Best DVD Recorder (home, not PC) for the money??

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Plus hard drive is standard ide so it is very easy to upgrade.

Yes and NO

As an example. My ilo RHD04 has a 80 gb IDE HDD, To upgrade it, to say a 160gb HDD, I would have to take the 160 drive tp a PC and format it for the full 160 gb. Install the proper dir. and files for video. Because this is a standard FAT 32 the unit may be a little slower. Should one ever do a total erase on the ilo, by default the ilo will format the 160 gb drive to 80 gb and LITEONFAT. To get back the 160, would require the PC process again
I believe that most recorders follow this

While it is somewhat easy. A full erase on the unit is not possable and could lead to fragmentation issues. Many have mounted the larger HDD outside the case

I meant that changing the hard drive on the dvdr I mention is very easy. Just remove the old one and put in the new drive. In the link I posted it explains how easy it is.

[LCSHG]

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When you said [upgrade] I took this to mean, a larger than original HDD,
To replace a HDD like a 80 gb with a 80 gb is simple and should create no problems.

I did look at the site you gave.
Lately and over a year ago I replaced the HDD in some ilo units [size for size] without problems. There are a number of sites that cover this issue

An SATA drive can be used with adapter.


Edit
I just recieved a replacement HDD for the [80 gb] in a ilo RHD04 It is a 120 gb HDD and that is OK. When placed in the ilo it will be formatted to 80 gb and LITEONFAT

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When you said [upgrade] I took this to mean, a larger than original HDD,
To replace a HDD like a 80 gb with a 80 gb is simple and should create no problems.

I did look at the site you gave.
Lately and over a year ago I replaced the HDD in some ilo units [size for size] without problems. There are a number of sites that cover this issue

An SATA drive can be used with adapter.


Edit
I just recieved a replacement HDD for the [80 gb] in a ilo RHD04 It is a 120 gb HDD and that is OK. When placed in the ilo it will be formatted to 80 gb and LITEONFAT

This unit may be a bit different than yout liteon. Im quoting "Dartman" here from page 4 on the link in my previous post. Here's his quote:

"OK my Walmart here got some in today so I picked one up. I immediately popped it open and took some pics, then I tried my $55 woot 250 gig caviar drive in it and Viola, 250 gigs of storage, went from like 34 hours in SP mode to 119 I just set the jumper to CS or whatever the original 80 is and off it went. It does have component in and out and firewire.'

[LCSHG]

That is an interesting post. What I belive it says is that when the [I presume] 80 gb HDD was replaced with a 250 gb HDD it was immeadiatly recognized by the unut as a 250 and formatted as such.
I hope i've interped the post correctly. I was not aware that such a unit existed.
I will check further

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That is an interesting post. What I belive it says is that when the [I presume] 80 gb HDD was replaced with a 250 gb HDD it was immeadiatly recognized by the unut as a 250 and formatted as such.
I hope i've interped the post correctly. I was not aware that such a unit existed.
I will check further

Thanks - the box does look interesting.

As the original poster asked - best for the money. Not the best recorder of course. This one does look like a nice hackable platform that has a very low price point. LSI chip set as well.

edit - also as I read through the thread that I posted from AVS that another poster had the same success with a 320 gig HD (western digital as well). Both the 250 and the 320 replacements were 7200 rpm drives. Heat should not be an issue - i.e. a 5400 rpm drive is not needed to increase the HD size.

[LCSHG]

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I looked through the post given from 1 –9 and some other info on this machine. Phillips was mentioned but it sounds and operates as an Ilo RHD04 or LitOn 5045 Both are internally limited to 80 or 160 gb unless formatted on a PC as described .
On page 5 of the link you gave, a [golfster] asked a specific question similar to my concern. The reply did not really address the question.
If so and this machine is non-compliant and can also be hacked as indicated , It would look as better than the LiteOn 5045 or ilo RHD04 At least the HDD size would not be a problem
I have not been able to garner any additional info but am trying


Ps
There was a question on the HDD setting
CS is cable select On this system the first drive is master so in a single HDD system CS and M would be the same

[LCSHG]

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As said I could find no information on this issue. I did make contact with Polaroid by email with this message

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[emai]l
It has been stated that a DRM 2001G DVD with 80gb HDD will accept a 250gb HDD and format the HDD to its full capacity, of 3 times the 80.

Is this True

It has been my observation that any reorder will format a larger HDD to that of the original drive. In this case 80gb
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This resulted with the furnishing of a phone number and a conversion with a Polaroid rep. And the following information

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[Responce]
The DRM 2001G [WILL NOT] format any drive over 80 gb. Including the 250 or 325, to any capacity over 80 gb
It was agreed that you could most likely format the larger drive on a PC and accomplish what I said. There is no guarantee to operation, as the PC would not format the drive to Polaroid propriety format. [As with other units]
The DRM 2001G is compliant with all CP, as is any official firmware upgrades.
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I have not found any firmware that will hack this Machine, or any info that it can be.
The post and link given was worth the effort because if true the machine was/is a sleeper.



Edit
Check these site's and some of the threads. While on the LiteOn /ilo units the HDD replacement with a larger HDD should cover most any DVD recorder with HDD

http://www.techolio.com/forums/phpBB2/viewforum.php?f=7&sid=825e1d99b86365500aa64b97b561e521

http://www.normediasolutions.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=12

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LCSHG -

Good news. I picked up the polaroid at walmart because I wanted to try the hard drive upgrade. The unit has a wd800bb 80 gig drive in it. This is a drive with a 2 meg buffer. I replaced it with a seagate model number ST3200822A-RK. The seagate is a 200 gig drive with an 8 meg buffer. Both drives are 7200 rpm. The upgrade went as follows:

1. Removed the drive from the polaroid.

2. Installed the new drive.

3. Closed up the unit.

4. Hooked it up. Turned it on.

The availabe time for recordeing under sp mode went from 37:47 to 95:18 which tells me the unit recognized the drive as more than 80 gigs.

I'm recording with it as I write this. The next question is even though the recorder shows 95:18 will it in fact record past 80 gigs. I'll let you know. If it does I'll try putting in a 320 gig drive and see what happens.

edit - I'm not trying to change the original topic of the thread here - "best dvd recorder for the money" but if in fact this unit can be easily upgraded then it has to be considered.

cost: $220 for the recorder plus $50 for the segate (after rebates) = $270 for a 200 gig hd dvd recorder. Plus as a bonus you get to use the original 80 gig drive elseware.

[LCSHG]

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That is good news
I don’t think this thread is being changed. If your experiment works out and the recording time is more that doubled it will indeed be good news.
Can you go a step further and try to copy a commercial disk that has CP to the HDD. If it won’t and most likely will not, can you play the disk in another DVD player connected to the Polaroid? If it now copies it could mean Polaroid is MV free and also, possibly, non-compliant
Not many machines today can be hacked or are non-compliant.
Either way the machine looks as a very good purchase and candidate for the original post.

PS
Try a complete erase on the disk. This should format the disk and see if it still indicates a larger size.
The info gained by the company rep. is not always correct. If the WalMart or any store in my area carried the Polaroid, I would do similar. I am not challenging the link or posts given but would like a little more info

Your efforts and comments are well taken
Thanks

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LCSHG_

Complete erase indicates 95:18 at sp.

[LCSHG]

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That would indicate a machine format greater than the orig 80 gb
Will the unit record for the entire capacity of the larger drive
Will the machine copy a Copy Prtected commercial disk, either directly or using another DVD player