Home DVD Recorders

profdlpprofdlp The Holy City Of Westlake, Ohio
edited October 2006 in Internet & Media
Any recommendations for a home DVD recorder?

I have a ton of old videotapes I'd like to convert to DVD. What I need is one that does a decent job of creating the discs without requiring too much user intervention. I've been try to slog through the job using a VCR attached to a TV Tuner card, but at the rate I'm going I will never finish. What I'm after is a device where I can pretty much just press a button and walk away from it until the transfer is complete.

Also, is it worth it to get one with a built-in VCR? I have several high-quality VCR's which, though old, have had light use. It would be no problem to hook one of them up to the DVD recorder. Other than having to press "Play" on the VCR, how many extra hoops will this likely create for me to jump through? Once again, if it requires too much babysitting on my part, this project will never get done.

I'm not really interested in recording things straight off the TV. These are mostly home videos I've made over the past fifteen years or so. (Homemade pornos and voyeur type stuff, for those who really must know. :mullet: )

If there is some functionality or feature which you would consider a must-have, I'd like to know about it. Ditto for things I should avoid at all costs. I've seen references to things like "Automatic Chapter Creation" and enhanced image quality, etc. The latter is supposed to be worthwhile should you go the HDTV route (which I hope to do someday, but probably not anytime soon). I'm a little skeptical of things like that, seeing as how the source is not exactly High-Def to begin with.

Advise me, O Wise Ones. :respect:

Comments

  • profdlpprofdlp The Holy City Of Westlake, Ohio
    edited September 2006
    Come on, somebody has to have an opinion on these things - let me hear it. :D
  • BlackHawkBlackHawk Bible music connoisseur There's no place like 127.0.0.1 Icrontian
    edited September 2006
    My dad bought an el cheapo version but recording is pretty straightforward. Insert a blank disk, format and start recording. The recorder my dad bought made chapters every 15 minutes. Sad to say, the thing died like 2 months after it was bought and the receipt was nowhere to be found. Other than that, I can only recommend well known brands.
  • profdlpprofdlp The Holy City Of Westlake, Ohio
    edited September 2006
    What was the quality of the end result like? Would it be comparable to the VHS source recording?

    Sorry to hear about yours. :honoes:
  • BlackHawkBlackHawk Bible music connoisseur There's no place like 127.0.0.1 Icrontian
    edited September 2006
    Most of the recordings I did was in low quality mode (forgot the abbreviation for it) but I did do one or two on high quality. Recordings looked like a mid to low quality dvd screener (not that I've ever acquired one :range: ). I'm guessing this is one of those "you get what you pay for" scenarios.
  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited September 2006
    I saw a sony model at Costco the other day for under $150 and it seemed like it would do the job - put the tape in, put a blank dvd in, push the "go" button. Bam.

    I have no experience whatsoever with quality, but I just thought it was a neat device.

    Sorry for the useless input :D
  • profdlpprofdlp The Holy City Of Westlake, Ohio
    edited September 2006
    Black Hawk wrote:
    ...I'm guessing this is one of those "you get what you pay for" scenarios.
    I'm starting out with a bunch of old (some 20+ years) tapes to begin with. If the end result is fairly close to the quality of the source I'll be happy.

    Stuff I really care about I buy on DVD anyway. The only other stuff I'd really like to preserve are my home movies. :)


    primesuspect wrote:
    ...Sorry for the useless input :D
    The fact that you took the time to respond is what counts. *sniff* *sniff* :bawling:
  • QCHQCH Ancient Guru Chicago Area - USA Icrontian
    edited September 2006
    I bought a Samsung R135 DVD Recorder. I bought it because my TIVO was getting full and needed to cleared up.

    So far... I've burned 4 or 5 DVD's without a hitch. I also found that it does a great job at playing DVD's.
  • CryptoCrypto W.Sussex UK Member
    edited September 2006
    I've got a Sony RDRVX410. After a firmware upgrade - at the dealers :rolleyes: , it gives fair results.
    The idea was to convert all my VHS tapes to DVD for posterity. The quality was...acceptable. Initially I was not impressed and went back to the labourious process of setting up a VHS player in to my TV tuner card, importing, fiddling about with audio sync, converting to DVD etc. Each one took ages to do and the quality turned out to be only as good as the straightforward dubbing on the Sony. :doh:

    One tip I would pass on, since you are only dubbing in real time, you don't need superfast DVD media. I have best results with single speed media.

    You might want to look at CD freaks for opinions on various DVD home recorders.
  • profdlpprofdlp The Holy City Of Westlake, Ohio
    edited October 2006
    Sorry for the long delay in announcing the outcome, but I wanted to be sure that I had this settled once and for all.

    I decided to go with an RCA DRC8052N, based on the RCA name and the feature set it had and the fact that the one I wanted to get was out of stock. I had mixed results with the unit. The disc quality was fine - as good as the original antique tapes I was duplicating - but there were a few quirks with the unit. About every third or fourth disc, it would hang at the end of the finalization process. In order to get the unit going again I had to unplug it for a minute, plug it back in, then go through the setup menu and re-enter all the settings. Needless to say, getting down on my hands and knees several times a day to crawl through the door of my wooden entertainment center in order to reach the plug was not a large amount of fun. On top of that, when this would happen it was 50-50 that the disc I had just spent hours burning would be bad. After ten days of frustration, I took it back to the store for a replacement.

    As it turned out, the unit I had originally chosen was available, so I decided to give it a shot. As a bonus, both units had gone on sale, so I got about ten bucks back to boot. :D

    What I have now is the Philips DVDR3390 and I've become a big fan. With the Divx compression, I can fit up to six hours on a single DVD and the quality is easily as good as the original videotapes I'm duplicating. With chapters automatically created every five minutes my FF/REW days are coming to an end. It has numerous inputs and outputs and it was no problem for me to get it hooked up in a way that allows me to watch cable while simultaneously copying a tape, with no danger of accidentally hitting the wrong button on the remote and messing up the disc. It's a lot easier to use than the hard drive-based recorder built into the cable box and I don't have to worry about losing all my recordings because the HD got full or the cable box croaked.

    Thanks to all for their advice - it was very much appreciated. :)
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