Thinking of buying a dvd recorder with 80gb hard drive to replace old vcr recorder. Anyone got one, are they any good? Someone said to get one that is HD ready. What does this mean?
DVD recorder
- Thread starter hermes
- Start date
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HD (High Definition) ready for a dvd recorder at the mo means that it has a HDMI or DVI input/output. This will be an advanced form of scart lead.
Its a bit of a misconception at the mo and i'm not even sure there are and HD ready DVD recorders yet as High Definition disks dont exist so you cant record in High Def. (not that they even broadcast it yet in the UK)
The benefit of a dvd PLAYER with HDMI /DVI is that it may be able to upscale the picture to look better... but not as good as true High Def (as the info just isnt on the disk)
High Def will take off later in the year when they decide on which format to go for.. (but thats another story).
My advice... wait if you really want High Def (and have a HD Ready TV).. otherwise get a pioneer or panasonic..
I'll stick with my Sky Plus for the mo (i know you cant get recordings off but i'll live with it)
Its a bit of a misconception at the mo and i'm not even sure there are and HD ready DVD recorders yet as High Definition disks dont exist so you cant record in High Def. (not that they even broadcast it yet in the UK)
The benefit of a dvd PLAYER with HDMI /DVI is that it may be able to upscale the picture to look better... but not as good as true High Def (as the info just isnt on the disk)
High Def will take off later in the year when they decide on which format to go for.. (but thats another story).
My advice... wait if you really want High Def (and have a HD Ready TV).. otherwise get a pioneer or panasonic..
I'll stick with my Sky Plus for the mo (i know you cant get recordings off but i'll live with it)
hermes said:
HD ready means high definition ready. In the not to distant future (no idea exactly when) some tv will be broadcast at a HD standard which gives much better picture quality. You need a HD tv to take advantage of it but it is very impressive. Digital tv is already good but HD is better
I have a dvd player/recorder (Sony) which uses dvd's, not a hard drive. It is very easy to use but a bit slow while the machine reads and writes to the disc when it turns on and at the end of recordings, this is slightly annoying. Apparently hard drives are much quicker
Check how much recording time 80gb gives you and at what picture quality. there is a trade off on mine between recording time and picture quality. At the best quality I only get about 1 hour. At average quality, which is fine for every day use, I get about 3 hours.
I would think HD would need a lot of space so this could be significant but if your recording time is ok I would personally not hesitate and definitely go for the HD standard or you will probably regret it later
dabaldie said:
The info isn't on the disk . . . so how is it going to make the picture better? Magic up some more lines? This is a common misconception i feel.
One of my mates once thought if you download MP3 files and convert them to CDA files for playback on any CD player, they will become CD quality. I soon put him right.
I suppose the same applies with DVDs being played back on a HDTV. They aint gonna look any better than playing them back on a normal TV, the HD software cant magic up lines that aren't there.
One thing that may make the picture slightly better is a little better image processing due to the product being more tech. advanced - but nothing to do with HD if the disk isn't HD.
Once you have compressed a media file into a lower format, it is impossible to regain the data that has been chopped out.
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thats what i said.
A good quality DVD player will upscale the information that it is given.
I dont know how it is done, but i have seen the difference between a Denon DVD player with Upscaling and a silmilar model without.
It is something to do with the interpolation of lines.
Imagine you have a large TV with 528 lines (for example), those lines will be thicker on a larger tv, so from the same distange the image on a large tv will look worse than on a small portable.
I believe upscaling adds additional lines (the benefit of HD) and interpolates the difference between the 2 lines.
ie something like...
Normal TV==528 true lines at 1mm thick
HD Upscaled=528 true lines and 250 interpolated lines at 0.75mm thick
therefore more lines = sharper picture.
Its not true HD, but its better (at the same range) as non interpolated as the lines are thinner.
this is just how i interperate waht i have been told....
i find it funny when you see an advert for the latest TV on the telly, and there showing you how good the picture quality is and someone in the room goes WOW " im getting one of them look at the picture quality on that"
jbonding said:i find it funny when you see an advert for the latest TV on the telly, and there showing you how good the picture quality is and someone in the room goes WOW " im getting one of them look at the picture quality on that"
Lol.
I'm looking for a cheapo one. But everytime I find one, it does not record -R.
P.S. All my other setups use -R, hence I want -R. So I dont need to buy 2 separates types of DVD's.
I got a Pioneer hard drive recorder and it's the mutts nuts. Don't bother with a dvd recorder they're not as user friendly.
Gcol
Gcol
C
confidentincompetent
I got an old (5yr) panasonic dvd recorder and one of them integrated tvs for freeview. (not going sky yet). The only thing is if I want to record say bbc 3 then I have to either watch it, as I record it, or tune into analogue. Is it right that these new dvd recorders with freeview tuners will allow you to watch a different digital channel whilst recording another digital channel? Might be handy when analogue goes
Still none the wiser.
I
Igorian
confidentincompetent said:I got an old (5yr) panasonic dvd recorder and one of them integrated tvs for freeview. (not going sky yet). The only thing is if I want to record say bbc 3 then I have to either watch it, as I record it, or tune into analogue. Is it right that these new dvd recorders with freeview tuners will allow you to watch a different digital channel whilst recording another digital channel? Might be handy when analogue goes
Some do. You need to make sure that it has two tuners.
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