The first I heard of this is when I saw it at Wal-Mart yesterday and bought it. I can hear the fan when it runs but not when it's off. It plays PAL. The clock display looks like a regular digital clock, not military time. (EDIT: It DOES show military time - sort of. It wasn't evident to me until the clock changed to 13:00 - that's right, with a colon. The reason I thought it was not military time is at three o'clock in the morning, instead of reading 0300 it read 3:00). I haven't done the stereo-or-mono test yet. This is the first DVD recorder I've owned. I wanted a certain Pioneer model after I saw a friend edit video in the hard drive on his, but I didn't want to spend $400. My only real disappointment so far, besides the manual, is the editing is accurate to only half a second. Here are my simpler instructions for recording from VHS to a DVD:

1) Put a disc in the tray
2) Press "INPUT" button repeatedly to find your source.
3) Press "TIME SHIFT" button (manual says this switches you to manual rec mode)
4) Press "REC TO" button to select Optical Disc
5) Cue up your tape and press "OTR"

EDIT: I used an R+ disc, opted to create a YesDVD (to no apparent benefit) and the result is a disc that won't play in my Sony SACD/DVD player.

Now I have to figure out how to (or whether one can) mark chapter index points while recording.

Does the Polaroid play DTS DVDs in 5.1? It's not clear to me that phreakiphred actually owns a Polaroid, and itmanager never got back to us. The Polaroid manual mentions neither Dolby nor DTS. The Polaroid website does mention Dolby. Can someone with a Polaroid, a DTS receiver, and a DTS DVD try the three of them all at the same time and see / listen?


I have a 700 watt 7.1 system, and ALL 7 speakers work in Stereo, DTS, PLXll and ALL other modes.....EXCEPT MONO....

Oh yes, and the signal comes through in stereo on my Bose noise cancelling headphones.

NTSC-M is Japanese NTSC all other Countries are PAL

Phred


I've been reading this post for a few days and I purchased a unit yesterday.
...
... I didn't see anywhere that DTS was supported (I haven't tried a DTS disk yet). I saw progressive scan mentioned in the online manual but not certain it is supported (my guess is its supported).
...

Does anyone know if the Polaroid has high speed dubbing from HDD to DVD? I didn't find a serious answer to Debi's question! If the Polaroid has fast dubbing from HDD to DVD, can someone estimate the maximum speed with high speed media? Other manufacturers are proud enough of their capability to high speed dub, that they state speeds in their manuals, on their boxes, and in advertising literature.


Does anyone know if this has high speed dubbing? I am sooo new to dvd recorders and am deciding between the polaroid and the new phillips at walmart for $298... Thanks so much..

Debi

Question to all of you:

Does you finalized disks work in different players?

Are you happy with this unit?

Also I have to apologize for the next question as I skimmed through this thread

Does the recorder record programming in stereo from the tuner using the RF connector?

Question to all of you:

Does you finalized disks work in different players?

Are you happy with this unit?

Also I have to apologize for the next question as I skimmed through this thread

Does the recorder record programming in stereo from the tuner using the RF connector?
The Polaroid "must" have a MTS (Multichannel TV Sound, 4 channels) tuner since you can set Closed Captions to ON or OFF (OFF is the default, per the manual, General Setup, pg 13). The "stereo" part depends on whether the broadcast is really in "stereo"...most are not, just 4-channel MTS.

Also, phreakiphred (above, post #245) did some "listening" tests with the right equipment.

People with this unit who have not yet determined whether they are receiving "stereo" (MTS) may not have turned the Closed Caption feature ON (pg 13 of manual)? Then, of course, they will only see CC if the station is broadcasting it...HLN, CNN, CSPAN are good sources for known CC.

I searched the manual for "high speed" and didn't find that, so maybe someone who has this unit can let us know whether high-speed HDD>DVD copy is possible?

EDIT: I just found one user who stated that it copied in high speed, "masochrist" post #203, pg 7. Any others?

Something interesting on the Polaroid: it "might" have a better audio DAC than the Pio 640???

It's audio "frequency response" is 4-44 kHz, whereas the Pio's is 48 kHz...not a range, just 48 kHz!

According to Wikipedia, a "straight" 48 kHz DAC is "cheap" compared to the typical 44 kHz DAC used for CDs. See below:

"Maximum sampling frequency: This is a measurement of the maximum speed at which the DACs circuitry can operate and still produce the correct output. As stated in the Shannon-Nyquist sampling theorem, a signal must be sampled at over twice the bandwidth of the desired signal. For instance, to reproduce signals in all the audible spectrum, which includes frequencies of up to 20 kHz, it is necessary to use DACs that operate at over 40 kHz. The CD standard samples audio at 44.1 kHz, thus DACs of this frequency are often used. A common frequency in cheap computer sound cards is 48 kHz - many work at only this frequency, offering the use of other sample rates only through (often poor) internal resampling."

The Polaroid's Video DAC "might" be pretty good also since it's horiz. res. is 500 lines (same as 2006 Panys).

Polaroid questions?

1) Does the 2001 record audio to DVD-R in Dolby 2.0 (AC3) format or some other(pcm?) audio format?

2) Can someone post a pcture of a menu from a DVD-R created by the Polaroid 2001..

Thanks :D

Something interesting on the Polaroid: it "might" have a better audio DAC than the Pio 640???

It's audio "frequency response" is 4-44 kHz, whereas the Pio's is 48 kHz...not a range, just 48 kHz!

According to Wikipedia, a "straight" 48 kHz DAC is "cheap" compared to the typical 44 kHz DAC used for CDs. See below:

"Maximum sampling frequency: This is a measurement of the maximum speed at which the DACs circuitry can operate and still produce the correct output. As stated in the Shannon-Nyquist sampling theorem, a signal must be sampled at over twice the bandwidth of the desired signal. For instance, to reproduce signals in all the audible spectrum, which includes frequencies of up to 20 kHz, it is necessary to use DACs that operate at over 40 kHz. The CD standard samples audio at 44.1 kHz, thus DACs of this frequency are often used. A common frequency in cheap computer sound cards is 48 kHz - many work at only this frequency, offering the use of other sample rates only through (often poor) internal resampling."

The Polaroid's Video DAC "might" be pretty good also since it's horiz. res. is 500 lines (same as 2006 Panys).

The 48 khz DAC is referencing the sampling rate and actually a higher sampling rate (all things being equal) is better than a lower sampling rate. There are other issues here, but not to get into them (too Looooong). The comment about 48k being cheaper is in reference to computer sound cards as they tend to have cheap DAC's (the cheap cards do), not because 48k is the sampling frequency.

The quality of the DAC's and the circuitry they are in is more important than the sampling freq. they are capable of (in modern devices).

Conclusion? Don't compare spec. #'s like these as it will not prove the Polaroid will audibly perform better than the pio 640.

Fleaman

The Polaroid's Video DAC "might" be pretty good also since it's horiz. res. is 500 lines (same as 2006 Panys).

This is a set resolution....standard to the DVD spec.

Fleaman

The Polaroid "must" have a MTS (Multichannel TV Sound, 4 channels) tuner since you can set Closed Captions to ON or OFF (OFF is the default, per the manual, General Setup, pg 13). The "stereo" part depends on whether the broadcast is really in "stereo"...most are not, just 4-channel MTS.

Also, phreakiphred (above, post #245) did some "listening" tests with the right equipment.

People with this unit who have not yet determined whether they are receiving "stereo" (MTS) may not have turned the Closed Caption feature ON (pg 13 of manual)? Then, of course, they will only see CC if the station is broadcasting it...HLN, CNN, CSPAN are good sources for known CC.

Someone on the Videohelp.com board just did a test of the Polaroid's tuner using a two channel Oscilliscope to see if it's in stereo or mono.

It's mono.

Thanks Frank.

No problem.

I wish it wasn't mono. The Polaroid sounded like a good deal but I already had enough of mono tuners with the Liteon and Sharp dvd recorders I had.

Someone on the Videohelp.com board just did a test of the Polaroid's tuner using a two channel Oscilliscope to see if it's in stereo or mono.

It's mono.
I wish you would post a link to that test...I searched Videohelp.com for an hour trying all combination of words to find anyone using an oscilloscope to test the Polaroid.

The closest I came was someone who did extensive "testing" and said it "sounded" stereo at first, but then he "determined" it was mono???

I'd really like to see what the h*** he hooked his 2-channel oscilloscope to on the unit to come to his "mono" conclusion.

I wish you would post a link to that test...I searched Videohelp.com for an hour trying all combination of words to find anyone using an oscilloscope to test the Polaroid.

The closest I came was someone who did extensive "testing" and said it "sounded" stereo at first, but then he "determined" it was mono???

I'd really like to see what the h*** he hooked his 2-channel oscilloscope to on the unit to come to his "mono" conclusion.

Sorry. Here you go.
Polaroid tests (http://forum.videohelp.com/viewtopic.php?t=279460&start=90)

Scroll down to the bottom of the page. He also takes the machine apart and shows the internals.

I don't know if this will satisfy you, though. I don't think you'll be convinced until you buy one yourself and do the test.

No problem.

I wish it wasn't mono. The Polaroid sounded like a good deal but I already had enough of mono tuners with the Liteon and Sharp dvd recorders I had.


If you have a cable box wouldn't you use the audio out into the Polaroid dvd recorder?

Being that this is mono might be a deal breaker for me as I already have my other DVD recorder hooked up to my cable box and I certainly don't want to shell out more money just to get another box. I was hoping just to tap off regular cable.

How much more could it have cost to put a stereo tuner?

If you have a cable box wouldn't you use the audio out into the Polaroid dvd recorder?

Being that this is mono might be a deal breaker for me as I already have my other DVD recorder hooked up to my cable box and I certainly don't want to shell out more money just to get another box. I was hoping just to tap off regular cable.

How much more could it have cost to put a stereo tuner?


You would if you have a cable box. I'm not using one right now.

Bummer. :(

Good luck in finding a recorder

BTW...the unit is now listing $10 cheaper now

Just bought this unit to replace a DVD player/HT Surround sound combo unit.

(Caution newbie stuff here) I thought the audio out connections for the surround speakers meant this unit had that capability. After hooking it up directly to my speakers I learned (or at least I'm thinking) I need a seperate amplifier to achieve surround sound now.

Can someone recommend an inexpensive amplifier that will drive my surround speakers for use with this DVD player recorder (Polaroid DRM-2001G)?

Thanks,

One

None of the audio outputs of a DVD Recorder will be amplified for purposes of directly connecting to speakers. They will all be at so-called "line level" (about 1Vpp). I'm referring only to the analog audio outputs with that statement, but digital audio outputs also need to go to an amplifier before the sound can be heard on speakers.

Assuming the Polaroid has digital audio outputs (either coaxial or optical), and can send the DD5.1 or DTS audio information from a DVD to that output, then any amplifier capable of receiving DD5.1/DTS will suffice. I use a Yamaha HTR-5660, for example: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00009ZY5D/104-7275175-9316755?v=glance&n=172282

which wouldn't be considered the least expensive way to go, but my point is more that most any surround sound receiver made these days will work as long as the source puts out surround sound signals on its digital audio outputs. No digital audio outputs means it's a no go, unless you have 6 discrete analog audio outputs. Doubtful the Polaroid has that though.

EDIT: Okay I stand corrected. Just checked the PDF on a hunch since you mentioned surround sound outputs, and sure enough it looks like it has 6 discrete analog audio outputs. So to utilize those you just need a receiver with 6 discrete analog audio inputs (such as the Yamaha HTR-5660 has).

But I see it also has BOTH coaxial and optical digital audio outputs, so a much more convenient hookup would be as I outlined above, prior to this edit.

That's interesting. If it has 6 analog outs, I wonder if it can play DVD-Audio or SACD discs.

One would think such questions would be answered by the User's Manual (which I downloaded from the webpage linked to by the first link in the second post in this Topic). But maybe not.

Does anyone who has this unit - and has taken the cover off - know if it uses a standard IDE-based DVD recorder drive? Since it does use a standard HD, stands to reason the DVD drive would be IDE too.

redjr...

One would think such questions would be answered by the User's Manual (which I downloaded from the webpage linked to by the first link in the second post in this Topic). But maybe not.

I didn't see it listed in the owners manual under the kinds of discs it could play. Hence, my wondering about it.

Ah I see. Well it's rare when a manual doesn't tell you that the unit can play something lke that. SACD I seriously doubt. DVD Audio maybe. But without help from the manual, try it and see, or hear it from someone who did, is all that's left.

Bummer. :(

Good luck in finding a recorder

BTW...the unit is now listing $10 cheaper now
I wonder if the price has been reduced in the stores also?

redjr.... :)

Does the Polaroid play DTS DVDs in 5.1? It's not clear to me that phreakiphred actually owns a Polaroid, and itmanager never got back to us. The Polaroid manual mentions neither Dolby nor DTS. The Polaroid website does mention Dolby. Can someone with a Polaroid, a DTS receiver, and a DTS DVD try the three of them all at the same time and see / listen?


1. 5.1 channels means the unit will send sound signals to speakers for front, left, center, and surround left and right. The .1 is the subwoofer out. You need a powered subwoofer (i.e. with its own power supply) to use with this unit

[5.1 channels The standard number of channels for encoding film soundtracks. The five channels are left, center, right, surround left, and surround right. The “.1” channel carries frequencies below about 100Hz and is reserved for bass effects.]


2. Yes, DTS/Dolby works as well as ALL known audio coding technologies

3. DVD's have "cleaner" frequencies and dynamic ranges than audio coming form cable (unless you have Digital TV/Audio cable) hence, low quality audio to your unit from cable. Try setting full compression in your cable box with "matrix" out rather than just stereo.


Phred

Full compression? If it's the kind of compression I'm thinking of (audio dynamic range compression), I would think you would want that off for the best audio, especially for the most dynamic range.

Sorry. Here you go.

[DELETED forum gods won't let me post message with ANY U R L s since evidently I am new :mad: (PHRED)

Scroll down to the bottom of the page. He also takes the machine apart and shows the internals.

I don't know if this will satisfy you, though. I don't think you'll be convinced until you buy one yourself and do the test.



If it outputs DVD audio in "stereo" and all "audio technologies" it has to have "stereo"!

Dammit they don't save money on "stereo" out and "mono" in!!!! The "money" they would save (even if they were dumb enough to take us back to the 50's) they would lose on SALES! Did someone "engineer" make a mistake and only design sound to be stereo out!? I'd think not.

Phred

Full compression? If it's the kind of compression I'm thinking of (audio dynamic range compression), I would think you would want that off for the best audio, especially for the most dynamic range.


Lossy = not FULLY compressed
Lossless = FULL compression


Due to the nature of lossy algorithms, audio quality suffers when a file is decompressed and recompressed (generational losses). This makes lossy compression unsuitable for storing the intermediate results in professional audio engineering applications, such as sound editing and multitrack recording. However, they are very popular with end users (particularly MP3), as a megabyte can store about a minute's worth of music at adequate quality.


Lossy audio compression is used in an extremely wide range of applications. In addition to the direct applications (mp3 players or computers), digitally compressed audio streams are used in most video DVDs; digital television; streaming media on the internet; satellite and cable radio; and increasingly in terrestrial radio broadcasts. Lossy compression typically achieves far greater compression than lossless compression (data of 5-20% of the original stream, rather than 50-60%), by simplifying the complexities of the data. Given that bandwidth and storage are always limited, the trade-off of reduced audio quality is clearly outweighed for some applications where users wish to transmit or store more information. (For example, one can fit a lot more songs on his or her iPod using lossy than using lossless compression; and a DVD might hold several audio tracks using lossy compression in the space needed for one lossless audio track.)

In both lossy and lossless compression, information redundancy is reduced, using methods such as coding, pattern recognition and linear prediction to reduce the amount of information used to describe the data. For example, suppose you wanted to record twenty house numbers along one side of a street, each of which goes up by 2. If the first address was 14461, or five digits, the uncompressed stream would require 20 times 5 bytes, or 100 bytes, to store. You could recode that to take advantage of the repetition and simply say begin at 14461, increase by 2, repeat 19 times. Now the data are losslessly captured in just 8 bytes!

The innovation of lossy audio compression was to use psychoacoustics to recognize that not all data in an audio stream can be perceived by the human auditory system. Most lossy compression reduces perceptual redundancy by first identifying sounds which are considered perceptually irrelevant, that is, sounds that are very hard to hear. Typical examples include high frequencies, or sounds that occur at the same time as other louder sounds. Those sounds are coded with decreased accuracy or not coded at all.

While removing or reducing these 'unhearable' sounds may account for a small percentage of bits saved in lossy compression, the real savings comes from a complementary phenomenon - noise shaping. Reducing the amount of bits used to code a signal increases the amount of noise in that signal. In psychoacoustics based lossy compression, the real key is to 'hide' the noise generated by the bit savings in areas of the audio stream that cannot be perceived. This is done by, for instance, using very small amounts of bits to code the high frequencies of most signals - not because the signal has little high frequency information (though this is also often true as well), but rather because the human ear can only perceive very loud signals in this region, so that softer (noise) sounds 'hidden' there simply aren't heard.

To illustrate this by continuing with the example, suppose the data were more complex, so the difference between two house numbers was 4 in one instance, between the tenth and eleventh houses. Lossless coding would require something like this: begin at 14461, increase by 2, repeat 9 times, increase by 4, increase by 2, repeat 8 times. So 10, rather than 8 bytes, are needed to store the data. But if your model of lossy compression determines that difference was not relevant for the application, it might simplify the data to ignore the variation and increase the compression. However, some data are lost in the process, because the original data cannot be reconstructed from the lossy compression scheme; only an approximation of that data, determined to be sufficient for this application, can be recovered.

If reducing perceptual redundancy does not achieve sufficient compression for a particular application, it may require further lossy compression with a difference in quality that can be more readily perceived by a user. Most lossy compression schemes allow compression parameters to be adjusted to achieve a target rate of data, usually expressed as a bit rate. Again, the data reduction will be guided by some model of how important the sound is as perceived by the human ear, with the goal of efficiency and optimized quality for the target data rate. (There are many different models used for this perceptual analysis, some better suited to different types of audio than others.) Hence, depending on the bandwidth and storage requirements, the use of lossy compression may result in a perceived reduction of the audio quality that ranges from none to severe. Of course, that trade-off is usually intentional.

Because data are removed during lossy compression and cannot be recovered by decompression, some people may not prefer lossy compression for archival storage. Hence, as noted, even those who use lossy compression (for portable audio applications, for example) may wish to keep a losslessly compressed archive for other applications. In addition, the technology of compression continues to advance, and achieving a state-of-the-art lossy compression would require one to begin again with the lossless, original audio data and compress with the new lossy codec. The nature of lossy compression (for both audio and images) results in increasing degradation of quality if data are decompressed, then recompressed using lossy compression.

You're Preaching to the Choir as they say. I have a degree in Computer and Information Science. One of my professors was David Huffman himself, the inventor of Huffman Coding. I have implemented RLE compression programs as well as 8-bit and 16-bit Huffman Coding compression programs (recently, and in a matter of hours). I have my entire CD collection (nearly 600 CDs) stored UNCOMPRESSED (as WAV files) on one 400GB external hard drive. I don't believe in MP3s.

My confusion was whether you meant audio dynamic range compression when you said "full compression" or compression as it relates to reducing information redundancy. Now I know you meant the latter. Audio dynamic range compression is certainly not a way to improve the quality of an audio signal, hence my question as to what you meant.

And in fact, I'm still not sure why "full compression" means lossless where as "not so full compression" is lossy, since typically, higher degrees of compression are more likely to be lossy. Full compression to me implies more compression as compared to not so full compression. So perhaps I am still not understanding the sense in which the compression is "full", I am taking it to mean "all the way compressed", whereas from your simple first two lines of your post it makes more sense to take the meaning of "full compression" as "compressed in a way that does not lose information". In that sense, "full compression" would not be as highly compressed as "not so full compression", which sounds backwards and that's what I'm currently puzzled about.

