Originally posted by Porcupine Reading this thread is great as im thinking of getting a recordable DVD for my hubby for Xmas. Unfortunately though a lot of what you've said has gone straight over my head !!!
I looked on the web though, and they all seem to be about £500 so obviously i dont know what im looking for - heheh. I have been looking at the sony machines - the RDR-GX7. Are these good and is it wise to spend a bit more money ?? Do you get better functions on it ???
Am i just as well spending £250 on a lesser model for now, if it does the same stuff ??
Tricky one that as they all do the same basic stuff but as DVD recorders are expensive it is worth making sure the one u buy does what u want. There are basically three different DVD formats and on the whole therefore three types of recorders, +R/RW, -R/RW and RAM/-R. -R and + R are discs u can record to once, -RW, +RW and RAM can be written to many times as per a VHS tape.
The Sony RDR-GX7 is an exception to this in that it will record on +RW, -RW and -R DVDs and will playback all formats except RAM. It is Sony's top of the range recorder at about £600. You can also get hard disc(HD) recorders whereby you record onto an internal HD or on a DVD. You can copy a recording from the HD to DVD if you want to keep it long term or play it on ano player. HD recorders cost around £600.
If you are only going to use it to watch your own recordings and aren't bothered about playing them back on anything other than the recorder you recoded them on then RAM is IMO the best choice though blank RAM DVDs are the most expensive. If not then go for +R/RW or -R/RW as these formats are far more compatible with other players/recorders. e.g. if you already have a -R DVD player then go for -R. You may think the Sony is better cos it does both but the problem is you have to decide which DVD format to use when you record and therefore you need to know what the player you will play it back on supports. Howver it will also playback -R and +R DVDs. If you can afford it then again IMO go for a HD DVR, currently these support -R/RW DVDs (Pioneer) and RAM/-R DVDs (Panasonic) for around the same price as the Sony RDR-GX7.
Hope this is not to confusing, but I am sure u will post back if u need to.
What Hi Fi Sound and Vision has a big review of DVRs in the January issue including Panny and Philips so if considering buying one may be worth a look. Of the HDD boxes the Toshiba came top and the E50 was best of the non-HDD ones. They liked the Sony multi-format box but considered it too expensive for what it is.
I've just purchased a DVDR70 and it works well, but I've noticed the aspect ratio is always set to 4:3, even though the source material is 16:9.
When playing a recorded disc, the recorder seems to get this correct, but since the disc is set at 4:3, then other players (and my laptop) show the picture incorrectly.
Is this a flaw with the philips product, or similar to others?
This problem applies to most or all DVD recorders. I have a Panasonic E50, and I experience the same thing with DVD-R discs (but not with the DVD-RAM format, which handles aspect ratio differently).
For material to be played back correctly, it has to be accompanied by a flag indicating whether it is 4:3 or 16:9. The problem arises because of the DVD-Video format, which all the recordable formats (except DVD-RAM) emulate. As I understand it (and please don't take this as authoritative), the format makes it impossible to have more than one flag per title (i.e. programme), and difficult to have more than one flag per disc. Since you might have a variety of material on one disc, or even within one title, DVD recorders take the easy option of just flagging every disc as 4:3.
Since you say that you get the right aspect ratio when playing back on the recorder, it seems that the Philips records an additional flag (or flags) which it can read, but which are ignored by normal DVD players. (Does this apply to both DVD+R and DVD+RW?) The E50 doesn't do this. If I record a 16:9 programme on DVD-R and then play it back on the E50, I have to manually switch my TV to 16:9 mode.
I've read in this forum that you can edit the disc on your PC (if it's a rewriteable disc) using a programme called Ifoedit, to change the setting of the flag. But I don't know anything more about this.
I was wondering...if you have one of these DVDs with a 16:9 anamorphic picture flagged as 4:3, can you view it in the correct aspect ratio on a PC? In otherwords, is there any DVD viewing software which will allow you to override the flag setting?
I have Windows Media Player, RealOnePlayer and PowerDVD on my PC. None of them has a specific option for overriding the flag setting, but PowerDVD will allow you to manually resize the viewing window in each dimension independently, so you can stretch it to 16:9 ratio. (Make sure that "Keep Aspect Ratio" is off.) For maximum size, use the full width of the screen and 3/4 of the height. Unfortunately, Windows Media Player and RealOnePlayer don't allow you to do this (unless I've overlooked something.)
By the way, I make a lot of DVD-Rs to send to my brother in Prague, where he watches them on his PC. When I discovered this problem after a couple of months and asked him if he'd noticed the picture was distorted, he said he hadn't noticed anything odd. Anyway, since then, I've been recording from analogue TV whenever possible, so he doesn't get anamorphic pictures.
Originally posted by jchamier I've just purchased a DVDR70 and it works well, but I've noticed the aspect ratio is always set to 4:3, even though the source material is 16:9.
When playing a recorded disc, the recorder seems to get this correct, but since the disc is set at 4:3, then other players (and my laptop) show the picture incorrectly.
Is this a flaw with the philips product, or similar to others?
