Can i record TV shows (regular & HD) onto DVD-R??

[jbenj01]

I have a Panasonic DMR-E20 that's been collecting dust for almost the past year.. How can i put it to use in my HT system? It doesn't have a hard drive like the newer models do so I'm not sure how useful it can be..

Can i simply run a cable antennae thru it and be able to record TV programs, both regular and HD?? Or is the bandwidth for HD produce to large files to be able to put onto DVD-R?? Is the concept of a DVD recorder the same as a VCR??

Please advise.. thanks.

[hothandiman]

Hi. No need to let it collect dust. It will NOT record HDTV signals. It will record OTA NTSC signals via the antenna input. If you have a satellite receiver and/or a cable box, you can record from the standard or s-video outputs. You can do timer recordings and it has a NTSC tuner built in.

[jbenj01]

Thanks hothandiman.

What do i need in order to record HD broadcasts? A D-VHS recorder (very expensive, btw!)? And is that the same as a Digital Video Recorder?

[hothandiman]

Are you for real? Yes D-VHS will record HDTV. The only other option is a HDTV hard disk recorder. I believe Samsung has one of the very few on the market. Also, a HDTV capture card, lots of HDD storage and a high end computer can do the job.

[Donny661]

D-VHS records HD broadcasts on a video cassette tape like VHS, but other that awsome quality picture and less degredation of the picture quality before it finally gives up and doesn't work anymore, it has the same disadvatages of the VHS format. The most notable to me is that you still have to FF and RW to get anywhere on the tape which is one of the things I was so happy to do away with when changing to dvd. This also answers your other question that D-VHS is not like a digital video recorder (DVR). DVRs record the broadcast (purely digital sometimes) onto an internal hard drive , which can odviously hold more video than a DVD or D-VHS, but unlike dvd records, with or without an internal hard drive, and a D-VHS recorder you can't get your video you recorded off the hard drive and onto a portable format (i.e. DVD, VCD, D-VHS) without hacking it and putting the video on your computer.