EDIT: Oh and next time a link to the text you copy/pasted might be easier: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audio_data_compression

If it outputs DVD audio in "stereo" and all "audio technologies" it has to have "stereo"!

Dammit they don't save money on "stereo" out and "mono" in!!!! The "money" they would save (even if they were dumb enough to take us back to the 50's) they would lose on SALES! Did someone "engineer" make a mistake and only design sound to be stereo out!? I'd think not.

Phred


Who said anything about mono in? We're talking about the internal TV tuner on the DVD recorder being mono. When using that to record a TV broadcast to the hard drive or dvd, we get mono audio. If using the RCA audio inputs to record from a cable box, it probably records in stereo like all the other DVD recorders that have had this problem. And playing a DVD recorded in stereo on another DVD recorder or a commercial DVD, I'm sure that outputs stereo as well.

This problem is not unheard of. I have had mono TV tuners on 2 other dvd recorders and others here have had this problem as well. That's where the concern comes from.

Does anyone who has this unit - and has taken the cover off - know if it uses a standard IDE-based DVD recorder drive? Since it does use a standard HD, stands to reason the DVD drive would be IDE too.

redjr...
Look at my post way back in this thread. I have posted some pics and I think others have too. It uses a IDE drive with a Floppy style power plug. I just used a y adapter off the HD half of the power cables and tried several other IDE burners in it. So far every one would respond to commands and like that but once I tried to record with them the machine locked after a minute or so. The drive type is a loader style and is probably hard wired into the firmware, though maybe if you had a similar BenQ or philips burner MAYBE it'd work but doubtful.
I finally gave up before I fried something and put it back together and use it to catch the overflow when my Panny is doing something at the same time or for throw away type shows.
At least it takes bigger IDE drives without a problem so far ;)

Other than the mono tuner, would the owners of this unit recommend this recorder. I like to get your opinions of the following:

1: PQ
2: Ease of use:
A. Recording from HD to DVD
B: Can you record to HD and play DVD at the same time
C: A Timer program going off to record on HD while watching DVD, does it interrupt your DVD viewing.
3: Do finalized DVD's work in other players
4: Reliability
5: Black levels
6: Any bugs/issues?

Who said anything about mono in? We're talking about the internal TV tuner on the DVD recorder being mono. When using that to record a TV broadcast to the hard drive or dvd, we get mono audio. If using the RCA audio inputs to record from a cable box, it probably records in stereo like all the other DVD recorders that have had this problem. And playing a DVD recorded in stereo on another DVD recorder or a commercial DVD, I'm sure that outputs stereo as well.

This problem is not unheard of. I have had mono TV tuners on 2 other dvd recorders and others here have had this problem as well. That's where the concern comes from.


Opps :o

Never mind -Emily Latella

hxxp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emily_Litella

just remove the "xx" add "tt'

Try here

hxxp://www.videohelp.com/dvdhacks

Phred

Have any of you figured out how to copy to the hard drive a DVD movie while watching it? I have tried various things but none has worked so far.

While recording video from the hard drive to a blank disc, I see part of a yellow icon of some sort in the upper left corner. It is not flashing, as the manual states one will be during this type of recording. Is there any indicator that shows that the selected title has successfully been transferred to the DVD? During the transfer I see on screen: "Dubbing is running," but nothing to show the dubbing is finished.

When that icon disapears it's done. If you can't see all of it either your TV is overscaning a bit and cutting it off or you have it in the wrong screen mode. I had to retweak my screen size after getting this becuase it was over scanning enough that it disapeared pretty much in most of my modes. It does have a little red icon thing that flashes in the middle of the yellow thing too to let you know it's running.
I have also been able to watch another thing on the HD while its dubbing so far too or watch something on the tuner.

Thanks, Dartman. I plan to archive a few things I have on VHS that don't require clean edits, but after that I'm afraid this unit is going back for a refund - unless there's a way to finesse the "segment" tool so that the edit happens where I want it to happen. I find it too frustrating to have an editor that's only accurate to within half a second. I wonder if this means if one sets an edit point then the edit might happen as much as half a second after or before the desired edit point, or does it mean there will be no more than a quarter of a second on either side of the desired point? I'm just curious. I'd really like one that's accurate to 1/30 of a second - does such a thing exist in a modestly-priced consumer-end model? I also don't like the idea of recording only mono through the tuner. :(

I'm wondering if anyone has tried the YesVideo successfully?

I've been able to get the start points CLOSE by hitting it just as it starts to fade to black, the end point seems a bit better on most edits. Just try playing with it till you get it figured as to where it works most of the time. I also found that pausing it then repushing the pause button steps forward slowly to make those edits a bit easier. then hit the enter button quickly while paused on each segment point and double check that it takes. If it doesn't go back till you catch it the way you wanted.
By the way as far as I can tell my panny e-80h is frame accurate or at least as close as you mentioned so their newer units are probably the same. I just can't plug in a bigger drive, it's full stereo too.

double check that it takes.

Do you mean by fast-forwarding to see whether the color change on the segment has happened?

The light purple parts stay in when you record the disk later, the dark purple parts are ignored. So I just scan through a bit and if it's dark right after I hit the edit point it took properly so far. Sometimes it wont hit the start or end point so you have to look for the different color to make sure you got it. Once you have it you can use the chapter skip to hit the points and see if they look about where you wanted them.
Then you burn and cross your fingers.

Then you burn and cross your fingers.
Thanks, Dartman - then we've been doing the same thing. However, you don't have to burn first to find out if the edits points are accurate. Just playing back the segmented program from the hard drive will do it. It's the fingers crossed bit that'll have me returning this unit.

Yeah it will but sometimes the point I get while watching and the point I get when I burn the disk aren't the same. At least the disk themselves seem to burn with great quality so far, too bad it doesn't auto bitset plus media.
I'm going to keep it just for the overflow protection I get from having a HUGE drive in one of my machines. If I had realised some of it's shortcomings before upgrading it I might have returned it.

Picked up one of thees Polaroid 2001s to try out. The Polaroid logo was NOT faded into the background and I could not determine when it was made...
Ser# D0600192240015778

Obsevations:
!) Recorded w/component input(480i) from digital cable in 2 hour mode (SP), the picture quality was very good. S-video recording did not seem to be quite as good as my Pio 531H. HQ(XP) mode did not appear to be much better than SP mode when using S-video input. As others have mentioned, no input signal adjustments but the colors and contrast seem to be really vivid.

2) Burned a DVD+RW and a DVD+R, both were done in VR mode. Audio on the DVDs was MPEG1 format not Dolby AC3. Neither burn appeared to be in high speed mode. The full DVD+R burn took almost 30 minutes on a Verbatiurm 16x DVD versus 8 minutes on the Pio 531. Recorded DVDs worked fine in several players and my PC,

3) Not as easy to use as the Pioneer. Auto chapter creation works to the hard disk unlike most of the other hdd recorders. Editing works but you're limited to very short titles for all recordings.

4) DV input did not work on my unit, although it could sense what mode the Siny Camcorder was in and control it...However it never got the DV signal.

5) Unit I had would not power off after it got hot. If you hit power off, it would go off and then power right back up.

6) Interesting unit with good recording quality with some operational quirks. I also own a couple of older Philips DVD recorders (non-hdd).

I returned this one, may try another later' if I can find/identify a later build version. ;)

Regarding the dark purple edit points you can set with this recorder...

If I incorrectly set a dark purple segment (which gets passed over in a DVD burn) is there a way to delete just that single incorrect segment, as opposed to having to clear EVERY edit point that I've set? I hope that makes sense.

That's been a frustration for me at times, so I was just wondering if anyone knew if that was possible... the manual wasn't much help. Thanks!

Yes, you can try to go back and redo the bad points, sometimes it takes right away and sometimes you have to try a few times. If you get another remote that can learn and put all this machines codes in it works a lot better as its own remote seems to have a weak IR LED in it and that doesn't make it any easier.

I believe the manual says 8 timers can be set at one time --- that seems quite small. Is that accurate? or is it really more?

I believe the manual says 8 timers can be set at one time --- that seems quite small. Is that accurate? or is it really more?

Just as I thought -- after I got home tonight I tested to see how many timers the Polaroid would hold. 20 -- just like its close relative the Phillips.

I actually bought this at a local Walmart after my Cyberhome recorder power supply failed (wife couldn't live without a dvd recorder). Tried it and this is what I find:

1. Recorder does not respond to the remote - I was standing about 2 feet away.
2. Component input did not work - hooked up from HD Directv box.
3. Wasn't able to recognize the Maxell DVD+RW discs

All in all, it wasn't a easy machine to use. My wife likes to be able to push a button to start recording and this recorder didn't seem to work. Needless to say, I returned it the next day for an RCA recorder. Easier to work with but has its own issues as well...

Hope others will have better luck.

Im new here so If I post this in the wrong place let me know


I got one the 2100G and so far It seems to be doing ok, My one big complaint is that when I am using the record function. I get a on screen display telling me which input and the sys state etc, etc.


Does any one know how to record without these menus on the screen.

I do agree the manual is awful, the remote could be better etc. I have got a bunch more question. But they will wait.

Cjammer

Question

When you turn on this unit. How much time before you record? My current recorder take a bit of time when you want to record on the fly.

I've had my Polaroid for just under a month.
I bought it on 7-15.

Now it appears to be broken. It might be an easy fix, I don't know.
I can still record to my HDD, but I can't burn from HDD to DVD.
It worked fine yesterday.

When you select your items from HDD to record, You hit the record button to burn the disc.
A yellow icon appears in the upper left corner, It's supposed to stay there until the burning is done. My icon disappears after a sec.

Has anyone experienced this?

Any suggestions?

I called Cust Service, No help.

I don't want to return it because I have some good stuff on my HDD.

Can someone please help, I am a total newb at this stuff, but I have asked elsewhere and I was told it might be a problem with my Polaroid recorder.

I record stuff straight to the DVD. I want to take certain sections and make MPEG files. When I open the DVD on my computer, I see two VOB's the same size. When I open the VOB's in FlaskMPEG and choose the first VOB, I can't cut the section I want properly and make an MPEG. I need some advice, please. Am I doing this wrong? Is there an easier way? I am at a total lost what to do or what software I need to make this work.

TF

This comes up quite often: http://forum.videohelp.com/viewforum.php?f=10&sid=9b041d37f1d69ac96e24ec645a389cf5

I use TMPGEnc to read anything off a DVD that I want to make into any other kind of video on a PC.

You're Preaching to the Choir as they say. I have a degree in Computer and Information Science. One of my professors was David Huffman himself, the inventor of Huffman Coding. I have implemented RLE compression programs as well as 8-bit and 16-bit Huffman Coding compression programs (recently, and in a matter of hours). I have my entire CD collection (nearly 600 CDs) stored UNCOMPRESSED (as WAV files) on one 400GB external hard drive. I don't believe in MP3s.

My confusion was whether you meant audio dynamic range compression when you said "full compression" or compression as it relates to reducing information redundancy. Now I know you meant the latter. Audio dynamic range compression is certainly not a way to improve the quality of an audio signal, hence my question as to what you meant.

And in fact, I'm still not sure why "full compression" means lossless where as "not so full compression" is lossy, since typically, higher degrees of compression are more likely to be lossy. Full compression to me implies more compression as compared to not so full compression. So perhaps I am still not understanding the sense in which the compression is "full", I am taking it to mean "all the way compressed", whereas from your simple first two lines of your post it makes more sense to take the meaning of "full compression" as "compressed in a way that does not lose information". In that sense, "full compression" would not be as highly compressed as "not so full compression", which sounds backwards and that's what I'm currently puzzled about.

EDIT: Oh and next time a link to the text you copy/pasted might be easier: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audio_data_compression

My Gosh -bobkart that is classic- incredible. Surely your wife or girlfriend appreciates you as much as we do as to your eruditeness. :) Thanks and I am not kidding -definitely President of the bobkart fan club. BTW- since you prefer wav which we know is superior since I did my first music download off napster years ago- you better dang sure have a 400GB- those wav files are freaking huge.

Hahah, thanks again for the praise HoustonGuy. I don't think I've ever been referred to as "erudite" until this very moment.

And it wasn't until after my lengthy response above that I started to get the impression that he hadn't originated his lengthy explanation, and sure enough, a quick Google of some key words in his post revealed that Wikipedia was the actual source of the explanation.

As far as my other half appreciating my intellectual efforts, your timing with that statement couldn't be better, at this very moment I am generating video (via computer program) to go along with a song, which I also generated via computer program (but alas, I did not compose the original song), and which she likes very much, and enjoys the videos that I generate to go along with them too.

Here's what I'm coming up with this evening: http://bobkart.gt3times.com/WMV/CMW.WMV

(Sorry, off-topic, I know!)

A yellow icon appears in the upper left corner, It's supposed to stay there until the burning is done. My icon disappears after a sec.

Has anyone experienced this?

Any suggestions?

I called Cust Service, No help.

I don't want to return it because I have some good stuff on my HDD.

The drive can PROBABLY be read by a windows machine if you pull it. I think others may already have tried it, not sure. If you have another machine you could always dump it to whatever media it uses too. Luckily I still have my older panny e-80h so I can go between them when ever I want. I found out that the machine is pretty much tied to the burner thats in it so far. Any other burner I tried would act like it was recording for a minute or less then the icon shuts off and machine locked in whatever mode I was in. Maybe the cables inside have come loose or something stupid like that or your using some media the burner just doesn't like.

Hello!! I was wondering if someone in this group could help me out with something regarding the DRM-2001G recorder. I have had the unit for two weeks now and I can't, for the life of me, create a YESDVD from what I have captured on the hard drive. The manual is practically useless (I figured that out the first couple of days) and I cannot figure this out for myself. If any kind soul has the patience to reply to the group and let me know how to create a YESDVD I would really appreciate it. Thank you all so much!!

bobandana -
YesDVD's can only be made when recording to the optical disc.
It won't do it with movies on the hard drive. Seems pretty lame because the YesDVD's are pretty cool.

I just bought mine last night, and so far I've have an issue with the audio out of the digial out's being low. Playing a DVD it's fine, but the audio from the tuner is LOW. I'd say about half of what the digital signal is out of my cable box (switching between). I don't have any other audio out's hooked to the receiver, just the optical. BTW, I've tried the coax too, it's the same. I've looked for levels and volume settings on receiver and player and have all set to max.
Any ideas? Tonight I'll probably experiment more but this has me stumpped. I've never had this problem with any other digital signal.

Does anyone else have this problem ? My unit is the same way.

I'm too lazy to look for another STB user's post on this, but look for something like "Narrow" in your STB's audio settings....Max is not what you want.

Edit: Still too lazy to look...I think that other user advised using coax rather than optical. Try that with "narrow" if it doesn't work w/optical???

MrSpeed...thanks for the reply. I just created a YESDVD for the first time. It's pretty cool...save for the music videos it creates. Take care.

I really like the concept of the YESDVD music videos. It's very slick to have a montage set to music. I wish the videos were a little longer.

And what about the cheesy sounding music ? It's sounds like very bad midi from 1997.

I was motivated by the Music Montages so now I burn to DVD from the Polaroid and capture to my computer. I create a montage with software called Muvee set to real music and then I reauthor the DVD.

Hi all,

I've just stumbled on this machine and am interested. I just read through this whole thread and am still looking for a bit more info.

Can someone please detail which disc types result in vr disks and which types made on the Polaroid can be played on other standalones and read and edited on the pc? VR has been mentioned, but not with a lot of explanation.

Basically I would like to be able to record tv shows and then have full control over chapter points later.

Thanks,
Mike

Hi I'm not technologically advanced at all! So I joined this forum to get answers about the Polaroid DRM-2001G BEFORE I purchase! I record classes for homeschooling from a satellite feed! I will be recording 24 different classes. This machine meets all the suggested requirements except I can not find out how many timer settings it has! Can anyone tell me? I've tried the manual and Walmart associates! LOL

Hi I'm not technologically advanced at all! So I joined this forum to get answers about the Polaroid DRM-2001G BEFORE I purchase! I record classes for homeschooling from a satellite feed! I will be recording 24 different classes. This machine meets all the suggested requirements except I can not find out how many timer settings it has! Can anyone tell me? I've tried the manual and Walmart associates! LOL
The manual, page 24, Item 1 says "8 recordings."

The Pioneer 640 can have 32 timer programs for about $100 more...and it's a much "better" unit.

Hi all,

I've just stumbled on this machine and am interested. I just read through this whole thread and am still looking for a bit more info.

Can someone please detail which disc types result in vr disks and which types made on the Polaroid can be played on other standalones and read and edited on the pc? VR has been mentioned, but not with a lot of explanation.

Basically I would like to be able to record tv shows and then have full control over chapter points later.

Thanks,
Mike
I don't know about the VR stuff but I record onto +RW discs and then rip thme onto my PC which has a Pioneer DVR-111D DVD burner. I don't have to finalize the disc before I transfer to the PC.

Buy the machine, try it, if it doesn't do what you want return it. I don't think Walmart gives any grief with returns and a receipt.

I don't know about the VR stuff but I record onto +RW discs and then rip thme onto my PC which has a Pioneer DVR-111D DVD burner. I don't have to finalize the disc before I transfer to the PC.

Great, I have the same Pioneer. Do you know - when you rip, are they ordinary VOB files in a _TS folder like a standard DVD? or are they VROs that need specific software to read?

Thanks,
Mike

The manual, page 24, Item 1 says "8 recordings."

The Pioneer 640 can have 32 timer programs for about $100 more...and it's a much "better" unit.


Thank you so much for your help!! :)

I have a question for anybody in the forum...does anyone have a region hack for the DRM-2001G recorder. I would really like the machine to play dvd's from all regions...especially since it can play PAL and NTSC signals. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks in advance!!

Robert

Great, I have the same Pioneer. Do you know - when you rip, are they ordinary VOB files in a _TS folder like a standard DVD? or are they VROs that need specific software to read?

Thanks,
Mike

Yeah they are normal VOB's. I use Ulead DVD Moviefactory 5 to do exactly what you want. It works out really well because unlike a lot of editors it will not re-encode the video you ripped from the DVD. So it's pretty easy to do simple cropping and multi-trims and then burn to a DVD with you custome chapter points and menus.

Yeah they are normal VOB's. I use Ulead DVD Moviefactory 5 to do exactly what you want. It works out really well because unlike a lot of editors it will not re-encode the video you ripped from the DVD. So it's pretty easy to do simple cropping and multi-trims and then burn to a DVD with you custome chapter points and menus.

Excellent, thank you so much.

FYI, I have been doing what I want on the pc end with chapters and editing. The only problem is the starting point. I have been recording off tv with a Samsung 120 which puts chapter points every five minutes at one hour quality. I can remove these chapters and insert new ones on the pc, but the original now deleted Samsung chapter points cause video hiccups on standalones. This is a known bug with no known solution AFAIK. The Polaroid has the option of no chapters, so even if the chapters would cause glitches, no problem.

I definitely need to get one of these now.

Thanks again for your help.

Mike

The range problem with the remote can be fixed by replacing the LED in the remote. I replaced mine with a Radio Shack 276-143 and now the remote works a lot better. Please note that LED's do have a polarity and must be inserted correctly and this MOD does require soldering & desoldering of the LED. Even after this MOD the pickup angle is better but still seems to be limited. I was thinking of trying a device from Audioplex called the "IRPrism". It's basically a little piece of plastic that you place over the units IR sensor and it concentrates the incoming IR to the sensor. I've heard that this device does actually work.

So I’m thinking of picking up this Polaroid tomorrow at Wally world as I can't think of any DVD recorder with a HD and DV input that’s better w/o paying close to twice as much, correct?

I know the early models had issues with fan/HD noise, badly written manual and low performing remote. I guess I should take it out of the box at Wally world and plug it in to see if it's quite, before leaving the store?

As for the remote, I could probably just program my universal remote to solve that issue.

And the manual: It looks like some operations not covered in the manual seem to be covered here....and I suppose I could get an answer here if the manual is ineffective on some operations.

Is there anything I haven't covered? Is there another DVD recorder with HD and DV input that might be a better choice?

