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Author Topic: standalone DVD burners Scott Norwood Film God Posts: 8146 From: Boston, MA. USA (1774.21 miles northeast of Dallas) Registered: Jun 99 posted 05-11-2008 11:09 AM                        I've been looking at these lately. Does anyone make a reasonably-priced (say, under $500) consumer-type DVD burner that has component inputs? All that I have seen have only composite and (maybe) S-video. Can any of these burn a dual-layer disk? Is there much variation in picture quality (on burned disks) among different brands and models? Are there any specific units to look for or avoid? I've played with a mid-range Sony, which works fine but does not have component inputs.  |  IP: Logged Mitchell Dvoskin Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1869 From: West Milford, NJ, USA Registered: Jan 2001 posted 05-11-2008 12:58 PM                     The first generation Philips machine (DVD+R and DVD+RW only), model DVDR985 has both component and Firewire inputs, in addition to composite and SVHS. It does not do dual layer'd however. Don't know about later Philips units. Note that from the factory, the DVDR985 had a number of software and hardware issues that Philips only resolved shortly before it was discontinued. My early 985 totally died just before the warrantee ran out, and Philips upgraded it to the latest hardware and software when they fixed it, Never had a problem with it since.  |  IP: Logged Joe Redifer You need a beating today Posts: 12859 From: Denver, Colorado Registered: May 99 posted 05-11-2008 05:31 PM                        Dual layer discs are tricky since a break point MUST be specified. If you have it done arbitrarily, it would likely be in the middle of a scene and only a few DVD players can play this without a noticeable pause or hiccup. I've never seen a standalone dual layer burner. Instead, they just lower the quality to get longer burn times.  |  IP: Logged Monte L Fullmer Film God Posts: 8367 From: Nampa, Idaho, USA Registered: Nov 2004 posted 05-11-2008 07:01 PM                     True, the cheaper burners offer what VHS machines can also do - multiple burn times of the high quality 1hr burn, a standard 2hr burn, or the other two lesser quality of 4hr and 6hr burn.  |  IP: Logged Joe Redifer You need a beating today Posts: 12859 From: Denver, Colorado Registered: May 99 posted 05-11-2008 07:43 PM                        I am incapable of imagining what 6 hours of video on a single layer DVD would look like.  |  IP: Logged Brad Miller Administrator Posts: 17775 From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall) Registered: May 99 posted 05-11-2008 09:24 PM                     Joe, have you ever copied a VHS to VHS? Have you ever done it at the slowest speed possible? Well, take that EP/SLP dub, dub it again, dub it again, dub it again, and then dub it one more time. Add some extra digital pixelation and that's about what you get.  |  IP: Logged Joe Redifer You need a beating today Posts: 12859 From: Denver, Colorado Registered: May 99 posted 05-11-2008 09:34 PM                        quote: Brad Miller Joe, have you ever copied a VHS to VHS? No. Hi8 to S-VHS to VHS (all using S-video) is the worst I've done, and I still feel ashamed and will regret it even beyond the grave. quote: Brad Miller Have you ever done it at the slowest speed possible? God no! I purposely modified all of my VCRs so they could not record at slower speeds than SP! quote: Brad Miller Add some extra digital pixelation and that's about what you get. My closest imagination to the result would probably have much more digital artifacting than that. It would be a screen full of blurry-ass blocks doing god-knows-what.  |  IP: Logged Monte L Fullmer Film God Posts: 8367 From: Nampa, Idaho, USA Registered: Nov 2004 posted 05-12-2008 12:26 AM                     (yea, it's pretty nasty looking - to say the least) Only thing I think that the 6hr burn would be good for is if it's a direct wideband burn from camera without any duping.  |  IP: Logged Joe Redifer You need a beating today Posts: 12859 From: Denver, Colorado Registered: May 99 posted 05-12-2008 12:56 AM                        Ummm.... wideband?  |  IP: Logged Monte L Fullmer Film God Posts: 8367 From: Nampa, Idaho, USA Registered: Nov 2004 posted 05-12-2008 01:22 AM                     ..maybe should have inserted "direct connection" from camera to DVD recorder....  |  IP: Logged Scott Norwood Film God Posts: 8146 From: Boston, MA. USA (1774.21 miles northeast of Dallas) Registered: Jun 99 posted 06-24-2008 07:53 AM                        In case anyone cares, I ended up getting a Panasonic DMR-EZ28K. It does not have a component input (and, oddly, composite in looks better than S-video in...weird). It's OK, but not great. It has a built-in ATSC tuner (which I don't need) and picture and sound quality of burned disks is pretty good. I've had no problem with Taiyo Yuden DVD-R blanks; I assume that it works well with other blanks as well. Unlike the Sony that I tried, the Panasonic allows one to burn a DVD that plays upon insertion (no menu) and allows the on-screen display to be turned off. It does not have any provision for flagging a DVD as anamorphic. All indications are that pretty much all consumer-level DVD burners are pretty poorly made and buggy. Are these not very popular products? Or are all the non-Tivo people still using VHS to record TV shows?  |  IP: Logged Scott Jentsch Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1061 From: New Berlin, WI, USA Registered: Apr 2003 posted 06-25-2008 02:20 PM                        From what I could gather in doing some research is that there are two typical kinds of consumers that buy DVD recorders. There are those just looking to transfer video tapes and/or record the occasional show, and then there are those that want to use it like they did their VCR before TiVo's were invented. I'm in the former category. I already have three DVR's, so I have no need for a machine that has a built-in hard drive and has all kinds of bells and whistles. That latter camp seems to really like the Philips DVD recorder with the hard drive. I'm looking to pick up a Toshiba D-R410 for around $110. It'll be interesting to see if it's worth the money.  |  IP: Logged Joe Redifer You need a beating today Posts: 12859 From: Denver, Colorado Registered: May 99 posted 06-25-2008 05:41 PM                        Scott, your player propbably doesn't support true S-video. It likely routes the composite over the luma and chroma lines which gives it this weird super-sharp (as in if you cranked the sharpness on your TV all the way up, no "clarity" sharp) image that can have lines in it. You cheap bastard! I know you bought the cheap unit!  |  IP: Logged Charles Greenlee Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 801 From: Savannah, Ga, U.S. Registered: Jun 2006 posted 06-26-2008 05:52 AM                        My mother bought a Toshiba DVD-R/VCR combo, which does work rather well for her purposes. However, I burned a DVD on a DVD+R, and later tried a DVD-R, in as standard format as I could. The frippin thing won't read it. Every other DVD player except that, and one other, older, Toshiba DVD-R/VCR combo my friend has, can read it no problems at all. Oddly enough, the DVD-Rs that it'll burn will play in the other DVD players, though causes my Phillips DVD player (that will play just about every format of disc that will fit, I'm almost expecting it to be able to play a slice of balogna) some issues. Don't try to pause the video, because it won't restart. My computer's Sony DVD drive can read and record in every DVD format except DVD-RAM. It cannot read the Toshiba's DVD-Rs, but has no problem reading any others. It's like my computer's DVD drive and the Toshiba are mutually incompatible somehow, even though both supposedly can read each other's formats, and supposedly records in standard formats. It's really odd.  |  IP: Logged Scott Norwood Film God Posts: 8146 From: Boston, MA. USA (1774.21 miles northeast of Dallas) Registered: Jun 99 posted 06-26-2008 06:03 AM                        Actually, Joe, this is the most expensive one that Best Buy (yeah, I know) sells. S-video has that weird super-sharp look that you describe, while composite looks fine. Why these things come with component output, but not component input, is a total mystery to me, though.  |  IP: Logged

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