«

On Thu, 16 Jun 2005 19:55:42 +1200, Invisible <> wrote:

>On Thu, 16 Jun 2005 19:47:20 +1200, Tony
><> wrote:
>
>>On Thu, 16 Jun 2005 19:14:47 +1200, "Daver" <> wrote:
>>
>>>I would go with Panasonic as Philips seem to have lost the plot with DVD
>>>recorders. It wont skip ads automatically but they have three ways of doing
>>>it quickly.
>>>1. Usual fast forward as per video tape
>>>2. Manual Skip 30 second skip forward (repeat 7 times) then ffwd or frev to
>>>required spot.
>>>3. Time slip where you increment the time to skip in 1 minute steps. Skip
>>>forward 3 or 4 min then ffwd or frev to required spot
>>>
>>>EH50 is the latest Panasonic and can be had for $900ish or you could go for
>>>the top of the line E500 currently on run out for less than $2000 down from
>>>$3500. EH50 supports a couple of extra formats i.e. +R and -RW for recording
>>>and faster startup. Maxs out at 140 hr on HDD and 8 hrs on DVD thou you
>>>probably only want to operate at half that.
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>2 hours are the Max you can get out of a recordable DVD cd as VHS quality
>>
>>Wait for Blue Ray as this stuff is all obsolete now..
>>
>
>And then when that comes out something else will be in the pipeline. Do we wait
>around forever?
>



But why buy Obsolete Crap with Bad Specs..

8 hours is the max thou you probably wouldn't want to do that. 3-4hrs is
quite acceptable for a lot programmes which we previously recorded at LP on
tape.
Movies tend to be SP or 2hrs.


"Tony" <> wrote in message
news...
> On Thu, 16 Jun 2005 19:14:47 +1200, "Daver" <> wrote:
>
> >I would go with Panasonic as Philips seem to have lost the plot with DVD
> >recorders. It wont skip ads automatically but they have three ways of
doing
> >it quickly.
> >1. Usual fast forward as per video tape
> >2. Manual Skip 30 second skip forward (repeat 7 times) then ffwd or frev
to
> >required spot.
> >3. Time slip where you increment the time to skip in 1 minute steps. Skip
> >forward 3 or 4 min then ffwd or frev to required spot
> >
> >EH50 is the latest Panasonic and can be had for $900ish or you could go
for
> >the top of the line E500 currently on run out for less than $2000 down
from
> >$3500. EH50 supports a couple of extra formats i.e. +R and -RW for
recording
> >and faster startup. Maxs out at 140 hr on HDD and 8 hrs on DVD thou you
> >probably only want to operate at half that.
> >
>
>
>
>
> 2 hours are the Max you can get out of a recordable DVD cd as VHS
quality
>
> Wait for Blue Ray as this stuff is all obsolete now..
>
>
> >"Googol" <> wrote in message
> >news:d8phgh$3tt$...
> >> Grateful for feedback from people with the newish Panasonic/Philips DVD
> >> recorders which also record TV to hard disk. In particular, do they let
> >> you skip the TV ads and promos? Thanks in advance.
> >
>

In article <> in nz.comp on
Thu, 16 Jun 2005 19:47:20 +1200, Tony <> says...
> On Thu, 16 Jun 2005 19:14:47 +1200, "Daver" <> wrote:
>
> >I would go with Panasonic as Philips seem to have lost the plot with DVD
> >recorders. It wont skip ads automatically but they have three ways of doing
> >it quickly.
> >1. Usual fast forward as per video tape
> >2. Manual Skip 30 second skip forward (repeat 7 times) then ffwd or frev to
> >required spot.
> >3. Time slip where you increment the time to skip in 1 minute steps. Skip
> >forward 3 or 4 min then ffwd or frev to required spot
> >
> >EH50 is the latest Panasonic and can be had for $900ish or you could go for
> >the top of the line E500 currently on run out for less than $2000 down from
> >$3500. EH50 supports a couple of extra formats i.e. +R and -RW for recording
> >and faster startup. Maxs out at 140 hr on HDD and 8 hrs on DVD thou you
> >probably only want to operate at half that.
> >
>
>
>
>
> 2 hours are the Max you can get out of a recordable DVD cd as VHS quality

Since normal DVD (2 hours) is superior to VHS this is wrong

Rob J wrote:

>>2 hours are the Max you can get out of a recordable DVD cd as VHS quality
>
>
> Since normal DVD (2 hours) is superior to VHS this is wrong

Normal DVD is not recorded at a constant bit rate - if you are getting 2 hours
on a 4.7 gig disc, your fixed at 4.9 megabits/sec for the video (Audio is
usually 256k on the ones I have seen), this is not enough for scenes with high
motion, and complete overkill for things that are not moving. Untill they make a
dvd recorder with variable bitrate on a multiple pass compression, then you will
not get proper dvd quality on the 2 hour mode.

The 1 hour mode cranks the bit rate as high as it can go, and will generally
give good picture from what I have seen, except on things recorded from
composite with dotcrawl all over them, in which case even the 1 hour mode pixelates.

You simply cant record something with an aim to make it a certain size unless
you have the entire program available to process before begining. A comprimise
would be if the recorder would record to HDD at 10+megabit since there is ample
space there, and then do a proper re-encode to DVD when "archiving" it off the
HDD to a disc, but that would make a 2 hour program take more then 2 hours to
archive unless they put a really grunty CPU in them, which they dont seem to.