James
i got one for my parents this week and was round setting it up and havent noticed this problem at all. I recorded the footy which switched to 4:3 during ad breaks without any problems and then back to 16:9 for the match itself? dunno what to suggest though, but WS switching seems to be being recorded with no problems on their one.
Originally posted by monkey75 i got one for my parents this week and was round setting it up and havent noticed this problem at all. I recorded the footy which switched to 4:3 during ad breaks without any problems and then back to 16:9 for the match itself? dunno what to suggest though, but WS switching seems to be being recorded with no problems on their one.
You've missed the point. Yes, the switching is recorded, but not in a way that will work on ordinary DVD players. If you stick to playing back in your recorder then you're fine.
Thanks! I'll recommend it to my brother. Am I right in thinking that he'll need the professional version? The standard version only seems to let me play individual VOB files, not a whole DVD.
Originally posted by mpark You've missed the point. Yes, the switching is recorded, but not in a way that will work on ordinary DVD players. If you stick to playing back in your recorder then you're fine.
right, i get you, i wonder if the firmware update on the philips site would fix this? doubt it :eek:
Comments
Tricky one that as they all do the same basic stuff but as DVD recorders are expensive it is worth making sure the one u buy does what u want. There are basically three different DVD formats and on the whole therefore three types of recorders, +R/RW, -R/RW and RAM/-R. -R and + R are discs u can record to once, -RW, +RW and RAM can be written to many times as per a VHS tape.
The Sony RDR-GX7 is an exception to this in that it will record on +RW, -RW and -R DVDs and will playback all formats except RAM. It is Sony's top of the range recorder at about £600. You can also get hard disc(HD) recorders whereby you record onto an internal HD or on a DVD. You can copy a recording from the HD to DVD if you want to keep it long term or play it on ano player. HD recorders cost around £600.
If you are only going to use it to watch your own recordings and aren't bothered about playing them back on anything other than the recorder you recoded them on then RAM is IMO the best choice though blank RAM DVDs are the most expensive. If not then go for +R/RW or -R/RW as these formats are far more compatible with other players/recorders. e.g. if you already have a -R DVD player then go for -R. You may think the Sony is better cos it does both but the problem is you have to decide which DVD format to use when you record and therefore you need to know what the player you will play it back on supports. Howver it will also playback -R and +R DVDs. If you can afford it then again IMO go for a HD DVR, currently these support -R/RW DVDs (Pioneer) and RAM/-R DVDs (Panasonic) for around the same price as the Sony RDR-GX7.
Hope this is not to confusing, but I am sure u will post back if u need to.
When playing a recorded disc, the recorder seems to get this correct, but since the disc is set at 4:3, then other players (and my laptop) show the picture incorrectly.
Is this a flaw with the philips product, or similar to others?
James
For material to be played back correctly, it has to be accompanied by a flag indicating whether it is 4:3 or 16:9. The problem arises because of the DVD-Video format, which all the recordable formats (except DVD-RAM) emulate. As I understand it (and please don't take this as authoritative), the format makes it impossible to have more than one flag per title (i.e. programme), and difficult to have more than one flag per disc. Since you might have a variety of material on one disc, or even within one title, DVD recorders take the easy option of just flagging every disc as 4:3.
Since you say that you get the right aspect ratio when playing back on the recorder, it seems that the Philips records an additional flag (or flags) which it can read, but which are ignored by normal DVD players. (Does this apply to both DVD+R and DVD+RW?) The E50 doesn't do this. If I record a 16:9 programme on DVD-R and then play it back on the E50, I have to manually switch my TV to 16:9 mode.
I've read in this forum that you can edit the disc on your PC (if it's a rewriteable disc) using a programme called Ifoedit, to change the setting of the flag. But I don't know anything more about this.
I have Windows Media Player, RealOnePlayer and PowerDVD on my PC. None of them has a specific option for overriding the flag setting, but PowerDVD will allow you to manually resize the viewing window in each dimension independently, so you can stretch it to 16:9 ratio. (Make sure that "Keep Aspect Ratio" is off.) For maximum size, use the full width of the screen and 3/4 of the height. Unfortunately, Windows Media Player and RealOnePlayer don't allow you to do this (unless I've overlooked something.)
By the way, I make a lot of DVD-Rs to send to my brother in Prague, where he watches them on his PC. When I discovered this problem after a couple of months and asked him if he'd noticed the picture was distorted, he said he hadn't noticed anything odd.
i got one for my parents this week and was round setting it up and havent noticed this problem at all. I recorded the footy which switched to 4:3 during ad breaks without any problems and then back to 16:9 for the match itself? dunno what to suggest though, but WS switching seems to be being recorded with no problems on their one.
Zoom Player Professional will do that for you.
You've missed the point. Yes, the switching is recorded, but not in a way that will work on ordinary DVD players. If you stick to playing back in your recorder then you're fine.
right, i get you, i wonder if the firmware update on the philips site would fix this? doubt it :eek:
No, it can't really be "fixed" because it's not really a bug, it's just a limitation of the format.
They do dvd-r for around 64p each. Bulkpaq 4x speed. Used them 3 times and quality is great. Am still very new at this though!