Discussion on Rons review of Philips DVD recorder (1 Viewer)

[MitchP]

Can someone post a link to Ron's review? It appears to be broken on the home page -- there doesn't even seem to be a link there, where it says "Click here to read Ron's review." Thanks.

Still works for me, here you go.
http://www.hometheaterforum.com/philips/page1.html

 

[Brian W.]

Thank you. Don't know why it won't work on my computer -- all the other links on the page work.

 

[Brian W.]

There are no direct digital audio inputs on this player, so we used RCA L&R connections between the two machines.

So, in copying a laserdisc, you have to convert the digital track to analog before you can copy it??? If so, I'll pass on this machine and wait for something better.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Steve,
Glad to hear you bought the 985 and love it.
I have been using this recorder all week,
and love its simplicity and ability to record
pristine copies of whatever I feed it. I am
now transferring old VHS home movies to DVD.
Brian,
If you are waiting for a standalone player
to appear with direct digital inputs, you may
be waiting a long time. The studios are not
going to allow it.
I am working on getting a Philips rep here this
week. Look in the ANNOUNCEMENTS area or check
back here.
If any of you are looking for a great price on
DVD+RW, you can buy HP quality media at $5.60
apiece (sold in 5 packs).
Click Here
This is the lowest price I have seen on brand
name media (not the cheap stuff).
If the link does not work, then do the following:
1. Click Here
2. Do a SEARCH for: DVD+RW media
You should get results for HP 3-pack and 5-pack
DVD+RW media. The 5-pack is much cheaper per disc.

 

[Ian R]

Guys,

Bottom line this for me.
My main objective is to be able to transfer home movies to DVD, and to record onto DVD from my DirecTivo.

What should I be looking at?


Thanks,
Ian

 

[Steve Phillips]

Ron,

Thanks for the info on the HP blanks. I already have my order on the way to me. Quality blank DVDs for $5.59 each! Great. The 5 packs are the DVD+Rs though. The rewritable DVD+RWs come to $8.66 each. That's about what I can find them for on sale in Las Vegas.

 

[Michael St. Clair]

Bottom line this for me. My main objective is to be able to transfer home movies to DVD, and to record onto DVD from my DirecTivo.

If you want to remove commercials, I'd wait and check out the hard-drive-enhanced units this fall, as they will likely have the best facility for editing.

 

[Eugene Hsieh]

www.thenerds.net sells ultra cheap name brand DVD+R. Usually out of stock though.
Michael, as for Princo DVD-R, I have now tried all of two discs. I can confirm that they are not good. My first disc worked great as I said earlier, but the second disc stutters on certain players. (I have never had this problem with Apple media.) I'll look for an Optodisc distributor around here.

 

[Matt Perkins]

Hi there, I just wanted to toss this out, responding to this:
1.Can it record anamorphic, or convert things to anamorphic. Meaning can I make a letterbox VHS or LD I am recording for an archive copy an anamorphic version while recording? I dont think I can, but it would be cool nontheless.
For those sources, it wouldn't really matter. The player would have to add (or inter-/extrapolate) video information to the existing picture. Who'd want this feature, when a widescreen display will do that anyway?
Of bigger concern to me, is this information:

When you make an anamorphic recording, for example from a DV camcorder in "wide screen" mode, or from an anamorphic encoded DVD-Video disc, the recording will be stored on the disc in its original anamorphic format, preserving the original detail of the picture. Signalling info to set a widescreen TV into "wide 16:9" mode are included for playback on a DVD+RW recorder, so the TV will automatically adjust the aspect ratio at playback. Since mixing of anamorphic widescreen and normal 4:3 video within a single title is not permitted by the DVD-Video standard, but recording of both 4:3 and 16:9 video in a single title by a DVD+RW video recorder is, the video will not include standard DVD-Video anamorphic signals that allows DVD-Video players to scale down the video to widescreen letterbox format for playback on 4:3 TVs. To view these anamorphic recordings, you need either a wide screen TV or a 4:3 with a 16:9 option. In both cases, you need to set the TV to 16:9 wide screen mode manually.

Bummer. I'd really like to archive my widescreen DV tapes, and still have them watchable on standard 4:3 sets. :frowning:

 

[Eugene Hsieh]

For this review, we hooked up the DVDR985 to a Mitsubishi WS-65869 television. Since the supplied component cable was not long enough, we used S-VIDEO cable for the video and coaxial for the audio.

