Which Standalone VCD Recorder?

[heavyharmonies]

Finding information/reviews of standalone VCD recorders is like hunting for a needle in a haystack. If only I could read Chinese.

Why do I want a standalone? I want a simple solution, and my computer is not a powerhouse, nor do I want to tie up my computer with this process.

Purpose: archiving material currently on VHS tapes and LD.

Why not DVD? Standard wars, and expense of blank media.

I've gone down the list of players here at vcdhelp.com, and done usenet and web searches on the various models.

The rundown (decks I'm considering marked with *):

Terapin CD Recorder. Not an option, MPEG1 only. Seems to be the most popular one here in the U.S.

Fujida EX-888. No MPEG2.

Maxx VDR EX-888. No MPEG2.

Adam VDR2000. Seems to be an Amoisonic clone. Best price: $496.50

*Amoisonic VDR2000. Somewhat popular. There's a "Mark II" version now available. I'm unclear just as to how much has changed. One Ebay seller claims that the firmware has been updated to increase CDR media compatibility. Supposedly there are more karaoke features, plus for CDRW usability a single-track erase and "unfinalizing" feature. Best price: $559.00

KCL-KC2100. Can't find anything about this one. Best Price: $642.00

Likko LKC210. Ditto on this one. No clue.

*Malata VDR-R1. Samples I've seen at vcdhelp.com look excellent. I've communicated with one owner though who says that this player is *EXTREMELY* finicky as to what media it will use well. Audio/video sync problems. Best price: $579.00

Mediencom VDR2100. Can't find anything about this one.

Metro DVA2100.
Metro DVA2288. Can't find a mention anywhere but at vcdhelp.com; even the manufacturer's website doesn't list the second one.

*Oxygenergy DVA-2100. Found one review online (from 9/01), but it didn't address media issues. Best price: $599.00

DataVideo VDR3000. EXPENSIVE. Reviews/comments I've seen give it mixed reviews, despite its higher level of features. Best Price: $1,050.00

So whom out there (if anyone) has any one of these recorders and is happy with it? Are *any* of them reliable and usable with cheap CDR media?

Thanks in advance,

-Dan

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: heavyharmonies on 2001-11-03 18:21:02 ]</font>

[b444miller]

I have a Terapin (lava red) that I got off of Ebay in August. It's been a great little addition to my AV system and I use it practically every day. One minor issue with the the unit is heat buildup. After about 4 consecutive recordings, lock ups may occur. Also, the unit accepts any type of cheapo CD-R's (Circut City, Hi-Val, etc.), but only if the unit is allowed to warmup for about 30 minutes first. No warmup and I burn coasters. Turn it on for 30 minutes prior to the recording, and no coasters. Odd, but true. I don't know if this is typical. I could send it to Terapin for warranty work, but I hate to do this. So, I just remember to turn it on prior to recording.

[sracer]

Why not use your computer? You'll find that all of the existing VCD recorders are finicky and of questionable quality...not to mention obscenely overpriced. Until a major player like Pioneer produces one, I'd steer clear of them a the moment.

I had a lowly 366Mhz eMachine and I managed to create stunning VCDs using it. I have a Dazzle DVC (USB Version) and connect my VCR, Camcorder, and DVD player to it.

I have been converting my home videos (from 8mm Camcorder) and imported horror dupes (from VHS) with this setup and the results are great (IMO).

The Dazzle DVC is a realtime MPEG capture device so an hour-long program will take 1 hour to capture, and another 15 minutes to burn the CD (depending upon the speed of your burner).

[heavyharmonies]

<TABLE BORDER=0 ALIGN=CENTER WIDTH=85%><TR><TD><font size=-1>Quote:</font><HR size=1 color=black></TD></TR><TR><TD><FONT SIZE=-1><BLOCKQUOTE>
On 2001-11-05 06:09:41, sracer wrote:
Why not use your computer? You'll find that all of the existing VCD recorders are finicky and of questionable quality...not to mention obscenely overpriced. Until a major player like Pioneer produces one, I'd steer clear of them a the moment.
</BLOCKQUOTE></FONT></TD></TR><TR><TD><HR size=1 color=black></TD></TR></TABLE>

Well, for one thing, since VCD/SVCD as a format has never really taken hold here in the western world, I'm not sure that one of the major players ever will produce a standalone VCD recorder...

As I'd mentioned in my initial post, I don't want to tie up my computer if at all possible; I spend too much time actually working on it. Also, I tried a Dazzle DVC (I not II) and was extremely underwhelmed. However, this is probably not the fault of the device, since I was attempting to get it to work under Windows XP, and I believe that to this point the Dazzle equipment is not XP-compliant.

I found a source for the Amoisonic VDR2000MKII for under US$500, so I've gone that route for the time being. The MKII supposedly has some firmware upgrades to increase blank media compatibility over the original VDR2000. Also, it now has "track-erase" and "unfinalizing" functions to work with CDRW media. They've also added some karaoke recording features, but that means nothing to me.

The player should arrive today; I'll post when I've had the chance to put the deck through its paces...

[antisense]

Yes, please post with your results because I am also thinking about buying a standalone vcd recorder, and I would like to hear your thoughts.

[pcarver]

Like the original poster, I'm looking for a minimal hassle solution. However, I'm not insisting on a standalone unit.

There are a couple of TV shows that I generally record onto VHS tape. I'd like to record them instead on VCD for storage space and durability reasons. Is there a hardware/software setup that provide "out of the box" equal or better quality to VHS recordings without much more complexity than a VCR?

I don't really want to deal with flaky hardware or endless tweaking of software parameters.

[houtx67]

I have the Malata VDR-R1 recorder. The SVCD recordings are excellent (almost DVD-like at times). The VCD recordings are very good to excellent (depending on the source material), however, they do suffer from a slight lip sync delay (VCD only). Other people here have confirmed this is normal for the Malata and the Terapin (which I don't have). The delay is most noticeable with DVD sources, but less so with laserdisc and VHS sources (haven't tried TV yet). The lip sync bothers me least when it is a foreign language feature (movies, anime, etc.) as I am too busy reading the subtitles to notice as much. I did try the warm up trick specified for the Terapin, but with no noticeable difference in regard to rate of success with my Malata (which I usually allow to warm up at least 5 minutes anyway).

The Malata has been freezing occasionally on some no-name media I have used, as well as some Imation disks. I get the feeling that most of these probably would have been fine in my computer though. My PNY disks are working very well, and I hear the Memorex disks (CD-R and CD-RW) work very well.

Finally, it recognizes up to 80 minute disks. It only read the 99 minute type as 80 minutes, but then recorded with some video/audio "hiccups". It also has the ability to set audio recording levels for mikes or audio sources. However, I have not tried that yet.

[yumagah]

I've had the Amoisonic MKII for a couple days now and I've only used it 5 times, but so far I'm very pleased with it. No sync problems, it accepts cheap spindle cd-r disks and the SVCD quality is very
good. It does require a good clean input signal, poor quality recordings won't digitize at all.
I have also learned not to use CD-RW disks in more than one PC drive or recorder. Recording on
one drive and erasing on another can make a disk unusable.