Sony RDR-GX300 thoughts and comments

[tommyoz]

Walked in to Best Buy yesterday like I always do to check up on the availability of the JVC dr-mh30s DVD recorder. I saw 3 boxes of the Sony RDR-GX300 but none were on display. I decided to pick this one up and check it out. I am in the process of making some recordings as I write. So far it's not as picky as the RDR-GX7 was for media.

[lordsmurf]

Does it let you manually erase media?
Does it still treat DVD-RW like DVD-R
or was it DVD+RW like DVD+R ? (I forget which).

[swallowtail]

So far it's not as picky as the RDR-GX7 was for media.

Is it true that this Sony model used a Lite-On burner inside?

[zorankarapancev]

Does it let you record DVD-R & DVD+R?

[tag]

The manual is online for anyone who wants to take a peek:

http://www.docs.sony.com/release/RDRGX300.pdf


.......says it records +R.

[tag]

No firewire (i.LINK) on this model?

[ofbarea]

The manual is online for anyone who wants to take a peek:

http://www.docs.sony.com/release/RDRGX300.pdf


.......says it records +R.

and others:

up to 4x DVD+RW
2x DVD-RW (version 1.1)
8x DVD+R
8x DVD-R (version 2.0)


Does not records to:
4x DVD-RW (version 1.2)
DVD-RW (version 1.0)
DVD+RW not compatible with 2.4 speed.
Dual layer
8 cm disks.

This unit looks very capable.

By the way, this is the first time I hear of DVD-R/W media versions.

[tommyoz]

Does it let you manually erase media?

Yes

Does it still treat DVD-RW like DVD-R
or was it DVD+RW like DVD+R ? (I forget which).

The Latter. +

Is it true that this Sony model used a Lite-On burner inside?

I'm not about to go into this unit yet.

Does it let you record DVD-R & DVD+R?

Yes

No firewire (i.LINK) on this model?

Yea, I know and for $500.00. I guess i'm paying mostly for the all format recorder and the name.

I don't know what chipset this has (sorry i'm not going in right now) but the quality is really good. It claims to have TBC but from what I can gather it does not appear to have FR mode.

However, there is a record mode adjust. When set to auto, it automatically adjust the recording mode so that the entire program fits on the disc. It only works with timer recording. Is this FR? cause I can't input the actual time of the recording.

The recording modes are,
HQ - 60min
HSP - 90min
SP - 120min
LP - 180min
EP - 240min
SLP - 360min

So far an HSP recording I made last night produced a 720X480, 9800 VBR video and AC3 256 kbs.

An EP recording was 352X480, 9800 VBR video and AC3 256 kbs.

[tmaxwell2435]

Does anyone have a link to this on Best Buy's website? I cannot seem to find it.

[tommyoz]

Does anyone have a link to this on Best Buy's website? I cannot seem to find it.

Its' not on their website store. It was at the actual store. They are 2 different stores.

[zorankarapancev]

What? No FR mode, again?
C'mon Sony, you can do it!

[lordsmurf]

The 9800 is the file header max, but that actual video max is much, much lower than that. You should put it into Bitate Viewer (BV) and see what the true values are.

[tommyoz]

Yes, I will get that done.

[Sam Ontario]

I just went to BB and saw one on display. My impression- cheap appearance high price. IMO, a Daytek DVR-P30 at half the price looks better.

[tommyoz]

I just went to BB and saw one on display. My impression- cheap appearance high price. IMO, a Daytek DVR-P30 at half the price looks better.

"If you judge a book by it's cover, then you judge the look by the lover.
I hope you'll soon recover, me I go from one extreme to another".

Sorry, I just had to get that in. It's an old ABC 80's song.

I am in the process now of running a few recordings through Bitrate Viewer.

[Marvingj]

I'm curious what kind of chipset does it have?

[tommyoz]

I'm curious what kind of chipset does it have?

I don't know what chipset this has (sorry i'm not going in right now).

The bitrates are as followed;

HQ - Peak = 7798, Average = 7136
HSP - Peak = 6369, Average = 4749
SP - Peak = 4681, Average = 3517

I have a question though, doesn't the bitrates depend on your source?
If so, the HQ was recorded from an EP VHS cassette.

[Sam Ontario]

With an EP tape source, IMO, a waste of DVD media space recording at HQ mode (1 hour). I cannot tell any differences when I record it at 4-hour mode or 2 hour mode on my 32" NTSC TV. This is from me, a general consumer's view point. Experts may have different mileage!

[tommyoz]

Your probably right (i'm not an expert either), i'm just testing away. However, if all I had was 1 hour worth of material (EP source) and I only wanted that on 1 DVD, then it wouldn't be a waste.

Here are a few more bitrates if anyone cares.

LP mode - Peak = 2940, Average = 2218, 352X480
EP Mode - Peak = 2175, Average = 1610, 352X480

Interesting enough, I had made the same HSP and SP recordings with the RDR-GX7 recorder and the bitrate did improve a bit (no pun intended) with the RDR-GX300 recorder.

