Help - DVD Recorders.

[Dafe]

Right, I'm slightly pissed off about all this Late Night/Early Morning MotoGP and SBK action I'm missing out on.

So I spent the last three hours on trademe looking at DVD Recorders and reading reviews on each model.

Can somebody please tell me the following:

1) Are there any DVD Recorders that will let you hire a DVD from the shop and drop it onto your harddrive for viewing at any later time?

2) Which DVD Recorders will allow you to burn a previous TV recorded program from RAM/HD to DVD with quick burning, and will be viewable on any standard home DVD player?

3) What models do you recommend and why?

4) Do any models provide for both my number one and number two questions?

[bobsmith]

Hey I might not be of much help but I'm pretty sure that most if not all dvd players off the shelf would not do number 1. Even than I don't know if you can mod it easily enough...

However, I find that dvd writers in computers work pretty damn well. (not that I would know anything about backing up dvds of course as for TV recording, I use a tv capture card on my computer... But than I'm just one of those "nerds" who have their computer hooked up to the tv and everything else and play DVD off computer since I don't even own a standalone dvd player (my computer has better picture and 5.1 sound system)

[OMG]

Usual the anti copying encoding on DVDs prevent #1.
I think most with a HD will allow you to copy from the HD to disc. The problem with playing back though is that there are about 4 or 5 different standard R+ R- RW+ RW- and some more I think, and not all DVD players will necessarily play all types.

I've got a Sony and I'm not entirely happy with it, navigation through the HD is tediously slow (esp since the wife records heaps of shit and never deletes it), and sometimes when when playing a DVD disc, I can't record TV at the same time.

But they are good. And because you record while playing back, you soon stop watching TV live and just record everything and skip through the ads.

[cowboyz]

I have a panasonic dual VCR/DVDRAM and its brilliant. No HD in these models but I dont miss it really. DVDRAM is fantastic for editing. I also have a DVDRAM in my PC for copying from DVDRAM to DVD. As long as the DVD is finalized then it will play in any DVD. I havent had a problem with compatibility using +R or -R. I have tried once to copy a DVD from DVD to VHS. Worked great. I thought then I would go from the VHS back to DVD and it spat the dummy telling me that it is illegal to do so. PCs do a much better job.

[skelstar]

YOu could just play the DVD on your existing DVD player and 'record' off one of the inputs on your DVD recorder. Thats not too much of a pain.

[MSTRS:Me]

We recently bought a Philips DVD with a 80G Hdd. All I can say is...glad I did so.
Can't perform your #1 but I doubt that any can. Without the copy protections on a disc, it is easy & quick to copy either way Disc/HDD. It is a matter of software to crack disc copy protection, so I think you are limited to computer DVD to do that.
#2 - no problem. Mine uses DVD+R to record to, but will read/play damn near any format disc.
Hard to know what your preference might be, so all I can say to recommend is that I shopped around to see what offered the best value for $ and the Philips came up top of the heap (for me). Oh, I wouldn't buy a used one either (shop 'soiled' or demo probably ok)

[Krayy]

One of our DVD players bit the dust so we're now down to the backup from the rumpus. Wifey was all keen to go for a DVD recorder with a HDD, but I've now convinced her to go for a media PC as the hub of the home entertainment centre. A bloke at work does a sideline building and supporting a Linux based media PC ( http://www.openmedia.co.nz ), and they are the sh*t.

The way I'm going to do it at home is have the media PC as the main input for Sky and free to air with dual tuners. It'll be plugged into the ADSL wireless router so I can stream stored media to any other PC or laptop in the house. It'll run an instance of Azureus for torrent downloads and the suppied web interface means I can set it up to record while I'm at work (bummer they don't still show "Aerobics, Oz Style" on daytime TV). So now wifey can watch McLeods Daughters, I'll record the MotoGP at the same time and can watch series 5 of "The Apprentice" streaming it to my laptop upstairs.

Other benefits:
- Rip DVDs, CDs and anything else direct to hdd and then transfer to other PCs
- Its a PC, so can run other apps like games for the kids etc (even Windows ones through WINE)
- Can be set up to run household appliances via web interface...turn on the heater before heading home
- Can use either simple remote or keyboard/mouse
- Use security features so wifey can't change channels!!
- Throw in extra HDD for extra storage with little or no issues

[Winston001]

Certainly a Media PC is the best choice but the technology is in it's early stages so while I admire Krayy's Linux system, I'd suggest most people stick to separate systems at the moment. We aren't far away from having a "house" computer which will provide multi-media to every room. In fact Krayy's system should do that.

So - copy commercial DVD's on a recorder? No. Macrovision exists especially to stop this. And you can't run an external cable around the back of the recorder from DVD out to HD in, to fool the electronics. Macrovision is embedded in the signal. Been there, failed at that.

The only way you'll "backup" a DVD is on a PC. You need a DVD writer and a couple of special programs.

DVD RAM is the best format for multi-rewrites. Proprietory to Panasonic mainly. But heck, DVD-RW and +RW work just as well at $3 each.

[Lou Girardin]

I've got a Panasonic 80GB unit and I wouldn't be without it. Records on HDD or various DVD modes. You can't record from DVD to HDD though, other way is fine.
The only prob is that I can only record one Sky channel at a time and with F1 and MotoGP clashing I think MySky is on the cards.

[Lias]

My boss just wasted a week or so of time custom building himself a media center pc and getting it all configured.. I'm tempted to rebuild one of my spare PC's and do the same thing, it looked bloody good.

[phaedrus]

if you're going to use mythtv I recomend you use knoppmyth to install it.
It takes about 3/4 of the hassle out of getting it going. (I found out the hard way)

[Dafe]

Thanks for the replies. This Mediacentre sounds abit beyond me at this stage. Although, the company I work for did install a $600,000 stereo system into a house about 9 months ago. I'm still into the components at this stage.

I went down to the shop today and picked up a 250GB HDD Sony Recorder.
That'll keep me sorted for a while. Screw the the 400GB model.

Damn, Copyright protection, fair enough though.
Had a good play tonight and I must say, I'm quite impressed with the Sony.

Gee's I learnt abit in the last 24 hours. I evn learnt what these new terms mean, like finalising and +R/-R formats etc.

[paturoa]

For the same price u can get a dual layer DVD drive for your PC and a Vid card that does both in and out vid. Recordable dual layer blanks are still a bit pricey. My Vid card also came with a radio remote for the PC so I can control the PC from the couch.

I've hooked my PC, TV, old VHS vid & Sky together so that I can record / play from any to any.

Basically recording off sky goes straight to the hard disk, and I can make DVD's off of that.

For dvds I just use Dvd Decrypter to the HD and then back to DVDs for those essential DVD backups.

[skelstar]

Just rip DVDs to a DivX format and play on your computer. Pipe the video signal out of your wizzy graphics card to your TV.

[DemonWolf]

Skelstar.. that doesn't help with capturing other TV channels for playback. especially F1 and MotoGP on Sky sports! showing in each others time slots. gah