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Standalone DVD Recorder suggestions?
Just wondering if anyone had any suggestions for an entry-level DVD recorder? Ideally $200-400? I searched and read some older posts regarding this, but was wondering if anyone knows what might be good to purchase currently.
I digitize and author all my transfers through my G4 now, but it is WAY too time consuming for the small money you get for transfers. And most people don’t appreciate how long it takes.
I saw a couple Panasonics on amazon for about $200, with DV and RCA inputs, but wasn’t sure if that would do. They do have the autoplay feature, which I definitely want.
Thanks!
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6 Replies
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I don’t know about auto play, but you can pick up a good one with a firewire input for about $150 at Circuit City or Best Buy/
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Virtually NONE of the consumer set-top DVD recorders will burn a disc with “auto-play.”
They all automatically build a basic menu when you record a disc that can’t be disabled.
There are some older high-end units that will do this (Pioneer comes to mind), but about all of the units that you find at the consumer retailers will only make a menu-controlled (and started) disc.
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I thought the Panasonic DMR-ES15 gave you the option to either choose autoplay or title menu. I’m thinking about getting it (which is only $120 at amazon), as it seems to have many options the higher priced ones have. The Pioneer DVD-V5000 is around $400, and doesn’t seem to have all the DVD-RW and RAM features the Panasonic has.
From my understanding, basic editing can be done with RW and RAM discs, setting different chapter markers, deleting some footage, etc. Thats really all I need.
Am I missing something?
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After hearing nice things about Toshiba (ES series only), Pioneer and JVC recorders (and bad things about everything else) from a guy who does lots of DVD dubs, I got the brand new toshiba D-R400 ($135-$150) and it’s been okay for simple dubs from VHS.
It has firewire in, HDMI out and upscaling all the way up to 1080P using HDMI on playback. So it can has presentation uses as well as dubbing and live-capture uses.
Haven’t tried the upconversion feature yet so I can’t tell you how it looks.
Haven’t tried it at longer durations than SP quality (2 hours) but at SP it looks like the source VHS tape.
Looking at the manual, it says that +R disks can be programed to skip playing any chapters you want and you can set arbitrary chapter points. It doesn’t seem like you can split a single recording session into multiple titles each with their own menu entry though. For that you must use RW media.
If you’re making disks you want to play back on other machines I’d stay away from using RW media (+ or -). Lots of horror stories about un-compatibility over the years.
–Shayne Weyker
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I’ve got a couple JVC and a couple Panasonic models that all let you build an auto play disc. When you finalize the disc you choose a menu item that lets the disc palya utomatically or stop at the basic menu. I don’t like the way the menu looks so I make all my discs “auto play”.
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I’ve got a couple JVC and a couple Panasonic models that all let you build an auto play disc.
Great!
What MODELS?
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