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  1. Member FulciLives's Avatar
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    I've played back some well made Half D1 DVD Videos on my 51" 16x9 WS HDTV (a Hitachi CRT Rear Projection unit ... model 51F710A) and they look A-OK to me.

    Let me make it clear that even playing back an original VHS looks like ass on such a big screen but the difference between the original VHS vs a Full D1 DVD of that VHS vs a Half D1 DVD of that VHS ... well they all look about the same to me.

    In other words I don't see Half D1 looking any worse.

    BTW I used a Hauppauge PVR for the Half D1 tests since you can do Half D1 at any bitrate you so choose. Too bad a DVD recorder doesn't allow the same, i.e., any resolution at any bitrate or recording speed.

    - John "FulciLives" Coleman
    "The eyes are the first thing that you have to destroy ... because they have seen too many bad things" - Lucio Fulci
    EXPLORE THE FILMS OF LUCIO FULCI - THE MAESTRO OF GORE
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  2. Banned
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    Rear projection handle it better then flat panel. This is strictly about plasma/LCD panels.
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  3. Please excuse my ignorance, but what are proc amp like controls?
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  4. Member
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    Color/brightness/contrast controls.
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  5. Member
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    Picked up an open box Toshiba dr4 on ebay for $85 shipped based on gshelley61 recommendation for correcting the black levels with recording from my jvc dvd recorder. It better fix the problem.
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  6. I bought 4 D-R4s on ebay for less than $85, they must have gone up.
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  7. Member
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    Well I wish I could have found one for less then that but it usually doesnt carry the accesories and thats why I got one with the accessories for 85.
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  8. Member p_l's Avatar
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    Jun 2002
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    Originally Posted by lordsmurf
    Toshiba makes the second best DVD recorder, and one most folks can afford with a little savings, carrying a $350-400 price tag. Not bad at all, lots of features, excellent quality. It has one quirk, however, in that home users will NOT want to use this in their bedroom, as the fan runs 24/7. If you do not plan to timeshift via timer recordings, then I'd suggest plugging it into a conventient surge strip, and then flipping it off when not in use. It's a great machine for VHS>DVD recordings. The power consumption I'm told is about 15W, or close to that of a nightlight that runs 24/7. The fan will likely not be heard in a noisier room (living room, rec room), and the fan can be custom modded (see the mediachance.com guide) to lower the speed/volume.
    The guide for the Toshiba fan mod can be found here, and it's an interesting read.
    http://www.mediachance.com/dvdlab/xs34/index.html
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  9. That is actually a pretty decent overview of the Toshiba RD-XS34. I have to concur with the author... of all the DVD recorders I've owned and checked out (at least 25 different models from nearly every brand available), the RD-XS34 is my all time favorite unit. In fact, I have two of them on hand right now and have a relatively new Toshiba RD-XS35 on the way.

    Some folks have wondered about the hardware video processor/encoder that is in these units... it's an NEC chip (specifically, uPD61181F1 EMMA2RL)

    Here's a link to the NEC web page about the chip (translated):
    http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=ja&u=http://www.necel.com/digital_av/ja...chBox%26sa%3DG

    I don't know if other manufacturers besides Toshiba base any of their DVD recorders on the NEC chip.
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  10. Member
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    gshelley61

    Please give us your reviewof the Toshiba RD-XS35 after you have a chance to test it, and compare to the RD-XS34.
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  11. Member
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    Are the Polaroid 2001G players available anymore? Walmarts site does not show them for me.
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  12. Originally Posted by andyr354
    Are the Polaroid 2001G players available anymore? Walmarts site does not show them for me.
    Check your local Wal Mart stores... they may still have some. If not, search on eBay.
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  13. Originally Posted by samijubal
    Have you ever done anything with the HD in that Toshiba RD-XK50? I tried to put the same HD out of the exact same recorder in one of those, it wouldn't work. I've been using that same HD in a PC for a few months now.
    You might want to check out this thread on the AVS forum.
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  14. Member Seeker47's Avatar
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    Originally Posted by xiaNaix
    Originally Posted by samijubal
    Have you ever done anything with the HD in that Toshiba RD-XK50? I tried to put the same HD out of the exact same recorder in one of those, it wouldn't work. I've been using that same HD in a PC for a few months now.
    You might want to check out this thread on the AVS forum.
    Interesting. That is apparently the first Toshiba model for which we have such a report ? BUT, the XS54 is not a currently sold model, is it ? (New, I mean.)
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  15. Member
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    Originally Posted by lordsmurf

    Polaroid -- Mono tuner

    LiteOn -- Mono tuner

    Sadly enough, the machine I look forward to testing the most right now is the RCA at Walmart, but I'd be surprised if it turns out to look good.

