DVD Recorders (1 Viewer)

[Michael Reuben]

I've done all my recordings to date with the DVD-R compatability setting "off" (which is the default position). I've generally recorded to the hard drive at the XP setting and used the FR setting to burn the DVD-R.

Now I'm going to enable DVD-R compatability and try a few experiments. Thanks for the tip!

M.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

Michael,

With DVD-R Compatibility set to ON and using the high speed dubbing to copy from the hard drive to DVD-R, you will be making a perfect bit-for-bit copy of the material on the hard drive. Using your previous method, you are forcing another MPEG re-encoding process when copying from HD to DVD-R, which will lower the quality of the copy.

I have yet to find a reason to have DVD-R Compatibility set OFF. I just leave it on all the time.

 

[alan halvorson]

Dan: About your over-long recording - you could divide your program and record to two DVD-R's. Not ideal, but it would retain your markers.

 

[Michael Reuben]

With DVD-R Compatibility set to ON and using the high speed dubbing to copy from the hard drive to DVD-R, you will be making a perfect bit-for-bit copy of the material on the hard drive.

Understood. What I didn't realize before (and have gleaned from the various posts here) is that a recording to HD with the FR setting and DVD-R compatability set to "on" will automatically adjust the recorded bitrate to fit on a single DVD-R (is that correct?). The documentation on the DVD-R compatability setting is exceptionally thin.

With a lot of the sources I'm recording, the difference may not be very obvious. Most of them are overly compressed cable channels where the image quality doesn't have great resolution at the outset. Of course, that's a good reason to preserve as much of it as you can.

Last night I was watching A Decade Under the Influence recorded off IFC TV. The image froze so often, while the audio continued, that I felt like I was watching DirecTV during a storm. And don't get me started on what TW Cable has been doing to the Trio network lately. :frowning:

M.

 

[Brajesh Upadhyay]

What I didn't realize before (and have gleaned from the various posts here) is that a recording to HD with the FR setting and DVD-R compatability set to "on" will automatically adjust the recorded bitrate to fit on a single DVD-R (is that correct?).

Yes.

Also, you can use FR to record close to a 2hr & 15min program & get the same as SP quality. I've tried going a bit beyond that, but video quality drops. Have a look at avs forum for more on this.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

The documentation on the DVD-R compatability setting is exceptionally thin.

The entire E80 user manual is pretty useless, IMO. If it were not for HTF and avsforum, I wouldn't have figured out half of what this machine can do.

Yes, FR mode is designed to use the optimal compression size to fit whatever length FR setting you choose onto a single 4.7GB disc. I have used it for recording a single item that is a little longer than two hours, and also to place several items that total a little over two hours onto a single disc. I have not tried pushing the FR time past about 2:18. I do not want to give up any more quality than that, even for VHS copying.

 

[Michael Reuben]

I have not tried pushing the FR time past about 2:18.

I'll have to push it a bit further. There's a 2.5 hour broadcast every week on BBC America that I archive (originally to tape; now to DVD). I've been recording at XP and using FR to resize it to DVD-R (which ends up being standard play). Video quality seems to be fine, but that may be because the source is middling quality to begin with. I'll do this week's broadcast using the alternative method and see how it looks. I can't do a detailed comparison, because I don't want to watch any more of the recordings than I have to (don't ask).

M.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

I would think that even at 2.5 hours, you would get better recording quality by using FR to the hard drive, then high speed dubbing to a DVD-R. This is because the a/v stream only has to go through a single MPEG encoding process.

Using XP to record to the HD and then FR to copy to DVD-R will involve a second MPEG encode, which in theory would degrade the recording quality.

In both cases, the final result is a 2.5 hour recording on a single DVD-R using FR to optimize the recording size.

 

[DAN NEIR]

Has anyone used the ep mode of recording and if so how was the picture quality?
Also what discs do you use? I bought 2 ten packs of Fuji discs and so far they have been very good. What are some others you might recommend or others you suggest I don't use.

 

[Phil Tomaskovic]

I haven't done much with the playlist feature. Is that just a way to set up a recording list before burning to dvd-r? Is each entry just a program listing or can I associate an entry to a marker?

