why the need for expensive VCD recorder ?

[ktnwin]

Looking at the price of the VCD recorders listed in this site, and compare it against the DVD recorders (also at this site), I just do not see the reason why VCD recorders still being sold.

My guess is: VCD is dominant in Asia where DVD are expensive. VCD recorders are used, besides personal use, to copy DVD, movies and generate the master copy which will be used to produce illegal copies of those movies, DVDs in VCD format. But I could be wrong.

Maybe someone can share opinions about this strange situation here.

ktnwin

[vitualis]

This is all speculation...

VCD recorders in Australia are definitely expensive. The Terapin unit (if you can even find it) sells for about $AUS900-1000 but DVD recorders are all over $AUS2000. From what I read, the prices of VCD recorders in the US appear to be much cheaper (less than half comparatively).

Although it is still an extravagence, it is a neat toy. It makes VCDs in real time and the quality is quite acceptable. With CD-R media being so cheap now, I suppose that it isn't a bad way of say recording a whole TV series (being quick and easy). The Terapin also records audio CDs as well which is neat.

DVD recorders at the moment are still probably too expensive for the average consumer (not only the inital outlay but also media costs).

Comments?

Regards.

[ktnwin]

vitualis,
thanks so much for clarifying this. I am very ignorant about Australia VCD
market.
Now I understand that the price tag for VCD recorders is just about equal in US, but not in Australia.

[thxkid]

bought 2 terapins at sams club awhile back and paid $199 each for them, even at that price quaility was just to bad, returned them, neat little toy, ended up getting 2 DVD recorders, Panasonic DMR-E20 $559 and the DMR-E10 for $399, both new in a box, sure glad I returned the terapins and got these babies,its a whole new world with these, specially since its easy to bypass the CGSM and macrovision.
There would have been no way would I have soent $499 on the terapins, I picked them up to try because of the price sams club had them at, by the way they have no tuner or timer either.

[ktnwin]

This is what I really meant. Terapin for 200$ and standalone DVD recorder for 500$, I would go for the later.
Anyway, this forum already remove the VCD recorders section, for the same reason as mine.

[VCDFanatic]

I have a Terapin & love it. I don't have a DVD Recorder yet, but I will some day. The reason I have it, is it's ease of use, & much cheaper both for the unit & the media. Why you may ask do I bother, well I've got a 2 year old son & it's great for taping his shows. I don't need to spend the extra $ for better quality - he doesn't care what it looks like or when he tears up a disc it's only like losing .10 & not $1 - $2. The quality is pretty good as well - I've a satellite which uses S-video (so it's a high quality source) & the VCD copy while not as good as the source it's close. + My hard drive is small (not much room to edit a DVDR) so I can tape a show for him copy to the computer, remove the commercials & reburn very easily. I know one day it will be obsolete but for the next 3-5 years it's going to be heavily used.

[verchad]

thxkid, what did you use to bypass the macrovision / cgms? I have a panasonic dmr-hs2 and want to back up some video tapes that have macrovision.

[ejai]

I own a Panasonic E-30 and I use a Datatranslation’s TBC-1000 (time base corrector). I also have the Sima SCC, but it doesn’t work. The TBC-1000 works great.

This will remove the macrovision

[ktnwin]

Hi VCDFanatic,
I am glad that you are happy with your Terapin.
Sure, everyone of us has a certain target, as long as you get yours, that's count.
My situation is different, I made VCDs for almost two years (home videos mostly from my 10 years old Hi 8 tapes and newer ones in digital 8) using my PC, looking to switch to DVD for near perfect quality, that's one of my target, the other is reduce the time to make DVD.

[arealgijoe]

:P 8)
TERAPIN VCDR & Panasonic E-30 here.

My turtle sits on top of my E-30, could not do the reverse anyway.

IF I want to make a bunch of short videos to distribue, CD-R media is fast and cheap plus just about anyone with a CD-ROM can read them. DVD-ROM is common but not everyone has that. For movies, teh E-30 DVDrecorder wins hands down, not just the resolution factor, a whole movie oreven 2 on one DVD disk.

Both record very good quality video, both have their advantages.

FOr me for now, I will continue using both!

J E aka JD




[/b]

[telemike]

I like my Terapin too. Does good quality off dvd disks. I have a 43" widescreen hdtv and the quality is very watchable, just a little fuzzy at times. Cheap media, easy to use. Much better than using VHS tapes to record stuff. DVD recorder would be nice but not economical for me. I am sure that if some big companies produced VCD recorders the price would be around $100 but I am sure the MPAA would not like us buying mass produced VCD recorders from panasonic, sony, etc.

[ktnwin]

So far, I produced only very high quality VCDs (XVCD and SVCD to be exact using TMPGenc for encoding), they play with good quality on my 27" TV, 50" projector TV and my dad's 60" projector.

I just replaced my 27" with a 65" wide screen HDTV and well, this HDTV really highlight that X/S/VCD are no match for DVD quality. Period. I knew it but it still a little surprise.

Try to dup my Digital 8 tape on my new Panasonic DVD recorder and the quality on this HDTV is superb. Lucky I decided to keep all my digital 8 tapes for the DVD days.