hello-

I've actually been into DV for about three years, except i have not had any time or money to upgrade too much, or educate myself further. I think now might be the time. I'm using pinnacle 8, which is ok, and a four year old sony handycam DCR-TRV10. I'm satisfied with the handycams resolution (it's good for a small and reasonably cheap little camcorder) But i'm not satisfied with the resolution after I transfer onto pinnacle 8, edit, and transfer back to dv, then to tape. And i'm CERTAINLY not satisfied with the VCD picture. (Spotty, blotchy) Would moving to a DVD recorder make any difference? If so which one should i purchase? (preferably under $800 or $900)

thanks for any help
-Alex

oops, just noticed this should go in the dvd section-oh well,
sorry...

A DVD recorder would make a huge difference. Studio8 is great for fast storyboard editing and integrated render/compile disk/burn DVD. (Be sure you have 8.5.21 for DVD authoring. There is a newer revision 8.8.17, but I haven't tried it yet. There were many A/V sync issues in DVD creation introduced into Studio8 betas. Careful !)

You want a DVD burner. You can get a dual format (DVD-RW and +RW) Pioneer A06 or Sony burner drive for
under $200. For for it !

Where can you get these burners for under $200, Gints?

The Pioneer Dual Format drive is $240 at Newegg, very reliable company. http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduct.asp?submit=property&DEPA=1

Cheers,
Huey

Enter "pioneer A06" or dvr-106 in the Search field in http://www. pricewatch.com

Today, the DVR-106 is $179 (including shipping) from Galaxy3000.com, but there are many entries under $200 .
I think I purchased my Pioneer A04 with software from
zeehoo.com, which sells the A06 for $203 out the door.

An equivalent drive is the Sony DRU-510a/DW-U10A, which also sells for under $200 . I'm biased toward the Pioneer because my A04 works flawlessly, but I've heard good things about the Sony.

Other equivalent drives are , but the Plextor does DVD+RW at 8x.
I have not seen any 8x media, though.

$148 NEC ND-1300A
16x max CD-R, 10x max CD-RW, 4x max DVD+R
2.4x max DVD+RW, 4x max DVD-R, 2x max DVD-RW

$257 Plextor PX-708A
Writing DVD+R: 8x
DVD-R: 4x
CD-R: 40x
Rewriting DVD+RW: 4x
DVD-RW: 2x
CD-RW: 24x
Reading DVD-ROM: 12x
CD-ROM: 40x

I find the the RW speed increases to be the most useful because I always do a few test/edit/burns on a DVD compilation. So, my next upgrade is DVD-RW or +RW 4x write. The Pioneer A07 promises 4x DVD-RW. My 1x DVD-RW seems to take about 20 minutes to complete a burn, regardless of whether I put one or ten minutes of video on the disc. It seems that a DVD disc requires a minimum amount of data, which from casual observation appears to be 1/3 or so.