I have a Sony HX900. I rarely archieve any recordings, just the occasional
Top Gear on a re-recordable DVD, to watch at work. Quality is only as good
as what's coming in
Replay quality is fantastic and the sound is great and even my wife can use
it.
Do they sell Blu-ray stuff, yet and how much? Nothing lasts forever, and
this years killer hardware will look second rate, in a couple of years.
I believe Pioneer makes a good HD DVD recorder. All a bit Ford/Holden.

Tony <> wrote:

>On Thu, 16 Jun 2005 19:14:47 +1200, "Daver" <> wrote:
>
>>I would go with Panasonic as Philips seem to have lost the plot with DVD
>>recorders. It wont skip ads automatically but they have three ways of doing
>>it quickly.
>>1. Usual fast forward as per video tape
>>2. Manual Skip 30 second skip forward (repeat 7 times) then ffwd or frev to
>>required spot.
>>3. Time slip where you increment the time to skip in 1 minute steps. Skip
>>forward 3 or 4 min then ffwd or frev to required spot
>>
>>EH50 is the latest Panasonic and can be had for $900ish or you could go for
>>the top of the line E500 currently on run out for less than $2000 down from
>>$3500. EH50 supports a couple of extra formats i.e. +R and -RW for recording
>>and faster startup. Maxs out at 140 hr on HDD and 8 hrs on DVD thou you
>>probably only want to operate at half that.
>>
>
>
>
>
>2 hours are the Max you can get out of a recordable DVD cd as VHS quality
>
>Wait for Blue Ray as this stuff is all obsolete now..
>
>

**** off. Blue Ray is still a pie in the sky for most people. With
the cost of HD DVD recorders in this country still very high HD DVD
formats will cost a fortune when they get released here. What makes
you think that people apart from the once was called "Yuppies" will go
for this stuff.??

I'm afraid that the regular DVD format will be around for a long time
yet.. AS we don't have HD TV here the difference between Blue Ray and
regular DVD format will not be noticed unlike the change from VHS to
DVD..

DVD recorders don.t record at a constant bitrate and considering what you
start with, in most cases off air 2hrs or even 3hrs is pretty good. As any
user of DVD Shrink can probably attest to the end quality still achieved
when squashing 2hrs + onto a single layer disk still looks good.
I've just got the new EH50 and at normal viewing distance even the EP mode
(6hrs) is quite good especially if you are onlty recording news type stuff.


"Richard" <> wrote in message
news:42b1a58d$...
> Rob J wrote:
>
> >>2 hours are the Max you can get out of a recordable DVD cd as VHS
quality
> >
> >
> > Since normal DVD (2 hours) is superior to VHS this is wrong
>
> Normal DVD is not recorded at a constant bit rate - if you are getting 2
hours
> on a 4.7 gig disc, your fixed at 4.9 megabits/sec for the video (Audio is
> usually 256k on the ones I have seen), this is not enough for scenes with
high
> motion, and complete overkill for things that are not moving. Untill they
make a
> dvd recorder with variable bitrate on a multiple pass compression, then
you will
> not get proper dvd quality on the 2 hour mode.
>
> The 1 hour mode cranks the bit rate as high as it can go, and will
generally
> give good picture from what I have seen, except on things recorded from
> composite with dotcrawl all over them, in which case even the 1 hour mode
pixelates.
>
> You simply cant record something with an aim to make it a certain size
unless
> you have the entire program available to process before begining. A
comprimise
> would be if the recorder would record to HDD at 10+megabit since there is
ample
> space there, and then do a proper re-encode to DVD when "archiving" it off
the
> HDD to a disc, but that would make a 2 hour program take more then 2 hours
to
> archive unless they put a really grunty CPU in them, which they dont seem
to.

Presumably you've never had any video recording device as there is always
something better just a couple of years away. Presumable by the time Blu ray
is affordable you will still be saying the same thing as there's sure to be
some better in the pipeline. I'm just waiting for:-
Wait for Super duper Blue Ray as this stuff is all obsolete now

>
>
>
>
> 2 hours are the Max you can get out of a recordable DVD cd as VHS
quality
>
> Wait for Blue Ray as this stuff is all obsolete now..
>
>
> >"Googol" <> wrote in message
> >news:d8phgh$3tt$...
> >> Grateful for feedback from people with the newish Panasonic/Philips DVD
> >> recorders which also record TV to hard disk. In particular, do they let
> >> you skip the TV ads and promos? Thanks in advance.
> >
>

In article <d8stpn$nkm$>,
"Daver" <> wrote:

>Wait for Super duper Blue Ray as this stuff is all obsolete now

Well, the next in the logical progression (CD = infrared laser, DVD =
red, Blu-Ray/HD-DVD = blue/violet) would be using an ultraviolet laser.
Then next after that would be X-rays.

"Book in advance for your X-ray discs now!"

Daver wrote:
> DVD recorders don.t record at a constant bitrate and considering what you
> start with, in most cases off air 2hrs or even 3hrs is pretty good. As any
> user of DVD Shrink can probably attest to the end quality still achieved
> when squashing 2hrs + onto a single layer disk still looks good.
> I've just got the new EH50 and at normal viewing distance even the EP mode
> (6hrs) is quite good especially if you are onlty recording news type stuff.

The do record at a fixed bitrate, otherwise they wouldnt be able to commit to
fitting a certain amount of data on a disc, sure, it varies a _little_ but there
are no huge peaks or troughs in the bitrate graph on something from a standalone
recorder.

Normal viewing distance from what? a 21" connected thru composite or something?
I have seen the output of a philips on 4 hour mode, and I have seen VCDs that
looked better.