I'm going to use it to basically free up some space and archive shows from my cable box DVR. Plus burn some DVD's from a camcorder DV output....and convert some old VHS tapes to DVD.

I've been on the fence about this Polaroid since the beginning of this thread, should I just go for it? Seems like it just can't be beat...at this price.

Fleaman

fleaman, it all depends. If you don't mind not having True Chase Play during a Timer Recording that is still in progress this unit might be ok. That is if you don't mind having a Mono Tuner as well. If it were me, and I didn't mind not having the True Chase Play, then I would pay the extra $88 bucks and step up to the Philips DVDR 3455. For the $88 bucks you would get a Stereo Tuner and Double the size of your storage with the Philips 160gb Hard Drive. Of course for $75.00 delivered you could buy a 250gb HDD at Newegg and Triple your storage on the Polaroid and be around $275 plus tax. It would still have the Mono Tuner though.

As for me, if I were doing it again today (and hadn't gotten a MONSTER DEAL on my Philips 3455), I would spend the extra money ($369 delivered)

http://www.bestpriceaudiovideo.com/catalog/124/5673/?affiliate_code=SH

for the Pioneer 640 and get True Chase Play, the 160gb HDD, Stereo Tuner, Dual Layer DVD Recording and DVD-RAM compatibility. But that is just me. I am not trying to put down anyone's DVDR choice, each unit has it's strengths and weaknesses, I am just pointing out some different angles to consider before buying. Good luck and best wishes with whatever unit you choose! :)

I wouldn't buy it again, what with the mono tuner and LOUSY editing it has, also the naming sucks. It's like the old dos days, 9 letters max or something like that. I did put a 250 gig in mine I got for 55 bucks and that was a nice bonus.
I wish somebody would make a unit with features like Pioneer and Panasonic have with the upgradability of the Chinese based units. I've been sorta watching the firmware updates, still might be a way to get the Philips version FW on it I'm hoping, might gain some features and who knows, maybe a stereo option?

I wouldn't buy it again, what with the mono tuner and LOUSY editing it has, also the naming sucks. It's like the old dos days, 9 letters max or something like that. I did put a 250 gig in mine I got for 55 bucks and that was a nice bonus.
I wish somebody would make a unit with features like Pioneer and Panasonic have with the upgradability of the Chinese based units. I've been sorta watching the firmware updates, still might be a way to get the Philips version FW on it I'm hoping, might gain some features and who knows, maybe a stereo option?

Dartman, where did you find a 250gb HDD for $55 ? Was it a brand name like Western Digital, or a "White Label" Store Brand? Just curious. So far I have found the editing on the Philips to be pretty easy and intuitive. Does it differ (if you know) from the Polaroid?

As for me, if I were doing it again today (and hadn't gotten a MONSTER DEAL on my Philips 3455), I would spend the extra money ($369 delivered)

http://www.bestpriceaudiovideo.com/catalog/124/5673/?affiliate_code=SH

for the Pioneer 640 and get True Chase Play, the 160gb HDD, Stereo Tuner, Dula Layer DVD Recording and DVD-RAM compatibility. But that is just me. I am not trying to put down anyone's DVDR choice, each unit has it's strengths and weaknesses, I am just pointing out some different angles to consider before buying. Good luck and best wishes with whatever unit you choose! :)

Well, the Pioneer 640 doesn't have DV in, but the Philips appears to, so that's interesting.

Not necessarily too worried about the mono tuner as I'll probably be inputting stereo using the rca audio from my DVR box.

Also not too concerned about the size of the HD as my reasoning for getting a DVD recorder was to free up space on my DVR HD, not necessarily fill up the HD on the DVD recorder...as I'm thinking I would burn a DVD not long after I get the program into the DVD HD.

As for chase play, it seems that the Polaroid does kinda have chase play...just not true chase play as mentioned, http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=712035 I could probably live w/o chase play on a scheduled recording since at this point I think my DVR will be doing all the scheduled recordings anyway.

So considering this, maybe I am back to the Polaroid :confused:

Good points anyway guys...any other points I might have missed?

Fleaman

I'm going to use it to basically free up some space and archive shows from my cable box DVR. Plus burn some DVD's from a camcorder DV output....and convert some old VHS tapes to DVD.

Fleaman

Get the Polaroid. It has the LSI chipset which filters grain noise and chroma noise.
http://www.lsilogic.com/products/recorder_dvd_dvr_dtr/dmn_8652.html

I am using the unit to primarily transfer VHS and 8mm tapes. My copies look better than the original source tapes. Even my wife noticed it. I haven't tried recording through the DV input yet.

I think there are two camps in the DVD recorder market. Those that use the unit as a PVR/timeshifter and those that use the unit to transfer DV/VHS/8mm etc to DVD.

I think the Polaroid is a great choice for what you want to do. The other brands to consider for transfering tapes are Toshiba and JVC.

I have gotten used to the quirks of the remote of the Polaroid. Other than the volume issue I mentioned above I'm pretty happy with the unit.

Besides it's Walmart. If you don't like it return it.

The Philips has that same "Time Shift Buffer" feature as the Polaroid, but a 6 hour Buffer instead of just 1 hour. It really isn't TRUE Chase Play on either unit though. It gripes me that my $179 Panny DMR-ES10K can do Chase Play off of an In Progress Timer Recording (with DVD-Ram), but my $300 Philips can't! I actually paid only $115 for the Philips due to a shelf mis-marking by Wally World, so I'm not really that upset ;)

I actually would love to be able to use the Philips as a DVR Time Chase unit, but I also edit and transfer recordings from the HDD to DVD and transfer old VHS tapes into the HDD for editing and burning to DVD. It works great for both of the latter two purposes. BTW, the Philips is a Wally World Special too, so the same return policies apply. :)

Fleaman, I misunderstood you originally. I thought you meant to use the Polaroid HDD as a Backup Storage Space for your DVR overflow, hence my focus on larger HDD Models. BTW, does anyone here know what the LARGEST HDD the Polaroid would recognize? The 320gb WD IDEs are getting pretty cheap now. Delivered from Newegg you can get one for $99 Bucks!

The Philips isn't on the Wally world web page...but maybe it's an in store only item, although maybe not all stores (I'm in Los Angeles).

And today the Polaroid just went UP $10 from yesterday!! That is very strange. I think this DVD recorder started around $250 then went down and now it's up a little from the low point. Oh well, it's still a good deal (and maybe the in store price hasn’t changed yet).

Anyway, I guess I'll try to get the Polaroid today. Thanks for the comments and suggestions :)

Fleaman

Last question before the big :rolleyes: purchase: Does the Polaroid burn DVD's from the HD in real time or fraction of real time? What speed, 4x? 6x?

??

Fleaman

Last question before the big :rolleyes: purchase: Does the Polaroid burn DVD's from the HD in real time or fraction of real time? What speed, 4x? 6x?

??

Fleaman

Fleaman, if it is based on the Philips Technology as I have been informed on this thread it should be a high speed DVD transfer from the HDD. My Philips says the actual transfer rate depends on the speed/quality selection of the original recording. At SPP Mode (2.5 hrs. video per 4.7gb DVD) my Philips does the deed at between 6-7x with 8x or 16x Blank media.

Ok Thanks.

I got the unit, but having some problem getting a signal out of it. Strangely if I turn the Polaroid OFF, I will get picture (cable box DVR component out, Polaroid component in, Polaroid component out to TV). But no matter what I do, when the Polaroid is on, I lose the picture, yet still have audio. I tried all the inputs with the input button. I even tried a commercial dvd disc. Just a blank screen....no start up screen, nothing.

I'm thinking that this unit will not output component until I set it up in the set up menu and maybe it just goes into pass-mode when off (explaining why I get a picture with the Polaroid OFF). I have my TV buried fairly well, so I'm gonna wait until tomorrow to try and hook up a composite cable to see if that works.

BTW, my unit is fairly quite....my cable box DVR is louder.

Fleaman

Ok Thanks.

I got the unit, but having some problem getting a signal out of it. Strangely if I turn the Polaroid OFF, I will get picture (cable box DVR component out, Polaroid component in, Polaroid component out to TV). But no matter what I do, when the Polaroid is on, I lose the picture, yet still have audio. I tried all the inputs with the input button. I even tried a commercial dvd disc. Just a blank screen....no start up screen, nothing.

I'm thinking that this unit will not output component until I set it up in the set up menu and maybe it just goes into pass-mode when off (explaining why I get a picture with the Polaroid OFF). I have my TV buried fairly well, so I'm gonna wait until tomorrow to try and hook up a composite cable to see if that works.

BTW, my unit is fairly quite....my cable box DVR is louder.

Fleaman


how do you have your cable connections setup to/from the polaroid ?

how do you have your cable connections setup to/from the polaroid ?

Already mentioned "(cable box DVR component out, Polaroid component in, Polaroid component out to TV)."

But as I also mentioned, I'm gonna try composite today as I think component might need to be turned on in the set up menu....which I can see at all since I get no picture when the Polaroid is ON.

Fleaman

fleaman,

I would guess that your Polaroid will only pass through a 480i signal, whether the input is component or s-vdeo or composite (the last 2 are only 480i anyway).

It sounds like turning the Polaroid off causes a direct electrical connection from the component inputs to the component outputs, bypassing any electronics in the unit..

But definitely, the recorder needs 480i input (component or other) to be able to record.

fleaman,

I would guess that your Polaroid will only pass through a 480i signal, whether the input is component or s-vdeo or composite (the last 2 are only 480i anyway).

It sounds like turning the Polaroid off causes a direct electrical connection from the component inputs to the component outputs, bypassing any electronics in the unit..

But definitely, the recorder needs 480i input (component or other) to be able to record.

My cable box is outputting 480i since that is all my TV can handle. All I did was put the Polaroid between the cable box and TV with component hook ups.

I did try composite out of cable box to composite into Polaroid, but still with component cables between Polaroid and TV. Still nothing.

I guess I'll have to pull my TV out and try a composite only connection.

Fleaman

I did try composite out of cable box to composite into Polaroid, but still with component cables between Polaroid and TV. Still nothing.

Something seems wrong. I have mine set up with co-ax in and composite out to the TV.
I'm almost certain my unit will output something without anythin hooked up to it as well.

Something seems wrong. I have mine set up with co-ax in and composite out to the TV.
I'm almost certain my unit will output something without anythin hooked up to it as well.

I haven't tried composite to the TV yet.

Right now it is Component to TV. But as I mentioned, I did try cable box composite out to Polaroid, then component to TV, nothing.

Fleaman

Dartman, where did you find a 250gb HDD for $55 ? Was it a brand name like Western Digital, or a "White Label" Store Brand? Just curious. So far I have found the editing on the Philips to be pretty easy and intuitive. Does it differ (if you know) from the Polaroid?
It was a refurb Western Digital special on Woot.com for 55 shipped. Only 2 meg cache and 7200 rpm, in fact it appears to be same type of drive as the one that came in the unit, just bigger capacity, maybe that's why they have so many.
The Editing is exactly the same as the Philips, the machines are basically the same board with different Firmware and a few changes like USB verses DV input and maybe your unit has a stereo tuner and bigger drive outa the box.
The editing is just a hassle for me because I've used my Panasonic e80h for years and like the in out edit boxes and frame by frame acuracie and just way more edit modes, plus the remote works well. Like I said maybe someday there'll be a way to crossflash between these two and gain some features.

I bought a DRM-2001G this past weekend. There seems to be alot of confusion about this model. Most of this is related to the horrible user manual it ships with. Unfortunately, it is the only one available, and the latest .pdf on Polaroid's site is the samel. If you can get or download a copy of the manual for the almost identical Philips model DVDR3455H, it may help a little. Some buttons on the remote are named differently but perform the same function. The instructions for various things are much clearer.

For the homeschool satellite people, which we do as well, this unit works fine with the satellite feed for timer recording. Make sure your clocks are synced. There is, however, a step you may have to take before burning a long (2.5 - 3 hours in length) recording. The problem and solution is discussed in the next paragraph.

There is a technical issue I have encountered and not seen discussed yet. I attempted to burn a file that was recorded in LP mode and was 2 hours and 35 minutes in length. Each attempt would result in a burn session that would never complete. After hours of waiting, the "burn" icon would remain in the upper left hand corner of the screen. (This icon may be barely visible, depends on TV model and setup.) The only way to cancel the burn is to power down the unit. This is done by either holding the front power button for 4 seconds or pulling the power plug. Visual inspection of the bottom of the DVD disc afterwards showed that it burned the first couple of tracks and then quit. This was observed by noticing the laser had only written about a 3mm wide track from the inside start point. After many hours of frustration and an unsuccessful call to Polaroid technical support (don't waste your time), I finally figured out what was happening. There is evidently a bug in the firmware that is not allowing certain "large" files to be recorded correctly. I am not sure what the threshold is, but it seems to be related to time more than file size. The solution is simple. I went into the HDD menu, selected my show, and used the split function on the menu to cut it in half. The process to do this is easy and doesn't take long. Everything worked fine after that. I have had no issues with programs split into between 1 to 1 and 1/2 hour chunks. Hopefully this information will save some time and frustration for others, as this seems to be the worst problem I can find with this unit.

On side note, the correct burn time to completely fill a DVD with content from the HDD is approximately 25 minutes.

On another side note, to those having the problem with no video on the various output connectors. Try pressing the PS/IS button on the remote. This switches between progressive and interlaced mode. It may be your issue.

On one more side note, this unit has no RF modulator. This means that you cannot hook up to your TV and expect to see anything on channel 3 or 4. You must use a different input or an external modulator if you need that functionality.

In summary, I am fairly pleased with it now that I have learned how to use it. You get what you pay for. In this case it happens to be a decent product for a good price with a few bugs and terrible support/documentation.

BTW, on an interesting side note for the more technical, there is a firmware update released today for the "sister" model Philips DVDR3455H at the main Philips support site. A quick evaluation in the 'ol HEX editor shows that it is running VxWorks. This may be valuable for future firmware "alternatives" incase Polaroid never decides to do anything about their problems.

avsgoose-
Have you noticed the reduce volume when using the optical output ? Playing a DVD it's fine, but the audio from the tuner is low by what seems to be at least 6-10DB.

I haven't tried composite to the TV yet.

Right now it is Component to TV. But as I mentioned, I did try cable box composite out to Polaroid, then component to TV, nothing.

Fleaman
Oops. I had meant to write I have component going to my tv.

Well, I managed to get it working with S-video. In the set up menu everything seemed to be ok....interlaced, component out on, etc. I didn't have to change any settings related to the input/output video. Yet, I couldn't get the component to work, no matter the input select on the remote.

After trying other ways, turning off/on, different cables, finally on one try component worked :eek: This was with the exact same hook-up and cable that I started out with. I unplugged s-video and component still worked. I have no idea what happened, I can't figure it out....so for now I will just accept it :) Another one of those strange mysteries.

My remote sucks...like everyone says. But while I was thinking of programming my universal to take over, now that I see what the remote for this Polaroid does, with all its dedicated buttons, I can now see that my universal wouldn't really be ideal. Maybe I'll try the radio hack LED replacement that someone else mentioned.

Fleaman

MrSpeed,

Sorry, I haven't tried the optical connection yet. This unit is in another room and has no external amplifier other than the TV right now. I will be happy to test when I get a chance.

My question is about closed captions. I recorded to HD in HQ mode, played back - everything was fine with CC. I copied this title to DVD - and CCs are gone. I tried to play recorded DVD on another dvd player - no CCs. So this is how it should be or I did something wrong during copying to DVD?

Ok, I just burned a DVD from the HD.

It took 1hr 13mins to burn 1 hr of material from the HD in HQ mode :eek:

This is worse than 1x speed! This is 0.82x speed!

??

Also, I had combined a bunch of short titles from the HD to burn to the DVD totaling about 58mins. After 1hr 13mins (see above), and after finalizing the DVD, I see that each title has its own chapter start, this is good, and that I can skip to each title on my DVD player (ok so far), but I can not rewind backwards through the beginning of a title. It will stop at the beginning of a title (say 20 mins into the DVD) and will not let me rewind backwards like you can on a commercial DVD movie. You can skip back forcibly though.

I think this is because these are titles and not chapter marks? How do I change it to chapter marks?

Also, I was trying to record a tv show from my cable box DVR (component in/out) to the Polaroid HD and since this has to be done in real time, I figured I would record, hit pause on the Polaroid when I got to a commercial, FF the cable DVR past the commercial and then hit the pause on the Polaroid to continue...in effect, editing out the commercials on the fly. Well, that wouldn't work. The Polaroid would pause the program, but I couldn't see the cable DVR program. I would have to hit input and then I would have only a few minutes on a title. And I tried to add to the existing title (with say only 5 minutes on it) and could not do that either.

Argh!

What are my solutions? Do I really have to record everything, commercials and all, then go back and edit out each commercial with the segment feature?

Fleaman

Ok, I just burned a DVD from the HD.

It took 1hr 13mins to burn 1 hr of material from the HD in HQ mode :eek:

This is worse than 1x speed! This is 0.82x speed!



Fleaman, what quality was the original recording? 1 hr., 2hr., 2.5hr. ? Is there a menu to "Turn on HighSpeed Dubbing" hidden somewhere on this unit? My Philips 3455H/37 does an hour recorded at SPP (2.5hr. mode) in about 10 minutes or so.

Fleaman, what quality was the original recording? 1 hr., 2hr., 2.5hr. ? Is there a menu to "Turn on HighSpeed Dubbing" hidden somewhere on this unit? My Philips 3455H/37 does an hour recorded at SPP (2.5hr. mode) in about 10 minutes or so.

It took 1hr 13mins to burn 1 hr of material from the HD in HQ mode

This is worse than 1x speed! This is 0.82x speed!

HQ mode on the Polaroid is the highest quality mode....1hr real time = one 4.7G DVD (1 hr).

There is nothing in the manual or in the onscreen menu about dubbing speed.

Fleaman

I think this is because these are titles and not chapter marks? How do I change it to chapter marks?Yes, you want Chapters not Titles if you want to be able to reverse past them. Also, Chapters won't have a slight pause between them during normal playback, as Titles do.

Most recorders do not let you join Titles. So splitting a Title tends not to be a reversible operation. Instead you must create Chapters within the original Title (which you no longer have if you split it into multiple titles). How you create Chapters within a Title will vary from one model of recorder to the next. Some do not let you create your own Chapters for a real-time copy from HDD to DVD, instead they insert Chapters at predefined intervals (say, every 5 minutes). The User Manual should help with such questions, although in this case maybe not, since I hear the User Manual for the Polaroid DVD Recorder is not that good. So exploring the menus and/or asking someone who has done what you want to do might be called for.

Yes, you want Chapters not Titles if you want to be able to reverse past them. Also, Chapters won't have a slight pause between them during normal playback, as Titles do.

Most recorders do not let you join Titles. So splitting a Title tends not to be a reversible operation. Instead you must create Chapters within the original Title (which you no longer have if you split it into multiple titles). How you create Chapters within a Title will vary from one model of recorder to the next. Some do not let you create your own Chapters for a real-time copy from HDD to DVD, instead they insert Chapters at predefined intervals (say, every 5 minutes). The User Manual should help with such questions, although in this case maybe not, since I hear the User Manual for the Polaroid DVD Recorder is not that good. So exploring the menus and/or asking someone who has done what you want to do might be called for.

Well, it doesn't look like I can create chapters. What you just explained is basically how this Polaroid works. The only 'chapter' option that I could find is exactly what you mentioned, predefined intervals (5mins, 10mins, 15mins, etc.).
I can't believe this!

I wasn't aware that this was common amongst DVD recorders....I have a problem now with what I wanted to archive. As example, I have many musical acts recorded from TV on Leno, kimmel, Letterman, etc, they are only about 5 mins for each act. I wanted to compile them all together on the HD and burn a DVD, yet I find there is no way to do this other than creating a separate title for each, which means I can not Rewind backwards and this is a bummer.

I'm very surprised that this DVD recorder can't insert chapters or even add-on to existing titles (on the HD). I'd be even more surprised if this was common amongst DVD recorders (this one is my 1st).

