anyone tried a dvd recorder?

[Baldrick]

how is the quality?

[mikk]

i tried the philips one. the quality is crap. the mpeg2 encoder isn't very good. everything gets blocky. try the pioneer recorder instead.

the advantage over a computer is that it's done in real time.

[energy80s]

And the disadvantage is that they aren't compatible with DVD players!!

Until the "format wars" shake out in the recordable DVD market, avoid ALL recorders like the plague! Cost is irrelevant. Even if they were 20 quid I still wouldn't buy one. Remember Betamax, Video 2000, Laser Disc, DCC .....

[leebo]

Well, this is second hand info.

A friend of mine (who owns a video production company) purchased the Panasonic set top DVD burner, on my recomendation.
He's had it for two weeks now, and his tests have been very positive.

In DVD Video mode he said the quality was the same as the A-03. The discs have played on EVERY set top player he's tried.

Since the time I recomended it, Pioneer has come out with their own version (at almost double the cost) that has firewire I/O.

I plan to buy that one.

[alkieman]

The Pioneer unit is supposed to be available soon for 1399 UKP in the UK. I plan to wait a few months till it comes down to around 799 then buy it. The price will drop as it did with the Panasonic and Philips units.

[V2002]

I've tried the Panasonic DMR-E20 (for a week).
You have *nothing* to complain about the quality. It's just wonderfull!
There is one thing I "discovered" .. this recoder reads also DVD-RW(pionner branded) which was burned by Pioneer A03. and ofcourse DVD-R/DVD-RAM.

The only thing I hate about this machine was .. the remote!. I dont like it it's difficult to navigate .. (I've used Panasonic DVD player before).

I switched now to the new Pioneer DVR-7000 :-)

[leebo]

I switched now to the new Pioneer DVR-7000

So, tell us what you think!!!

[alkieman]

AAAAAAAARGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH

The Pioneer stand alone DVD recorder is now available in the UK at around 1100 but it will record in PAL and SECAM only, no NTSC. I presume this means the US version will record NTSC only too.

Thanks Pioneer, talk about shooting yourself in the foot when both of the other two recordable formats support PAL and NTSC.

On a plus point it is the only one of the three to have the Firewire port available as both an input and an output.

[alkieman]

oops.. should have said recorders, of course I'm talking about the Philips and Panasonic stand alone units.

[leebo]

"it is the only one of the three to have the Firewire port available as both an input and an output."

Yes but the Panasonic can be used as a TIVO to pause live TV and it is about half the price.

Oh Popeye, what do I do???

[baker]

LIVE MPEG ENCODERS ARE COMPLETE SHITE!!!!

If anyone here has any sort of digital television (to name but a few:- sky digital, ondigital, ntl, fta aerial braodcasts) they will know that no matter what company, what subscriber the quailty is always shite.MPEG was not meant for this, these broadcasters are using mpeg technology to make their boadcasts smaller so they can put more channels on a band. I have satellite, i once had analouge satellite but the company changed the service to digital. Now due to the extra room there is 100's more channels then there was in analouge. But guess which channells i am watching? The old ones cause they are the only ones with decent programming!!!

this is what they claim digital offrers:

-100's channels
-excellent picture quailty
-easier to use
-loads of new services
- and lots more besides...

now this is what they are really offer:

-100's of bullshit
-xing mpeg encoder picture quailty
-******* always crashing and breaking down
-loads of new bullshit no body cares about!! WE JUST WANT TO WATCH TV!!
-And buckets more bulshit besides.


some channels are very smart and are now only broadcasting in widescreen which makes picture quailty way better but still not as good as analouge!

Every company is now changing all their services to digital and i say we put a stop to it! they are just doing it for their own benefit so they can moniter us and charge us for stuff we don't even want!!

I am now starting a tread where people can vote for or against analouge.

I hopw u will be against it and will vote NO to digishite.

Baker

[alkieman]

Yes the Panasonc is half the price and has some great Tivo like features but it s re-writeable format is DVD-RAM that hardly any other stand alone DVD players can use. Blank DVD-RAM media is also incredibly expensive, more than 7 times the price of equivalent DVD-RW media (you can get blank DVD-RW media for around 2UKP now from the likes of www.bigpockets.co.uk . Even DVD+RW blanks are still only around 10 UKP which is half the price of DVD-RAM media.

Like I said, the Panasonic is a great machine but this is the one of the three formats most likely to die out for home video recording. Just because it's the best don't mean it will win, look at betamax.

[kwag]

I've had the Panasonic DMR-E20 for about 5 months now.

Can't complain. It's what I use to capture the Stargate Episodes and then transfer them in my PC to xVCD.

One thing that the Panasonic DMR-E20 has, that NO other standalone recorder has, is TimeSlip.

