that can't play dash media but plays plus media. And I have dvd players that will play both.

I'd bet you'd have a better experience with a better quality recorder

[gshelley61]

Your ilo (Lite-On) DVD recorder is a +R/RW machine only. -R/RW media will not work.

Try using higher quality blank media, and play back the discs in DVD players that can accept a wide range of burned media. Some (especially older DVD players) can't.

With Lite-On/ilo/Gateway units I've always had good luck with the Maxell +RW's available at Wal Mart.

Lite-On machines (and their clones) are generally not the most reliable units. For entry level models, I like the Toshiba D-R4 and the Panasonic DMR-ES20.

[wolfdon]

But Shelly61 - re-read my post - I will throw the whole stack of -R media out the window if I was not telling the truth about the -Rs DVDs recording and working in this +R machine . They worked, and I created 4 menus and they all played flawlessly. I am going to try burning again and keeping space available in the 2hr mode rather than pushing the storage to the max - room for finalizing data !

[gshelley61]

I'm not doubting that the DVD-R's recorded for you. The burner in these units is quad format (the All Write units have the same burner, in fact)

The unit's firmware is not really set up to support DVD-R, that's all.

[wolfdon]

Well , I must admit I have now created 3 DVDs with menus using the ilo DVDR05 using DVD- R medium. I am finding that my discs play back in more players than using the DVD+Rs as required by this unit so go figure. I do find though that I cannot pack the discs to max capacity or they fail.

[LCSHG]

Had the 05 ZU, MU, MU1 now have a Cyberhome 1200. All the Same machine. All are + disk units. None would have anything to do with a - disk. Some have reported that a - disk works better but I've never had any luck with them. (The ZU was not a good machine) The rest are fine if you don't try to use them on MV/CP

I have run into some machines that will not play a +RW but will play a +R and some that will not play either.

All the machines that will not play a + disk were older units.

I also have two ilo RHD04, a Go video combo and an a 5 yr old Apex 3201 none have any problem with +R/RW disks. This Apex is MV free and plays just about anything. None have any problem with a + disk

If I bookmark the +R/RW disks they will play in about 95% of the machines that wouldn't play them before.

[wolfdon]

Thanks ! Just wondering what you mean by bookmarking the +R discs ??

[oldfart13]

He means change the book type. Most new software allows the burner (if supported) to change the book type from "DVD +R" to "DVD-ROM" mimicing a pressed DVD.

I have a Daytek DP-30 that I have modded to be a Liteon 5001 and it's picky on media but I have found that Memorex branded Ritek or Philips 4X DVD+RW work fine on it in any speed other than HQ (I'm doing a program on one right as I type this in LP speed) but only Sony "Made In Japan" +R discs (Taiyo Yuden manufactured) will work for a +R HQ recording. All others but most especially the Taiwanese made Ritek, etc. discs will freeze while recording or can't be stopped until the disc is full. It took months of trial and error with a lot of different discs to get this to work right. You may have to do a lot more experimentation yourself...

[wolfdon]

Thanks ! So does anyone know - If I buy a more expensive 300.00 unit like panasonic-pioneer etc. are these problems less prevelent? I am a professional and want to produce in the HQ mode but unfortunatley don't have the funding to buy a hi-end pro unit .

[gshelley61]

Here are the units that I've had the opportunity to check out that produce the best encoded image quality, IMHO...


Toshiba D-R4 : nice entry level recorder with excellent PQ, but no input video noise reduction filters or DV input. Highly under-rated, inexpensive to acquire. A solid unit.

Panasonic DMR-ES20 : based on the LSI encoding chipset instead of Panasonic's inferior proprietary hardware encoder, switchable input video noise reduction, DV input. Nice unit, very affordable.

Toshiba RD-XS34 : excellent PQ, built-in hard drive, adjustable and defeatable input video noise reduction filters, DV input, etc. TVGOS system is buggy, but easily bypassed.

JVC DR-M10 / DR-M100 / DR-MV5 / SR-MV50 : all JVC's use the same LSI encoding chipset and produce excellent recorded image quality. JVC has the best and most effective analog input video noise reduction filters, but they can't be adjusted or turned off. No input video black level control, their units are set for 0 IRE sources. Need a proc amp to compensate for 7.5 IRE analog sources. Recordings made through the DV input are the best I've seen, and of course bypass all the analog noise filters and such. JVC's can all accept DV streams directly from computer editing systems (not all DVD recorders with DV inputs can do this).

Pioneer DVR-220, 320, 420, 520 : solid performing units, comprehensive analog input video "proc amp" type adjustments and video noise filters. The 320 and the 520 have DV input/output (these units can stream a DV signal out when playing back a DVD that is not copy protected). The 420 and 520 have 80GB hard drives. Recorded image quality is very good.

Pioneer DVR-531, 533, 633 : these units offer the most comprehensive analog input video adjustments available on any DVD recorder, along with separately adjustable Y and C video noise reduction filters. All around they are very well thought out machines. The 533 and 633 have DV input. Recorded image quality is very good, but somewhat softer than the previous Pioneer DVD recorders. These units have the TVGOS system, which has been buggy for some people.


Avoid Sony machines unless you can get one for an exceptionally low price. They are highly over-rated and do not produce very good MPEG2 (DVD) recordings, especially for what they cost.