Fleaman

For that situation I don't see separate Titles being that much of a problem. If you want to go back to an earlier Title, you can navigate there from the main menu. Not as easy as rewinding of course. I'm assuming you don't want to watch the last bit of a Title as often as watching it from the start with that suggestion. It's when you have parts of a program that are meant to follow each other, that you can easily see the need to back up to the last part of the preceding Chapter. Not so much for distinct programs.

What about High-Speed copies from HDD to DVD? Many recorders allow you to set Chapter marks on the HDD, then preserve them when you HS copy to DVD. So as long as you pick the right recording quality when you make the original recording to HDD, that approach can be made to work. Also keep in mind that you will have to make the original recording all at once, no stopping and starting the recording, because each time you do that, a new Title is made.

For that situation I don't see separate Titles being that much of a problem. If you want to go back to an earlier Title, you can navigate there from the main menu. Not as easy as rewinding of course. I'm assuming you don't want to watch the last bit of a Title as often as watching it from the start with that suggestion. It's when you have parts of a program that are meant to follow each other, that you can easily see the need to back up to the last part of the preceding Chapter. Not so much for distinct programs.

Well, right now I have a situation where 1 program is broken up into 3 titles (to take the commercials out) and it would be nice to rewind a bit. In this case it seems like I have to record the program with all the commercials, then go back and segment the commercials out. It's just a time waster that I'd rather not do. There also seems to be no way to stop or pause the recording to the HD, then pick up where I left off, it will always create a new title. And I can't add more content to a title either.



What about High-Speed copies from HDD to DVD? Many recorders allow you to set Chapter marks on the HDD, then preserve them when you HS copy to DVD. So as long as you pick the right recording quality when you make the original recording to HDD, that approach can be made to work. Also keep in mind that you will have to make the original recording all at once, no stopping and starting the recording, because each time you do that, a new Title is made.

There seems to be absolutely no option to set/insert/make chapter marks other than the auto chapter mark feature. There also seems to be no high speed dubbing. I started reading the beginning of this thread (again) and noticed another poster mentioning that the HD to DVD dub is done in real time only. At least in my case it took 15% longer than real time!!

Fleaman

Hopefully you can edit out commercials without breaking a Title up. Usually there is a "Shorten" edit option, you mark the beginning and end of a commercial segment and delete just that segment, leaving the remainder of the Title in one piece. Without such a capability there isn't much use for the HDD, except of course for timeshifting/chase play.

Hopefully you can edit out commercials without breaking a Title up. Usually there is a "Shorten" edit option, you mark the beginning and end of a commercial segment and delete just that segment, leaving the remainder of the Title in one piece. Without such a capability there isn't much use for the HDD, except of course for timeshifting/chase play.

Yes you can. Like I mentioned, it means I have to record the whole title, commercials and all, then go back and segment the commercials out.
I have a Cable Box DVR with a HDD full of programs that I want to burn DVD's of. Today I thought I would segment out or edit out on the fly to be more efficient, but I guess not.

Another thing I discovered; it seems there is no way to record from DVD to the HDD (to make a copy of a non-copy protect DVD). There is no mention in the manual and nothing on the on screen menu that mentions you can record from DVD to the HDD :mad:

Fleaman

Plug the output of a DVD player into your recorder's input and you should be good to go. You can even use Component Video!

Plug the output of a DVD player into your recorder's input and you should be good to go. You can even use Component Video!

Yeah, I know about that work around. It just seems inane that this recorder can't dub a DVD to the HDD.

And for those that are replacing a DVD player with this....well, I guess they can't if they want to make a copy of a DVD (non-copy protect of course).

Fleaman

But at least with that workaround you CAN copy protected DVDs, with the use of a "video stabilizer". Not possible via the internal route.

There seems to be absolutely no option to set/insert/make chapter marks other than the auto chapter mark feature. There also seems to be no high speed dubbing. I started reading the beginning of this thread (again) and noticed another poster mentioning that the HD to DVD dub is done in real time only. At least in my case it took 15% longer than real time!!

Fleaman

In the manual on page 43 and 44 under chapter editing. It says it only does +RW, but also says to insert +-R/RW. I have tried it yet, but obviously you can inset chapters.

Also, the auto chapter mark feature is for time shift and does not go to the recorded disk. You have to insert you chapters for a disk.

I will grant that the manual is bad, but "Chapter Editing" is in the table of contents.

In the manual on page 43 and 44 under chapter editing. It says it only does +RW, but also says to insert +-R/RW. I have tried it yet, but obviously you can inset chapters.

Also, the auto chapter mark feature is for time shift and does not go to the recorded disk. You have to insert you chapters for a disk.

I will grant that the manual is bad, but "Chapter Editing" is in the table of

contents.

That is a misprint. Pg 43/44 is for chapter editing the optical DVD disc only and there is a clear note: The chapter editing function is only available for DVD+RW discs.

There is no Chapter Editing of contents on the HD.

On my next attempt I will try to insert chapters on a DVD+R before it is finalized, but I really doubt that it's possible.

Fleaman

The range problem with the remote can be fixed by replacing the LED in the remote. I replaced mine with a Radio Shack 276-143 and now the remote works a lot better. Please note that LED's do have a polarity and must be inserted correctly and this MOD does require soldering & desoldering of the LED. Even after this MOD the pickup angle is better but still seems to be limited. I was thinking of trying a device from Audioplex called the "IRPrism". It's basically a little piece of plastic that you place over the units IR sensor and it concentrates the incoming IR to the sensor. I've heard that this device does actually work.

How you disassembled the remote? I can't find any screws. Should I just pry it open?

1st: Than you all for the great forum and your combined wisdom.

2nd:
I've been reading about the led mod for the inadequate remore control supplied by the manufacturer. Before I try this, i am wondeing if andone knows the 4digit code to control this device from my kameleon universal remote?

Thanks,

jeff

How you disassembled the remote? I can't find any screws. Should I just pry it open?

Start with fingernails at the led end of the device. Then carefully work your way down to the other end. When the top and bottom are separated, push the battery compartment thru and voila!

good luck,

Jeff

Try the Philips codes as that's what it's based on or just do a search till you find one that works.

Hello everybody. I'm new in the forum. Yesterday I bougth a Polaroid 2100G DVD recorder.

I have it connect to a DirecTV Hughes HIRD-D7 box. I'm trying to obtain a signal from DirecTV box to 2100G but wasn't possible.

On my frustration I'm tried with composite and S-video without suscess! My last intent is connecting it with a coax cable. I know the 2100G to TV connection (component connection) is working because I can saw a DVD. Could someone had experienced a similar situation?

Make sure the STB is outputting 480i to the DVD Recorder.

I've been reading this forum off and on since I bought my first 2001G in late June. At first, the things I learned in this forum helped me tremendously, but over time my understanding of the 2001G has increased to the point that I might be able to add a few helpful posts of my own.

Let me start by first saying that I love my 2nd 2001G, which is working very well, and then by explaining how I believe I screwed up my first one.

While this explanation is only theory at this point, it is worthy of consideration. In a nut shell, my recommendation to everyone is “DON’T TRY RECORDING TO DVD-R”. My initial unit also worked great for the first 2-weeks (excluding the weak Remote Control), but after I tried recording to few DVD-R disks, it became very unreliable for all types of DVD media.

If you open your poorly written User Manual to page 46, you will see that the 2nd item clearly states that the “Supported Recordable Disk Functions” are “DVD+R/RW, DVD-R/RW”. Once I saw this, I considered that the –R record capability might have been accidentally left off of the BOX.

I successfully recorded a movie to my first DVD-R straight from Component Input to Optical Disk, and immediately finalized it using the YES DVD feature. No problem. However, my 2nd attempt to write to DVD-R from HDD made it through the record OK, but it froze at 98% through the Finalization. Locked-up so bad that I eventually had to unplug the unit. That DVD-R was my first coaster, but not my last. At that point, I was 1 for 2, so I attempted a 3rd DVD-R....coaster 2....at which time I decided to give up on the whole DVD-R idea.

Unfortunately, that wasn’t the end of my problems. From that point on, the recorder started damaging +R and +RW, too. In a very unpredictable manor, I would loose about 1 disk for every 5 attempts, and it didn’t seem to matter whether it was +R or +RW. Eventually I did seem to have more success if I cycled the power on the Recorder before each attempt to record a DVD, but that only reduced the number of failures to 1 in 10, it didn’t eliminate them.

I eventually replaced that one, and I haven’t lost any DVD’s with my 2nd one. Plus, my remote works better, too. Needless to say, I won’t be trying any DVD-R in this one.

I've been reading this forum off and on since I bought my first 2001G in late June. At first, the things I learned in this forum helped me tremendously, but over time my understanding of the 2001G has increased to the point that I might be able to add a few helpful posts of my own.

Let me start by first saying that I love my 2nd 2001G, which is working very well, and then by explaining how I believe I screwed up my first one.

While this explanation is only theory at this point, it is worthy of consideration. In a nut shell, my recommendation to everyone is “DON’T TRY RECORDING TO DVD-R”. My initial unit also worked great for the first 2-weeks (excluding the weak Remote Control), but after I tried recording to few DVD-R disks, it became very unreliable for all types of DVD media.

If you open your poorly written User Manual to page 46, you will see that the 2nd item clearly states that the “Supported Recordable Disk Functions” are “DVD+R/RW, DVD-R/RW”. Once I saw this, I considered that the –R record capability might have been accidentally left off of the BOX.

I successfully recorded a movie to my first DVD-R straight from Component Input to Optical Disk, and immediately finalized it using the YES DVD feature. No problem. However, my 2nd attempt to write to DVD-R from HDD made it through the record OK, but it froze at 98% through the Finalization. Locked-up so bad that I eventually had to unplug the unit. That DVD-R was my first coaster, but not my last. At that point, I was 1 for 2, so I attempted a 3rd DVD-R....coaster 2....at which time I decided to give up on the whole DVD-R idea.

Unfortunately, that wasn’t the end of my problems. From that point on, the recorder started damaging +R and +RW, too. In a very unpredictable manor, I would loose about 1 disk for every 5 attempts, and it didn’t seem to matter whether it was +R or +RW. Eventually I did seem to have more success if I cycled the power on the Recorder before each attempt to record a DVD, but that only reduced the number of failures to 1 in 10, it didn’t eliminate them.

I eventually replaced that one, and I haven’t lost any DVD’s with my 2nd one. Plus, my remote works better, too. Needless to say, I won’t be trying any DVD-R in this one.
I find it hard to believe that the type of media 'may' ruin a recorder! :eek:

redjr...

I find it hard to believe that the type of media 'may' ruin a recorder! :eek:

redjr...

It is rather hard to believe for myself also. More likely a coincidence than not.

Classic post hoc fallacy.

Fleaman

I just purchased the Polaroid 2001G, and already have an issue. The auto clock set, despite being set to the correct time zone (Eastern), wants to set itself an hour earlier. I tried going through the auto set sequence a few times, and each time it goes to one hour earlier.

I thought that maybe the signal was wrong, but my Ilo DVD recorder also auto clock sets, and the time is correct. Both are connected to the same over the air antenna.

Any thoughts would be appreciated as I'm wondering if I got a bum unit, or its a quirk to this Polaroid model and I should be looking elsewhere. Auto clock set is a very important feature to me.

Thanks!

OK ... I have read nearly all of the 400 odd posts in this thread. The 2100G does seem to be a nice model and the HDD upgrade is a nice feature. However, I do have a question.

Here's the setup I would like to have ....

Comcast HDTV Tuner (Motorola DCT 6200) ----> Component (1080i) ---> TV (Component)
|
|-------------> IEEE 1394 firewire --> 2100G (DV in) ---> record to HDD or DVD-R


I want this setup to just record NFL games. Quality is not uber-important. Being able to watch at HD resolutions while recording at 480p is important.

Can anybody who is using a similar setup please pitch in and share their views ?

Thanks.

OK ... I have read nearly all of the 400 odd posts in this thread. The 2100G does seem to be a nice model and the HDD upgrade is a nice feature. However, I do have a question.

Here's the setup I would like to have ....

Comcast HDTV Tuner (Motorola DCT 6200) ----> Component (1080i) ---> TV (Component)
|
|-------------> IEEE 1394 firewire --> 2100G (DV in) ---> record to HDD or DVD-R


I want this setup to just record NFL games. Quality is not uber-important. Being able to watch at HD resolutions while recording at 480p is important.

Can anybody who is using a similar setup please pitch in and share their views ?

Thanks.
Bad news on your IEEE 1394 path.

The output from your cable box is MPEG-2 only.

The input to the DVD recorder is DV only.

FireWire is a common "pipe" here, but the payloads are incompatible.

You may need to use s-video and L+R audio outputs from the cable box to the DVD recorder instead.

The cable box must be outputting 480i for DVD recording since that is the only acceptable input to the DVD recorder. 480p will not work here.

I just purchased the Polaroid 2001G, and already have an issue. The auto clock set, despite being set to the correct time zone (Eastern), wants to set itself an hour earlier. I tried going through the auto set sequence a few times, and each time it goes to one hour earlier.

I thought that maybe the signal was wrong, but my Ilo DVD recorder also auto clock sets, and the time is correct. Both are connected to the same over the air antenna.

Any thoughts would be appreciated as I'm wondering if I got a bum unit, or its a quirk to this Polaroid model and I should be looking elsewhere. Auto clock set is a very important feature to me.

Thanks!

It's probably correcting for daylight savings time. I remember a daylight savings time setting feature (on/off), so look for that setting and change it from its default. Should fix the problem.

Fleaman

Bad news on your IEEE 1394 path.

The output from your cable box is MPEG-2 only.

The input to the DVD recorder is DV only.

FireWire is a common "pipe" here, but the payloads are incompatible.

You may need to use s-video and L+R audio outputs from the cable box to the DVD recorder instead.

The cable box must be outputting 480i for DVD recording since that is the only acceptable input to the DVD recorder. 480p will not work here.


Dave,

Thanks a lot.

My assumptions were wrong on the Firewire front. What you explained makes sense.

Is there ANY DVD recorder that can take the MPEG2 input via IEEE1394 ?

Is my only recourse using a HTPC to take the firewire input ? I am leary of doing this as I do not have XP-SP2 to use the MCE drivers.

It's probably correcting for daylight savings time. I remember a daylight savings time setting feature (on/off), so look for that setting and change it from its default. Should fix the problem.

Fleaman

Thanks for the quick response. I thought the same thing too, but when I tried to adjust for DST, I figured out that once it is set to auto, you can't adjust anything else. I even set it to manual, readjusted the DST, and then went back to auto, but I still have the wrong time- off by one hour earlier.

Any other thoughts?

Thanks for the quick response. I thought the same thing too, but when I tried to adjust for DST, I figured out that once it is set to auto, you can't adjust anything else. I even set it to manual, readjusted the DST, and then went back to auto, but I still have the wrong time- off by one hour earlier.

Any other thoughts?

Try reset to factory defaults, then set DST ON and clock to AUTO.

Dave,

Thanks a lot.

My assumptions were wrong on the Firewire front. What you explained makes sense.

Is there ANY DVD recorder that can take the MPEG2 input via IEEE1394 ?

Is my only recourse using a HTPC to take the firewire input ? I am leary of doing this as I do not have XP-SP2 to use the MCE drivers.
I am not aware of any DVD recorder that supports MPEG-2 input (or output) over FireWire, just DV.

D-VHS recorders from JVC and Mitsubishi can accept and record high definition MPEG-2 over FireWire.

Windows and Mac computers can emulate D-VHS recorders and accept and record MPEG-2 high definition over FireWire.

Personally, I start with HD programs recorded on my HD TiVo (from DirecTV satellite channel or OTA digital channels). I use S-vdeo and L+R audio outputs from the HD TiVo to my Pioneer DVD recorder inputs. I copy programs from the HD TiVo to the hard drive in my DVD recorder, then edit and crop, and then burn an interim copy to load on my Mac, where I set the widescreen flag to allow 4x3 TVs to watch the widescreen source programs using letterbox or pan and scan, as chosen by the playback options in the DVD player feeding the 4x3 TV. Then I re-burn the DVD content to a DVD-R on my Mac. I can burn multiple copies there or I can copy that source DVD-R onto the hard dirive on my Pioneer DVD recorder and make multiple bit-for-bit copies there as needed.

The resulting DVDs, if 2 hours or less in length, provide excellent quality video along with Dolby Pro Logic audio. Unfortunately, there is no way with the intermediate analog interfaces to pass Dolby Digital 5.1 audio.

I know you were looking for a full digital path, but the manufacturers of DVD recorders are just not there, perhaps limited by pressure from content owners.

avsgoose-
Have you noticed the reduce volume when using the optical output ? Playing a DVD it's fine, but the audio from the tuner is low by what seems to be at least 6-10DB.


I use LeapFrog (1-transmitter 2-receivers) to leap to a couple other rooms, and you're right, it does lose some fidelity. I do not use it's tuner. I have noticed it loses some fidelity when transferred to dvd as well. I just turn the TV up :D

Phred

Let's call it what it is. No one will ever edit or create Starwars (part Pi...in 2005 200 million digits) on any of these "home" units, whether it's Polaroid, Pioneer, etc.. It is what it is.

I like it for what it is. If I want to do real video I use my Athlon 64 FX-57 and AnyDVD ;), Roxio MyDVD and myriad other DVD "makers" . The Polaroid is great to watch *.avi's, *.mpg's, *.mpeg's that I don't want to convert to DVD format. I just copy them to a RW-DVD and shove it in the player and erase them afterward. Or I copy them to a DVD and finalize it and watch the avis, mpgs, when I want. If I want to watch a TV program I've recorded I watch it from the HD and LeapFrog it to other TV's if I need to. I generally don't keep the TV programs I record anyway, even HDTV is not what it should be recorded tween source and home recorders. Now recording it to PC is another story. I think some might be thinking these (all home recorders) will perform miracles or something. If hey did George Lucas would be buying them hundreds a a time. I think the best way to show one's "intelligence" about this recorder (w/o all the "I did this to it" and "I'll show ya how techy I am") is just like it for what it is........a $212.00 Walmart special that works pretty well.

Phred

:D Exactly, phreakiphred, someone has finally said it.

These machines are not PCs, they are like enhanced VCRs. The split function is the only editing feature I use, anything I actually want to keep goes onto a DVD+RW and into my PC where TMPGEnc DVD Author / Adobe Photoshop --> Nero Burning Rom take over. Segmenting on the polaroid is too much of a hassle.

I have had the polaroid for app. 2.5 months. Of course there are some quirks and probably the manual is bad (I never looked at it) but for my purposes it's perfect for my needs. I am an IT/Unix pro so I really do not care about the mil time.

Love the idea of swapping HDD although I would never take advantage of more than half of the 80GB anyway. More than that and perhaps you are watching way too much TV (well, for individual use anyway. I really only use it for the tennis Grand Slams and Battlestar Galactica [hurry October]).

I actually like the idea of no TV Guide capability as well. Seems other units have some problems with this.

This unit would be a classic if someone identifies the proper burner replacement model. It seems these burners all come down with lens problems rather soon which is why I went with a HDD model. Perhaps only dumping down to disc and not actually having the lens active for hours at-a-time is the answer. Any progress there?

I noticed some postings regarding CC. Without any initial intervention on recording, I checked it out on a whim while playing a DVD burned from the polaroid on a separate player. I turned CC on on my TV and they instantly appeared in perfect order. the Polaroid is hooked up SV and component in from digital cable.

The only REAL drawback is that commercial skip and FF will not function properly on a burned DVD+RW on a separate player. Instead of jumping ahead 30 seconds it jumps 5 minutes, and FF only works at 2X, anything higher jumps 10 minutes at-a-time. The cheap Cyberhome DVDR1200 I had (which suffered I am guessing lens problems after app. 5-6 months) worked properly in this regard. I tried turning off Auto Chapter Creation to no effect. CM Skip works on Polaroid HDD. Anyone have any thoughts on this?

