OT - Stand-alone DVD Recorder

CVM wrote on 10/13/2006, 1:06 PM

Time to talk about DVD formats!!

As a rule, I only use DVD-R format. Somewhere, sometime, I was told that the -R format was a 'bit' more widely accepted than +R. Either way, very few of my clients have had any issues with my burned -R masters... and the one's that did, it was indeterminate what caused the playback problems (perhaps the age of the machine and not manufacturer).

So, I want to buy a stand-alone DVD Recorder. I don't want to spend a ton of money to get the kind with a built-in hard drive (an excellent feature, but I'll have to wait to spend over $400). So, a direct tape to DVD is the model for me.

What are your experiences with DVD Recorders? Should I spend more $$$ to get a multi-format version if I only burn -R? What brand do I want? What brand do I avoid?

Another quick question. Is there a type of blank DVD media that is by far the only brand I should be using?

Thanks... you guys are geniuses!

Comments

ScottW wrote on 10/13/2006, 1:46 PM

There's no advantage with these recorders to getting anything other than -R - if they would burn +R with a DVD-ROM booktype, then that would be a huge advantage, but I'm not aware of any that do.

Stay far, far away from JVC. I had 2 units fail within 4 months of purchase/use. Also stay away from Lite-On, as the DVD's they produce are not compliant (they may have fixed this, but I can tell you that not many US players will play MPEG-2 audio).

I've had reasonable results with Samsung, but cannot say I'm 100% happy. The chapter index they create has problems for many DVD players (luckily this is a feature you can turn off); the disks have a high read error rate (as measured by Nero) that can cause issues with cheap players; the DVD's they create have some sort of structure error which makes it difficult to copy the disks (I have to burn the first "copy master" using my PC and CopyToDVD, my duplication tower generally gets a read error from the disks created by the Samsung).

As for media, I won't buy anything other than Taiyo Yuden (unless I'm really in a pinch).

--Scott

randy-stewart wrote on 10/13/2006, 2:00 PM

I've had good experiences with the Sony version. Records both ways between VHS and DVD. It cost me $329 at Best Buy about 8 months ago but I believe they have come down in price now. I looked at a couple different ones that were cheaper but went with Sony mainly because of the expected quality and one button operation. First VHS to DVD conversion I did I forgot to "close" the disk and it wouldn't play on the client's machine. That was embarassing. Lesson learned. Hope this helps a little.
Randy

corug7 wrote on 10/13/2006, 5:02 PM

I'm currently using a Panasonic w/HDD at home and a number of different Pioneers at work. Both brands seem to have very good picture quality and features, as well as playback reliability.

I previously had a lite-on, which had the best GUI I've ever seen in a DVD recorder. Very intuitive compared to the Pannys/Pioneers. The MPEG-2 audio and non-compliant discs were a killer though. Seems like the only decks that would play them back were lite-ons and other cheap chinese (etc) decks. I ended up frying the deck while performing a firmware update.

fldave wrote on 10/13/2006, 6:30 PM

Agree, stay away from LiteOn, went through 2 right out of warranty.

Currently spent a little more and got a better Sylvania (not sure who makes it, probably shares a lot of Panasonic components), plus at Sears spent $30 for a 3 year warranty. I't tired of buying DVD players/recorders that crap out just out of warranty, this is the 5th one the past 2 years I've had to buy.

Sylvania records very good quality, no problems with compatibility (PC, old old Panasonic DVD player, newer players, AudioVox portable DVD player). I even got excellent quality with dubbing old VHS tapes to DVD at 1Hr/disc quality then using Vegas to import the DVD for rework and correction.

I've had both -R and +R with no problems with both.

Hint, make sure the recorder will record 8x and 16x discs, I had to apply firmware upgrade to my Sylvania recently to even burn 8x. It's very inconvenient to find 4x discs anymore.

CVM wrote on 10/13/2006, 6:53 PM

Thanks to you all. I appreciate it. I was thinking about getting a Toshiba. Does anyone have any objections to that?

TheHappyFriar wrote on 10/13/2006, 7:27 PM

fldave makes a very good point about the discs: some standlone recorders don't like to burn at any speed except which they say, and will only accept those speed discs. At my local school they bought a standalone dvd burner at 2X when those were out. now it's trash because you can't find 2x discs anymore & it won't work with anything else. :(

DGates wrote on 10/13/2006, 8:44 PM

I recently bought a Panasonic DVD recorder from Sam's Club. It was $149. Burns + and -. It has a firewire input, so I can dump tapes to DVD from my MiniDV camcorder.

http://tinyurl.com/ybglb4

ushere wrote on 10/13/2006, 11:12 PM

have the conia 910, cheapest on the market (aus), burns both +/-, never a dud, all media so far, incl royal special good quality from india (!).

no hd, but what would i need one for?

leslie

craftech wrote on 10/14/2006, 11:56 AM

I recently bought a Panasonic DVD recorder from Sam's Club. It was $149. Burns + and -. It has a firewire input, so I can dump tapes to DVD from my MiniDV camcorder.

http://tinyurl.com/ybglb4
=============
Seems to have gotten mixed reviews.
The Toshiba D-RW2 seems to have consistent reviews. I would also look at the Pioneer units as well.

