Pioneer 660h dvd recorder - problem copying

[thebiglad30]

Hi All

Sorry about this question, but any help would be great.

I recently purchased a Pioneer 660h DVD recorder nad copy protection eliminator. I don't seem to be able to copy any dvd's to the hard drive.

Has anyone come across this before on this dvd player ?


Cheers
Thebiglad30

[Baldrick]

I'm moving you to our dvd recorders section.

Please give us more information.
Are you making a standard dvd-video? Not any special dvdrecorder formats and be sure to finalize the dvd.
Do you see any files on the dvdr when browsing using explorer?
Can you play those dvdrs with a software player?
What are you trying to copy with? You could try dvdfab decrypter, isobuster, cdroller.

[thebiglad30]

Hi Baldrick - Thanks for moving this to the correct area.

The DVD recorder is connect to the tv - I am trying to burn my kids movies(the night Garden) etc to the hard drive. But I keep getting error claiming tv settings and disc settings are different.

Cheers
Thebiglad30

[jman98]

DVD recorders are designed to not allow you to copy commercial DVDs. I've never heard of a work around for this, but maybe someone else has.

[thebiglad30]

Hi

The Protection Eliminator is suppose to overwrite this. I have tried to burn some of my own photos and still get this message.

Cheers

[jman98]

Hi

The Protection Eliminator is suppose to overwrite this. I have tried to burn some of my own photos and still get this message.

Cheers

Explain what this is and how it works. The fact that it's not working means you probably wasted your money on it. Sorry.

DVD recorders are designed to operate in paranoid mode. They are infamous for not copying things that they should copy, like personal VHS tapes or DVDs of home movies.

[Seeker47]

Explain what this is and how it works. The fact that it's not working means you probably wasted your money on it. Sorry.

DVD recorders are designed to operate in paranoid mode. They are infamous for not copying things that they should copy, like personal VHS tapes or DVDs of home movies.

Not enough info here, but it sounds like this might be one of those Sima or Facet Clarifier type thingies ? Just for the record, I think at some time I must have duped all or part of a couple DVDs this way, at least as an experiment -- probably from my old Malata 700 player (which had been "chipped" by the dealer so that it rejected region limits and then-existing CP) into my Pioneer 520. If that was not sufficient, I probably went to one of the various "black box" gizmos I have. But really, there is very little reason to go to all the trouble in attempting this, since it is vastly easier and more convenient to just do any duplicating in the computer.

[orsetto]

thebiglad30, you have a couple of nested questions with different answers, also you posed the questions sort of vaguely so we are guessing at what exactly you're trying to do.

The easy issue is burning your photos: the answer is don't bother. Forget any features the unit claims to have regarding MP3, JPEGs and DiVX- seriously, forget it. This is pure marketing gimmickry that sells the machines to the Japanese home market, which is full of delusional souls who adore mutli-purpose (but severely limited) appliances. DVD/HDD recorders are optimized for recording television shows and your camcorder tapes, they do this well because the task falls within a narrow range of capability their computer chips can handle. MP3, DiVX and JPEG files come in so many hare-brained variations that you really do need a computer to use them properly: DVD/HDD recorders don't have the horsepower or software necessary to work with those variations effectively. The 660 only works with MP3, JPEG and DiVX files that are formatted in the one specific way the unit was designed to read and cope with. More often than not, you'll get nowhere with photos.

Your question on copying DVDs to the hard drive is more difficult, because it isn't clear how you're attempting the copy. If you're putting the DVD into the Pioneer and trying to copy from the 660s burner onto its hard drive, this will not work- ever- no matter what "black box" you attach. The connection between burner and hard drive is internal and sealed, there is no way to wire the "black box" between the two sections. The only DVDs the 660 will copy to its hard drive from its burner are DVDs its already burned itself- no commercial DVDs of any kind, and often not DVDs you made on a computer either.

You can copy any DVD to its hard drive by using an external, separate DVD player and connecting your "black box" between the two. The copy will be in real time ( a two hour movie will take two hours to copy) and you lose any navigation or formatting on the original DVD: the hard drive copy will be just another title on the HDD, as if you recorded it off -air. Quality will be somewhat less than the original DVD, because you're re-encoding it, but if its just so you can conveniently store a bunch of kiddie programs for easy access this doesn't matter much. If this is the setup you're having problems with- DVD player to black box to Pioneer recorder- then something is wrong with the blackbox and/or the video system setting on your Pioneer. A few black boxes have aspect ratio switches, and if the box is set to 4:3 while the recorder is set to 16:9, the recorder may complain it "can't record mixed aspect ratios" or some other annoying alert. Make sure the DVD player, the black box, and the recorder are all set for the same aspect ratio: 16:9 or 4:3, and you should have no problem. (On rare occasions, the DVD itself is formatted in a weird way that the recorder perceives as mixed ratio: such DVDs are extremely difficult to copy onto the recorder.)

One other "gotcha" you can check for is a PAL-NTSC mismatch. If the DVD you want to copy is NTSC, you may need to set the recorder up for NTSC operation. The 660 line input is supposed to auto-switch between PAL and NTSC but sometimes fails, in which case you need to manually set the recorder to NTSC (or vice versa). You might also confirm what your DVD player is doing- they can outwit you sometimes. If you know the DVD is NTSC, and you set your recorder and black box to NTSC, but your player automatically detects NTSC discs and converts them to pseudo-PAL output, you'll encounter a format mismatch.

Finally, check the model name and number of your black box online. There are two types of box: one handles only VHS protection, the other handles VHS and DVD protection. DVD protection is much stronger and DVDs often have multiple simultaneous analog protection schemes running during playback. If your black box is not specifically designed for DVD, you will not be able to dub DVDs from an external player to your Pioneer hard drive at all.

[thebiglad30]

Hi

Thanks for all the feed back - I do appreciated the time and effort you guy have put in. My question was vague because Im not a very tech. I was a long time ago - but sadly have not kept up with technology development. It does sound like i was duped - I will do a bit more experimenting , but once again thanks for all the great advice.

Cheers
Thebiglad