vhs & dv direct to DVD recording, which recorder to buy

[Chris Gorman]

For good quality, reasonable price, any suggestions for which DVD recorder to buy? I want to make DVDs direct from vhs tape, and dv tape.

At a minimum it must make DVD-R DVDs, but would be nice if it would also do DVD+R.

Would be nice if the vhs player was built into the same unit, but if not I'll just have to keep my vhs player in the same area (taking up space).

I'd prefer that it have firewire (i-link) in & out, and svhs connection.

Any recommendations?

[Boyd Ostroff]

Originally Posted by Chris Gorman

I'd prefer that it have firewire (i-link) in & out, and svhs connection.

s-video should be pretty common, and firewire in is also common. But the last time I looked the only ones with firewire out were expensive professional decks.

Let us know if you find one and how much it costs.

[Chris Gorman]

How much is expensive, and what pro brand & model did you see that burns direct from tape?

The only one I've heard of so far with some of the features is a discontinued Pioneer model - don't have the model number but my friend will probably get that to me soon. He has one he likes with fw in/out, svhs, but does not have the built in vhs player. I think he said it was about $245 a few years back. It's no longer available, but seems to me there must be a successor which I just haven't found yet.

[John Kang]

LG has a dual platform double layer vhs/dvd burner, with firewire for around $350.00. I tried it out and like it. (Brought from Best Buy) I could pause between programs and it would create the chapters nicely. I thought the compression was pretty decent, most of the time. I returned it, however, as it is costly.

I brought a LiteOn vhs/dvd burner that is a wonder. I didn't get the double layer burner, as Costco didn't have it on sale. The single layer burner was around $149.00 I believe. This burner works nicely. Menu systems pretty efficient, but I still prefer the easy burn option that the LG offered.
This burner also offers firewire support.

Panasonic also has a vhs/dvd burner.

I've seen a Sylvania brand, but probably would never concider it, as a combo player I own is not the best player for DVDs.

[Boyd Ostroff]

Originally Posted by Chris Gorman

How much is expensive, and what pro brand & model did you see that burns direct from tape?

You have to do that research since you're the one looking to buy :-) I was never interested in a VCR/DVD recorder combo, so I have no idea what's available there, I was just commenting on your desire for firewire output. I bought a Sony RDR-GX7 almost 4 years ago, and everything has gotten a lot cheaper since then. At that time I couldn't find any models with firewire output, only input (DV in). I saw a pro model in a catalog with firewire out and it was several thousand dollars.

Now I'm not in the market for another recorder so I haven't looked recently. However just now I went to Panasonic's website and none of the consumer models listed there have firewire out, just firewire in. Their most expensive model is $500.

So do some research on this yourself by visiting the various manufacturer's websites, and let us know if you find one with firewire out. You will probably have to look at the manufacturer's websites because sites like Best Buy don't give detailed enough technical spec's to determine that sort of thing.

[Lou Trottier]

I'm thinking about getting one of these

http://www.sonyburners.com/dvdirect/...?ID=1633442038

sony vrd mc1

Lou

[Boyd Ostroff]

Hi Lou and welcome to DVinfo. That looks interesting, but it only has DV in, and not DV out like Chris wants.

[Boyd Ostroff]

BTW Chris, do you want to copy commerical VHS tapes onto DVD's? If so I think you'll find that the copy protection on the tapes will prevent you from doing this on a combo recorder.

[Chris Gorman]

A little clarification . . . no, Boyd, I don't want to make copies of commerical tapes to DVD, nor would I ever want to rip material from a DVD where my client or I did not own the copyright.

For years I've never considered using a tape to DVD direct burner because it's pretty much just a consumer thing, and I make all my DVDs from things I've edited in FCP and then use Compressor and DVDsp.

However, I've recently had a few requests to simply put home video footage onto a DVD or someone's old film transfer, wedding, etc. from vhs to DVD. My prices are too high because I'd have to spend many hours taking it through the whole process. I'm talking about things where they don't want any editing or optimization.

I asked a producer colleague why his prices were so low and he told me that he gives clients the option for the lower priced direct transfer when they are not that concerned with pristine quality are informed about what they give up for the lower price.

He said he got very good quality transfers (slightly less quality than his computer based pro method).

