RCA SCENIUM DVD recorder.

[bobbybobbertson]

How come no one talks about the RCA SCENIUM Digital Media Recorder with DVD Player (Brand/Model: RCA DRS7000N)?

Circuit city has one for $500 after a $100 mail in rebate.

Is this thing missing something? With my limited knowledge, I compared it to other standalone dvd recorders and it seems to be pretty good.

It has:
Works with DVD+R/RW && DVD-R/RW!!
its a progressive scan (switchable on and off via switch on back)
has S-video IN and OUT
Composite IN and OUT
L-R analog audio IN and OUT
Coxial and optical outputs
RF Coaxial Input (No Coaxial output)
30 Hours Max of Recording on internas hard drive (40 GIG HD)

Seems to be a pretty good deal!!

Anything major that it is missing?

[bobbybobbertson]

woops... i guess it is missing one major thing... it doesn't burn to DVD just plays them (I think.. its hard to tell).

DOH!!

would have been nice though!! But I guess that's why its not being discussed

[Bigrob8]

That's correct. It's the answer to a question few are asking. Combine a DVD player with a poor rendering of TiVO/Replay and you have... this thing.

[ktnwin]

I have seen this thing. It records to HARD DISK (like Tivo) and only play DVD, but does not record to any DVD disc format.
Because it play DVD and record (on HDD), it's called a DVD recorder !!! Very mis-leading. What else you would expect from RCA?

[Gil T Pleasure]

Not a very good DVD+DVR combo player. CNET only gave it a 6.4 Editor's Rating.

In terms of functionality, the Samsung DVD-H40E, a HDD+DVD combo player, may have more to offer.

[Lurker623]

Hi there

Just bought a DRS 7000. After a rebate it cost $194. So far it has worked well. Captured over 25 programs almost 40hours of stuff. Its not perfect for example I can copy a program to my VCR but the unit does not give instructions for burning onto to a disc.

I looked at Sony machine , you can burn discs , but it could not give me the time (10 + hours) I needed for to tape for the days I am away from home.

Philips machine you do both burn to a CD and put stuff on a harddrive, but the price was too expensive.

Apex promised the Apex ADR1000 this fall and has not produced anything yet. Finaly just got sick of waiting.

Tivo and Replay were too expensive once I factored in a lifetime membership. Plus it wasn't my lifetime but the life of the machine. I hated the membership concept . I just wanted a next generation VCR with no extra cost.


I figure the DRS 7000 is the best compromise of features and price. Who knows maybe in 3 years a good unit with a harddrive and cd burner will come out below the $300 barrier.

[RabidDog]

doubt it will have a cd burner in it. I too hate the tivo memebership concept. I subscribe to an excellent pc based tv guide for £6.50 a year, £10 a month is a real ripoff. My next vcr will be a hard disk baseed jobbie (200gb HD) !!

[Lurker623]

One can dream can't they? I hope pn 3 years the tech will be cheap enough to make Cd burners cheaper. Plus what are whining about my Brit ish friend ? Nokia is selling its Mediamaster 260s over there.
80 gig harddrive and it plays games on top of burning discs. For us Yanks Nokia only sells phones. Check out Nokia,com the mediamaster should be a honey of a machine.

[next]

I picked one of these up at Circuit City for less than $200. I like it. You can schedule using Guide Plus and it works great. Nothing like a TIVO but for the price and no monthly fee it was a bargain.

A plus is that it has a great tuner. The quality of the recorded material from a raw cable feed is very good.

edit -

I've got a home rolled capturing PC also integrated into my entertainment center. Over 400 gigs of hard drive space via an AIW. I prefer the quality of the Scenium for captures. I typically park captures and then burn to a set top DVD burner. The Scenium offers better quality for this exercise. I use the AIW setup simply for time shifting.

[telemike]

IS there any way to take the captures from the harddrive to a PC to be run thru DVD2SVCD to make SVCD's of the captures?

Canyou copy from the DVD drive to the Harddrive?

[Lurker623]

What is DVD2SVCD?

[telemike]

DVD2SVCD is a freeware software package to encode VCD or SVCD's from DVD, AVI or PVB input. see the guides here at vcdhelp

[Lurker623]

Where can catch the vocabulary. I am just getting to speed on the technology. Sorry if this newbie stuff.

