Mastering M100i programs to set-top DVD recorder

[Floh Peters]

This seems to be a common problem; DVD recorders with FireWire inputs seem to act differently than cameras/decks, so Media 100 cannot establish a connection to them. Don

[Michael Slowe]

Disagree with Floh here (heresy!!), quality into set top DVD recorders not brilliant anyway and through composite poor I would have thought. Why not bother to do proper encoding and formatting, it’s only time after all and the disc is much more likely to play on many more players.

[Christopher Kinsman]

Don’t forget to read the fine print on your DVD recorder. If it’s anything like mine, you’ll have to go through the process of “finishing” a DVD in order for it to play on anything else. If you don’t “finish” the disk, it will only play on your recorder. Best of Luck, Chris

[Chris Aikenhead]

Thanks for the input, everyone. I’m going to investigate the difference between the firewire signal coming from M100 and the DV signal from a camcorder to see if there is some way around this incompatibility. Meanwhile, I’d be interested to know if anyone has a set-top DVD recorder that actually does accept the M100 firewire output. For discs that require snazzy menus and the best quality, I’ll take the long route of exporting and encoding. To confirm with you experts, the gospel on this seems to be to export as a self-contained movie, encode in BitVice, then burn to disc using DVD Studio Pro?

[Floh Peters]

[Kit] “To confirm with you experts, the gospel on this seems to be to export as a self-contained movie, encode in BitVice, then burn to disc using DVD Studio Pro?”

I would export by reference to save space (if you are encoding on the same system), but overall yes.

[Kieran Matthew]

Hi Kit,

The problem lies with some DVD recorders and Media 100 not speaking the same language when it comes to the control side of firewire. Media 100 is expecting a certain response from the DVD recorder that it doesn’t know how to provide. The answer is to select “no machine control” in your hardware prefs, then master to tape with the DV box checked.

You have to start the DVD recorder running manually of course, but at least the pictures (and sound) are in all their digital loveliness.

As an asside though, one of the cow users (Jerome I think) posted a while back that he was using a Philips DVDR-615 that worked with Media 100 firewire control directly. If he’s around, perhaps he can chip in with his experiences ?

K

[Chris Aikenhead]

Thanks for sticking with me on this one, Kieran. Regrettably, my problem isn’t with M100 settings but rather with the engineering of my DVD recorder (and according to several retail sales people I’ve consulted, with most other consumer DVD recorders featuring a firewire input as well.) I’m not fussy about geting machine control through M100; I simply want to record a DV signal coming from my edit system into the set-top recorder. Even with “no machine control” selected and the DV box checked, it won’t work. (By the way, the method you suggest is exactly what I do when mastering to DV tape onto my DSR11 deck. No frame accurate insert edit function, but it gets the show onto tape in all its “digital loveliness”.) As soon as I set the DVD recorder’s input to “DV”, and connect the firewire from M100 to the recorder, a message appears on the TV screen from the DVD recorder saying “Uncontrollable device”. And that’s not referring to ‘machine control’, but rather to the recorder’s inability to handle the DV signal. The manual specifies that “this recorder is only compatible with DV-format camcorders.” What I don’t understand is Why?? Apparently my naive assumption that all firewire standards were created equal is wrong. There must be a few obscure geniuses out there who understand the difference between a DV signal from a deck, a P6000 card, and a camcorder, but I don’t expect to find one. (Actually, I thought Floh would know, but then I usually presume he knows everything…)

So, S-video it is, with BitVice and DVDSP as soon as I become smart enough to use them.

Kit

[Kieran Matthew]

Hi Kit,

Ah! So the DVD recorder is asking media 100 to handshake ? I see. This feature of set-top DVD recorder control is something that was requested as a new feature a while back – I guess we’ll have to wait and see!

In the meantime, I tested my method with my Liteon DVD recorder and it worked. It was quite cheap (under

[Chris Aikenhead]

Thanks for shedding so much “lite on” the DVD recorder discussion.

[Gary Milligan]

I went through exactly the same things last year and the answer for me as well was a “Lite On”. I found it has one of the easiest interfaces (other than typing in custom names… but I guess that’s common to most of the set-tops out there). Mine is the Lite On LVW 5005. I use it mainly for client previews. If I author on DVD SP then I use Media 100i x/s ref out to BitVice. I also use it with a tape source deck (whatever format) to make time-code burn copies of field orig. for Producer screening dubs. On of the best $200 I’ve spent.