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I posted this message recently -
"Thinking of joining the 21st century
Looking to buy my first DVD player soon - thought I might as well go for a DVD recorder to connect to my NTSC telly
Anyone got one to recommend and what are the pros / cons"
- and thanks to Adrian , pb and Wookiemonster for replies
Sorry but I may have misled you a bit
I don't have a PC at home yet - that's another item on my "list of things to buy soon"
What I am thinking of getting is a stand alone DVD recorder which sits under the telly beside my VCR - the one I fancy is the Philips DVDR880.
Philips claim that you can get up to 4 hours recording on a DVD+R or DVD+RW disc
Is the quality still bad after two hours ????
One thing I would really like to do is copy all of my pre-recorded videos onto a DVD disc so that they will last longer and take up less space
Any comments would again be appreciated
"Thinking of joining the 21st century
Looking to buy my first DVD player soon - thought I might as well go for a DVD recorder to connect to my NTSC telly
Anyone got one to recommend and what are the pros / cons"
- and thanks to Adrian , pb and Wookiemonster for replies
Sorry but I may have misled you a bit
I don't have a PC at home yet - that's another item on my "list of things to buy soon"
What I am thinking of getting is a stand alone DVD recorder which sits under the telly beside my VCR - the one I fancy is the Philips DVDR880.
Philips claim that you can get up to 4 hours recording on a DVD+R or DVD+RW disc
Is the quality still bad after two hours ????
One thing I would really like to do is copy all of my pre-recorded videos onto a DVD disc so that they will last longer and take up less space
Any comments would again be appreciated
I have the first Philips DVD recorder (that you plug into the telly) and its okay, but nothing special. The more you record the lower the quality. At high quality (Identical to what you see on telly) its about 1 hrs worth, standard (about normal DVD quality) 2 hrs worth and so on. 4 hrs is at its lowest quality and it looks like you are watching a video. Blurry edges and so on, I don't recommend it.
If you are looking to record all of your vids onto it, think again! Most have copy protection. If you try and copy a video to a video the screen will go light and dark, then black and white etc. This is the macrovision kicking in. On the DVD recorder it wont even let you get this far, it will just say that the source is copy protected and wont record or even display a picture. I imagine you can probably get a chip stuck in to defeat this.
I wish I had opted for the Panasonic as it offers time shifting, ie if you record a footie match you can watch the first half whilst its still recording the second, which is nice.
My DVD recorder is the older model so may not be all relevant to the newer ones, but any other questions then let me know. I would recommend the Panasonic or pioneer though. I have heard that a new one is coming out, not sure from who , and it has hard disk recording too. So if you forget to put a blank dvd in it will record to the disk, and you can moce it to the dvd later etc. Probably be pricey, but you get what you pay for!
If you are looking to record all of your vids onto it, think again! Most have copy protection. If you try and copy a video to a video the screen will go light and dark, then black and white etc. This is the macrovision kicking in. On the DVD recorder it wont even let you get this far, it will just say that the source is copy protected and wont record or even display a picture. I imagine you can probably get a chip stuck in to defeat this.
I wish I had opted for the Panasonic as it offers time shifting, ie if you record a footie match you can watch the first half whilst its still recording the second, which is nice.
My DVD recorder is the older model so may not be all relevant to the newer ones, but any other questions then let me know. I would recommend the Panasonic or pioneer though. I have heard that a new one is coming out, not sure from who , and it has hard disk recording too. So if you forget to put a blank dvd in it will record to the disk, and you can moce it to the dvd later etc. Probably be pricey, but you get what you pay for!
I knew what you meant to start with :). As I say the quality is only going to be good if the source of the video is good. If you have Sky Digital then the picture quality is amazing. Recording to video would actually lose quality. If you havent got Sky and your going to record off the TV then as you know analogue TV is rather crap at times so quality would be terriable.
The quality after 4 hours shouldnt be that bad, but it wouldnt be true DVD quality. On DVD +R or -R you can only fit around 2 hours of DVD video. But if you recorded 4 hours then the quality would only be half of what DVD is. Another factor is Sound, DVDs usually have multiple sound tracks and most are very high quality which take up space.
SVCD is another media type that fits on to just normal CDs. On SVCD you can actually have near DVD quality and fit around 45 mins on to a 80min CD. You can fit over 6 times the amount on a DVD than with a 80min CD. So really you could say you can get around 5 hours of SVCD quality on to a DVD.
You really will have to look at websites with details about recorders to see what options they have. Also see if your local shop will show you how they work and what quality options are available. If your only getting a recorder because you want to get a DVD player then really consider whether you will actually will use it. Stand alone DVD players can be found for £60. Spend £100 and you got your self a damn good one which will probably play every Region.
The quality after 4 hours shouldnt be that bad, but it wouldnt be true DVD quality. On DVD +R or -R you can only fit around 2 hours of DVD video. But if you recorded 4 hours then the quality would only be half of what DVD is. Another factor is Sound, DVDs usually have multiple sound tracks and most are very high quality which take up space.
SVCD is another media type that fits on to just normal CDs. On SVCD you can actually have near DVD quality and fit around 45 mins on to a 80min CD. You can fit over 6 times the amount on a DVD than with a 80min CD. So really you could say you can get around 5 hours of SVCD quality on to a DVD.
You really will have to look at websites with details about recorders to see what options they have. Also see if your local shop will show you how they work and what quality options are available. If your only getting a recorder because you want to get a DVD player then really consider whether you will actually will use it. Stand alone DVD players can be found for £60. Spend £100 and you got your self a damn good one which will probably play every Region.
I posted this message recently -
"Thinking of joining the 21st century
Looking to buy my first DVD player soon - thought I might as well go for a DVD recorder to connect to my NTSC telly
Anyone got one to recommend and what are the pros / cons"
- and thanks to Adrian , pb and Wookiemonster for replies
Sorry but I may have misled you a bit
I don't have a PC at home yet - that's another item on my "list of things to buy soon"
What I am thinking of getting is a stand alone DVD recorder which sits under the telly beside my VCR - the one I fancy is the Philips DVDR880.
Philips claim that you can get up to 4 hours recording on a DVD+R or DVD+RW disc
Is the quality still bad after two hours ????
One thing I would really like to do is copy all of my pre-recorded videos onto a DVD disc so that they will last longer and take up less space
Any comments would again be appreciated
"Thinking of joining the 21st century
Looking to buy my first DVD player soon - thought I might as well go for a DVD recorder to connect to my NTSC telly
Anyone got one to recommend and what are the pros / cons"
- and thanks to Adrian , pb and Wookiemonster for replies
Sorry but I may have misled you a bit
I don't have a PC at home yet - that's another item on my "list of things to buy soon"
What I am thinking of getting is a stand alone DVD recorder which sits under the telly beside my VCR - the one I fancy is the Philips DVDR880.
Philips claim that you can get up to 4 hours recording on a DVD+R or DVD+RW disc
Is the quality still bad after two hours ????
One thing I would really like to do is copy all of my pre-recorded videos onto a DVD disc so that they will last longer and take up less space
Any comments would again be appreciated