Otherwise, I have had NO problems with this unit. The remote LED does seem limited but I do not use it anyway, I use my SONY learning universal which can be pointed 180 degrees away from the Polaroid and still work flawlessly. I am thinking about getting another unit for anther room.

Try reset to factory defaults, then set DST ON and clock to AUTO.

I reset to factory defaults, readjusted the DST to ON and clicked on AUTO. Time is still off by one hour earlier. As I'm in the Eastern time zone, I adjusted to Atlantic time zone, and now the correct time is displayed. While this works now, I have no idea if it will make the switch to DST, and on the correct day as this is more of a Canadian time zone. I suppose I'll find out at the end of October...

:D Exactly, phreakiphred, someone has finally said it.

<snip for brevity>

Love the idea of swapping HDD although I would never take advantage of more than half of the 80GB anyway. More than that and perhaps you are watching way too much TV (well, for individual use anyway. I really only use it for the tennis Grand Slams and Battlestar Galactica [hurry October]).


I have one on the way....!

I'll never convert *.avi's, mpeg's, etc...to DVD's again!

If this don't get your nipples hard you must be dead! :D

Phreaki

http://www.galaxymetalgear.com/Products/3500tvisto.html

I reset to factory defaults, readjusted the DST to ON and clicked on AUTO. Time is still off by one hour earlier. As I'm in the Eastern time zone, I adjusted to Atlantic time zone, and now the correct time is displayed. While this works now, I have no idea if it will make the switch to DST, and on the correct day as this is more of a Canadian time zone. I suppose I'll find out at the end of October...


Turn your TV to your local PBS station..."auto" tune the time while on PBS station. Violins....it's now set to exact local time.

This will work with TV's or any autotimer vcr, dvd etc.


Phreaki

Hi folks.

I'm looking for unzoning code for this device.

Does anybody have somthing like that?

Cheerzz

C.

I've had mine for eight days and I'm afraid its going back to Wally World. This is my first DVD recorder and I've been fairly successful with it. I use it to record shows from Dish Network through the day and burn the keepers to DVD.
I can live with it's many warts, but the fan noise is killer. It sound like a low volume alarm clock and is audible over the show I'm watching if the volume is turned down to late night levels. In a quiet room it's unbearable. The noise didn't get bad until I'd had it in the system for 4 days, so I'm not sure that opening a box at the store and listening is a real solution.
For a few bucks less I can go to Sam's and get a Magnavox MSR90D6 for each of my 2 Dish receivers, which of course will leave me recording to R or RW media I don't know how much I'll miss the HD.
Great forum by the way.

Another option might be the Accurian ADR-3223 from Radio Shack. This unit also has a 80gb HD, but does not have a lot of the quirks of the Polaroid. This unit looks like it's made by Liteon and has an LSI encoder the the recorded video looks good. First off the fan noise is very minimum, the remote works a lot better, you can enter longer names, can burn SVCD or VCD directly to CD-R from source (Not from HD), can also burn audio CD's from files imported from the disc drive. This unit also seems to run cooler than the Polaroid. They actually have dropped the price recently several times. It currently lists on their web site for $199.97.

I don't know how much I'll miss the HD.

You will miss it.

Get another unit till you find one with the updated fan. Some of the folks said their newer units after the recall had very quiet fans, mine was loud too though but I got one right after they released them again. I just added some rubber o rings behind the fan for now and later I'll probably put in a different one.
All ready upgraded the HD and tried different burners in it so its about as far as one of these can go now, too bad it has a mono tuner with low sound and lousy editing and naming functions. Been using it for throw away shows and will probably archive some of the stuff off my Panny to it as it fills up.

The Philips DVDR 3455H/37 has no fan noise that I can discern. The DVD Player makes a little noise, but only during startup/searching for disc. It is very quiet during playback.

I bought this unit last night..maybe one of you can answer some questions for me..
I have it hooked up to my sony HD tuner, component out of tuner to component in on recorder then component out to TV.
Well with the recorder off and signal just passing through the recorder it displays correctly (widescreen)..but when I turn the recorder on its still in widescreen but it becomes this (mini widescreen) with bars all the way around the screen not just on the top.Why is this??
I have the output of my HD tuner set to 480i.
Even my vcr when hooked up to the HD tuner through s-video records in widescreen.

Tony, do you have the playback output screen size option on the Polaroid set for 16x9 instead of 4x3? On many DVD recorders, the recorder is processing the input before sending to the output, so it is not just a pass-through, as you have discovered with your Polaroid.

Is your TV a Sony 4x3 that detects 16x9 programs and auto-switches to a letterbox-like display (full width but vertically compressed scan lines that offer full vertical resolution compressed into a smaller height)? Perhaps the Polaroid is not sending the flag that the TV expects for full-width 16x9 display.

Let us know when you figure this out.

Seeing as the Polaroid is from the makers of Philips ......can you also upgrade the HD on the Philips DVDR3455/37 ?

Just a question on media discs. Most posters stated they were using R+ or RW+ for their recordings and not R- or RW-. I thought this unit did both? I need something that can do mostly R- or RW- since my DVD players only recognize this type. Any answers or is this something to avoid. One poster earlier stated he had a terrible time with -media. Thanks

Seeing as the Polaroid is from the makers of Philips ......can you also upgrade the HD on the Philips DVDR3455/37 ?
As far as I know it's basically the same board inside with some bios mods so I don't see why you cant put a bigger drive in one. There is a thread about that machine here too, maybe somebody has tried it.
Also for the other question I have recorded plus and minus with mine with great burn quality so far.

Has anyone tried DVDs (-R, +R, -RW, +RW) created with the Polaroid and played back on Panasonic DVD players and recorders?

The reason i'm asking is becuase i have a panasonic dvd player and recorder and i am tempted by the Polaroid but I am trying to make sure i can play them back on the dvd player :)

Thanks :)

Has anyone tried DVDs (-R, +R, -RW, +RW) created with the Polaroid and played back on Panasonic DVD players and recorders?

The reason i'm asking is becuase i have a panasonic dvd player and recorder and i am tempted by the Polaroid but I am trying to make sure i can play them back on the dvd player :)

Thanks :)

I have a Panny XP30 DVD player and all the +R discs from the Polaroid have played fine on it.

Haven't made any -R discs.

Fleaman

The older ones will not playback dvd+r that is not bitset to dvdrom, newer units should play back everything fine. My e80h will not play any dvd's that are dvd+r at all but will happily play anything set as dvdrom and minus, also Dual layer as long as its set to rom.
The Polaroid does not alter the disks bitsetting so some older player wont like it's plus media.
So if that's a issue for anyones player use minus or redo it to rom bitsetting later when you rerecord it on a PC.

Thanks MrSpeed & Dartman
I decided that I really would miss the HD, and decided to take it back to WM for a replacement (SN G0600192240024749). I'm on day 2 with a whisper quiet fan and maybe even a bit better power from the remote.
So far so happy!

Another option might be the Accurian ADR-3223 from Radio Shack. This unit also has a 80gb HD, but does not have a lot of the quirks of the Polaroid. This unit looks like it's made by Liteon and has an LSI encoder the the recorded video looks good. First off the fan noise is very minimum, the remote works a lot better, you can enter longer names, can burn SVCD or VCD directly to CD-R from source (Not from HD), can also burn audio CD's from files imported from the disc drive. This unit also seems to run cooler than the Polaroid. They actually have dropped the price recently several times. It currently lists on their web site for $199.97.


I tried starting another thread but I will post here as well.

Any opinions of the Accurian???

I was pointed to another forum but there hasn't been activity in months.

I'm looking at picking up another recorder. Currently have a Pio 531, and an Emerson EWR10D4.

I'm looking at picking up another HD unit.

I will be recording from TV tuner mostly with some from a line input. I will then be transferrring the recordings from the HD to a DVD to watch in another DVD player. The DVD player I use will not play DVD's recorded using VR MODE.

Apparently the Philips model dubs from HD to DVD using the -VR mode for the recording.

Can anyone confirm that the Polaroid will allow you to copy from the HD to -RW's using DVD-Video mode rather than VR Mode.

Thanks,
Rick

Has anyone tried DVDs (-R, +R, -RW, +RW) created with the Polaroid and played back on Panasonic DVD players and recorders?

The reason i'm asking is becuase i have a panasonic dvd player and recorder and i am tempted by the Polaroid but I am trying to make sure i can play them back on the dvd player :)

Thanks :)

ncaahoops,

The documentation is not clear about whether this recorder supports DVD-R. In almost every case, the features listed on the DRM-2001G Box, in the User Manual, and on the Polaroid Web Site say it will record to DVD+/-RW and DVD+R, but there is only one instance on the User Manual’s Technical Specifications page where it indicates that it will record to a DVD-R.

While I don’t know what the true reason for this discrepancy is, I do have my suspicions. Lets consider that it was originally intended to record to all 4 single-layer types (DVD+/-R & DVD+/-RW) as indicated by the Technical Specification. However, at some point, possibly late in the design verification phase, they discovered that there was a reliability problem when recording to DVD-R. Since the unit works well for the other 3 DVD formats, they had to decide whether to delay the product release 2-3 months until the design flaw is fixed, or just accept this short coming and remove the -R from the list of recordable media. As usual, “Money” won over “Quality” and “Customer Satisfaction”.

Now to answer your question: I have tried recording to a couple of DVD-R, and I truly believe there is a problem with them (See my post #369 in this thread). There are a few critics in this forum who oppose my theory, but so far they have only voiced their opinions. I was hoping that they would try recording to several DVD-R, and report back with their results, but so far, nothing.

In response to criticisms of post #369: I find it hard to believe that the type of media 'may' ruin a recorder! :eek: I can't argue this point, because I would have thought the same thing, had I not experienced it myself. However, prior to trying a DVD-R, I had burned nearly 50 +R and 25 +RW disks with no problems. It wasn’t until afterwards that I started to experiencing problems with +R/+RW disks.

In conclusion, I stand by my recommendation of “Don’t try recording to DVD-R in the DRM-2001G”, but I encourage anyone to prove me wrong by recording to half-a-dozen DVD-R and then reporting back with their results. If someone else is successful, then I will assume that I simply wore my first one out, and hope that my second one doesn’t die so quickly.


I hope I have answered your question, and I apologize for the lengthily posts.

LeeJay

“Facts are Stubborn Things”
.
.

The 2001G burns -R just fine. I've burned over 50 with no problems.

I've also done the HD upgrade with no problems.

One new thing to report is that I have found 2 DVD burner replacements. I had 4 old dvd burners laying around and 2 out of the 4 worked successfully. The 2 burners that worked were a Sony DW-Q30A (9-05 production date) and a BTC D33040 (11-03 production date). Both drives have their original firmware. This is good news for those who may overwork their original burner.

I'm sure many more dvd burners will work - my success rate was 50% with the 4 dvd burners I had laying around (2 out 0f 4). All functions of the 2001G worked perfectly with both drives with the added benefit of being able to move recorded video from the HD to the burners in half the time (approx 12 mins).

The only thing required is a mini/5.25 power cable (the one in the 2001G is a mini/mini). The cable runs about $2.50.

Thanks MrSpeed, Dartman and LeeJay!

It seems that the pattern is common, the +R camp recorders have better success with +R/+RW, and -R camp have better success with -R/-RW, which makes sense.

I remember seeing the Accurian at Radio Shaq, but what was its price? If it drops to the price level of the Polaroid it's gonna get a lot more attention :) It may even be the same thing inside???

As far as the recording mode on DVD-RW, I forgot what was said about this model before. Is it -RW(VR) mode or is it Video-mode compatible +(V)R? (as strange as that may sound)

The 2001G burns -R just fine. I've burned over 50 with no problems.

I've also done the HD upgrade with no problems.

One new thing to report is that I have found 2 DVD burner replacements. I had 4 old dvd burners laying around and 2 out of the 4 worked successfully. The 2 burners that worked were a Sony DW-Q30A (9-05 production date) and a BTC D33040 (11-03 production date). Both drives have their original firmware. This is good news for those who may overwork their original burner.

I'm sure many more dvd burners will work - my success rate was 50% with the 4 dvd burners I had laying around (2 out 0f 4). All functions of the 2001G worked perfectly with both drives with the added benefit of being able to move recorded video from the HD to the burners in half the time (approx 12 mins).

The only thing required is a mini/5.25 power cable (the one in the 2001G is a mini/mini). The cable runs about $2.50.

Nice post! Thanks for the info. Good stuff!

The 2001G burns -R just fine. I've burned over 50 with no problems.

I've also done the HD upgrade with no problems.



Good post. I also have burned several -R (the only kind I have since I also have the panny es-20 ) with no issues at all. Also good info on swapping burners.

I was going to buy a panny dmr 55, but glad I bought the Polaroid. I do not do much burning of shows off the tv, but do a lot of time shifting as with a VCR and really like the "time shift" feature on the Polaroid. Well before the show I want to watch comes on, I turn it on, set the channel and then do whatever I want for a half hour or so. Then watch the show and skip the commercials. Plus, change the channe at the time the next show comes on, and return to the old show, still skipping commercials.

Also like the 30 sec advance and 10 sec reverse. Much better duration than the panny.

The 2001G burns -R just fine. I've burned over 50 with no problems.

nextoo,

Thanks for confirming that there are people that have had success burning DVD-R. Apparently my 1st unit was ready to go at any moment, and the additional stress of writing to a -R was just enough to cripple it. So much for wild theories :o , but it’s still fun to dream up those scenarios. On the other hand, I’m still dying to know why -R is not listed as a supported recording medium on the box, web site, or instructions. :confused:

Despite your success writing to -R, I’m still going to stick with +R for the time being. The pessimist in me says I still only have a 50% chance of success at this point ;) , at least until a few more people have reported problem-free –R burning.

LeeJay

“Facts are Stubborn Things”

nextoo,

Thanks for confirming that there are people that have had success burning DVD-R. Apparently my 1st unit was ready to go at any moment, and the additional stress of writing to a -R was just enough to cripple it. So much for wild theories :o , but it’s still fun to dream up those scenarios. On the other hand, I’m still dying to know why -R is not listed as a supported recording medium on the box, web site, or instructions. :confused:

LeeJay

“Facts are Stubborn Things”

Because the manual is very poorly written! There are inconsistencies throughout the manual. I wouldn't expect the info's on the box to be any better. Probably the easiest mistake to make would be a type like -R /+R.

Even if you had a DVD recorder that only did +R's and did not support -R's, trying to burn a -R in that recorder isn't going to harm it. Or course the -R media wouldn't burn, but it will do no harm to the recorder.

Think of it this way: If your theory were true, then there would be Very BIG warnings in all DVD recorder manuals to NOT put unsupported media in the tray as it will possibly harm the recorder.

I have never seen this type of warning.

Food for thought.

Again, there was no 'additional stress' by writing a -R media. It was just bad timing. Just a case of Post hoc fallacy.

Fleaman

Having Tosh and Panny DVR/DVD burners I picked up the Polaroid and use my stock of -R's on the Polaroid. Zero coasters. I really like the Polaroid.

The 2001G burns -R just fine. I've burned over 50 with no problems.

I've also done the HD upgrade with no problems.

One new thing to report is that I have found 2 DVD burner replacements. I had 4 old dvd burners laying around and 2 out of the 4 worked successfully. The 2 burners that worked were a Sony DW-Q30A (9-05 production date) and a BTC D33040 (11-03 production date). Both drives have their original firmware. This is good news for those who may overwork their original burner.

I'm sure many more dvd burners will work - my success rate was 50% with the 4 dvd burners I had laying around (2 out 0f 4). All functions of the 2001G worked perfectly with both drives with the added benefit of being able to move recorded video from the HD to the burners in half the time (approx 12 mins).

The only thing required is a mini/5.25 power cable (the one in the 2001G is a mini/mini). The cable runs about $2.50.

Can you tell if when you copy from the hard drive to a DVD, does it use VR mode rather than DVD-Video mode? Is there a menu option to set this? The player I use will not play DVD's (either finalized or not) that use -VR mode.

Thanks,
Rick

How do you like you recorder?

What are the pro's other than the $219 price?


What are the cons?


I know it is discontinued but I am tepmted to pick up the Accurian DVD recorder

How do you like you recorder?

What are the pro's other than the $219 price?


What are the cons?


I know it is discontinued but I am tepmted to pick up the Accurian DVD recorder

I now have both, I picked up the Accurian yesterday. One Radio Shack had the price posted as $369, in their computer as $267 and would not sell for $199. A RS 10 miles away had the price at $199.

I needed another recorder in another room without a cable box, just straight into-the-tv cable. Good thing about this setup is that I can watch one channel and record another without a lot of splitters and switches.

The Accurian is certainly quieter, not even audible unless in a totally quiet room with ear right on top of unit. The Polaroid's fan is quite loud, although I may have an older unit. The noise is similar to a power supply in a PC, a blowing fan noise. There is no rattle or squealing.

Many people seem to find the Accurian easier to use, I actually prefer the Polaroid's navigation. I find there are less steps to accomplish just about everything. The Accurian's remote is better layout and range-wise.

Both burn to same types of media and at apparently the same speed. Polaroid has YESDVD which some might like, I would never use it. Anything I want to keep and spruce up I do on the PC.

Accurian has merge capability, Polaroid doesn't. Good thing because the Accurian will only let you copy one title at a time to DVDR, so you can merge them and do the copy once instead. Polaroid lets you mark titles and then burn those.

CM Skip on burned DVDs works on other players correctly with the Accurian (30 seconds at a time). Polaroid does 5 minutes at a time (but correctly on its HDD) and I haven't been able to correct this. This may be player dependant since the Polaroid CM Skip works on the Accurian when playing Polaroid's discs. Polaroid discs CM Skip have not worked on at least two players (low sampling I know). The same goes for FF at more than 2X, Polaroid likes to jump ahead at 5-10 minutes.

Accurian can do VCD and SVCD (only to disc, not to HDD). Polaroid can't. Who cares, though, those formats seem irrelevant to me and a waste of time since DVD-R availability and cost have erradicated the difference.

Polaroid has the foul-language or whatever Guardian which might be desired if children are involved, though it's subscription-based.

Neither have a TV Guide feature of any sort which I actually consider a Pro since I would rather have a simpler system and do things myself PLUS others have had trouble with these features on other machines.

The Accurian is a rebranded Lite-On model that seems to be respected among users of that or similar model.

Replacing HDD in Polaroid is a snap and allows for apparently unilimited capacity. Repacing HDD in Accurian is a snap but limits to 80GB regardless of HDD size (at least that has been reported).

Accurian seems to have simplified the Music/Video/Picture interface. I find this a who-cares? issue.

One major difference is that the Polaroid can multitask while the Accurian will let you do only one thing at a time. For instance, the Polaroid can record from a source while you burn titles to DVD or run through the Setup menu or delete titles or whatever. The Accurian does only one thing at a time and takes over the machine while doing it.

Both use the same LSI chips so quality should be the same. Both have the same quality/capacity settings (actually Polaroid has a SP+ setting which allows for 2.5 hours).

Both set up easily.

In short: If you are concerned about disc capacity and/or multitasking go with the Polaroid. If you are concerned about noise go with the Accurian. IMO.

These are the things I noticed right away after only a few hours. You probably want more details and others may supply them.

Thanks for all of your help. After a thorough once over, I've decided to return the Polaroid unit to Wal-Mart, and figure out something better. Between the quirks, the fan noise, and the rewritable disc issues, it simply wasn't worth the $$$.

The 2001G burns -R just fine. I've burned over 50 with no problems.



It's been a few days since this topic has been discussed.

In an attempt to understand why there are discrepancies in the documentation regarding DVD-R Recording, I submitted an inquiry to Polaroid Technical Support via their web site asking them two questions.
1) Is the DRM-2001G capable of recording to a DVD-R?
2) If not, will attempting to burn a DVD-R damage the unit?

Here’s their reply:

Hello,

Thank you for your recent inquiry regarding your Polaroid product. However, we need some more information to be able to adequately answer your question.
Please contact us at one of the following numbers:

In the United States 866-289-5168

In Canada 866-301-7922

In Mexico 01-800-400-2443

Regards,
PCB Customer Service.

