How important is a Hard Drive in a standalone recorder??

[supatrupa]

I see Panasonic make several DVD standalone recorders.

Only one has a 40gb hard drive in it. Does that aid in the speed of recording to the DVD? Or does it just let you record not only to DVD, but to the hard drive (like a TIVO).

Do these standalones record on the fly? Or is there some encoding/processing needed to take place.

I see they have 4 different record 'speed' settings.

Panasonic DMR-HS2 has the hard drive.
Panasonic DMR-E30S doesn't.

[Gazorgan]

They record on the fly.

The Harddrive let's you keep more eps on the box ( just like a Tivo ). An optical media may only be able to record 2-6(?) hours, depending on quality. With a harddrive, you could store 20-60 hours(?). This is good if you want to record, say, your favorite daytime drama all week, then watch them all on the weekend. Or the Iron Chef Marathon that has 14 eps (that's 14 hours of recording, won't fit on optical media).

[Erwin]

"Do these standalones record on the fly? Or is there some encoding/processing needed to take place. "

Yes, standalones record on the fly just like VCRs. There is no encoding at all which was one of the reasons I took this route instead of buying a DVD-R Drive. The only thing you have to do is "finalize" the DVD-R on the Panasonic DVD Recorder after you have all the video you desire on the disc in order for it to play on other DVD players (this takes about 4 minutes or less).

[dallastx]

Actually, a internal hardrive for a standalone machine only allows you to save images from already made non copyright dvd's...will not take a mpg, or any other file and encode it.

[dallastx]

Sorry wrong info above i guess i need to read more carefully, im thinking of a one to one dvd standalone.

[supatrupa]

another thing...

Can you record something, then NOT finalize, and then later on record some more to the same DVD-R (like using a vhs tape in a vcr)?

[Greg12]

I think the hard drives also allow some basic editing functions.

[darkhunter]

I think the hard drive is invaluable.
I would never buy a dvd recorder without one.

It makes doing things like editing out commercials so much easier.

[heavyharmonies]

I think the hard drive is invaluable.
I would never buy a dvd recorder without one.

Agreed. I don't have to make the choice of which project I want to keep/archive vs. which one I want to work on at this very moment. With 8 hours of capacity in XP mode, I can keep several sources around for editing without having to choose which to complete or remove.

Now that I've worked with a standalone DVD recorder that has an internal HD, I'd never purchase one without it...

-Dan

[Cyrax9]

I wouldn't buy a DVD Recorder without an HDD Built in. Panasonic has the largest list of models by far, I'll go through each HDD-equipped unit that comes to mind:

- DMR-HS2: 40GB HDD
- DMR-E60HS: 60GB HDD
- DMR-E80HS: 80GB HDD
- DMR-E85HS: 80GB HDD
- DMR-E95HS: 100GB HDD
- DMR-E100HS: 120GB HDD
- DMR-E500HS: 400GB HDD (Panasonic's latest model, only unit I've seen w/ a 400GB HDD, at least in the USA anyway.)

I think that's accurate, and if you have money to burn, you can always look into importing the DMR-E700BD Blu-Ray Recorder from Japan; I just hope you can read Kanji/Katakana/Hiragana!

Seriously, the differance an HDD makes is monumental, let me describe it this way:

Copying on a VHS VCR: Original tape in VCR 1 --> Blank Tape in VCR 2, record from VCR 1 to VCR 2 using RCA/Composite Video cables, loose signal quality; manually stop/start video for trimming commercials. Highly time consuming.

Copying on a DVD Recorder w/o HDD: Original Disc/Tape in DVD Recorder/VCR 1 --> Blank DVD in Recorder 2, record from DVD Recorder/VCR 1 to Recorder 2 using RCA/Composite Video or S-Video cables, loose signal quality; manually stop/start video for trimming commercials. Highly time consuming and annoying. You might as well stick with VHS if you do this.

Copying on a DVD Recorder w/HDD: Original Tape in VCR or program from HDD --> Blank DVD, record from TV/VCR to HDD using RCA/Composite Video or S-Video cables from Cable Box/VCR, no signal loss; trim commercials on HDD --> Burn to DVD-R/DVD-RAM. Very efficant, and great for saving TV Shows that'll never (and I mean snowball's chance in hell when I say never) see a DVD release or old VHS tapes while you're away from the set. Just trim what you don't want out and burn to a Disc, this is the main feature to an HDD.