John

corug7 wrote on 10/14/2006, 1:21 PM

Seems some of the people upset about the Panny don't know a whole lot about the technology. One person who gave a bad review was ticked that he couldn't edit a DVD-R (we of course know it is impossible to edit a DVD-R on the media itself).

If this unit is going to be used for any kind of production work at all, I would suggest getting a unit with a hard drive. You can perform minor edits with most of them, some even frame accurate, and then make copies from the HDD to disc. You can also do minor menu edits, choose thumbnails, etc. I have a Panny E85 at home and athought the GUI takes a couple of hours to really understand, it has been a very nice unit and I would even compare it to the Pioneer LX-1 in many ways, a unit which costs 10 times more. It has no Firewire in, but I have found the Firewire transcoders to be lacking on many consumer recorders (timecode breaks throw them off, picture tends to look pixelated, esp in high motion scenes, and some of the cheaper decks actually foul out a disc if they can't keep up with high motion scenes). S-video seems to be the way to go, usually.

I don't think the E85 is still available, but similar units cost around $400 - $500.00. If you are going to use it for anything other than recording TV shows, get the HDD.

Edit: I second the TY suggestions. Almost all the bad burns I have had with them have been due to hardware malfunction, and I work for a company that goes through thousands of discs a day. I think we use the TY-02 series.

DGates wrote on 10/14/2006, 11:22 PM

"Seems to have gotten mixed reviews."

Those reviews were somewhat misleading. I never trust anyone that gives something 1 star. Even if you're not happy with a product, that's not being fair minded. Except for the person that claimed the power suppy was not working, the others sound like dumbasses that can't figure out how it works.

But I'm sure the Toshiba units will work fine.

jfer wrote on 10/17/2006, 10:02 AM

I've had some experience with DVD recorders. I have several. The JVC Pro deck plus VCR is good, will only burn -R discs, but has pro features, noise reduction, 3D filter, TC. and more. That is I believe in your price range, try BH Photo Video.

I'd definately look for something that has HDMI out, this will upres to HD on you TV and depending on what make and model, do a pretty decent job.

Go for a multi-disc format recorder, especially dual layer, as more people buy those discs, the priceses are coming down.

Also, be aware, that with the Panasonic DL recorders you have to close out one layer first, then burn the second, that's not practicla, especially if your recording, say 70 minutes of video.

My latest addition is a Samsung, DVD-VR345, it has firewire in (4pin), HDMI out, VHS to DVD and vise-versa, recording. It burns to most DVD types and is pretty nice looking too, Has all you typical connections, component, composite etc. The HMDI upres is decent, not as good as my Sony, but the Sony is only a player.

What's great about the Samsung is that ANY input source is upresed, so even you old VHS movies will look much better on a true HDTV (HDMI input), component will work, but HDMI is the way to go for pur clean video, audio has to be hooked seperate. It won't dub copyright material to/from, though there are a very small amount of decks, Emerson is one, that will do it! Though it is an oler model and limited to I believe -R discs.

My TV, well a Sony 60" XBR, so yeah it looks fantastic. :-)

Hope this helps a bit.

John

[r]Evolution wrote on 10/17/2006, 10:31 AM

We have a:

Phillips DVDR985
& a
Pioneer PRV-LX1

The PRV-LX1 has an internal HD so you can Capture and Save multiple projects & footage in it... make menus... set First Play & End Actions.... etc.

Both do Real-Time recording which is nice. We can play a timeline and Capture on either one if want to do a Quick DVD... or come from Tape or whatever source. Both have been pretty solid. Neither having had any problems. But both seem slow in the DVD making/burning process as they are a few years old. Now I believe they have some units that are a bit quicker.

craftech wrote on 10/17/2006, 5:33 PM

Seems to have gotten mixed reviews."

Those reviews were somewhat misleading. I never trust anyone that gives something 1 star. Even if you're not happy with a product, that's not being fair minded. Except for the person that claimed the power suppy was not working, the others sound like dumbasses that can't figure out how it works.
========
There aren't a plethora of reviews out there. At least Amazon consistently has SOME user reviews to look at albeit not always by engineers and techies.

John

mbryant wrote on 10/18/2006, 2:47 AM

I have a Toshiba model with HDD (XS32... it's a couple of years old). I chose it because at the time it had compatibility with more formats and more powerful editing features than the Panasonic or Sony rivals. Quality is also very good. I'm still happy with it.

Mark