DVD Standalone Query

[louis_sacchetti]

I've finally saved up £300 and am ready to buy my first standalone DVD recorder. Rejoice!

The thing is:

I have a LG GMA 4020b DVD burner in my PC and I'd like to be able to use the DVD-RAM-based recordings that I make using my PC, in the new standalone.

I'd also like to back up a number of education resources that I've got on VHS and play them in the school DVD player.

With this in mind, I've been looking at DVD-RAM compatible Panasonic models such as the DMR-E50EBS.

However, I've read that disk compatibility is a problem with some Panasonic standalones and that DVD-Rs burnt in the Panasonic won't play in other machines. As is so often the case with the newsgroups, I'm not sure what to believe.

Can anyone recommend a standalone that does what I'm after? I'd be grateful for people’s thoughts and/or experiences.

Many thanks

L.

[wingnut]

Hi there,

Please pardon the long post but I thought I'd share with you my reasons for ordering an E50 to see if it helps at all.

I'm awaiting delivery of a panasonic e50 at present after quite a bit of research into recorders. My main reason for getting one is that I have around 1600 VHS tapes thatI really need to get over to a digital format before they deteriorate further.

Given that the TBC and investment I would have needed to get my All In Wonder card, (which I'd probably have to update to a radeon model), to capture without problems would have been around £300 alone and then the sheer mountain of tapes to transfer I decided on a DVD recorder.

My research pointed me in the direction of an E50 for these reasons.

1. Panasonic are, to the best of my knowledge, the only recorders on the market with a fully fledged time base corrector built in, whilst it is probably not as good as fitting something like a TBC100 unit this should prove to be pretty essential in getting VHS onto DVD. Jittery tapes are the primary reason my all in one captures where dropping frames and loosing quality.

2. Panasonic include filters to clean up the video at the input stage.

3. Compatibility. Most of theresearch I've done including talking to actual owners points to DVD-R's created on this machine being highly copatible, (depending on the brand of media used)

The fact it uses DVD RAM for re-recording isn't a problem for me since I'm lucky enough to have an old vivastar DVDRAM writer and a new sony DVD +/- (RW) drive so I can go pretty much from one format to any other.

The only word of warning I'd give is that if you want an E50 dont wait to long. It has now been discontinued in the UK and the E55(s) - I believe is the model number - won't be out until march / april. It took me three orders with two cancellations before I found shopatdigital.co.uk, (who have excellent sales staff who actually seem to want to help), who had one in stock for £288, (Estimated cost of an E55 is going to be in the £450 - £500 mark according to the two retailers that couldn't fullfill my order)

Hope this has helped.


Cheers

Edz

[macleod]

It isn't an urban legend with the panny's dvd-r's not playing on a number of stnadalones. My apex (which will play a cookie if formatted correctly) would not play stuff from the panny. The EASY fix for this is to use TMPGENC DVD Author to make the DVD.

I have a home based business taking VHS and converting to DVD for people. Here is my setup and what I do (and cost):

pc with a dvd-rom/ram reader ($30 from www.newegg.com)
5 dvd-ram discs ($25)
E30 $295 off of ebay
DVD media
hub labels ($10 per 260)
jewel cases (free after rebates at office max, etc.)

I have changed the default settings on the panny to optimize captures and usually use 1 or 2 hour mode and record to ram. Put the ram disc into the dvd rom/ram reader and use TMPGENC to author and burn the disc. ALL of my results play PERFECTLY in EVERY dvd player they have been put in.

There has been talk about a "black level bug" on the panny's (do a search for this), but I believe the basics is that it "distorts" the black color on the capture. The issues was fixed on the E50 on up (my e30 doesnt have the problem or I aint looking for it closely enough). I personally like the E30 as there are MORE inputs from other sources (personal preference).

Lordsmurf had a done his research and settled on the apex recorder, so you might want to read on some of his posts. Personally, I feel that the panny is the best hands down, but I have not done the research that lordsmurf did.

Good luck!

[zorankarapancev]

Only Sony models are better then Panasonic E50 (I am the happy Panasonic owner)), but they are out of your budgete. For more info see my postings on DVD Recorders forum.

[louis_sacchetti]

Many thanks for your thoughts folks. They're much appreciated.

L.

