OT: Need to buy DVD recorder for church use

smhontz wrote on 9/25/2005, 5:58 PM
I've been asked for recommendations for a DVD recorder that we could use in our church. We want to archive the services to DVD. Here's the requirements:

1. Rack-mountable
2. Our service lasts 1hr to 1hr 10 mins, so it has to fit that on a single DVD
3. We are currently in a school, so our sound equipment is set up every Sat night. That means the recorder will not have power all week. (I've seen some that want to go thru an extensive setup when you re-apply power - don't want that.)
4. Immediately after our last service, we start tearing everything down. I don't want to have a recorder that requires 15 mins to finalize a DVD.
5. It has to reasonably inexpensive - probably $500 max, $250 would be better.
6. Has to accept standard composite video and standard L/R audio (RCA connectors)

Anyone have suggestions?

Comments

B_JM wrote on 9/25/2005, 6:15 PM
JVC SR-MV40US DVD Recorder and S-VHS VCR Combo Machine you might want to look at as it has auto finalize and Last Function Memory for almost instant start up ..

also good for recording onto both svhs and dvd or dubs to tape ..

you can get rack mount kits for it also .. and it is under 500$
RalphM wrote on 9/25/2005, 7:35 PM
Regarding finalization - with most recorders you can record the disc and finalize at a later time if that is any advantage to you....

farss wrote on 9/26/2005, 2:20 AM
Panasonic make a pro DVD recorder, rack mount, dual burners and you can load your own jpegs for menu backgrounds and use a REAL keyboard to type the menus. Only downside, the cost, around USD5K!
Bob.
seanfl wrote on 9/26/2005, 6:07 AM
My church uses a panasonic prosumer level unit. I'd highly suggest getting a rack shelf and saving the big bucks to go with a pro unit. Go Video makes a decent one I bought for studio use (quick dubs, etc) that requires little initial setup, and it'll record to most media. Sams Club or Costco was the source and we paid $300 or so.

Sean
ScottW wrote on 9/26/2005, 6:44 AM
I would personally avoid JVC. I had 2 high end units both fail within 6 months opf purchase.
Adontech wrote on 9/26/2005, 2:30 PM
I just purchased the Liteon DVD Recorder from buy.com for $109 shipped. It listed on their site for $121 and I had a 10% off coupon. So far it works as stated and I have tested a finalized dvd-r in another dvd player and it worked without a problem. It can record at varying levels of quality to match your time limits and can record to dvd-r/+r/-rw/+rw.

Are you saying you want to connect your camcorder to it and record directly to the dvd? I haven't tried that yet, but I will if you are considering this box.
smhontz wrote on 9/26/2005, 6:25 PM
For all of you that have a DVD recorder, can you report on how easy it is to use? We have different volunteers each week, so the easier it is to use, the better. What I'm looking for is something like this:

1. Turn the unit on.
2. Put in blank DVD.
3. Press RECORD.
4. After the service, press STOP.
5. Hopefully, it finalizes itself. If not, press a single button to do it.

It would be nice if all of the above could be done from the front panel. (We don't have much room, and our remotes get misplaced sometimes...)
frazerb wrote on 9/27/2005, 6:20 AM
I have yet to see a consumer level DVD recorder that automatically finalizes the DVD. Usually it takes going through several menus to do it. That seems unfortunate to me, since I think most people want to finalize a DVD right after they record it, and not doing that is fatal if it is played on another DVD player.

Buddy
farss wrote on 9/27/2005, 6:46 AM
I've yet to see one that'd be easier to control than a 747 to be honest. That's without trying to add titles, that's a mind and finger numbing exercise.
Given the constraints you might be better off recording to HDD and still using Vegas / DVDA or else getting a recorder that records to HDD first and then have one or two people to do the transfer to DVD. Also we've not found compatibility to be very good, so far only tried Phillips and Sony recorders. The Sony writes oddball data blocks into the mpeg streams that causes some players to plain stop at that point, dragging the file into Vegas (well builds prior to V6.0c) causes it to 'see' only video to the same point as well.
Also the other big risk is if you're not recording to some other device as well and there's dud media in the recorder you're definately going to loose the recording.
Bob.