That is a good point. I was just talking about that to a co-worker.Originally Posted by PhilipL
*BUT*, Zoran did see a difference. It would be wrong of him not report it as he saw it.
His rating is no different than any of the ratings you find in PC Magazine, Car & Driver, etc. Ratings are in general done by people who work with the equipment day in and day out. They will see the difference.
Just because the average person won't see the difference doesn't mean the tester shouldn't report it.
I am glad for Zoran's post, because I have neither the money nor resources to buy 4 DVD recorders and compare them side by side.
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This topic can go on and on as it is 1-objective as well as being 2-subjective.
To use sound as an example of objectivity and subjectivity is not the best.
Sound (audo)is VERY subjective while video is generally more objective...certainly to the average person who has good vision.
My background is 'imaging arts'
Zoran I believe makes the assumption that most people who would see his side by side comparison ( even with a resolution test) would probably say that the Sony has the sharpest picture (laypersons term..it looks clearer) as one would say of a photograph. Also recognizable by the average person would be skin tone ....looks more pleasing but not necessarily more realistic. Kodachrome film and its pleasing skin tone confirms that.
Yet if one were to see a Sony example one day and a Pioneer the next day I wonder if that difference would stand out.
Most of us here need as much help as we can get. We all want a great picture...highest resolution....good skin tone and all the features and benefits that work with our present wants and needs as well as some future ones.
I for one could never see that many recorders let alone do any real testing.
As an example I record a lot of tapes from satellite using a Sony N50 VHS
that Consumers has rated as one of the best re quality and also a good buy. I am impressed with the quality of these recordings. Better than prerecorded tapes. According to Consumers ...as good as the SVHS models and less recording hiss.
I have to rely on sources such as Consumers and others.
Zoran has done a lot of that for us. His background serves us well....not to mention his generosity in sharing. -
Originally Posted by Yvon
little discounting on their recorder.
I have yet to see besides the Panny 50 any of the other models in Canada. Many are new and are just surfacing.
I believe Future Shop sells the Sony for $1200 or $1300 -
Originally Posted by PhilipL
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Philip...????
What we see is very subjective, take a piece of art, you can not measure in a lab how people will feel when looking at it. [quote Philip]
Correct....you cannot 'scientifically' measure what one feels about art....but you can measure levels of sound and sharpness (resolution).
How one vs another or interprets the results is subjective. Some people have little interest in sound quality or sharpness (resolution) but they know the relative difference when something is sharp (clear) or not.
Assuming one acccepts Zorans test results ...based on side by side test results and his expertise.....and that some of use are interested in getting the best that we can afford....I tend to accept what he shares with us. -
Hey Zoran,
Just for curiosity, did you happen to use any test Patterns or generate any stair case rasters on these units? Obviously it would not test artifacts caused by motion but could be used as a frame of refference. FWIW I trust your observations as sound and unbiased. I used to test my VCR's years ago but due to carrer changes, I no longer have access to this kind of gear. I sure miss the circle with the Indian!
Cheers,
Captain DiodeBeep beep, oh no heavy, the coins keep coming out, beep beep, even the telephone hates me, beep beep, I wish there were no machines, and everyone led a pastoral existence, trees and flowers don't deliberately cool you out and go beep in your ear. - Neil -
Originally Posted by PhilipL
I cannot have any reasonable discussions with somebody who tirelessly insists in every post that technology is nothing but immeasurable magical trickery.
Zoran -
WEBEYE WROTE
Perhaps these are but Sony often sells at list or very close...I see
little discounting on their recorder.
I have yet to see besides the Panny 50 any of the other models in Canada. Many are new and are just surfacing.
I believe Future Shop sells the Sony for $1200 or $1300[/quote]
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Well, the Sony deck is overpriced by about $500.00
Can you imagine how much they will ask for the new model to come, with the very large HD?
Once, I bought in the US a Hi8 deck with a Omega wrap ( which was a very
badly designed mechanics for this kind of tape) more than $3,000.00 US plus transport, taxes, etc. That deck has always damaged the tapes.