 

[DustinLC]

Let me chip in about creating chapters on the DVD-R

I have the Pan HS2 (40GB HDD) and the E80 (80GB). If you dub mutiple programs from your HDD, each program will be a chapter on your finalized DVD-R and you can name each one. You can have up to 99 programs (chapters) on your finalized DVD-R.

Here's what I do with sitcom. I set the player to record Seinfeld everyday. Each show is a separate program on the HDD. I go in to each episode and edit out the commercial using the "shorten segment" function. Once that's done, I enter the title of the each episode.

When dubbing to the DVD-R. I go to function and then dubbing. I choose the programs to be dubbed, say 10 episodes of Seinfeld, then choose dubbing speed (I almost always choose FR for maximum recording quality and to fill up all the space on the DVD-R), and start dubbing away. When I'm done, I choose the menu of my choose, finalize it, and when playback, my menu will have a list of my seinfeld episodes for me to select much the same way as a DVD have chapter selection. Oh, you also can give you disk a title of course
(e.g. Seinfeld episodes from season 8).

I don't see the use for the markers and I don't see why you want them.

As for disk failures, I have recorded about 100 disc with the two players using Fuji, Sony and TDK with only one minor problem with one of them (a glitch towards the end of one).

I attribute the success to avoiding cheap DVD-R. It has been reported that Memorix has a greater failure rate and that disk in bulk without jewel case has poorer quality control.
Anything cheaper than Memorix is no gaurentee. Because I'm starting to record so much now, I'm starting to use these bulk so I'll report back later the success rate. However, I'm still sticking to only TDK or Fuji brand.

Just a word of caution. When you have separate programs on your DVD-R, even though you can select the chapter/program you want to view, it will play continuously from one to another. There is a second of a pause you will notice between the programs or a 1 second of sound drop with no pause. It is your choice to pick which ever one you prefer. Both recorders default setting is the 1 second sound drop with seamingless play.

 

[DustinLC]

By the way, those of you who own the HS2 or the E80 should visit this forum.

http://www.thewholewideweb.com/forum...t.asp?CAT_ID=7

It's a forum made for HS2 but the E80 works the same way as the HS2 so the forum is really a mixture of the two. There you will find answers to all your questions.

 

[alan halvorson]

Dustin: Most of the time I don't care about markers. However, when I record my Looney Tunes LDs or a music LD, I want a mark at the beginning of each of them. Putting in markers, although easy, is quite tedious.

 

[DAN NEIR]

If I erase a dvd-r before finalizing it can I use the disc again or is the disc useless once it's been erased.
Is there anyway to seperate material once it's been recorded on the dvd-r. I placed 2 films on one disc and would like to enter seperate titles for them. This was the first disc I had used and did not record to the hard drive first or enter titles or chapter before hand. I did mark the material after recording to seperate the two but I heard that once I finalize it the mark will be lost.

 

[Phil Tomaskovic]

You can't erase a dvd-r. Finalizing just makes it playable on standalone players (creates a table of contents I think and also does something to the unburned part of the disc).

I'm not even sure you can delete anything so it doesn't get played (although it's still on the disc). You can do something with some cd burning software so that you can delete files on a cd-r, but thedata is still there, just not accesssible.

 

[Jesse Skeen]

With DVD+Rs, if you haven't finalized the disc yet you can "erase" a title, which will still take up space on the disc but not be playable, and use the remaining space for something else.

 

[DustinLC]

With DVD+Rs, if you haven't finalized the disc yet you can "erase" a title, which will still take up space on the disc but not be playable, and use the remaining space for something else.

Same thing with DVD-R .... at least with the Panasonic HS2 and the E80.

 

[Tim Glover]

Can these stand alone dvd recorders record digital audio? I've looked on the back on some models and only see an analog audio input.

Thanks!

 

[Scott Merryfield]

I have not seen any models that have digital audio inputs yet. All the recorders I've seen so far only record in DD2.0 or PCM anyway, so I'm not sure how useful a digital audio connection would be yet.

 

[Tim Glover]

Thanks Scott.