Interesting article on DVD recorders (1 Viewer)

[Neil Brock]

https://www.lifewire.com/disappearing-dvd-recorder-1846591

 

[Bryan^H]

I'm glad I still have my trusty Panasonic. I have hundreds of discs that I recorded of shows that are nowhere to be found on any channel or streaming service. Rarities that I am glad to own, and re-watch at my leisure.

 

[jcroy]

No big surprise here.

Back in the day, I suspected something like this would eventually happen when I first came across a tivo device. All it takes is heavy encryption on "recorded" files, such as AES and no easy way to crack the keys.

 

[smithbrad]

Never had a DVD Recorder. I always did my capturing by using an old Sony DV Camcorder as a pass-through to my computer (i.e., analog cables from DVR to camcorder and firewire cable from camcorder to computer). As long as analog outputs are available there should always be a way to capture (at least SD content). Of course, it probably won't be long before they disappear as well, and not due to copy protection as much as just no longer being necessary any more for the majority of display devices.

 

[Tony Bensley]

https://www.lifewire.com/disappearing-dvd-recorder-1846591

There was an almost identical article a few years back. Very frustrating that North America never got the Blu-ray Recorders. Our DVD Recorder gets little use these days, as even before we dropped cable, I got tired of recording sporting events for which the copy protection would sometimes suddenly kick in during the 6th Inning of an MLB game, or something along that line. With no hard drive on the recorder, this amounted to a big chunk of DVD-R space wasted.

CHEERS!

 

[Angelo Colombus]

I been recording on to disc my favorite stuff on cable in the past 15 years and now have over 500 discs worth of programs & movies. Panasonic made the best and glad i bought two new ones before they stopped making them. Very unhappy that studios have suppressed the sale of blu-ray recorders in the USA.

 

[Tony Bensley]

I been recording on to disc my favorite stuff on cable in the past 15 years and now have over 500 discs worth of programs & movies. Panasonic made the best and glad i bought two new ones before they stopped making them. Very unhappy that studios have suppressed the sale of blu-ray recorders in the USA.

I was quite satisfied with DVD Recording technology until we upgraded from our CRT TV in November, 2012. It wasn't long afterward that my first Toshiba DVD Recorder started periodically acting up, which in hindsight was probably from excessive use, with well over 1000 discs recorded.

It was in the early part of 2014 when I was struggling in vain to find an affordable replacement recorder that also included a VHS slot, that I stumbled onto an article that was very close to what Neil posted. Frankly, upon the discovery of being denied Blu-ray recording technology, I felt a welling of resentment build up inside.

After a few months, I ended up just replacing the Toshiba DVD Recorder with essentially the same model, except that unlike the previous recorder, it wouldn't even play avi/divx files.

Another annoying development is that playback of the recorded DVDs on our Samsung Blu-ray player, which we got in September 2013, is what I can best describe as intermittently a bit erratic.

CHEERS!

 

[jcroy]

One of the last few final nails in the coffin, was the best blank dvdr disc manufacturer (Taiyo Yuden) being sold to the worst manufacturer (CMC) around two years ago.

Without a good source of decent quality blank dvdr discs, such dvd recorders are largely pointless.

 

[jcroy]

Nowadays the quality of blank dvdr discs is so lousy, that I don't even bother burning dvdr discs anymore for generic data storage/backups. I just use several flash drives made by different manufacturers, backing up the same data.

 

[Richard V]

I quit using my DVD recorder once the cable/satellite companies started putting copy protection on programs. I had a VHS - DVD dubbing deck as well, but it did a piss poor job of actually dubbing VHS to DVD and I ended up with a lot of DVD coasters.

 

[Richard V]

Nowadays the quality of blank dvdr discs is so lousy, that I don't even bother burning dvdr discs anymore for generic data storage/backups. I just use several flash drives made by different manufacturers, backing up the same data.

I still use Verbatim blank DVD discs and find them to be more than adequate.

 

[jcroy]

I still use Verbatim blank DVD discs and find them to be more than adequate.

Where are they made?

Before I stopped burning discs altogether, the borderline acceptable discs were ones typically made in Taiwan or Singapore. (The better Taiyo Yuden stuff was made in Japan, before CMC bought them out two years ago).

I had too many bad experiences with made in India blank discs. (I don't even bother with any made in China blank discs).

 

[Richard V]

Where are they made?

Before I stopped burning discs altogether, the borderline acceptable discs were ones typically made in Taiwan or Singapore. (The better Taiyo Yuden stuff was made in Japan, before CMC bought them out two years ago).

I had too many bad experiences with made in India blank discs. (I don't even bother with any made in China blank discs).

Couldn't find out where they are manufactured, but websites compared them favorably to Taiyo Yuden

 

[jcroy]

Couldn't find out where they are manufactured, but websites compared them favorably to Taiyo Yuden

Before or after the CMC buyout?

(ie. Before or after December 2015).

 

[Richard V]

Before or after the CMC buyout?

(ie. Before or after December 2015).

Before, I think

 

[Richard V]

Got additional info, Verbatim manufactured in Taiwan, India, UAE, and Singapore. Here is a site that rates them highly.
http://www.digitalfaq.com/reviews/dvd-media.htm

 

[jcroy]

Got additional info, Verbatim manufactured in Taiwan, India, UAE, and Singapore. Here is a site that rates them highly.
http://www.digitalfaq.com/reviews/dvd-media.htm

I remember seeing this table years ago. Dunno when it was last updated.

I would believe some of the info, if this back in 2010 or before. Less certain today.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

I still own a Panasonic DVD Recorder which has a built-in hard drive, but I have not used it in years. I finally removed it from my equipment cabinet early this year when I purchased a new Denon receiver and had to reconnect everything. It seemed like the perfect time to finally de-install the unused component.

I used the recorder for a few different tasks, but each of those tasks wither became unnecessary or were impacted by changes in technology.

1. I would copy videos from our camcorder to the hard drive for editing and then burning to a disc, but I stopped shooting extensive videos many years ago to instead concentrate on my still photography hobby.
2. I recorded movies from Turner Classic Movies to the hard drive, would trim the excess video from the start and end of the record times, and burn the results to disc. That became much more difficult once Comcast required a cable box for every TV (the recorder had a built-in TV tuner), so I stopped that practice.
3. I recorded my few rare VHS titles to DVD to preserve them. That task was completed.

 

[TJPC]

As of quite recently Walmart USA still sold Magnavox recorders on line. I purchased two. I am chiefly interested in recording movies from the classic era from TCM, which so far has no copyguard. It does a good job of anything filmed in academy ratio and broadcast in SD. The quality is slightly below DVD, but sometimes it is the only game in town for things not on disc yet I can often get 3 movies/discs of say early Barbara Stanwyck movies, that are interesting but not must sees. Anything I really love I will buy when it comes out.

I have also used one of these machines to record “The Orville”, “Star Trek Discovery” and “Star War Rebels” episodes on to DVD-RW with no trouble. These play fine on all my other machines. When the sets come out on Blu-ray I will replace these discs and use them for something else. In Canada, as long as you record from broadcast for your own use only, you are not breaking any laws.

 

[Neil Brock]

I'm still using my Pioneers. As for recording, its only off channels like Decades, GET, Grit, ME or Antenna and thus far I haven't had any copyguard issues. I never thought I would see the day that shows like Peter Loves Mary or Mrs. G Goes to College would ever air again.