Best settings for Sony RDR-GX 330 DVD Recorder?

[videotape74]

Hi Folks,

I have a Sony RDR-GX 330 that I use mostly for recording things like bands on late night shows and a few shows that I watch regularly. Now, once I record them I like to pop them onto my computer so that I can remove commercials and do things like add fade in/out to videos. I do this so that I can archive a bunch of different clips onto 1 DVD with my own menus. Now, I just have a few questions for anyone that can help me...

I've got the recorder hooked up directly to my digital cable box and I want the best possible quality so...
S-Video or Composite?
Recording Mode = SP or LP or HQ? (there are a few others too)

I record onto Sony DVD+RW, should the disc mode be set to Video or VR Mode?

If anyone could help me I'd really appreciate it. Thank you very much in advance!

Please help me...I desperately want to record The Shins on Conan tonite!!! lol

[gshelley61]

s-video input

HQ (highest) quality

Video mode

[videotape74]

thank you for the quick reply...are there any other settings that i could tweak/apply for better results?

[StuR]

Hi,
I've got a Sony GX300, it's a bigger older version. As far as difference go there are extra playback filters but recording is going to be pretty much the same.
I've found that digital struggles with live music. The coloured lighting, smoke all give lots of movement and shades which is too complicated to deal with so you get blocking. So I'd advise you use the 1hr mode if thats long enough. You should have the 1.5hr mode you can give that a try if you need too. Sony have added a 0.5hr mode for super high quality from DV tape, this could be an option. Once the footage is on the computer and edited you'll find you can compress it down to get longer on the final disks. I understand this method can give you better results as some programs are more advanced than a DVD recorder. Some other forum member may be able to point to good programs.

Don't adjust the recorded input colour setting, just leave them at 0/0/0, and leave the recording Noise Reduction off.

In the 'set up' section make sure you've set the correct input for the scart from the cable box.
If your using scarts that is. Can you get RGB (red green blue) signal from cable box? If so that is the best option, it seperates the 3 colour parts seperately to reduce losses.
S-video is the next best option it seperates (hence S) the signal into 2 componants Luminance(Y) and Chrominance(C) thats 'brightness and colour' in other words.
Composite is Y and C together so it needs to be seperated on either end of the cable, so causes loss.

Video mode always. VR mode makes a disk 'sort of a bit like' a harddrive. But not very much and your computer will have problems reading the disk, if at all.
Just stick to Sony +RW which won't need finalising. I find it handy as if I use just say 20mins on a disk I can put it in my laptop watch it and then put the disk back in the GX300 to record more on later. If you use VR mode you'll need -RW disks which need finalising before the computer can read the disk (if at all). Finalising stops anymore recording on the disk, very annoying!

That's all I can think of, other than that others will likely say that Sony don't record to the standard of some others JVC, Pioneer, Toshiba.. but the jury is out.

Good luck!