He then added the comment that it had come in handy for his corp. clients who give him DVDs (they own the copyright), and want him to re-edit. He could breeze through it with the fw out, even though there's the inevitable loss of quality when re-editing mpeg-2 stuff.

When he gets back in town I'll ask the model number, but he already said it has been discontinued, so that's what started my search for something similar. Yes, I know there's ripping software, and, again my purpose would not be to use anything where my client or I did not own the copyright. In fact, I haven't even had a request for that yet, but just was going to include it in the specs if that was still currently available, in case I get that request.

I realize now I won't be able to get fw out, but still would want decent quality for any direct transfers I do for clients. I think these recorders have improved in quality over the years.

My current client wants her old film transfer put onto a DVD+R DVD (no editing), so now I'd like to include the option of both +R and -R for burning, though I'm not sure if the +R option would have any use beyond her request, because I'm not aware of when anyone would need a +R (maybe for pc's?)

Of course, I've been doing my own searching and reading a zillion manufacturer specs (not all are accurate).

The reason for posting the question to a forum like this is that fellow producers usually would be a better judge of image quality and user functions than a regular consumer or sales person.

I don't care about any bells and whistles for t.v.recording features. I doubt I'd even use the cheasy chapter titling options on these products.

On my list of "maybe's" is the Samsugn DVD VR-330. I don't know what the better brands are for this type of thing.

[Boyd Ostroff]

My only experience is with the Sony, and I get excellent results there if I use the highest quality mode (1 hour per DVD). You have to look pretty closely to notice differences between these DVD's and the original DV tape when I make copies using firewire directly from my computer.

I recently copied some old Hi-8 tapes using s-video out of the old camcorder directly into the DVD recorder and used the 90 minutes per disk quality settings. This turned out really well also. In fact, it looked better than the original tape because the DVD recorder lets you set things like brightness, contrast, color level, noise reduction, etc. when you use the analog inputs.

Of course the downside is that all the DVD's bring up a boring grey menu when you play them, and you have to enter a title using the remote to pick each letter. I don't use any of the chapter features either, because that's all too much of a pain using the remote.

[Chris Gorman]

Originally Posted by Lou Trottier

I'm thinking about getting one of these

http://www.sonyburners.com/dvdirect/...?ID=1633442038

sony vrd mc1

Lou

Lou, this brings up an interesting point. While talking with others colleagues in my local area on this issue, one guy mentioned the Sony DirectDV as an example of something to look at to see what kind of quality a consumer can get if they do their own transfers. One of the main selling points of the DVDirect I guess is the memory card and slide show thing. He said it was not a very good image and had serious monitoring limitations.

I'd like to see a sample of what quality slide show it makes from the pc cards so I could show clients a comparison of what I do with my custom photo montages. Clients want to know why I charge the way I do, so it would be great if I could show the differences when I do a demo.

I spend many hours working on every photo and transition and rhythm of movement and music etc. If I could give them a visual example of the differences they would be better able to choose what would suit their needs, and pay for a much superior product if that's what they want.

[Ron Evans]

I have two Panasonics, an E30 ( the first one I bought, and a new DMR-ES15) I record to DVD-RAM , copy the VR file to PC and then author with DVDLAB Pro. The DMR-ES15 has iLink input but the E30 only has S Video interface. Actually I find the quality better than software encoders especially for long ( over 2 hour programs most of what I do). With this approach I can encode, copy and author before the software encoder would have finished encoding!!! They both clean up tape based input very nicely though I sometimes pass through a TBC that I have too. I think that the newer Panasonic with Hard Drive will allow some flexibility in menus too so there may be no need to go through the PC and author though it does look a lot nicer I am sure.

Ron Evans

[Chris Gorman]

Originally Posted by Ron Evans

I sometimes pass through a TBC that I have too.

Ron Evans

I've noticed that some DVD records have built in TBCs, but not sure if you can always trust what the specs say on-line.

The JVC SR-VS30U lists a TBC. I wonder if it's not as good as a stand alone TBC.

[Ron Evans]

I think the Panasonic's are Ok but my reason for running through a TBC is to alter the image ( correct colour etc ) rather than just correct for time base errors. I am impressed with the Panasonics and the new ES15 at a quarter of the price I paid for the E30 is much better at the longer record times.

Ron Evans

[Chris Gorman]

I learned that the Pioneer DVR-210 does have fw in/out in addition to vhs direct record to DVD. I bought a used one and will be testing it out soon.