I think that was the last time Sony used that wrap. Subsequently, they used the M wrap.
Back to DVD recorders, I have seen on the net that Sony has more decks to come, some of them surely much more expensive than the GX-7, but others like the GX-3 and GX-5 might be more affordable, albeit with less options. No info about these decks.
Was it not for Panasonic's DVD Ram that I could not use without an expensive external Firewire (I use a iMac G3 400 MHz) DVD Ram reader drive, I would surely follow Zoran's example and buy the Panasonic E-60.
I have a great esteem for Zoran who taught us so much.
As for you, thanks again for having helped me before.
Yvon [/u] -
I have a friend who hates listening to CD, and is still holding on to Vinyl records, obviously through a pretty good system, and insists the sound is more involving and real. [........]
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
He insists the sound is more involving and real....(this guy probably says the same for wine..ie from France ) :P
Yes there are a number of so called 'purists' that say that....but than again
perhaps it just nostalgia.....those who miss the vinyl 'noise'.
It would be fun to put these guys thru a test.
Lets agree to put a stop to this discussion? 8) -
Actually Philipl, having worked at Sony in Broadcast engineering I would like to make the following comment about your friend who "clutches" his old records. If you were to make a recording on CD from the output of the record player, do you think your friend could tell the difference??
We actually did that test on a room full of audiophiles. First we covered up the play back units so they could not see them, we played them the CD version, then the vinyl. 9/10 picked the the difference. Then we repeated the exercise, this time we used a CD that was recorded from vinyl. The result was totally random....they could not tell. Reproduction is what is important. And man I hate macroblocks…..but my mrs would never see them…or care.
I do have some questions regarding the quality of MPEG encode of these recorders.
1. How do any of them fair with old degraded material. My experience is with offline encoding, even at max bitrates (7M VBR max of 9) I can see artifacts....I can virtually eliminate these problems by using temporal smoothers and the like....but my main concern with the purchase of one of these recorders is the quality. I think I have tried nearly every offline encoder there is...most are very disappointing. I just can't see how a real time encoder could compete even in the highest quality modes.
Obviously my main attraction is the time saver in real time encoding since the above involves a lot of dicking around, and can tie up a computer for 10 hours for 1 hour of video (when u have to use all these filters)....
Mind u even with offline encoding with DV material I can still see artifacts, and yeah I have tried cinemcraft, procoder, tmpge (Procoder wins for DV and old captures home video, cinemcraft for DVD sources)….I still find its best to run the material through some light filtering to improve the compressibility….then I can see them off cable tv…if I wore glasses I would think I had blocks in the friggin lens…everywhere I look I see blocks..aarrrrggggggg!!!! But then that’s what working in the industry does to u…I am verrry fussy
2. Obviously its very attractive to be able to fire DV straight out of a proggy like Adobe premier once your finished editing to a DVD recorder. But if you want to customize the DVD menus and stuff, is it possible to fire the MPEG 2 file/VOB back down to your PC so you can author the DVD more professionally? I guess u could always record it on a RW and then get the VOB off that way...sigh....?? hick the encoder that adobe premier includes is a piece of %^$#....even poking it into procoder as a plug in directly sucks…I find u really have to run it through filtering…..
I am just wondering if these machines are expensive toys or not…can they compete with offline encoding?? ….I would really like to play with one and see how good they really are first hand before I buy one. I do not have the 20K to buy a real MPEG encoder. I am just looking for a relatively cheap fast good MPEG encoder that can double as a cool VCR when I am done raping it. But ARE they any good really? -
Hi nsdn!
You are right - the real time encoder cannot compete with offline encoder.
But then... they are not design to do that. Personally, I can live with XP (1 hour) recording mode. It is not perfect... but it is OK for me.
The SP (2hour) mode is completely different story. You can definitively see artifacts and blocks. But then, again... I found that other people do not complain about them. Maybe because they can not see them, or maybe they do not know for anything better... I bought my DVD recorder to serve those customers.
Zoran -
How many hours at XP mode can one record on the 80GB hard drive?
Thanks.
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