So I called the US number and got a very nice English speaking female Rep. After explaining the discrepancies in the documentation and asking her if it will record to DVD–R, she said “No, you should only use rewritable disks”. Naturally I said “But it’s OK to use +R, isn’t it?”, and she replied “Yes, it will record DVD+R and +/– Rewritable, but not –R.” I then ask if attempting to record to –R would damage it, and she said “No, it will just give a ‘Disk not Recognized’ error message.”

At this point I explained that it will recognize –R, and that many people in forums have reported writing to DVD–R with no problems, but when I attempted to write to a –R, my failed, and afterwards it also started having problems with +R and +RW. Naturally, I was then put on hold...........

After about a minute, she returned and said “We are still learning what this recorder will do, but trying to record to a DVD-R should not harm the unit.”

So apparently my problems were coincidental. :(

Interesting tidbit concerning copy protection. When I tried a few macro free DVD players I have (Apex) copy protection would halt the recording on the Polaroid. No problem it was what I expected. DVD recorders are very sensitive now days. It wasn't a surprise.

Now the strange part. I had a Philips 642 dvd player laying around and thought I would give it a try - it worked. Copy protection did not kick in. The Philips 642 is a feb-04 build with original firmware. If I use the Philips 642 with other dvd recorders I have it is a no go. Copy protection kicks in on all recorders I have except for the Polaroid.

Strange but true so I thought I would share this anomaly.

So I called the US number and got a very nice English speaking female Rep. After explaining the discrepancies in the documentation and asking her if it will record to DVD–R, she said “No, you should only use rewritable disks”. Naturally I said “But it’s OK to use +R, isn’t it?”, and she replied “Yes, it will record DVD+R and +/– Rewritable, but not –R.” I then ask if attempting to record to –R would damage it, and she said “No, it will just give a ‘Disk not Recognized’ error message.”

At this point I explained that it will recognize –R, and that many people in forums have reported writing to DVD–R with no problems, but when I attempted to write to a –R, my failed, and afterwards it also started having problems with +R and +RW. Naturally, I was then put on hold...........

After about a minute, she returned and said “We are still learning what this recorder will do, but trying to record to a DVD-R should not harm the unit.”

So apparently my problems were coincidental. :(

Yes it was coincidental....but also realize that it sounds like this 'tech line?' rep didn't know what she was talking about. This is not unusual, most tech support lines are staffed by idiots, and it’s just the cost of doing business. Her line of “No, you should only use rewritable disks” is a classic example since RW discs are the least popular and least compatible dvd blank (not to mention least reliable!).

Your definitive answer would come from an engineer, DVD recorder specific if you’re lucky.

I don't need that sort of convincing though....

Fleaman

I now have both, I picked up the Accurian yesterday. One Radio Shack had the price posted as $369, in their computer as $267 and would not sell for $199. A RS 10 miles away had the price at $199.

I needed another recorder in another room without a cable box, just straight into-the-tv cable. Good thing about this setup is that I can watch one channel and record another without a lot of splitters and switches.

The Accurian is certainly quieter, not even audible unless in a totally quiet room with ear right on top of unit. The Polaroid's fan is quite loud, although I may have an older unit. The noise is similar to a power supply in a PC, a blowing fan noise. There is no rattle or squealing.

Many people seem to find the Accurian easier to use, I actually prefer the Polaroid's navigation. I find there are less steps to accomplish just about everything. The Accurian's remote is better layout and range-wise.

Both burn to same types of media and at apparently the same speed. Polaroid has YESDVD which some might like, I would never use it. Anything I want to keep and spruce up I do on the PC.

Accurian has merge capability, Polaroid doesn't. Good thing because the Accurian will only let you copy one title at a time to DVDR, so you can merge them and do the copy once instead. Polaroid lets you mark titles and then burn those.

CM Skip on burned DVDs works on other players correctly with the Accurian (30 seconds at a time). Polaroid does 5 minutes at a time (but correctly on its HDD) and I haven't been able to correct this. This may be player dependant since the Polaroid CM Skip works on the Accurian when playing Polaroid's discs. Polaroid discs CM Skip have not worked on at least two players (low sampling I know). The same goes for FF at more than 2X, Polaroid likes to jump ahead at 5-10 minutes.

Accurian can do VCD and SVCD (only to disc, not to HDD). Polaroid can't. Who cares, though, those formats seem irrelevant to me and a waste of time since DVD-R availability and cost have erradicated the difference.

Polaroid has the foul-language or whatever Guardian which might be desired if children are involved, though it's subscription-based.

Neither have a TV Guide feature of any sort which I actually consider a Pro since I would rather have a simpler system and do things myself PLUS others have had trouble with these features on other machines.

The Accurian is a rebranded Lite-On model that seems to be respected among users of that or similar model.

Replacing HDD in Polaroid is a snap and allows for apparently unilimited capacity. Repacing HDD in Accurian is a snap but limits to 80GB regardless of HDD size (at least that has been reported).

Accurian seems to have simplified the Music/Video/Picture interface. I find this a who-cares? issue.

One major difference is that the Polaroid can multitask while the Accurian will let you do only one thing at a time. For instance, the Polaroid can record from a source while you burn titles to DVD or run through the Setup menu or delete titles or whatever. The Accurian does only one thing at a time and takes over the machine while doing it.

Both use the same LSI chips so quality should be the same. Both have the same quality/capacity settings (actually Polaroid has a SP+ setting which allows for 2.5 hours).

Both set up easily.

In short: If you are concerned about disc capacity and/or multitasking go with the Polaroid. If you are concerned about noise go with the Accurian. IMO.

These are the things I noticed right away after only a few hours. You probably want more details and others may supply them.

(I know I should complain because of the good price tag)

What bothers my about the Polaroid is that it does not have a stereo tuner. I currently have a cable box but it is already connected too my DVD/HDD recorder.
In the future there will be time where I will be recording from Digital cable and regular cable simultaneously. (Then again I could make the Polaroid record off the digital cable). I do like the idea of upgrading the hard drive. But I do have concerns as I am reading that it may have issues with DVD-R???

How is the Picture quality of the Accurian vs Polaroid?

Let me know.

Thanks

But I do have concerns as I am reading that it may have issues with DVD-R???



I haven't read any known issues with DVD-R on this thread. There was only 1 poster that assumed an issue with DVD-R because his Polaroid broke down when he started using DVD-R media. It was an assumption based on the Post Hoc fallacy, meaning his Polaroid would have broken down no matter what the media. This 1 poster later admitted that it was probably a coincidence after all.

Others have posted no problems with DVD-R's since the concern was brought up.

The Polaroid has it's issues, but DVD-R's are not one of them....so far.

Fleaman

I haven't read any known issues with DVD-R on this thread. There was only 1 poster that assumed an issue with DVD-R because his Polaroid broke down when he started using DVD-R media. It was an assumption based on the Post Hoc fallacy, meaning his Polaroid would have broken down no matter what the media. This 1 poster later admitted that it was probably a coincidence after all.

Others have posted no problems with DVD-R's since the concern was brought up.

The Polaroid has it's issues, but DVD-R's are not one of them....so far.

Fleaman

Thanks for the clarification. I think my ADHD kicked in.

I now have both, I picked up the Accurian yesterday. One Radio Shack had the price posted as $369, in their computer as $267 and would not sell for $199. A RS 10 miles away had the price at $199.

I needed another recorder in another room without a cable box, just straight into-the-tv cable. Good thing about this setup is that I can watch one channel and record another without a lot of splitters and switches.

The Accurian is certainly quieter, not even audible unless in a totally quiet room with ear right on top of unit. The Polaroid's fan is quite loud, although I may have an older unit. The noise is similar to a power supply in a PC, a blowing fan noise. There is no rattle or squealing.

Many people seem to find the Accurian easier to use, I actually prefer the Polaroid's navigation. I find there are less steps to accomplish just about everything. The Accurian's remote is better layout and range-wise.

Both burn to same types of media and at apparently the same speed. Polaroid has YESDVD which some might like, I would never use it. Anything I want to keep and spruce up I do on the PC.

Accurian has merge capability, Polaroid doesn't. Good thing because the Accurian will only let you copy one title at a time to DVDR, so you can merge them and do the copy once instead. Polaroid lets you mark titles and then burn those.

CM Skip on burned DVDs works on other players correctly with the Accurian (30 seconds at a time). Polaroid does 5 minutes at a time (but correctly on its HDD) and I haven't been able to correct this. This may be player dependant since the Polaroid CM Skip works on the Accurian when playing Polaroid's discs. Polaroid discs CM Skip have not worked on at least two players (low sampling I know). The same goes for FF at more than 2X, Polaroid likes to jump ahead at 5-10 minutes.

Accurian can do VCD and SVCD (only to disc, not to HDD). Polaroid can't. Who cares, though, those formats seem irrelevant to me and a waste of time since DVD-R availability and cost have erradicated the difference.

Polaroid has the foul-language or whatever Guardian which might be desired if children are involved, though it's subscription-based.

Neither have a TV Guide feature of any sort which I actually consider a Pro since I would rather have a simpler system and do things myself PLUS others have had trouble with these features on other machines.

The Accurian is a rebranded Lite-On model that seems to be respected among users of that or similar model.

Replacing HDD in Polaroid is a snap and allows for apparently unilimited capacity. Repacing HDD in Accurian is a snap but limits to 80GB regardless of HDD size (at least that has been reported).

Accurian seems to have simplified the Music/Video/Picture interface. I find this a who-cares? issue.

One major difference is that the Polaroid can multitask while the Accurian will let you do only one thing at a time. For instance, the Polaroid can record from a source while you burn titles to DVD or run through the Setup menu or delete titles or whatever. The Accurian does only one thing at a time and takes over the machine while doing it.

Both use the same LSI chips so quality should be the same. Both have the same quality/capacity settings (actually Polaroid has a SP+ setting which allows for 2.5 hours).

Both set up easily.

In short: If you are concerned about disc capacity and/or multitasking go with the Polaroid. If you are concerned about noise go with the Accurian. IMO.

These are the things I noticed right away after only a few hours. You probably want more details and others may supply them.


Great comparison! Thanks for shedding some light into these low-priced recorders.

One thing that worries me a bit about the Polaroid is playback of DVDs at beyond 2X FF. Did you try any "Time Slip" features with your dvd players? (By TimeSlip I mean jump to a specific time-point in the recording, or jump X minutes ahead or behind). Do the chapter backwards/forwards work on the other dvd players? If yes, then this could partially alleviate the >2x FF issue.

Quick question

Can you record to to hard drive from tv and record to dvd from another video source at the same time?

There is only one Analog-to-Digital Converter. What you're asking about would require two.

I really should double check before I post

I meant to say withe the Polaroid recorder

Can you record to to hard drive from tv and then record from vcr/dvd to dvd at the same time?

Quick question

Can you record to to hard drive from tv and record to dvd from another video source at the same time?
Once you are recording a channel "from tv," you won't be allowed to select a Line Input to record from another source since that would move the tuner OFF the channel you're recording...channels and LI are mutually exclusive.

You CAN, however, make DVD copies...HDD > DVD...while recording on the HDD (at least on the 53x/63x and 640 Pios).

Great comparison! Thanks for shedding some light into these low-priced recorders.

One thing that worries me a bit about the Polaroid is playback of DVDs at beyond 2X FF. Did you try any "Time Slip" features with your dvd players? (By TimeSlip I mean jump to a specific time-point in the recording, or jump X minutes ahead or behind). Do the chapter backwards/forwards work on the other dvd players? If yes, then this could partially alleviate the >2x FF issue.

I'll try this on my Sony player, if it is an option. That really is a pain to deal with, which is one reason that I bought an additional recorder--that and to avoid dumping to disc altogether.

I just bought the Polaroid DMR 2001G Sunday at Walmart.
Is it supposed to have a fan on the back panel? the pic I've seen has a opening in the back panel for a fan. The one I got doesn't. I've recorded alittle with it and it gets very warm on the top. Should I take it back and try to find one with a fan? Or are they making them now without the fans? There is alittle noise coming from the inside. Do you think maybe there is a fan? I had a problem with another unit that would get very hot. It didn't last long. Please any info would be great. Thanks alot.

Does your unit get hot? Mine gets pretty warm.

How long have you guys had this unit?

I've got another question. When recording from the HDD to DVD, how do you know it's recording? It's says in the manual there's a flashing icon in the upper left hand corner of the screen. But there's not. I have to wait until I hear the disc rotating before I know it's done.

Please I'd really appreciate any information you guys can give me. Thanks alot.

I just bought the Polaroid DMR 2001G Sunday at Walmart.
Is it supposed to have a fan on the back panel? The one I got doesn't. I've recorded alittle with it and it gets very warm on the top. Should I take it back and try to find one with a fan? Or are they making them now without the fans? I had a problem with another unit that would get very hot. It didn't last long. Please any info would be great. Thanks alot.
Does your unit get hot? Mine gets pretty warm.

The fan is internal....relax.

I just bought the Polaroid DMR 2001G Sunday at Walmart.
Is it supposed to have a fan on the back panel?

The fan is on the bottom.

The fan is on the bottom.

The fan is angled off the back panel at approx 45 degrees. I could be wrong but there is no fan on the bottom - at least on the units I have seen.

Out of everyone that has done the HD upgrade on the 2001G has anyone stuck the old drive in their PC to see if it could be read? What format it has (FAT,NTFS,EXT3,Etc)? And Second Has anyone found a way to Pull the files from the unit without having to burn them to DVD then rip them back to HD?

More on the DVD-R.

Last night, I had ran out of open +R's and I got out a -R and put if in to burn one title too. It failed. But I don't think it is a unsupported type issue. I have suspect these verbatim disks to be bad. When I told it to record, off it went without a bad word, but after 30 mins it had not finished, so I decided to let it just go as long as I could stand it. I went to bed and got up this morning, and it still had the symbol on that it was recording. So 10 hrs was as long as I could stand it so I TRIED to power off the unit . 1st with the remote then with the power switch. All it would do is blink at me. So I unplugged it. After it powered on and I ejected the disk. The disk was cool, So I know it was not trying to write all night. The disk was about half written.

One thing I have not checked yet is to see if the title was recorded at the same quality as what I was trying to burn it to the DVD as.

The fan is angled off the back panel at approx 45 degrees. I could be wrong but there is no fan on the bottom - at least on the units I have seen.

Thanks for the info on the fan.
Now I've got another question, is the fan suppossed to run 27/7? The only time it's not running is when I unplug the unit.
Have I gotten a bad recorder?

I've got another question. When recording from the HDD to DVD, how do you know it's recording? It's says in the manual there's a flashing icon in the upper left hand corner of the screen. But there's not. I have to wait until I hear the disc rotating before I know it's done.

Sure hope someone can help me out. Thanks so much for all the information on the recorder. Thanks guys.

Not that I am a Polaroid owner. But I believe the fan should not be running when it is powered off.

Mine doesn't run when turned off so either you have a problem or they made some major changes to the later production units. I have a early one with the loud fan and weak remote.

I just burned a DVD-R with chapters with no problems. It is interesting that the manual says it will only work with DVD-RW, but that is obviously not true. I also changed the title and title picture, again with no issues.

Another item of interest. We watched the show on the HD and my wife wanted it on disk.

I did everything while watching the process on my projection TV, so everything was visible, including the upper left icon that shows recording to DVD in progress. The show was a 1 1/2 hour show recorded in SP. I had to split the show since the total length on the HD was 2 hours (did not want to miss the end if they went over).

I entered five minute chapters by using the chapter forward button on the remote (I have the HD set for 5 min chapters). It was a simple and quick operation. Then changed the title and menu picture and burned the result. In all everything took less than 1/2 hour and the disk played flawlessly. Plus I watched the Steelers/Jags game while the burning took place, so the actual effort was about 10 minutes, max.

I am enthusiastic about the Polaroid. I especially like the "time shift" feature which is like owning a Tivo. If I want to break from watching, just push pause and come back within an hour. Did you know that the commercial skip button will advance almost exactly from one play to the next on an NFL game? Amazing how quickly you can get through a game and miss nothing except the between play chatter.

Another excellent feature is you can watch a recorded show while the live show is saved on time shift, so you miss nothing (unless the recorded show is more than one hour).

Plus 20 scheduled programs with none of the scheduling problems of my Panny es-20.

I have read of the problems setting a cut point in a show. I often split shows and have had no problems. I just hit pause and then push pause repeatedly until I am at the point I want to split. No problem.

Ok I said I wouldn't post to this thread again after the stereo discussion with WABJXO. You were right in questioning the issue over stereo since you were considering dropping 200 bucks on this recorder, but a non stereo tuner was a deal buster for you. I apologize. I wish it would have been stereo too.
Now the good news. I have done much research on this recorder from VCDhelp, yahoo forums, and Doom9. This recorder is a tweakers dream come true. I have modified the fan, upgraded the HD, found backup DVD writers(Sony/BTC) for this machine, using a VCR as a work around for the stereo issue and doing the remote control modification(276-143) from radio shack.
Now the best news, as posted earlier by NEXTOO. The Phillips DVP642/37 will in fact make a backup copy of a DVD and VHS tape(which I own) with firmware 0531.
PQ is outstanding. I really believe this is one of the sleepers on the market. I went to CC and got the 642 for 50 bucks installed the "old" firmware(i could only find the chinese version) which works. Connected it up to the 2001g via composite and s-video. I made backups of Star Wars III(to long 2hr 15min working on it), Zathura(under 2hr), and Brothers Grimm(under 2hr.) to Verbatium +R,-R, and +RW. They played perfect on all my players. Yesterday I went to CC and bought another 642 as a backup. Hell 50 bucks what could I lose. I'll be checking the pawn shops for an even better deal. These 642's are nice DVD playback machines, I've read they play DivX well and are region free. I have a polaroid LCD TV and everything looks great on it. Anyone that can help me get a 2hr+ movie on a single disk please chime in. Thanks to NEXTOO, VHELP and KTH for all their knowledge.

Remember kiddies it's not what you don't know, It's knowing where to look. :D (old fart with time on his hands)

thanks all
Magic

KHCV63, thanks for your post. Please forgive my ignorance, but are you making direct copies from the 642 Player to the Polaroid's DVD Burner as I am assuming?

To get a 2.5 hr. (or 3hr., or 4hr.) movie on to one disc might it be possible to record from the 642 to the Polaroid's HDD at the 2.5 hr. mode (or 3hr, or 4hr. as needed) and then "dump" it to a 2hr. DVD blank? Just asking, not sure myself.

FullOnShred

Yes to your question. My only problem is, no matter what recording speed I choose, it shows up as the same length as the movie on the Hdd. The Hdd will show more space available. I haven't tried direct to disk yet.

Magic

[QUOTE=To get a 2.5 hr. (or 3hr., or 4hr.) movie on to one disc might it be possible to record from the 642 to the Polaroid's HDD at the 2.5 hr. mode (or 3hr, or 4hr. as needed) and then "dump" it to a 2hr. DVD blank? Just asking, not sure myself.[/QUOTE]

That is the way it is supposed to work. Each setting (1hr. 2hr (SP), 2.5 hr...) is what will fit at that "bit rate" on a single sided DVD. So if you set it for the 2.5 hr mode, you will get 2.5 hrs of video on the DVD.

I don't think the Polaroid is smart enough to look at bit rates vs the actual time of the movie.

Magic

I don't think the Polaroid is smart enough to look at bit rates vs the actual time of the movie.

Magic

I don't own the Polaroid, I own the Philips 3455/37 though I have read a bit and it seems they are quite similar in some ways. If you can choose different HDD recording "qualities" as you can with the Philips, what I suggested should probably work. With the Philips you go into the menus to choose what recording "quality" you want for all harddrive recordings. I have done this with VHS recordings copied to the HDD and it worked ok on the Philips. YMMV. Regardless, I really appreciate all that you and others post about the Polaroid, and I have learned things in this thread that have helped me with my Philips unit. Thanks, Guys!!