RDR-GX7 HSP recording (same source) Peak = 6247, Average = 4698
RDR-GX300 HSP recording (same source) Peak = 6369, Average = 4749
Just to go one step further, (same source) the JVC DR-MV1S produced these birates @ 90min FR mode (HSP) - Peak = 6976, Average = 3773

RDR-GX7 SP recording (same source) Peak = 4440, Average = 3495
RDR-GX300 SP recording (same source) Peak = 4681, Average = 3517

I like this machine so far. It hasn't given me any problems with media or transfering files to the PC. I'm going to be playing around with some of the video settings next. I think this one is right up there with JVC as far as quality is concerned. I'll leave that one up to the pros though.

The down side to this unit is the price and no firewire. It also is annoying that it doesn't have FR mode. However, the less it has the less things can wrong. I hope, because I didn't buy the $200.00 protection plan. Golly! I'm already spending $500.00.

[lordsmurf]

The last Sony unit blitzed out at 4-hour mode, especially on dark scenes. I tested it with Terminator 3. On average, it still beat the pants off the Panasonics, as the grain came and went. It was pretty close to the Toshiba and Pioneer at the time.

How does this one hold up?

[tommyoz]

The recordings I made at the 4hr mode was from DirectTV. They appeared to be ok. I never did get a chance to record at the 4hr mode with the other Sony cause it was having all sorts of trouble with the media.
I only squeezed out a couple of recordings and those were the ones I mentioned. Would it help if I posted some stills from the 4hr mode recordings? It might tell you something. If so, I will have to do it tomorrow. I'm tired and going to bed.

[Sam Ontario]

No offense above! But if you take it hard. My apology here.

Just curious what happen to your other DVD recorders? How do you compare this one with them, so that I can shut up when someone mention about it!

[tommyoz]

No offense above! But if you take it hard. My apology here.

Just curious what happen to your other DVD recorders? How do you compare this one with them, so that I can shut up when someone mention about it!

No, not at all. No need to apologize. Word interpretation is sometimes difficult on this site.

Like I said before, I'm not an expert and this is only my opinion.
I've returned the Sansui DVD/VCR, Cyberhome, Philips, Sony (RDR-GX7), JVC DVD/VCR. There was always something that kept me from keeping them.

I really want the JVC dr-mh30s but it has not come out yet. The Sony I thought had good quality on the last one so I figured i'd tried this one out.
As it stands right now, it hasn't given me any reason to return it. However it's still early to tell.

[lordsmurf]

I went to buy one yesterday. They're not for sale around here yet. I want to test it out.

[tommyoz]

I went to buy one yesterday. They're not for sale around here yet. I want to test it out.

Yea, United Smurfdom is not even on the map, so it may take a while

Seriously speaking, I checked back on the 4hr mode recording and it did lose a bit but still ok in my eyes. What would be the best source to really check it with? Should I record from a DVD in 4hr mode? or would any recording be ok.

I'm not a big fan of 4 hour recording hence the reason for me wanting a hard drive with it. I do record a lot from the TV. I do realize like you have said that the 4hour recording mode is the best test for any recorder. I already know what the JVC can do and i'm still waiting on their hard drive version. If this Sony performs better, I might wait for their hard drive version. I'll be interested in knowing what you think of this recorder. There is also another version of this recorder coming out with firewire and no hard drive. All 3 will be supporting DVD-R/RW & DVD+R/RW.

[zorankarapancev]

What would be the best source to really check it with?

The best sources would be Betacam SP (high quality component analog recording without any digital artifacts) or Digital Betacam and DVCam from high quality broadcast cameras. Anythig else would be a compromise.

[tommyoz]

Ok, what would be the next best. I don't have anything like that.

[lordsmurf]

Satellite tv or a commercial DVD (with no MV, or routed in TBC). Actually, S-VHS is higher resolution than Betacam SP, so I'd do that first.

Find a nice quality source with both darks and lights, and with both stills and fast action all in the course of the piece. I really liked using Terminator 3 for this reason. Neon lights in the image are good too.

[zorankarapancev]

I will never go with satelite TV program because it is compresed so much that you can easily see a lot of digital artifacts.
SVHS is OK if it comes from broadcast camera, not from consumer camcorder.
I guess... you are left with only one choice: high quality commercial DVD without MV.

When I do my tests I am using Sony Betacam SP video recorder UVW-1800, Sony Digital DVCam video recorder DSR-11 and Sony broadcast video camera DSR-300A(with 3 IT type Power HAD CCD's and 800 lines of resolution).

[tommyoz]

Well I guess everyone has their own methods for testing. I played around a little with the noise reduction and other video recording settings and has cleaned up the picture quite nicely. This recorder has some very nice playback as well. I still have to try the 4hr mode recording of a DVD. I should get to that before the weekend.

I'm finding myself mainly using DVD+R/RW for obvious reasons. Just good to know if I run out of + I can use the -. There are some other good reasons to use - as well.