Riddle me this DVD Man

[waheed]

Why is it that I can spend $400-800 to buy a DVD recorder that will go from an analog source straight to DVD, but I cannot get my 2.6gig w/ 1gig of memory computer to do the same thing

are mentioned by others in this forum, yes you can with dedicated hardware.

Ask this question: "can a $400-800 or even a $2000 DVD recorder backup copy protection dvds like a computer can?

[mracer]

Along those same lines, it's fun to look at how a $99 DirectTivo (66Mhz PowerPC, 32mb RAM) can run circles around a 3.4Ghz P4 Extreme edition, 2GB RAM when used as a PVR/DVR. The answer lies in dedicated hardware and software written for one purpose only. The DirecTivo does only ONE thing, but it does it really, really well.


As for DVD recorders, I'm waiting for a $200 standalone DVD recorder that encodes MPEG2 in real time as well as TMPGEnc Plus 2.5 2-pass VBR 8000kbps does over many hours. How long will that take?

[Gazorgan]

I'm confused. We are talking realtime capture of MPEG2 to DVDRW right? NP, do it in software. Athlon 2400+ and a generic BTWin card. No hardware card required. Although it's best to use DVD+RW's, more fault tolerant.

Now if someone wrote teh software to buffer for 1 second, the quality would be better...

[SLK001]

To do this, you need a hardware MPEG2 encoder card (which the stand-alone DVD recorder has), and the software to buffer the VTS sectors until the disk is ready to be finalized. I don't really know how the DVD recorder actually does it, but I imagine that the video data is immediately written to the recordable media, then the lead-in and lead-out areas are written at finalization. Since the DVD is structure-based, and not file-based, space has to be reserved for the files that need to know the video structure to set the VTS vectors.

[MrMungus]

I'm confused. We are talking realtime capture of MPEG2 to DVDRW right? NP, do it in software. Athlon 2400+ and a generic BTWin card. No hardware card required. Although it's best to use DVD+RW's, more fault tolerant.

Now if someone wrote teh software to buffer for 1 second, the quality would be better...

I guess it depends on how you want to do it. The PVR-250 records directly to MPEG-2 VBR or CBR and it does buffer the audio and video for a few seconds before encoding (there's a delay between the live signal and what you see on the computer). But I'm having problems with it because it will only let me capture to MP2 audio. Trying to figure out if I can and how to make it do ACM or LPCM on the fly.

[manco]

I wish Panasonic would sell a PCI card version of the encoder they use on the E80H. Of course if they did, they'd probably charge twice as much as the deck itself.

[handiman876]

what crack is mracer smoking to say tivo runs circles around a souped up comp. does tivo edit commercials and burn to dvd these days?

[procrastination]

Thanks for the input guys. I can see that there does not seem to be a better answer than the one I gave. Oh well, I have my own DVD recorder so its really not an issue for me.

On a side note. There is a TiVo that does DVD burn.

Check out the Elite DVR-57H


http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/pna/product/detail/0,,2076_4141_17568931,00.html


This thing is smokin hot. I imagine that the next gen will have a built in HDD and the ability to kill commercials! I can hardly wait to see whats next. Bring me a TiVo unit that can record HD, and has a built in HDD so I can either watch from the hard drive or edit commercials and then burn to DVD and I will be in heaven!


late

PRO

[indolikaa]

what crack is mracer smoking to say tivo runs circles around a souped up comp. does tivo edit commercials and burn to dvd these days?

It's a subjective argument.

I have received discs from people that were produced with their high-speed/high-cost computers that were complete shit. I've made VCDs with better overall quality than these discs.

On the other hand, some of my more idiot-inclined friends send DVDs made with a TiVo and a Dazzle. Compared to the tech-weenie products, these discs are outstanding.

TiVo as a broadcast capture device is an excellent solution for a variety of reasons. Will it run circles around a P4? Hardly. But the way some people configure their computers, a TiVo is likely to do a better job on the front-end process.

.indolikaa.

[mracer]

handiman876, If reading comprehension were a requirement for living, you would be dead fifty times over.

A Tivo runs circles around a monster P4 as a PVR/DVR. Not for any other purpose. If you are so sure you can build a PC PVR that works better than even the lowest TIVO on earth, go ahead and waste your money. I will just sit back and laugh at your foolishness.

[handiman876]

my pc pvr does a fine job and it's quite simple. i use the wintv pvr-350 with sagetv. i know $220 is a bit more money but if you're using a top of the line comp you can afford it. i'm going to go plan my fifty funerals, later guys.