The Polaroid records just like all DVD recorders. If you have something you would like to record that is 2hr 15mins and would like to burn it to one DVD then choose the SP+ mode. This will allow you to record up to 2.5 hours to one DVD. The Polaroid has the following recording mode options which allow you to burn the time referenced onto one disc.:

HG (high quality) 1 hr
SP (standard play) 2 hrs
SP+ (standard play) 2.5 hrs
EP (extended play) 3hrs
LP (long play) 4 hrs
SLP (super long play) 6 hrs

Recording modes are on page 21 of the Polaroid manual.

So again what this means is that if you want to record something that is 3hr and 45mins and want to burn it to one disc then set the Polaroid to record in the LP mode. The LP mode will allow you to burn it to one DVD (up to 4 hours). The longer the mode you choose however the lower the quality of your resulting burned DVD. So if you are worried about quality and don't mind burning to two discs then set the mode accordingly, record to the Hard Drive, split the recording and burn to the two discs.

This is not unique to the Polaroid. ALL DVD recorders use this strategy although they each may have bit recording modes unique to the DVD recorder model.
The easiest way to adjust the record mode on the Polaroid is to push the add/clear button on the remote (page 21). This cycles through the various modes. You can also adjust it in the setup menu.

You can either record to the hard drive using the different recording modes or directly to the DVD disc.

Nicely put, nextoo.

I don't think the Polaroid is smart enough to look at bit rates vs the actual time of the movie.

Magic

I put "bit rate" is in quotes. It is the same as the quality, time or mode you set it at. All are the same.

In essence, you are asking for a set bit rate so what you are recoding will fit on the DVD. Most recorders and capture programs have a set bit rate for a set mode/quality/time except for "flexible recording" which uses a variable bit rate.

A firmware upgrade for the Philips DVDR3455H/37 has been posted for about a month now on the Philips site here:

http://www.usasupport.philips.com/productDocuments.html?ProductCode=DVDR3455H/37&subCat=DVD_RECORDERS_SU_US_CONSUMER

The Polaroid and the Philips are essentially the same unit from a production stand point. Take a look at the Philips manual. The menu structure of the two units is pretty much identical. Here's the Philips manual:

http://www.p4c.philips.com/na4/d/dvdr3455h_37/dvdr3455h_37_dfu_aen.pdf

Who feels lucky? By that I mean does anybody feel like trying to install the Philips firmware on the Polaroid machine? I may give it a try. I've done cross machine firmware upgrades successfully before (cyberhome-ilo-trutech, apex-ge-sampoo, for example).

The biggest upside could be the larger time shift buffer. Down side would probably be a loss of unlimited yesdvd. Anyting else that anyone can think of?

Does anybody know if the Philips can be upgraded with a larger hard drive like the Polaroid? If not then the Philips firmware is a no go in my mind.

... Now the best news, as posted earlier by NEXTOO. The Phillips DVP642/37 will in fact make a backup copy of a DVD and VHS tape(which I own) with firmware 0531....Magic
Are you saying this Phillips player is really a dvd-writer once you upgrade with 0531 firmware?! Maybe I'm mis-reading something.... Please tell me I'm wrong. :confused:

redjr....

I tried it but I think we need to rename the file to get it to even try to work. Not sure what to rename it but something similar to what it is now with the polaroid naming scheme subbed for the philips one in it now. It might also need some hex editing and I wasn't feeling like going that far on a chance just yet. Would be nice to get vcrplus and maybe get the tuner working in stereo, not sure if that unit has stereo but seems some say it does.
It didn't hurt the unit, but didn't work either so far.

I got a DRM2001G in July and wonder if anyone has had this problem...sometimes after I finalize a disc the box locks up - I can't even power off. I figure it is because the media is bad but wonder if there is any way to get the machine to reset without unplugging the power cord - which is what I have had to resort to so far. Any suggestions would be appreciated...Thanks

I got a DRM2001G in July and wonder if anyone has had this problem...sometimes after I finalize a disc the box locks up - I can't even power off. I figure it is because the media is bad but wonder if there is any way to get the machine to reset without unplugging the power cord - which is what I have had to resort to so far. Any suggestions would be appreciated...Thanks

What type of discs are you using? Is it happening with all the brands and types of media you use or only with some specific ones?

I just burned a DVD-R with chapters with no problems. It is interesting that the manual says it will only work with DVD-RW, but that is obviously not true. I also changed the title and title picture, again with no issues.

Another item of interest. We watched the show on the HD and my wife wanted it on disk.

I did everything while watching the process on my projection TV, so everything was visible, including the upper left icon that shows recording to DVD in progress. The show was a 1 1/2 hour show recorded in SP. I had to split the show since the total length on the HD was 2 hours (did not want to miss the end if they went over).

I entered five minute chapters by using the chapter forward button on the remote (I have the HD set for 5 min chapters). It was a simple and quick operation. Then changed the title and menu picture and burned the result. In all everything took less than 1/2 hour and the disk played flawlessly. Plus I watched the Steelers/Jags game while the burning took place, so the actual effort was about 10 minutes, max.

I am enthusiastic about the Polaroid. I especially like the "time shift" feature which is like owning a Tivo. If I want to break from watching, just push pause and come back within an hour. Did you know that the commercial skip button will advance almost exactly from one play to the next on an NFL game? Amazing how quickly you can get through a game and miss nothing except the between play chatter.

Another excellent feature is you can watch a recorded show while the live show is saved on time shift, so you miss nothing (unless the recorded show is more than one hour).

Plus 20 scheduled programs with none of the scheduling problems of my Panny es-20.

I have read of the problems setting a cut point in a show. I often split shows and have had no problems. I just hit pause and then push pause repeatedly until I am at the point I want to split. No problem.

Wow this is good news BeeKeeper! The price makes it very tempting, since I can buy two of this for the price of a Pio/Panasonic, effectively having a dual-tuner system :-)

Wow this is good news BeeKeeper! The price makes it very tempting, since I can buy two of this for the price of a Pio/Panasonic, effectively having a dual-tuner system :-)

There are some problems but I consider them to be in the noise. The character limit on title length and a lousy manual are two. There are many comments that the Polaroid is a mono tuner, but I think there is some confusion since my recordings off the tuner are obviously two channel, and I can hear no difference.

It is not dual layer, but I need to use up all my single sided DVDs anyway. If I want to go that route I can use my computer.

I did look at the quality of the SP recordings I have made and see no difference between the Polaroid and my ES-20. I was going to buy a 55, but glad I did not.

As you may remember from my posts on the ES-20, I was looking for a recorder that would take the place of my VCR. Since I used my VCR mostly for viewing later, the Polaroid has exceeded my expectations. I bought one for my son.

There are some problems but I consider them to be in the noise. The character limit on title length and a lousy manual are two. There are many comments that the Polaroid is a mono tuner, but I think there is some confusion since my recordings off the tuner are obviously two channel, and I can hear no difference.
The Polaroid has a "2-Channel" tuner, but it cannot capture "true stereo" and that is a problem in discussing many audio "problems" with various units.

Most people use the term "stereo" for broadcast TV when they hear 2-channel sound, but true stereo is a mix of channels 1 and 2 of the Multichannel Television Sound (MTS) audio stream. Channel 1 is the "stereo difference" and channel 2 is the original mono (single) sound track. Channel 1 has to be "captured" or recorded at some different position(s) to produce the stereo difference.

Someone used an oscilloscope to test the Polaroid tuner with a known stereo input and showed a pic of the result. It had two channels of audio, but channel 1 was identical to channel 2. This only proved that the Polaroid coluld not produce "true stereo" sound, but it did have 2-channel sound.

There is a good Wikipedia article (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multichannel_television_sound) on MTS if anyone is interested.

My understanding of stereo audio and broadcast TV MTS and more. The information presented is intentionally simplified, so some details are incomplete or slightly inaccurate in the interest of improving reader "understandability."

Whether for TV or audio CD or anything else, stereo audio is recorded (or captured live) by using separate left and right audio channels/sources. The original intent was to emulate the same separation of sound as normally heard/experienced by the human left and right ears, providing the listener with a sense of the directionality of sound sources.

A simple version might start with two separate microphones, one on the left side of the performer(s) and the other microphone on the right side. More complex scenarios involve more microphones (and/or direct connections to audio sources) and an audio mixer/control board used to route each individual source to the left and/or right stereo channel for output.

The audio mixer operator can use a "pan" control to electronically establish the apparent position of an individual source by controlling how much of its audio is sent to the left and right channels. If set for left = 100 and right = 0, the sound all routes to the left output channel. Similarly, if left = 0 and right = 100, the sound all routes to the right channel output. If left = 50 and right = 50, equal amounts of sound are sent to the left and right output channels, making the result sound to the listener like it is in the center rather than to the left or right. Other combinations of values result in apparent "positions" more right or more left, as desired by the performers or producer of the program material.

For audio tape (e.g., cassette), the two left and right stereo channels are parallel but separate tracks on the tape and are output from the player as separate left and right channels.

Other analog and digital technologies emulate that left and right separation in ways that vary as needed for the type of technology and means of transmission.

Broadcast FM radio and broadcast TV both use an approach that supports both "stereo" and mono receivers. This backward compatibility is provided by transmitting audio sum (L+R) and difference (L-R) signals that are electronically derived from the the original stereo audio channels. A mono receiver uses only the "default" sum signal, which contains the left and right stereo channels mixed together. A stereo receiver adds circuitry to also "decode" the difference signal and uses the two signals to recreate the left and right audio channels, by adding or subtracting the difference signal to/from the sum signal. The resulting recreated stereo left and right channels are sent to their respective output jacks or channels of any internal processing circuitry. For the most part, the resulting left and right stereo audio is the same as the original stereo audio in the studio.

From most reports on the Polaroid DVD recorder, it sounds like the internal TV tuner is mono, lacking the ability to decode and use the difference signal to recreate the left and right stereo channels. Instead, the TV tuner module apparently sends identical mixed (sum) audio to the left and right audio circuits used to record DVDs and/or output to external devices. Reports have indicated that the content of the left and right tuner channels is identical when coming from the internal TV tuner. But, recording from external sources using the line inputs does support stereo audio, as long as the source supplied stereo audio.

To enhance stereo audio, Dolby Labs created the means to matrix encode and decode a front center channel and a single rear surround channel. This is accomplished by preprocessing the audio before outputting the separate left and right "stereo" channels for connection and transmission between devices and sites. A Dolby Surround decoder (a.k.a., Dolby Pro Logic in a later, more enhanced version) near the listening end of the audio path extracts and regenerates the center and surround channels from the left and right channels.

This "matrix-encoded" Dolby Surround was initially used for movies in theaters and was later used for TV programs and consumer audio recordings (audio CDs, etc.). On the receiving end, matrix-encoded Dobly Surround is backward compatible with equipment that lacks the Dolby Surround decoding circuitry. So a receiver without Dolby Surround will output normal stereo audio, while a receiver that includes a Dolby decoder will output separate left + right + center + surround channels.

Any device that passes or records and plays back stereo audio inherently preserves the matrixed Dolby Surround. This includes VCRs, audio cassette recorders, audio CD burners and DVD recorders. So even though these devices don't encode or decode Dolby matrixed surround, they all pass it through just fine.

Add to this mix the newer world of Dolby Digital and HDTV. All audio for HDTV is Dolby Digital, either 5.1 or 2.0. DD 2.0 is essentially digitized packaging and carrying of stereo audio. So it can pass matrix-encoded surround just like any other stereo-supporting technology. But there is an added feature with DD 2.0. The originator can set a flag that tells the DD receiver that the DD 2.0 contains matrix-encoded surround. This causes the DD receiver to automatically invoke the Dolby Pro Logic decoder to recreate the center and surround channesl in addition to the left and right stereo channels. Unfortunately, many TV broadcasting stations choose not to enable that matrix surround flag, and many Dolby Digital home A/V receivers will only output stereo (i.e., without center and surround) until either the flag is present or the listener manually switches on the Dolby Pro Logic decoder.

The HDTV receivers that receive the DD 5.1 or 2.0 audio with the TV programs offer DD 5.1-compatible optical or digital coax outputs for connection to a Dolby Digital-capable A/V receiver. But the HDTV receivers also provide analog stereo audio outputs, i.e., left + right stereo RCA jacks. The internal circuitry actually "downmixes" the DD 5.1 audio to matrix-encoded Dolby Surround. DVD players do exactly the same thing. This can be recorded and preserved by our DVD recorders, just like any other matrix-encoded analog stereo audio. So if we started with a DD 5.1 audio source (commercial DVD or HDTV) and recorded it using the analog stereo connections, we still get matrix-encoded Dolby Surround as a result.

Sorry I got a bit carried away here with this long post. Hopefully some readers will find this information interesting and maybe useful.

what make/model (2-port) component switch would be good to connect my sa8300hd cable box to so that I could switch the output to the polaroid or the tv ?

Ideally you would just split the Component Video (& Stereo Audio) signal so both units would receive it at the same time, removing the need to throw a switch.

Technically they are called Distribution Amplifiers.

Here's one from the bottom end of the economy spectrum:

http://www.cablestogo.com/product.asp?cat%5Fid=3104&sku=41065&engine=adwords!654&keyword=%28component+video+splitter1%29

But I can't vouch for the quality of that one.

I have a couple of these and they seem to work just fine:

http://www.opentip.com/products/Atlona_Component_Video_Switch_Black_Silver_AV_Switchs_Audio_ and_Video-151950.html

A search for "Component Video Splitter" will turn up many results.

What type of discs are you using? Is it happening with all the brands and types of media you use or only with some specific ones?


Nextech, now I am going to try Sony (Japan). They are supposed to be better.

Well, my DRM2001G just swallowed a disc and won't give it back. I guess I just got a lemon!

I got a DRM2001G in July and wonder if anyone has had this problem...sometimes after I finalize a disc the box locks up - I can't even power off. I figure it is because the media is bad but wonder if there is any way to get the machine to reset without unplugging the power cord - which is what I have had to resort to so far. Any suggestions would be appreciated...Thanks

Press the power button for 15 seconds. That should recycle the power without having to unplug it.

Out of everyone that has done the HD upgrade on the 2001G has anyone stuck the old drive in their PC to see if it could be read? What format it has (FAT,NTFS,EXT3,Etc)? And Second Has anyone found a way to Pull the files from the unit without having to burn them to DVD then rip them back to HD?

I was not able to read the hard drive. I used a USB connection and the Western Digital drive was recognized but it was "unallocated" under XP. The short story is that I do not think it is possible to pull files off the HDD under XP.

I tried it but I think we need to rename the file to get it to even try to work. Not sure what to rename it but something similar to what it is now with the polaroid naming scheme subbed for the philips one in it now. It might also need some hex editing and I wasn't feeling like going that far on a chance just yet. Would be nice to get vcrplus and maybe get the tuner working in stereo, not sure if that unit has stereo but seems some say it does.
It didn't hurt the unit, but didn't work either so far.

Thanks for the info. It looks like it will be a no go until (if/when) Polaroid comes out with its own update. I'm not going to hold my breath.

Just as a update the BenQ 1620 also works as a replacement burner for it as I just replaced one of mine so I tried it today. It was a bit picky about some crap minus media I had but it did do a couple of test burns OK, and a few it crashed out on, probably when it decided the media wasn't burning well.
Still did about 20 minutes for a 93 percent full disk in SP mode. Also still wouldn't recognize plus Dual layer either even though that burner supports them. Finalizing seemed quite a bit faster if that helps anyone.

Nextech, now I am going to try Sony (Japan). They are supposed to be better.

Taiyo Yuden. The best of the best.

But you usually can't find them in a store. I get mine from supermediastore.com

Fleaman

what make/model (2-port) component switch would be good to connect my sa8300hd cable box to so that I could switch the output to the polaroid or the tv ?



Ideally you would just split the Component Video (& Stereo Audio) signal so both units would receive it at the same time, removing the need to throw a switch.

Technically they are called Distribution Amplifiers.

Here's one from the bottom end of the economy spectrum:

http://www.cablestogo.com/product.asp?cat%5Fid=3104&sku=41065&engine=adwords!654&keyword=%28component+video+splitter1%29

But I can't vouch for the quality of that one.

I have a couple of these and they seem to work just fine:

http://www.opentip.com/products/Atlona_Component_Video_Switch_Black_Silver_AV_Switchs_Audio_ and_Video-151950.html

A search for "Component Video Splitter" will turn up many results.

Or you can just hook up the Polaroid between your cable box and TV, so that it is in-line.

I have mine like this and I only turn on the Polaroid when I want to record something worth burning a DVD for (my cable box is a DVR). The Polaroid passes signal when it is off.

Fleaman

Today the fan noise increased dramatically on the Polaroid, so now I understand why some returned the unit. This would have been a killer for me if the noise had been there when I first bought it.

It is probably a fan mount problem, so will check it out, or replace the fan as also posted here.

(A day later) See my post below, but the fan noise is now back to normal and have no idea what happened.

Or you can just hook up the Polaroid between your cable box and TV, so that it is in-line.

I have mine like this and I only turn on the Polaroid when I want to record something worth burning a DVD for (my cable box is a DVR). The Polaroid passes signal when it is off.

Fleaman

thanks. So with this pathway the Polaroid doesn't interfere with the HD signals when the polaroid is off ? And there are no macrovision issues with this unit in the middle ?

Here's my experience with the Polaroid and HD pass through.

With the unit off:

I am able to set my HD cable STB (SA 8300HD) to 1080i with no problems. The Polaroid does not affect the signal passing through. The television displays as 1920*1080 (60i)

With the unit on:

- I am able to set the STB to 1080i and the television will display it as 720*480 either 60i or 60p (depending on if I have progressive enabled on the Polaroid) only when using composite or s-video into the Polaroid. The output to the television is via component connections. So in to the Polaroid at 1080I via composite and s-video then out to the television via component seems to work fine.

- With the STB set to 1080i the Polaroid (when turned on) will not pass the signal trough when using the component input. The STB must be set to 480i for component input to work. The television will then display this configuration as 720*480 (60i or 60p).

All the above configurations have the Polaroid outputting to the HD television via component. Hopefully this makes sense. It is a bit confusing I admit.

For SD signals I believe there are no problems with the Polaroid configured between the STB and a television.

great, that is what I was looking for. Looks like I don't need the component switch (thanks for the info bobkart) but rather I could use the passthrough instead.

This is the first model of DVD Recorder that not only pass through A/V when turned off, but passes HD signals too. Glad to see they are finally getting smart about such things.

bobkart -have you also independently confirmed this? I am too lazy to read a lot of thread.

No not at all, just going by what is being reported here.

Today the fan noise increased dramatically on the Polaroid, so now I understand why some returned the unit. This would have been a killer for me if the noise had been there when I first bought it.

It is probably a fan mount problem, so will check it out, or replace the fan as also posted here.

If the fan is Ok and you don't want to try another one try some rubber o rings or make your own like I did out of some old carb vacuum port plugs cut into sections, dropped my noise about 50 percent.
Have a few other fans I might try at lower voltage too as they scream but move at least twice the air this one does.

No not at all, just going by what is being reported here.
Bob Kart et al, If this is true ,what would the relevence be as far as video quality(for HD programs) compared to regular s-video input on our units? I may try to pick up one of these and try it - several months ago I had one with very loud fan noise and bad remote (before the recall). I might try to get one without those problems ,if possible.

I have to assume it will still only record 480i despite passing HD signals through.

So I think the implications are no more than they would be for, say, a Sony model that also accepts Component Video. Upsides would be:

- ability to send it nonletterboxed 16:9 material
- slightly better source picture quality

I think that's it as far as advantages over S-Video input go. Assuming I have understood your question of course.

I have to assume it will still only record 480i despite passing HD signals through.

So I think the implications are no more than they would be for, say, a Sony model that also accepts Component Video. Upsides would be:

- ability to send it nonletterboxed 16:9 material
- slightly better source picture quality

I think that's it as far as advantages over S-Video input go. Assuming I have understood your question of course.

