DVD Recorders

[Kpt_Krunch]

Just wondering people's experiences (if any) with the DVD recorders out there. I just purchased (this past Monday) the Toshiba RD-XS32 recorder with 80 GB HD.

Overall I think this player is fantastic. The editing features it contains is incredible. The only thing it doesn't do is play my DVD-Xcopy backups that I make for my son. In fact, in not only does not play them, it freezes the player. Though it could be it takes a while to load them and I am just not patient enough to wait (that wouldn't be the first time).

Any other similar experiences out there?

[curtis]

Kpt.....what kind/brand DVD-R media are you using?

[Kpt_Krunch]

A few different ones, Princo, TDK, and Taiyo Yuden. I have a Pioneer A05 burner in my computer, and have used this burner to backup my sons movies with Xcopy, as well as burning DVD's of jpegs and music, and home movies made with a JVC camcorder. Everything loads and works fine except for the Xcopy movies (though only tried two - Antz and Pingu). I'll copy a few other ones, maybe on different media (the Taiyo's) and try and be patient (maybe it takes longer to load).

[curtis]

That is the same burner I have, but I use DVDShrink.

I found that my new DVD player, a Denon 2900, will not play a lot of the inexpensive media I have used. Someone suggested the Taiyo Yuden media to me, and I have not had a problem. In fact, I have even made backups of stuff that was on cheaper media onto the Taiyo Yudens, and they play fine.

My Pioneer 563a played everything I put in it.

[Kpt_Krunch]

My Pioneer 563a played everything I put in it.

Yup, mine did too - except for DVD-A from Rhino and Universal (it played those too, it's just that those discs would drop the sound periodically, and the longer you played the disc, the frequent and longer the audio drops became). Also, my 563a would stop sending a digital signal when I switched back from analog (DVD-A or SACD) to watch a movie. I would have to go into the setup menu and redo the digital part of the setup, and even then that wouldn't always work right away. My Sammy 841 works great for everything - plays all the media flawlessly except for some DTS tracks. Maybe one day they'll make an affordable uni player that does everything well :)

Oh, I found this link on DVD recording media - you may find this interesting:

http://www.digitalfaq.com/media/dvdmedia.htm

[Kpt_Krunch]

Well - just an update. Dummy me didn't check the condition of the discs (my son's hand prints are all over them). My guess is that being a burner as well as a player the Toshiba is very finicky(sp?).

However, I did learn that the Toshiba will not recognise a burned Taiyo Yuden 8x disc (I bought 8x by mistake - but they work just fine in all my other players).

So all is well :)

[davef]

Hi Guys,

I need a recommendation from the experts (what better place to ask then here?)..

I need to start burning home movies to DVD for the grandparents. I have a Sony digital CC with firewire etc. I need some recommendations for good quality but simple DVD burning software. Many people have recommended Nero...

Any other suggestions?

[curtis]

Yeah....Nero will do it. That is the software I have been using mostly now for burning anything.

What are you using to capture/edit the video onto the PC? In the past I have used Pinnacle's Studio (http://www.pinnaclesys.com/ProductPage_n.asp?Product_ID=1501&Langue_ID=7) software and it worked well.

[mattepntr]

If you're equipment is a Mac, I'd use imovie to capture and edit,
and Toast to burn it. Toast now comes with an mpeg-2 encoder
built in.

[davef]

Sorry.. not a mac, just a PC (Dell)

[davef]

Yeah....Nero will do it. That is the software I have been using mostly now for burning anything.

What are you using to capture/edit the video onto the PC? In the past I have used Pinnacle's Studio software and it worked we

Will Nero capture the video? I guess I need two software packages, one to capture and another to burn..

Recommendations for video capture programs? What about windows Movie Maker? Won't this capture video?

[curtis]

Windows Movie Maker will capture the video....it works pretty well, but simple. It creates an AVI file....which then you can Nero to change that file into the necessary files to burn a DVD that can be played in a standalone DVD player.

I think the deluxe version of Nero also has a capture feature...but I don't know how well it works.

[Abhi]

That is the same burner I have, but I use DVDShrink.

I found that my new DVD player, a Denon 2900, will not play a lot of the inexpensive media I have used. Someone suggested the Taiyo Yuden media to me, and I have not had a problem. In fact, I have even made backups of stuff that was on cheaper media onto the Taiyo Yudens, and they play fine.

My Pioneer 563a played everything I put in it.

Check this out for writable DVD compatibility with your DVD player:
http://www.videohelp.com/dvdplayers