DVD Field Recorder

[Nathan Manley]

Wondering if anyone could recommend a DVD recorder built for field work. I have come across a bunch of set top box type of recorders, but looking for something that is maybe a bit more professional/robust. Is there a current one that most people use? The idea being to be able to hand a client who does not want any editing done a dvd of an event at the end of the event. Thanks for the input, hopefully I'm putting this in the right forum!

[Dan Keaton]

Dear Nathan,

Our nanoFlash has a special mode where we record a SD DVD or HD Blu-ray file in real-time.

At the end of a recording, one can take our file, and then using an appropriate DVD Burning Software, the file can be burned to a DVD or Blu-ray with going through a rendering process. Thus, it is quick.

Convergent Design > Home

Please feel free to send me a private message for more information.

[Mark Job]

Hi Nathan:
I use the Convergent Design Flash XDR, which uses identical technology as the currently available Nano Flash field recorder. I also use the realtime SD/HD MPEG recording feature available in both of these devices. Please be advised most DVD authoring software, such as Sonic's DVD it Pro, Avid DVD by Sonic, and several others require you to use *Elemental* MPEG Video (m2v) and MPEG Layer 1 or Layer 2, or PCM, or Dolby Digital Audio, in order to not have the authoring-burning software **Re-Transcode** your MPEG 2 video file.

For example, Avid DVD will automatically **Transcode** your already encoded MPEG Transport Stream (Audio/Video Muxed together) out of a CD's Nano Flash or Flash XDR even if you set it not too. However, if you add already encoded separate **Elemental** MPEG 2 streams, then it will author and burn the DVD without re-transcoding the file. Re-transcoding is bad :-( This will degrade your sound and picture quality, and add unnecessary encoding times to the DVD authoring process.

*However, there is a simple work around to this: Simply use an MPEG "Demuxer/Muxer" program. This will take the recorded MPEG 2 transport streams out of the Nano Flash & XDR and separate the audio and video files into the required *Elemental streams.*

Hey Dan: Feature Request - Would it be possible to be able to select between recording between MPEG Transport and Elemental streams right in the XDR/Nano ? This would make the resulting MPEG video more friendly to DVD authoring apps.

[Lance Librandi]

Hi Nathan,
I do on site DVD recordings all the time and hand a copy of the show to the client on site. While the Nanoflash is great it still requires that you burn to disk which takes extra time and for BD-R disk it's even longer. Nathan an other option is the DataVideo MP6000 DVD recorder
Datavideo Technologies Co. MP-6000 - Professional DVD Recorder
Not a cheap recorder but very robust machine I have mine mounted in my road case permanently. The encoder is excellent and produce great copies. With it's GPI I have it set to record when ever I press record on the camera so now I can record simultaneously to the camera, Nanoflash and DVD recorder by just pressing one button.

Cheers

[Dan Keaton]

Dear Mark, and Lance,

Many low cost DVD Burning programs will re-render all input files.

There are, however, certain ones that understand that the file has been pre-rendered and will just start burning the disk.

Sorry, but I this time, Sunday Afternoon, I do not remember the name of the program we used. I will attempt to get this information and post it.

The goal here is to be able to use a low-cost program that will take the file and write it to the disk. Quick, Simple, Low-Cost, and Effective.

We have found, and used such a program in our labs.


Mark, converting to Elemental Streams is a large task. We create MPEG-2 Program Stream.

We create one file that has the video and all of the audio channels. For many purposes, having one file is desirable as opposed to having one file for video and one file for each audio channel.

If you are going to edit the file in Avid, we would not typically recommend recording in MPG format.