Also, let's say I want to have a set of TV Episodes burnt to DVD. But because the station airs early/late I need to leave some "lead time" at the beginning/end of the recording. I can start something early, chop off the "garbage footage" and wind up with everything I want and nothing I don't and no real quality loss. A 30-minute kids show would take up 4 Episodes per DVD if I couldn't trim the commercials, I can trim them out on the HDD and save them there until I want to burn FIVE EPISODES to a DVD w/o commericals. Basically the HDD lets me fit more on a DVD in the long run without re-encoding or PC editing. Maybe I missed "Star Trek Enterprise", not a problem, I can just go and watch it on the HDD of my recorder and delete it afterwards. (I know Paramount will do DVD's of this so I have no need to save it.) It's kind of like TIVO without the Subscription and BS Reccomendations that I don't want.

The HDD is a nesseccity to me, and both Recorders I own have one. I have people ask me why I can fit 5 episodes of a 30 minute show to a DVD without extra steps and I tell them it's because of the HDD. Basically it's a great editing tool and it's also good for time-shifted viewing or for recording events that may be pre-empted by a sports game, let's say I want to record a comedy series but there's football before it. I'll just set the recorder to run an hour or two late and hopefully my show will be shown. Basically it's a TIVO-esque device and is very useful without the problems TIVO has. Namely your TV arrogantly dictating what you should be watching. (I found TIVO's to be quite militaristic with telling me what to watch; this is why I don't own one myself. My DVD Recorder just shuts up and listens to my orders, kinda like comparing your Dog to your kids.)

[gshelley61]

Copying on a DVD Recorder w/o HDD: Original Disc/Tape in DVD Recorder/VCR 1 --> Blank DVD in Recorder 2, record from DVD Recorder/VCR 1 to Recorder 2 using RCA/Composite Video or S-Video cables, loose signal quality; manually stop/start video for trimming commercials. Highly time consuming and annoying. You might as well stick with VHS if you do this.

? ? ?

Wait a minute... here's how it works with a non-HDD DVD recorder:

VHS (or other video source)-->DVD Recorder-->DVD-RW (+RW, -RAM)-->computer for trimming, chapter selection, menu building and disc authoring-->final DVD-R (+R)

No manual stopping and starting during recording is required. You can record to more than one DVD-RW if need be (for a marathon). No quality loss at all doing it this way, as no re-encoding of the first generation MPEG captured to the DVD-RW video occurs using this method.

The HDD type DVD Recorders definitely have the advanage in the length of non-stop recording they can do. For me, I do not record TV shows or need single session capture times longer than about 2.5 hours, so I do not need a HDD type DVD Recorder. Editing and authoring on the computer is much easier than with most DVD recorders, and one can be very creative with menus and such if they wish.

DVD-->DVD-R is done by ripping and copying on the computer with something like DVDShrink. There is no reason to record from a DVD player to DVD recorder in real time. That makes no sense.

[jimmalenko]

Cyrax9 wrote:
Copying on a DVD Recorder w/o HDD: Original Disc/Tape in DVD Recorder/VCR 1 --> Blank DVD in Recorder 2, record from DVD Recorder/VCR 1 to Recorder 2 using RCA/Composite Video or S-Video cables, loose signal quality; manually stop/start video for trimming commercials. Highly time consuming and annoying. You might as well stick with VHS if you do this.

? ? ?

Wait a minute... here's how it works with a non-HDD DVD recorder:

VHS (or other video source)-->DVD Recorder-->DVD-RW (+RW, -RAM)-->computer for trimming, chapter selection, menu building and disc authoring-->final DVD-R (+R)

No manual stopping and starting during recording is required. You can record to more than one DVD-RW if need be (for a marathon). No quality loss at all doing it this way, as no re-encoding of the first generation MPEG captured to the DVD-RW video occurs using this method.

I *think* the context was for if you don't have a computer or you don't have a DVD drive in your computer