DVD writers/recorders...are they worth it?

[helgafel]

I know that DVD writers are a bit expensive at the moment due to the fact that they are new to the scene. My question is however weather i should buy one and why. What do i get if i buy one concerning vcd or svcd quality? What i basically want to know is should i buy one know, and which type, or wait until something else comes along.
Btw, i hava a Aiwa XD-DV480 standalone player and could i play media from a dvd burner in it?

[SLK001]

If all you are doing is creating VCD and SVCDs, don't bother.

If you are interested in creating DVD projects, then a DVD-R is a must.

<----- Look here to see your player's compatibility "index".

[EricB]

Here's my take on this:

I'm converting old VHS family video. and although most would say that VHS doesn't justify DVD specs, I think that the lower the quality source you have, the more you have to work to preserve what's left.

I also think that the DVD specification is a lot more recognized in the US then VCD or SVCD. I only want to convert these tapes one time for archiving so I typically encode to DVD and VCD. I burn the DVD on DVD-R and make VCDs to send to other family members.

Finally, if you are watching the resulting material on a computer, the DVD files look really good and have normal navigation (instead of hitting numbers to go to scenes).

[helgafel]

Thanks SLK001 for the response.
This might sound stupid but what kind of DVD projects are we talking about?

[SLK001]

Like Eric said... converting old VHS tapes to DVD, or, what I'm also doing... converting laserdisks to DVD.

[lattedfw]

My opinion is DVD writers are worth the money if you're currently creating VCDs and are hitting that technology's limits, be it quality of video, length of recording, etc.

I converted old home movies and videos to VCD format and was satisfied with the results (at the time). But for archival purposes, I decided I had to convert to DVD format for imperceptible loss in quality going from VHS and 8mm to DVD (interlace is preserved), uninterrupted run time (2 hour VHS easily fits on 1 DVD-R), and a more ubiquitous standard (DVD is more common in the US than VCD).

I decided on the DVD-R/RW format because in my research it seemed to be the standard more video professionals use and it is more closely related the the DVD-Authoring standard the movie studios use to master DVDs. It is approved by the forum that sets DVD standards. Many people will argue that all this doesn't matter, and I agree to a point- the casual home user really only cares about price and compatibility. Video quality is equal.

I back up files to DVD-RW. I can fit all my digital camera images and audio files on just 1 or 2 DVD-RWs.

You'll have to test a DVD-R in your DVD player to verify compatibility, which varies widely from one brand of recordable media to another, and even among different batches of the same brand. More expensive name-brand media tends to work in more players.

You'll also want to be sure that your PC is powerful enough to compress to MPEG2 in reasonable amounts of time (e.g. my P-4 1.7GHz takes 56 hours to compress 2 hours of video with 2-pass encoding at the highest quality in TMPGenc).

[tonypro2]

You'll also want to be sure that your PC is powerful enough to compress to MPEG2 in reasonable amounts of time (e.g. my P-4 1.7GHz takes 56 hours to compress 2 hours of video with 2-pass encoding at the highest quality in TMPGenc).

Whoa - did you mean 5-6 hours, or 56 hours? That sounds real excessive.

[lattedfw]

56 hours (fifty-six) for 2 hours of 704x480 video with 2-pass VBR encoding to MPEG2 at highest quality in TMPGEnc. The source is DV video.

[MOVIEGEEK]

helgafel,
I would wait till the end of the year for two reasons:
1)Prices will drop
2)4x writers will be released(hopefully)

[helgafel]

Thanks you guys for the response I think i´ll wait until further developments for this media. And also the prices will go down in the near future.
Btw. Any thoughts on these standalone DVD player/recorders. Can one record stuff directly from the tv?

[Kusanagi]

I decided on the DVD-R/RW format because in my research it seemed to be the standard more video professionals use and it is more closely related the the DVD-Authoring standard the movie studios use to master DVDs.

The Recordable DVD Council has now thrown its weight behind the DVD-R/RW formats. As seen in their recently released press conference last June (info here - http://www.dv-info.net/cgi-bin/ib/ikonboard.cgi?s=9a9b87cca987ed7fc250ea5cc073e7f7;act=ST;f=3;t=54) The, as some would describe, ‘maverick’ DVD+RW late-comer platform, championed by Philips, HP, Ricoh and Yamaha, among others, is apparently not supported or promoted by the RDVDC.


Kusanagi

[yg1968]

Who cares what they support as long as DVD+R+RW can be played on my DVD player.

See this thread for a rebuttal of this information:

http://www.dvdplusrw.org/cgi/ikonboard/topic.cgi?forum=2&topic=2404&start=20

[Kusanagi]

Who cares what they support...

Actually, there is a lot of importance in their support and in the licensing procedure put forth by the DVD Forum (there is a lot more to it, than just "as long as it can be played on my DVD player".) yg1968, if you would like to PM me your email address I'd be more than happy to share with you information that demonstrates its importance.


Kusanagi

[Super Warrior]

I know that DVD writers are a bit expensive at the moment due to the fact that they are new to the scene. My question is however weather i should buy one and why. What do i get if i buy one concerning vcd or svcd quality? What i basically want to know is should i buy one know, and which type, or wait until something else comes along.
Btw, i hava a Aiwa XD-DV480 standalone player and could i play media from a dvd burner in it?

The pioneer DVR-104 drive,records both DVD-Rs and DVD-RWs.



http://www.caldrives.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=Caldrives&Produc...=V5E0202PN-PW3
-$239

http://www.goroyalpc.com/product.asp?m_cat=AudioVideo&cat=dvddvdrw&action=show&id=203DVDDVDRW
-$247