Ron,
It's unfortunate that you were not able to do a review of the progressive scan capabilities of this unit with your TV.
It seems that some people are having problems with the progressive scan output from the Philips 985. (Or is it the component output in general?)

 

[Ronald Epstein]

This is an interesting turn of events.

Sorry to learn about this.

 

[Eugene Hsieh]

Here is another thread about this for those interested.

 

[CamiloCamacho]

Ron, i don´t understand the statement about 1080i. I know DVD resolution is low compared to HDTV 1080 but i "think" that a movie recorded from HBO HD in one of this recorders will look better than one from normal HBO.

So, your statement means you can´t record with the same quality of a 1080, OR you are not allowed at ALL to record from HDTV?.

Sorry if i sound dumb, but i´m a novice in this HDTV thing.

 

[Michael St. Clair]

Ron, i don´t understand the statement about 1080i. I know DVD resolution is low compared to HDTV 1080 but i "think" that a movie recorded from HBO HD in one of this recorders will look better than one from normal HBO.

Actually, with the s-video output of certain settop boxes (like the DTC-100), you can make anamorphic 16:9 discs of HDTV broadcasts using these recorders...much better than what you could get recording 'normal' broadcast.
Of course, you will need a set where the wide mode can be engaged manually in order to view these discs properly; and no downconversion option.

 

[Michael St. Clair]

"Begun, this format war has."
It has been verified that Panasonic's latest progressive player, the RP-62, does not play DVD+R/W, only DVD-R/W. It's older, slightly less athletic brother, the RP-56, was the same. These are popular players.
If this is intentional (as one would reasonably suspect), the fight may be about to get bloody. If Panasonic is withholding DVD+R/W support, will the other members of the DVD Consortium (other than Philips and maybe Sony) follow suit?
The aging RP-91 flagship will surely have a replacement announced this year, one that will likely use the superior FLi2200 doubler that the 62 and 56 have. If this replacement doesn't support +R/W, I'd say the gloves are off.

 

[Edward Brand]

It has been verified that Panasonic's latest progressive player, the RP-62, does not play DVD+R/W, only DVD-R/W. It's older, slightly less athletic brother, the RP-56, was the same. These are popular players.

Michael St. Clair

I'm not sure where you got your verification but it is not true. I have a Panasonic RP-56 and a Sony dvd+rw and have made homemade dvds on dvd+rw discs that the Rp-56 has played perfectly. I can only assume that the new RP-62 will also play dvd+rw's with no trouble. --Edward.

 

[Michael St. Clair]

Edward,

My source on the RP-62 is a dealer who posts over at AVS and who has proven very accurate and helpful in testing out functionality and sharing information.

My source on the RP-56 was VCDHelp, which had +RW crossed out, not greyed out.

I trust the former source a lot more than the latter source. Obviously VCDHelp was wrong on the RP-56, but the 62 is a new player...

 

[Edward Brand]

Michael

What you might be interested in knowing is that according to the owners manual the RP-56 is not able to play dvd+rw dvd's. I was very happy to find that it plays them without any trouble. I find it odd that the newer RP-62 will not play the + format. --Edward.

 

[Eugene Hsieh]

Interesting to hear DVD+RW works, despite VCDHelp.com's database. Mind you the database has most reports not including any mention of DVD+RW at all, with a rare non-working DVD+RW report. It might be the firmware revision, or else the person who reported DVD+RW not working (if indeed it does on the RP56) may have authored the disc wrong.

The aging RP-91 flagship will surely have a replacement announced this year, one that will likely use the superior FLi2200 doubler that the 62 and 56 have. If this replacement doesn't support +R/W, I'd say the gloves are off.

As did many others, I bought the RP91 precisely because it DIDN'T use the Faroudja chip. Scaling is more important to me.

My TV has the not so uncommon annoyance of locking into full widescreen mode when fed a progressive signal. Having a non-Faroudja chip is crucial for proper use of DVD in my system. Thus, in fact I'd be a little bit surprised if they went with the Faroudja.

 

[Michael St. Clair]

I bought the RP91 precisely because it DIDN'T use the Faroudja chip. Scaling is more important to me.

And to some of us with lots of poorly flagged titles (anime, anyone), the doubling is more important.

Fortunately, at some point it won't have to be an either/or proposition.