DVD Recorders: Set-top, or Computer Drive Upgrade?

We've been planning on buying a set-top DVD Recorder later this year, mainly so I can begin transfering VHS tape over to DVD-R. A set top seemed to be the easiest way to accomplish this. However, over the weekend I talked with an industry pro friend of mine who insists that upgrading my computer with a recordable DVD drive is actually the way to go. He says that set-top models are actually still recording in analogue format, and just aren't as versatile as a computer model would be.

So he's almost got me convinced. What's the experience of the folks here on the forum. And what do I need to do to my computer (a fairly recent Dell model with a large hard drive) to get it in shape to do this kind of transfer work?

 

You can do more editing/menu design w/ a computer-based DVD recorder. I considered it before buying a standalone. It would have meant buying or building a new PC as opposed to just buying a standalone. There are units which have a hard drive which allows for more options. I chose the standalone since I would be using it for two DirecTV w/ TiVos along w/ a standalone TiVo. I'm happy w/ my choice. You might want to visit http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/ and search the DVD recorder forum to help you decide.

 

To be really useful, a digital recorder should have a big hard drive (for easy and fast time-shift viewing and temporary archiving) and a DVD-R drive (for long term archiving and distribution). I don't find it very practical to need a blank DVD-R(W) ready just to record a movie for later viewing.

Unfortunately, recorders with hard drive and dvd-R drive are still rather expensive ($1000-1500), for no obvious reason as those components are cheap.

BTW, the best website about digital video recording I know is http://www.videohelp.com

 

Don't know when you last priced them Claude, but I've seen the Panasonic E-80 going for less than $500. There have been substantial price drops on standalone recorders since the start of the year.

Edit to add, I didn't realize you were outside the US until I saw a post by you in another thread. That might account for the prices you're seeing.

 

That's a bit odd, seeing that DVD is a digital format by nature. I'm not sure what encoding it uses (MPEG 2?).

I have a DVD drive in my computer--a LiteOn DVD+/-RW that cost me about $89. I have a camcorder to encode video to the computer, but I hear that's not ideal. By the time I bought a good video interface, I'd probably spend as much as I would on a set-top box. It is a lot more flexible on the PC since you can edit the video and set up discs the way you'd like them to be (menus, extras, etc.). If you're convinced on a set-top box, that Panasonic E-80 mentioned earlier is the way to go--it has the internal hard drive, and I *think* you can assemble your own DVDs easily that way. Someone who owns one of them could probably clarify it.

 

I think I'm really starting to lean towards the computer upgrade, but I'm having trouble finding info on exactly what hardware and software, besides a DVD-R drive, I'll need. For example, what do you need to add to your computer to be able to hook your VCR in to it?

 

Yes. The Panasonic E-85 is 1000 Euro here (official price, discount prices are lower).

My father just bought a Pansonic E-55 (400 Euro). It works with DVD-RAM and DVD-R, but not DVD-RW, and it has no hard drive.

So if he records a movie onto DVD-RAM (which is the standard situation, as DVD-Rs are only recordable once), he won't be able to make a copy for me on DVD-R or even lend me the original disc, as DVD-RAM cannot be read by most DVD players.

With this player one has to decide at the start if one intends to archive the recording or just watch it once. Keeping an archive of DVD-RAMs is possible, but it's not sure if future recorders will support the format (even read-only), as it is a slowly dissapearing in favor of DVD-RW.

 

I went with the DVD+-r/rw for my computer, it is the Memorex True 8x. My video card a Nvidia Geforce4 4600 has tv in and tv out for either playing out to my tv or recording to my hard drive for later use. You need a video card that allows you to input a video signal either in composite or s video and there are a bunch of cards that allow you to do it.

 

I prefer having both. A standalone is much simpler for the transferring from the analog source (to true digital MPEG-2, your friend is wrong), and often has better quality due to the poor comb filters in consumer video capture cards.

Once I record it on the standalone, if I need to do any really fancy authoring or additional duplication, I then use the PC drive to take it from there.

 

Michael, how do you transfer the movie from the standalone recorder to the PC? Via the recorded DVD-R or is there a possibility to transfer the data directly?

 

Reusable DVD-RAM.

 

My brother already has a PC with a DVD burner, but he bought a stand-alone Cyberhome for $250 (Walmart or Best Buy).

If you use the PC, it ties up your machine and the rendering (transfer from analog to digital) takes forever.

When he got the stand-alone: He puts the movie onto a DVD-RW. Adds chapters and hides the commercials on the DVD-RW.

Takes the DVD-RW and uses the PC to download to a hard drive. Making the DVD region-free. Then uses DVDShrink to write the DVD+ or DVD- which seems to be compatable with most DVD players.

If he didn't use the PC, the cyberhome stand-alone seemed to have compatibilty problems to most DVD players.

 

That depends on the hardware. It's possible to record from analog source with an old PC and a cheap ($50) TV card. A 90 minute video is recorded almost uncompressed onto the hard drive (takes several GB hard drive space) and then afterwards compressed to MPEG2 (DVD) or MPEG4 (DivX) format using only the CPU power. This can take several hours depending on the PC performance.

A standalone digital VCR has a dedicated A/D video conversion chip which does this on-the-fly. But there are now also capture devices available for the PC that have such a chip and are able to do the same thing. They are either PCI cards that are built into the PC or external boxes with USB 2.0 and Firewire connection. The price varies between $130-300