HDRW720 first impression

[Kedas]

Hi,

I used it since 5 June. (Belgium)
Here is my first impression of what I think about it. (7 June)

Pro:
- Good recording in M2 and M2X (I didn't even bother to try the others)

- Guide plus is easy to use ones it is loaded (it takes 24h)
You are much more tempted to record something if you only have to click it.

- Editing works like expected
cut in two for begin and end and hiding parts for the middle.
(cuts can't be joined again)

-very silent so if you worry about the harddisk or fan sound, don't (I have to look at the display to see if it's on or not)

-Warns if a programmed recording is supposed to start recording and give you a choise: record or keep messing around

I didn't wrote any DVD+R/RW yet

Bads:
-Takes a while to get used to this new way of recording.
(reading the manual is a must, but there are many nice features in it)

- No option to sent the output though a coax cable.
(seperate cable(s) must be used)

- There are no image adjustment setting present not for input not for output.
Brithness, colour, contrast etc. are al not present.

- No signal cleanup
There is no noise filters present in case you have a less good signal or want to copy/convert some tapes.
So, weak input means bad recording.
The only way around it is to filter and re-encode them on your PC. (if you have a DVD-writer)
Record quality can't be changed when storing to DVD+R/RW. (no re-encoding)

- Disabeling dealer mode doesn't work. (open/close+stop+connect power)
I had to do a factory reset to start over. (stanby+connect power)

-The fact that you can't select diff. recording qualitys for diff programmed timings is no problem for me I don't see the point to use less than M2x anyway. (I'm not planning to use my HDD as a huge archive)

-Recording to DVD+R/RW isn't possible (only from HDD to DVD+R/RW)
I wasn't planning to do that anyway.

extra info:
It was just -10% in that store, so I got it for 720Euro (Belgium)
They are made in Hungary (like I thought)
Shipment date from the Netherlands to Belgium 28/05.
SER NR. 007513

P.S. the US version will have a 120GB HDD

[kcfoulk]

First, thanks for the heads-up. This is one of the first HDD-based recorders coming from the +R/RW camp, it's interesting to know that Philips seemed to use the HDD mainly as a PVR.

-Recording to DVD+R/RW isn't possible (only from HDD to DVD+R/RW)
I wasn't planning to do that anyway.

This is quite unexpected, and is it possible to copy +R/RW discs back to the HDD using its own DVD drive? I'd guess probably not.

[Kedas]

This is quite unexpected, and is it possible to copy +R/RW discs back to the HDD using its own DVD drive? I'd guess probably not.

No that's not possible but I heard someone did connect his computer to the
HDRW720 (firewire) but only sending DV wil be possible (according to what he said)
the PC did recognize it as a DVD player/recorder
(maybe with a hacked firmware in the far future)

One more thing that I'm already used to is that the recorder keeps recording starting from the moment it's on.
Recording is more or less limited to 'marking' what you would like to store permanently to HDD.
'busy recording' means marking enabled and warning enabled in case you change channel.

Sometimes I forget that I'm busy wathing the past in the time shift buffer.
an 'auto' channel change wakes me up
(the time shift buffer can be set between 1 and 6 hours, and loops)
there is also a goto time xxxx, nice but I don't use it much.

one more good thing is entering text is done in the same way like you write text in your GSM for SMS., small differences though.
+ changing capital letter to small is just one butten (without retyping it)
- inserting text between text isn't possible (I think)