    There's lots of "home brand" machines out there like TruTech, Ilo and Insignia, but it's a real pot luck.

    Just some other info:

    RCA Divx player I bought recently is actually rather decent for $30 AR, the Walmart RCA might be a surprise winner.

    The ILO 04 I have from Walmart a couple years back is basically a Liteon. Great, and gets stereo from other sources, but mono tuner. Almost guaranteed a Philips tuner inside (thinking I recall that being it off hand). Philips makes a bazillion parts on the OEM level, likely they have a similar tuner that is stereo, that could be subbed in rather easily. Almost as likely, the tuner IC *is* stereo, and the module mixes it together or only brings out a mixed output pin. Quite possible a little research and a minor mod would make these into stereo recorders. Even if it took a different tuner, if they make a stereo one with the same command set so you don't have to screw around with translating, it'd still probably be $30 or $50 to hunt one down and put it in..

    Not a big issue for me since cable here sucks anyway and I use other methods for most recording. But not much work to pop off the top and tuner cover, and see what IC is doing the tuning. If it's stereo it'll be trivial to fix the wiring, if not it still won't take much to look up the tuner IC and see if they have a stereo version with the same tuner commands. I know for sure it records stereo from the AV inputs, likely Philips had a million in a warehouse and gave them a deal on the mono tuners.

    Heck I don't care much but it's an interesting and easy enough thing to look right now, time to pop off the cover and ID some parts. Just did, bit of work to get inside the tuner and parts are on the bottom, have to find my small mirror or take it apart more completely.

    Haven't taken it out yet, but looks like it is not Philips. Maybe one of their chips or clone though, but likely not stereo at all.

    The control of these tuners is usually relatively simple and uses common I2C, could translate and put a tuner from something else like a cheap stereo VCR into one easily enough. Only benefit over a seperate VCR through the AV inputs would be it's control over the tuner for timed records. Actually would be easier to take the tuner control signal and use it to control a seperate VCR by remote signals, so when it wants to change the channel it changes the VCR channel. That may be more useful than actually hacking in a new tuner to a specific machine, could easily be adapted to work with any of the stereo recorders but with a mono tuner, and work with almost any external VCR. You'll have a seperate VCR sitting on top of your recorder, but it'll record in stereo and only be $30 more than the recorder instead of $500 plus.



    Heck this would be useful enough for enough people, and still a fairly straight forward project, about like a mod chip for a video game console or similar. It might even hold my interest along with a few other related items to actually get something working.

    The tuner is mono, so has one output signal. If it's only going to two input pins, and we can cut it and patch in VCR stereo inputs, then this will be easy enough. May have to split the cable to the VCR and it's tuner, so the tuner decodes and it gets the 'good output' signal. Probably can find the pin and disable it though, or may not even use one.

    Have my Ilo DVDR04 apart now, I'll take a look around tomorrow or Tuesday with my scope. Very likely something can be Frankensteined together, if it works out well you may not even notice you're not using the internal tuner and it'll work with timer records etc. May even look at it now since it'll be fairly interesting to trace out the audio.


    Since one hack could probably work for all the Liteons/Ilos etc with this tuner, it could really be worth doing, more than a few people might like stereo record with a little effort and only a little extra cost..
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  16. Member
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    I have a Panasonic DMR-EH50. For me it works well. I was so tired of having to switch video tapes all of the time. If I simply had a DVD recorder I would have to keep switching DVDs all the time.

    The DMR-EH50 has a 100 G hard drive. It holds lots of TV.
    I'm not much of a picture quality freak. I still have a 25" analog TV.

    I do like being able to pre-record then skip the commercials.

    Since I got digital cable though, the onboard TV guide no longer works. This makes it much more difficult to set up the recordings.

    I think this DVR has an analog tuner. Maybe I need a converter box for it.
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