Of course if you have a 16:9 WS TV for playback and your DVDR flags 16:9 for recording there would be no advantage, right?
And the slightly better source picture quality(component input at 480I)- Has this ever been demonstrated and proven in tests as far as burning a DVD-R or other?

I don't quite understand the first question. What I was trying to say was that, if you happen to have an STB that won't send non-letterboxed video over the S-Video output (but will send it over Component Video), then the ability to accept Component Video by the recorder will allow recording of "full screen" 16:9 material, whereas you can't if you can only accept S-Video input. If your STB (or whatever 16:9 source you may have) can send non-letterboxed video out its S-Video output, then all the ability to accept Component Video by the recorder gives you is a very slight improvement in picture quality. It is certainly theoretically better, and I have been able to see slightly better picture quality between S-Video output and Component Video output to my 52" HDTV. The concrete example was when I switched my Panasonic E85 from S-Video to Component Video (to make room for the Pioneer 633), I noticed that the very thin vertical lines that appear in the timeline area when editing a Title on the HDD were actually not both white, one was a light yellow instead, using S-Video they both appeared white. This is easily explained by the improved Picture Quality of Component Video over S-Video, because where the difference would be most noticeable would be in the color accuracy since that's where the extra signal bandwidth of Componet Video was added.

Actually all the HD STB's that I have had send non letterboxed from component IF that is what is downsourced from the cable co, or SAT company and movie or channel. At least that is what my experience has been. Subject to stupidity of course. :) Got plenty. In the last part of your statement you address component and s-vid OUTPUT- That is different to me(it's not being recorded on a separate unit-it is straight through) and I agree (more than you) component output from a DVD player or from STB to TV is definitely superior. In fact my wife thinks that component is better than HDMI from our HD Dish 211 to the 2005 42 inch Plasma. Could be.

bobkart -have you also independently confirmed this? I am too lazy to read a lot of thread.

Let me try this one more time. Like I said the various combinations can appear confusing.

Yes the Polaroid will pass an a/v signal when turned off. It will pass an HD signal via component. For example 1080i - when turned off.

With the Polaroid turned on my STB (SA 8300HD) can be set to 1080i and the Polaroid will pass the signal using composite and s-video inputs into the Polaroid. But is a no go at 1080i via component inputs into the Polaroid. For component input into the Polaroid the STB must be set to 480i.

When the STB is set at 480i and the Polaroid is recording HD (I mean an HD channel - not true HD but 480i) via component input the result is a full 16x9 recording - no letterbars. When recording via composite or s-video there are letter bars when recording an HD channel.

All of the combinations mentioned above display at 720*480 as reported by the television - except when the Polaroid is turned off. With the unit turned off the 1080i is passed through in its full glory - 1920*1080.

It just hit me so I should mention/correct this. I have only used a component connection from the Polaroid to the television. I cannot therefore confirm that the Polaroid will pass an a/v signal when turned off if not using a component connection to the television.

Today the fan noise increased dramatically on the Polaroid, so now I understand why some returned the unit. This would have been a killer for me if the noise had been there when I first bought it.

It is probably a fan mount problem, so will check it out, or replace the fan as also posted here.

I turned the Polaroid back on and it is quiet again and has been that way for a day, so I have no idea what happened. If it comes back, will inform.

BTW did another DVD-R with chapters and played it on my panny DVD home theater player and worked fine, so I see no good reason to buy a bunch of DVD+R disks but can use my stock of DVD-Rs.

Let me try this one more time. Like I said the various combinations can appear confusing.

Yes the Polaroid will pass an a/v signal when turned off. It will pass an HD signal via component. For example 1080i - when turned off.

With the Polaroid turned on my STB (SA 8300HD) can be set to 1080i and the Polaroid will pass the signal using composite and s-video inputs into the Polaroid. But is a no go at 1080i via component inputs into the Polaroid. For component input into the Polaroid the STB must be set to 480i.

When the STB is set at 480i and the Polaroid is recording HD via component input the result is a full 16x9 recording - no letterbars. When recording via composite or s-video there are letter bars when recording HD.

All of the combinations mentioned above display at 720*480 as reported by the television - except when the Polaroid is turned off. With the unit turned off the 1080i is passed through in its full glory - 1920*1080.

It just hit me so I should mention/correct this. I have only used a component connection from the Polaroid to the television. I cannot therefore confirm that the Polaroid will pass an a/v signal when turned off if not using a component connection to the television.

Nexttoo- lets forget about units being turned off(do not care about that)- I have had numerous people I know that had or have this unit(polaroid) and they cannot even get it to show a component signal from their STB to the polaroid and then to their TV much less recording a signal. In fact many cannot even get a TV signal through component INPUT on the polaroid with SAT. You are a first with land cable. More power to you but I would like to see some current Dish HD and Direct TV HD boxes do this. Plus a lot of STB land cable boxes will not do this. Mucho more confirmation needed. Appreciate your attempt and post though.

Nexttoo- lets forget about units being turned off(do not care about that)- I have had numerous people I know that had or have this unit(polaroid) and they cannot even get it to show a component signal from their STB to the polaroid and then to their TV much less recording a signal. In fact many cannot even get a TV signal through component INPUT on the polaroid with SAT. You are a first with land cable. More power to you but I would like to see some current Dish HD and Direct TV HD boxes do this. Plus a lot of STB land cable boxes will not do this. Mucho more confirmation needed. Appreciate your attempt and post though.

Thanks for the support. Actually having the unit turned off and have it pass a 1080i signal is a real plus for me. I prefer this as opposed to a switch box. I run component into the Polaroid from the STB then component to my HD television. It makes it simple stupid for me - which is a requirement lol.

I have no experience with Dish or Direct TV - so I cannot speak to that. My cable box, as mentioned, is a SA 8300HD. It is from TWC running Passport.

What I mention in previous posts is working fine. When testing I had the following setup:

The STB allows me to run composite, s-video, and component output at the same time. So I hooked up all three to the Polaroid simultaneously. One analog audio to the Polaroid worked for the three video inputs. I then used a component connection to the television.

I then tried various output formats from the STB. I should mention here that there were problems passing through 720p. I'm guessing that the Polaroid needs and interlaced signal. I then toggled the Polaroid through the three video inputs and noted the results accordingly.

edit -

I was wrong on the 720p. By coincidence I purchased a new HD television yesterday and hooked it up last night. I just tried setting the STB to 720p with the Polaroid off (sorry) and it is passing the signal to the television just fine. I'm guessing the problem was with the previous television - recall it working at one point and then had a problem with it..

Here's a more organized review of my experience so others can compare their results if they attempt the same. The setup is the following:

- TWC SA8300HD STB running Passport Software
- Polaroid 2001G recorder
- Philips 37PF7320A LCD HD television
- Sanyo HT30744 HD television

The STB video output to the Polaroid via composite, s-video, component video. One analog audio output from the STB to the Polaroid. Component output from the Polaroid to the television (currently the Philips, previously the Sanyo).

Results -

480i output on the STB: All three inputs on the Polaroid display to the television via the before mentioned component connection. Able to record using the three inputs on the Polaroid.

480p output on the STB: The composite and the s-video Polaroid inputs display fine on the television. The component input displays as a "double image". Able to record using all three inputs (but why record the "double image").

720p output on the STB: The composite and the s-video Polaroid inputs display fine on the television. No image when using the component input. Recording works fine using the Polaroid composite and s-video inputs. Did not attmpt via component.

1080i output on the STB: The composite and the s-video inputs display fine on the television. The component input does not display. Recording works fine using the composite and the s-video inputs. Did not attempt via component.


That's it in a nut shell. I can't figure out how to display the resolution information on the new Philips. The Sanyo displayed all results as 720*480.

One more note - pass through with the Poloroid turned off: 480i, 480p, 720p, 1080i all passed through the Polaroid to the television with no problems (again using a component connection from the Polaroid to the television).

Here's an update (I happen to have a bit of time on my hands today...lol)

Sorry for all the posts. But decent news I think. This relates to pass through (when the Polaroid is powered off) which is a different animal that what I wrote about in my last post.

As far as pass through is concerned when the Polaroid is off. Pass through is not isolated to just the component out of the Polaroid. I was able to pass through using composite and s-video output from the Polaroid to the television as well. This worked when my SA8300HD was tested with all available output formats - 480i, 480p, 720p, 1080i. My new Philips television has aux side inputs so it makes it easier to test. But the Philips does not allow me to see what the resolution is.

BUT, in order for pass though to work the device MUST be connected to the Polaroid's component inputs. Pass through will not work when a device is connected to the Polaroid via its composite or s-video inputs.

Also I disconnected the SA8300HD STB and replaced it with a Philips 642 DVD player (connected to the Polaroid via component connections). The Polaroid passed the DVD video to the television with the Polaroid turned off.

Just wanted to chime in here.... I picked up one of these at Wal Mart this weekend. I've had a couple days to play with it.

I'm a first time DVD Recorder user, so alot was new to me and WOW, what a manual!! Luckly, I'm not a complete dumbo or I would have been lost.

No fan noise on my unit (yet) and it is in my bedroom, so we will see if it starts acting up. The remote is simply the worst I have ever used.

I have this set up using a E* box, a CRT Mit 32" and a VCR. Thinking of getting another Polaroid for the front room to use with my Sony 50" and E* 622 HD Box. I basically got this to free up space on the 622 and to be able to archive old VHS tapes and SD broadcast shows off of E*.

Still in the learning stages, but recorded a Tonight show last night and was able to segment out the commercials this morning before work. Not too hard, kind of a pain... but with some more practice, all should be ok. I'll see tonight how well the segment points worked when I play it back.

Next I will be testing out the DVD burning stuff.

I have one quick question...

My wife has a ton of old VHS tapes that have assorted craft shows and god knows what else. She would like to get these on DVD is some type of order.

My thinking is to copy from VHS to Hard Drive... then split shows into titles if multiple shows are on one VHS. If only one show is on a VHS, then I have one Title.

Sometimes there may be only parts of a VHS that she wants to keep, so we could segment out the bad and the keeper part would become a small size Title.

Then, I can burn multiple tiltles to DVD, depending on how much space I have on the DVD?

It is my understanding that I can not combine Titles and this is not a problem as I will have multiple titles (projects) on a DVD that can be selected during playback.

I dont think chapters will come into play that much, so the automatic chapter function should work fine. This means I can High Speed Dub to DVD?

I am thinking that once I get a few VHS recordings on the HD, then I can (after creating new titles) pick which titles I want on a DVD.

Is my thinking correct?

Thanks for any input.

Ron

Nexttoo- lets forget about units being turned off(do not care about that)- I have had numerous people I know that had or have this unit(polaroid) and they cannot even get it to show a component signal from their STB to the polaroid and then to their TV much less recording a signal. In fact many cannot even get a TV signal through component INPUT on the polaroid with SAT. You are a first with land cable. More power to you but I would like to see some current Dish HD and Direct TV HD boxes do this. Plus a lot of STB land cable boxes will not do this. Mucho more confirmation needed. Appreciate your attempt and post though.

I think most of those people had component on progressive (as many times it is), the Polaroid (or any other dvd recorder I believe) will only accept 480i.

I'm using the component inputs/outputs (Polaroid between cable box and TV) with no problems (interlaced of course).

Fleaman

I think most of those people had component on progressive (as many times it is), the Polaroid (or any other dvd recorder I believe) will only accept 480i.

I'm using the component inputs/outputs (Polaroid between cable box and TV) with no problems (interlaced of course).

Fleaman


Yes this may be true. Make sense to me.

After further reflection and a hard knock on the head it is obvious that my SA8300HD STB outputs only 480i via s-video and composite regardless of what the output is set at on the STB - duh of course.

When using the component out of the STB it must be set on 480i output for the Polaroid to be able to see the component signal and record.

But the Polaroid does allow me to pass through a 1080i signal to my television when the Polaroid is turned off - which is a plus. I am able to have the Polaroid between my STB and my television and am still able to watch the television in 1920*1080.

So I am left with two choices when I want to record. 1. If I want to record via component then I adjust the STB to 480i. 2. If I'm lazy and do not want to take the time adjust the STB to 480i then the STB can stay with the 1080i output mode and I am able to record via s-video or composite.

I have found that I prefer the quality of the recording via component at 480i. The S-video quality is very good though.

As I am looking for another more modern HDD unit to replace my 2003 Panny E-80( Great and still a workhorse but a slow burner), I picked up one of these at Wally today. I will be testing it and thanks for everyones experience and insight so far. Now if I can just comprehend that Philips type interface and the remote. :)

I was reading the Polaroid manual and wondering how do you transfer a +RW disc to the HDD- what are the steps on the remote? And is it in high speed mode? Lossless? I could not find anything in the manual, which such manual sucks huge,btw. Was not the manual part of the original recall? For some reason I am having trouble downloading the online manual to ascertain if it is revised.

I was reading the Polaroid manual and wondering how do you transfer a +RW disc to the HDD- what are the steps on the remote? And is it in high speed mode? Lossless? I could not find anything in the manual, which such manual sucks huge,btw. Was not the manual part of the original recall? For some reason I am having trouble downloading the online manual to ascertain if it is revised.

Are you talking internal transfer? I think in some earlier post, someone was talking about this not being able to do that.

On page 9 it shows the connection for Recording External Signals for both the front and rear connections.

Nothing specific in the manual.... but I believe you just set up a separate DVD player as a input. Kinda like a VCR. Use the inputs on the front panel or straight in from the back.

When you are ready to record, follow the steps in the manual to record and select the input that you hooked up the dvd player to and it should record.

Hope this helps. Sounds to me like it will be in real time and not high speed.

Ron

Asot- Yes of course- internal transfer- Does this unit have the capability to take a +RW disc burned on this unit or another unit and transfer it back to the HDD lossless? Pannys and Pioneers have had this capability on DVD-RAM and DVD-RW,respectively, for years. If it does not this is a huge critical engineering downfall on the Polaroid. I have a bunch of +RWs burned on other units- cannot I transfer them to this units HDD? It also brings up a core question- This is a Philips machine branded as a Polaroid- do any Philips HDDS have this capability? I would wager not but I do not own any 2004-6 Philips so we will leave that question to those who do.

Asot- Yes of course- internal transfer- Does this unit have the capability to take a +RW disc burned on this unit or another unit and transfer it back to the HDD lossless? Pannys and Pioneers have had this capability on DVD-RAM and DVD-RW,respectively, for years. If it does not this is a huge critical engineering downfall on the Polaroid. I have a bunch of +RWs burned on other units- cannot I transfer them to this units HDD? It also brings up a core question- This is a Philips machine branded as a Polaroid- do any Philips HDDS have this capability? I would wager not but I do not own any 2004-6 Philips so we will leave that question to those who do.

I do not believe that you can do this but why would you want to :) ? The Polaroid has probably the worst set of editing tools out there. The menu system is cumbersome and the remote speaks for itself.

Remember it is a low end piece of equipment. I believe it is one of the cheapest hard drive recorders out there in terms of price. Once I finally get something transfered off of the Polaroid I'd never want to return it back to the unit!

For a heavy user I don't think it would ever really satisfy as a primary HDD recorder.

Asot- Yes of course- internal transfer- Does this unit have the capability to take a +RW disc burned on this unit or another unit and transfer it back to the HDD lossless? Pannys and Pioneers have had this capability on DVD-RAM and DVD-RW,respectively, for years. If it does not this is a huge critical engineering downfall on the Polaroid. I have a bunch of +RWs burned on other units- cannot I transfer them to this units HDD? It also brings up a core question- This is a Philips machine branded as a Polaroid- do any Philips HDDS have this capability? I would wager not but I do not own any 2004-6 Philips so we will leave that question to those who do.

I looked for the capability and it is not mentioned in the manual (but that tells you little) nor have I found it in the DVD menu.

BTW, I have a harmony remote and you do not need to point the remote at the Polaroid to change functions. The OEM remote is exceptionally directional and nearly worthless.

I picked one of these up last night. Using it with Sharp M20x projector and HD-cable box from Comcast. I had a Philips DVD recorder previous that never worked well. I compared picture quality from a DVD recording from the previous Philips through component input versus the HDD drive recording also through component input of the same show. Both were using the 2 hour compression (SD I think?) and viewed using component output. Anyways, the PQ of the HDD was much better than the DVD recording. Also, I am using a remote repeater from RadioShack as my equipment is in a closet with the projector. With the repeater, I am able to use the remote fine. I have no noise issues that I noticed (but it's in a closet). Ditto everyone else on the un-user friendliness of the unit.

I'll post more when I get a chance.

Has anyone had any issues with sound dropouts with the Polaroid? By this, I mean that when watching regular TV (Dish via S-Video/RCA audio into Polaroid and then out to surround receiver), the sound all of a sudden goes away. A power-cycle of the Polaroid fixes the issue. But, this just happened twice in about 40 minutes after the Polaroid had been off all day.

Also, I have noticed that the sound does NOT pass through the Polaroid when off via RCA connections in the back. In order to hear sound from the satellite, we have to have the recorder on. If the sound dropout issues persist, I may split the audio signal so that there's any easy bypass route so my wife doesn't freak out (like she just did during the Biggest Loser!)

Ok, I finished my video quality testing of the Polaroid vs my 2005 Pioneer 531. I recorded to a +RW and a -RW respectively,same HD channel feed(Discovery Channel),same time, at HQ and at 2 hours and 30 minutes. Playback of burned discs was on the Panny S-97 dvd player which is top ten in Secrets tests and a 2005 HD Sony CRT display. The Polaroid is probably the closest yet to the Pio which is the best so far at 3 hours and under. It was superb with its LSI domino chip. Just excellent. It is just a shame that it has other problems i.e. remote,op manual,interface etc. I will be doing other tests for a while and will post them in this thread.

I was recording a 3 hour and 21 minute movie tonight to the HDD at SP record mode and the unit stopped at 2 hours and 59 minutes(one title) and then continued to record the rest(22 minutes) on a separate title on the HDD. I intended to divide the program into two parts for burning to two discs. Whats up with that? Can you set this unit to record at any speed for more than 3 hours? And what are the remote commands to set if so? This is extremely important in an HDD unit for it to be able to record at least 4-6 hours at a certain speed on the HDD on one title. Does this unit have merge capability?

I am currently testing camcorder quality input(DV) on this unit and comparing it to 2004-6 Panny- Nobody is doing this- I guarantee you if Pola is better I will state it. I am going to compare it to my 2005 ES-20 Panny and Panny 2004 E-500. I need 4 days to give the results- complicated. As an aside there is no button on the remote that changes record mode!! You have to go in to setup???? If true ridiculous. But I still like this polaroid unit solely for its great video record quality. It burns one hell of a great DVD at even 2 hours and 30 minutes which is the holy grail time for DVDRs.

Has anyone had any issues with sound dropouts with the Polaroid? By this, I mean that when watching regular TV (Dish via S-Video/RCA audio into Polaroid and then out to surround receiver), the sound all of a sudden goes away. A power-cycle of the Polaroid fixes the issue. But, this just happened twice in about 40 minutes after the Polaroid had been off all day.

Also, I have noticed that the sound does NOT pass through the Polaroid when off via RCA connections in the back. In order to hear sound from the satellite, we have to have the recorder on. If the sound dropout issues persist, I may split the audio signal so that there's any easy bypass route so my wife doesn't freak out (like she just did during the Biggest Loser!)

I have not had any of the sounds drop outs yet.

My RCA audio passes through with the Polaroid off - this has always been the case for me. If I use the digital sound connection then I have to turn is on.

HoustonGuy - interesting results. You are right I do not believe anyone has taken the time to test the DV input. Also read posts #50 and #53 of this thread. They seem to confirm your testing. Those posts were what motivated me to give the Polaroid a try. I'm going to record at SP and see what happens at the 3 hour mark.

Panny with all of it's enginnering prowess should have embraced and used the LSI logic domino chip in its units for 2006. What could have been. Maybe in 2007-8. Another point on this Polaroid that has not really been discussed is the fact that the LSI chips record full D1 resolution which is very nice on your burned DVDs. Even Panny did not do full D1 until this 2006 year (except for the ES-20 which was a freaky,but very good recorder for quality video 2005 Panny model)