Dvd = Digital video disc
Svd= ? vidieo disc

[donpedro]

See left top bar sectio WHAT IS and GUIDES and TOOLS (for DVD2SVCD tool)

[procrastination]

Does anyone know if you can transfer the digital video straight from the unit to a PC?

I see a USB terminal on the unit, but the guy at Circuit City told me that it is "not turned on" with the current firmware. Is there a firmware upgrade for it?

thanks

PRO

[procrastination]

Ok, so I broke down and bought one of these units.

Hey who can beat 183 bucks after mail in rebate?

Here is the lowdown: No digital interface to get your recorded content off the unit. You can only watch what you record, unless you run a splitter to your TV. (not a big deal)

Time slip works great!

Guide plus is FREE, but not quite a good as the TIVO guide (now I know why there is a subscription fee) because not all the channels are listed:

IE: UPN (so I can record Enterprise off the guide menu... But oh well, I can still program it)

Finally, it says that it plays VCD's but I have yet to get one to work. I dont know why.

Has anyone figured out how to upgrade the Hard Drive yet? Circuit City has an awesome deal on a 120gig drive that I would like to put in there...

late

PRO

[lordsmurf]

After experiencing an RCA discman, and RCA tv, and RCA radio and and RCA car stereo... I wouldn't wish anything RCA onto my worst enemy. RCA mostly makes crap from my experience, and most of it is sold at Walmart or SAM's. That's why I'd overlook it.

[hothandiman]

Hey! Who here remembers the RCA "video disc" of the 80's?? It was a vinyl "record" that was played with a stylus! Needless to say this product did not last long. It was a curious bump in the road of video recording though! :P

[webeye]

Not to mention...RCA Satellite REC......millions have been sold and re/sold :P

RCA has a new Scenium 8000 coming out soon.??

[lordsmurf]

Not to mention...RCA Satellite REC......millions have been sold and re/sold :P

The RCA receivers aren't too horrible. So I guess I like one product.

But it does have a weaker signal intake and tends to burn out the RF signal output. Also gets really hot. The the 5th generation and beyond models suck. The boxes also suffer from random resets.

Still better than a Hughes or Panasonic.

[webeye]

Re sat....I have a 2nd and 5th....prefer the 2nd by far.

[next]

I repeat. It has the best tuner going. Great stuff. Older technology but it is a bargain.

Purely off the coax feed.

[next]

Not to mention...RCA Satellite REC......millions have been sold and re/sold :P

The RCA receivers aren't too horrible. So I guess I like one product.

But it does have a weaker signal intake and tends to burn out the RF signal output. Also gets really hot. The the 5th generation and beyond models suck. The boxes also suffer from random resets.

Still better than a Hughes or Panasonic.

I love your efforts. But you should test first before you offer an opinion. Simple technology but works for a simple coax feed.

[lordsmurf]

I love your efforts. But you should test first before you offer an opinion. Simple technology but works for a simple coax feed.

I'm not understanding you. I've seen two RCA boxes with corrupt coax output signals. It's a common problem on older RCA boxes. Check out any DSS forum. Most people use composite into a VCR and never notice.

And during thunderstorms, my RCA boxes conk out earlier than my Hughes box. The signal is about 5-10 percent weaker, and cable lengths and the such are the same. Only the box is different.

[procrastination]

None the less. I really like the quality so far. As I said before: for less than 200 bucks it is VERY tangable.

Cannot get VCDs' to work still. (oh well)

I tell you this: The tuner in it is better than the tuner in my ATI A-I-W 9700 PRO. That thing cannot even tune stations 2-5....

late

PRO

[Lurker623]

Does anyone know if you can transfer the digital video straight from the unit to a PC?

I see a USB terminal on the unit, but the guy at Circuit City told me that it is "not turned on" with the current firmware. Is there a firmware upgrade for it?

thanks

PRO

Did any figure out an answer to this question ? If so could they post it ? The larger question is how do you download video to a CD from a RCA Scenium to any device?

[Dougmeister]

Also doesn't appear to have any macrovision/region-free hacks available...