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Well I have a Panasonic DMR-HS2. It has a hard drive to record onto as well as the ability to record directly onto DVD-R discs. It will play any region disc I've tried so far. I use it a lot for transfering my old VHS stuff onto DVDs. I hardly ever record directly onto DVD, prefering to stick it on the Hard disc first, edit out the bits I dont want, and then put the final cut onto disc.

The discs I have to use are the DVD-R type which can hold 2 hours at better than VHS quality - quite good enough for watching most things I reckon. These are for once only use - although you can record things over many sessions, once they're full, they're full. The re-recordable ones are DVD-RAM and can be erased and done again 100,000 times so they say, but can only be played in the machine you recorded on ! Yes, they've deliberatley made it as hard as possible.

Although I am more than happy with the machine, I think you'll find the new machines comming out are much more compatible with all the stupid fucking formats they've invented. I have seen a few computer based DVD editing setups but they are still prone to crashing no matter what the sales people tell you ( unless you want to spend huge on the professional grade ).

I love my machine and dont regret buying it in spite of its shortcommings with the disc sharing problems. I can freeze frame porn movies right at the best bits and wank off without worrying about wearing out the tape. Not that you'd do that !


And by the way, this is a subject that confuses everyone.

No idea of which or what Model but this link is pretty useful for general questions relating the dvds and everything about them



cheers
B....OZ

JVC also produce a machine which records in either DVD-R or DVD-RAM.

The advantage of some (all?) of the Panasonic models is that they can be switched to record in NTSC, but you need a pure NTSC input signal, i.e. either an NTSC VCR or a multisystem VCR to record from.

They will not convert NTSC to PAL on output.

(Multisystem VCRs - like the Samsung SV 5000W convert digitally and I don't think it's true any longer that you have to have really expensive kit to convert. They cost about 300-odd - the other option - a Panasonic - costs over 1000. SECAM is a different matter - the Samsung converts fine if the source tape has a sharp picture but with colours a bit faded, but conversion tends to make the colours, especially reds and yellows too hot otherwise. An NTSC VCR might cost about 100.)

The latest Panasonics now produce a more compatible DVD-R than the previous ones - they will play on a Cyberhome player whereas the old ones wouldn't.

The bottom of the range is now the E55 but it is not multi-region and does not have a hard disk.



I believe they do produce a multi-region one which is a bit more expensive.



This also does not have a hard disk. the E85 and E95 do have hard disks.



Don't know if they are multiregion.

You can insert chapter breaks where you like on a DVD-RAM disk, but with DVD-R it inserts them for you every five minutes or so. As Deano says, however, you can have more than one programme on a DVD-R disk. Each programme will have these arbitrary chapters if it is long enough.

If you want higher picture quality you are limited to one hour. Standard quality is two hours. And you can have four or eight hours by reducing quality. When recording from the TV on a timer you can also have flexible recording - i'e quality increases or decreases to fit the programme into the time left on the disk.

The biggest problem - and I don't know if this applies to other makes - is that of disk errors and how the machine responds to them when recording. What should happen in my opinion is that the disk should eject automatically if the machine doesn't like it. What actually happens usually is that it gets stuck inisde and you have to switch off and give the machine a rest and hope that the tray will open when you switch back on.

Previous threads on this topic have had posts criticising the reliability of the Phillips DVD+R recorders. There are other makes, but I know nothing about them.

magoo, talar ni Svenska ? Bra imponerande !