[Will Hay]

Hi there,

Please pardon the long post but I thought I'd share with you my reasons for ordering an E50 to see if it helps at all.

I'm awaiting delivery of a panasonic e50 at present after quite a bit of research into recorders. My main reason for getting one is that I have around 1600 VHS tapes thatI really need to get over to a digital format before they deteriorate further.

Given that the TBC and investment I would have needed to get my All In Wonder card, (which I'd probably have to update to a radeon model), to capture without problems would have been around £300 alone and then the sheer mountain of tapes to transfer I decided on a DVD recorder.

My research pointed me in the direction of an E50 for these reasons.

1. Panasonic are, to the best of my knowledge, the only recorders on the market with a fully fledged time base corrector built in, whilst it is probably not as good as fitting something like a TBC100 unit this should prove to be pretty essential in getting VHS onto DVD. Jittery tapes are the primary reason my all in one captures where dropping frames and loosing quality.

2. Panasonic include filters to clean up the video at the input stage.

3. Compatibility. Most of theresearch I've done including talking to actual owners points to DVD-R's created on this machine being highly copatible, (depending on the brand of media used)

The fact it uses DVD RAM for re-recording isn't a problem for me since I'm lucky enough to have an old vivastar DVDRAM writer and a new sony DVD +/- (RW) drive so I can go pretty much from one format to any other.

The only word of warning I'd give is that if you want an E50 dont wait to long. It has now been discontinued in the UK and the E55(s) - I believe is the model number - won't be out until march / april. It took me three orders with two cancellations before I found shopatdigital.co.uk, (who have excellent sales staff who actually seem to want to help), who had one in stock for £288, (Estimated cost of an E55 is going to be in the £450 - £500 mark according to the two retailers that couldn't fullfill my order)

Hope this has helped.


Cheers

Edz

Is this the one you recommend?
Sure looks tempting!
Whilst I consider myself fairly up to speed with capturing (I have the Radeon ViVo but recently the ADVC-100) I don't know enough about these machines to convince my wife!
I capture the TV signal via a real mess of a system, via downstairs, up to the loft, down the bedroom - don't even get me started! and wonder if I'd gain anything in replacing my VHS player downstairs (which we still use for anything we wat to watch but don't want to keep) with the E50?
I imagne I could record to a DVD-Ram drive downstairs and import upstairs for editing, cutting out comercials etc, no?
I don't think I'd use it for converting old VHS tapes (as I say, I have the ADVC-100) as it doesn't have the facility to edit (right?) but would be nice to replace my VHS player.
My burner is Panasonic DVD-r/Ram drive, does this help me?
What is the capture format, I guess it's simply mpeg2 right?
Thanks for any help you can share
Will

EDIT: With regards the TBC, what do you make of this post here.

[macleod]

DVD Ram can be reportedly recorded on 10,000 times. Out of the 5 that I have bought, 1 crapped out after about 10 tries (not willing to rule out human error as I was formatting the disk and did something).

I too have been thinking of replacing the VCR for that. To be honest, above 2 hour mode, the quality begins to suffer a bit, however, I have had some good viewing TV from 4 hour mode. 6 hour mode is for conceptually having a picture but are more interested in the audio (when I do presentations and want to record them, I use this mode).

The E50 HAS a TBC built into it, so you shouldnt need one of those. In the event you wanted to use it for backing up.converting tapes with macrovision or other protection, you will need a "clarifier" for that. I dont have one so can't comment on that. If you attempt to record something that is protected, the panny will not allow you to record it and display a message and/or the video will mess up. Look up Don Pedro as a number of his posts go into the many benefits of the panny.

[louis_sacchetti]

Having unsuccessfully scoured the web for a multiregion DMR-E50 in the UK, I think I'll have to hang on for the E55.

The chap that I spoke to from 24-7 electrical offered to let me pre-order an E55 for the same price as the E50, £271.88 + £8 P&P. That said, given what Wingnit has been told about the possible price of the E55, the chap at 24-7 may have got it wrong.

The E50 and the E55 appear pretty similar in terms of spec, at least to a novice like me. Does anybody know what significant enhancements (or otherwise) have been made to the E55.

Cheers

L.

[Will Hay]

The 50 is no longer available at shopfordigital (it was there last night), but the 60 is circa. £350.00
Will