Because the transfer rate to this device is above 22Mbps, you can be recording and playing back simultaneously!.

So if I am recording a movie, and I want to grab something to eat in the kitchen, I can press pause.

When I come back, press play, and continue where I was watching. But the machine is still recording the complete movie ahead in real-time.

And if I have other movies previously recorder on the same DVD-RAM drive, I can actually go and watch another movie on the same disk, while something else is being recorder on the SAME media!. It's a pretty amazing device.

kwag

[alkieman]

Very cool feature that. Shame the other two formats don't have it but it isn't technically feasible.

[kwag]

Well let's see:

http://store.yahoo.com/meritline/dvdrammedia.html

$9.10 for a 4.7GB DVD-RAM is not so bad!.

Considering that it's 100,000 times re-writable.
Not so for DVD-RW, which is only 1,000 times re-writable.

Do you think this is not "technically feasible" ???

kwag

[leebo]

kwag,

Can you rewind and fast forward while you're recording?

If so, is it instant?
does it ever freeze while looking for a spot when you're rewonding or fast forwarding?

[kwag]

kwag,

Can you rewind and fast forward while you're recording?

If so, is it instant?
does it ever freeze while looking for a spot when you're rewonding or fast forwarding?

You can rewind, fast forward, timeslip ( go back or forward 1, 2 , 3 , 4 etc in minutes, you can stop playback and select another movie in the DVD-RAM while still recording without any skips in the playback or in the recording.

Sounds like SciFi stuff eh!, but it does just that!

kwag

[alkieman]

KWAG.. the other two formats I was referring to were DVD-RW and DVD+RW. It is NOT technically feasible to feature timeslip on these two formats because of the different recording technologies involved. Try actually reading what is written before you try to slag someone off.

DVD-RAM has the timeslip feature and as I said, it is a great feature the other two do not have.

[kwag]

KWAG.. the other two formats I was referring to were DVD-RW and DVD+RW. It is NOT technically feasible to feature timeslip on these two formats because of the different recording technologies involved. Try actually reading what is written before you try to slag someone off.

DVD-RAM has the timeslip feature and as I said, it is a great feature the other two do not have.

I did read what you said.

But this is what you said:
Very cool feature that. Shame the other two formats don't have it but it isn't technically feasible.

What you should have said:
Very cool feature that. Shame the other two formats don't have it BECAUSE it isn't technically feasible on DVD-RW, DVD+RW.

Because "Very cool feature that" <- "that", refering to TimeSlip, Right?.

That's a whole different meaning. What you wrote , and most people would read, meant that you were saying that TimeSlip isn't technically feasible.

Try making a concrete statement next time, instead of leaving "open to be interpreted" statements.

Have a nice day
kwag

[alkieman]

Am I missing something here?.

very cool feature acknowledging that the timeslip on the Panasonic is indeed cool.

What did you think "Shame the other two formats don't have it but it isn't technically feasible." meant?. It is pretty obvious I was talking about the other two formats because thats what the statement says. Meaning it isn't technically feasible on the other two formats. Hell, after your statement I even asked half a dozen of my friends to read my orginal post in case I was missing something but they all knew exactly what I meant.

You need to get out more.

Anyway, enough of this childhish behaviour, back to the real world.

[Anonymous65]

Can someone with a DVD recorder post the file structure and files on the DVD disk after you have recorded a clip on the disk.

Thanks.

[kwag]

Can someone with a DVD recorder post the file structure and files on the DVD disk after you have recorded a clip on the disk.

Thanks.

Hi skittelsen:

For the Panasonic DMR-E20 you'll find a directory in the root of the DVD-RAM called DVD-RTAV.

In that directory there are 3 files:
VR_MANGR.BUP
VR_MANGR.IFO
VR_MOVIE.VRO

Looks familiar, right?.

The .VRO is like the .VOB's on a DVD and the first 2 are obvious.
You can open the .VRO with WMP, PowerDVD, etc.

The resolutions are from 704x480 to 352x480 MPEG-2 Hybrid VBR.
Bit rates change depending on recording time. 1, 2, 4 or 6 hours.

kwag

[Anonymous65]

Thanks for this info.
You said it was a DVD-RAM. What about a DVD-R disk that is playable in most DVD players?

[kwag]

Thanks for this info.
You said it was a DVD-RAM. What about a DVD-R disk that is playable in most DVD players?

When recording on a DVD-R, it's structure is identical to a commercial DVD.
.ifo's vob's, bup's, etc.

And a single VIDEO_TS directory on the root.


kwag

[Anonymous65]

OK, thanks.

[pero]

anyone tried HP dvd100i dvd-rw writer?

if so, how is it?
cuz i just got it and havent use it yet.