Created my first yesdvd just for kicks. Not bad. Question though.

When I finished recording the DVD it gave me the option of creating the yesdvd. I went right into yesdvd. Could I have edited 1st then returned to create the yesdvd?

I've often using the trick of pressing stop every 5 mins (vs using auto-chapter marking). This way, I get a picture of what's happening and could more easily jump to a scene. Also, I fill a disc a full as possible.

Each time you press stop, a new title is created (though that's not important to me). It is however, nice to get the picture marker -- like any pro DVD. The manual says you can do this using the HDD and editing on RW discs, but I don't want to use them for permanent copies. This means my technique MAY be the only way to get pictured "chapters".

This question may be more for the general DVDR community, but here goes. My last two discs (using Sony +Rs) locked up during finalization. One is readable by the Polaroid (only). The other is complete trash.

I've used this approach consistently since new and I'm on my 2nd unit (D, then K). The first unit starting creating bad quality discs, had a bad remote, etc so I returned it. It too created discs that were unreadable in other machines -- especially -Rs. I decided it was a combination of early machine flaws and bad media.

This time, I'm wondering if I'm not leaving enough empty space FOR THE HIGH NUMBER OF TITLES I'M CREATING. I read where +Rs have more "overhead" room meaning room for chapters, titles, etc... Since the Sonys I'm using never failed in this unit and were way better in the first unit, I'm assuming they're good quality. What I can't assume is that the disc will always have room to finalize (with the high number of "titles").

I also have a loud whining during startup -- which I think is the fan but haven't confirmed yet. (Could be a failing optical drive). When the whining occurs, I can press on the back left corner and significantly change sound. (That's where the fan is). This leads be to believe it's the fan. Then again, maybe the optical drives are weak in these and they can't handle pause/play and stop/play editing very well. Maybe this leads the units to early failure. (Certainly one could assume that's what the HDD is for!) :D

In my case, I've dubbed some failing DVDs and material that is stored to the hard drive in my cable HDD. That makes editing during the transfer to DVD just as easy -- if not easier than going to the Polaroid's HDD first.

Do you think my 2-in-a-row failure to finalize is due to my high title techique, bad media, or a failing player?

I have another unit -- still in the box. If I switch now, I would be assuming it's bad and return it (still have about 45 days).

If I return it, it will be the 2nd bad unit.

If I don't return it, I know it creates great quality DVDs and would need to address repair of internal components. Because the DVDs have been impressive, I may be able to assume the boards are good and the version (software) is good. I have a warranty on this one too -- so I could go down that road. But, it's also less the 90 days old.

Opinions?

gp

The high amount of titles causing failure is the biggest probelm I have with the Polaroid. Even the new one I got. It seems that if I have one or two videos it's o.k. but if I get like 15 and above titles then I get problems. It freezes going into the DVD section, or the disk freezes in other machines, I get failure when the machine switches speed from SP/XP. For example, if I record five shows at SP and then the six show at XP it locks up when it gets to the XP title. Sometimes if it doesn't work I rip it to the computer. I see that all the video is there but when I run a burning program like CloneDVD2 it only sees a few minutes of the first video. After that all other videos read 0:00. Even though you can see the video is there and no burning software I came across can fix this. About the same with DVD Author but that doesn't see any video except for the first one for a few minutes.

Point is, I seem to have most or just about all of these problems not when I make one or two video titles but when it's a disk containing many, many small titles (video) on a disk. i.e. music videos on a disk v.s. one long two hour movie.

I tried Sony -R, TDK +4 and 8 x, etc, etc, and it's all the same. Some seem to have no problems like this but I do and maybe you do too. If that's the case I don't know it's the file structure of all the Polaroids or certain machines?

The high amount of titles causing failure is the biggest probelm I have with the Polaroid. Even the new one I got. It seems that if I have one or two videos it's o.k. but if I get like 15 and above titles then I get problems. It freezes going into the DVD section, or the disk freezes in other machines, I get failure when the machine switches speed from SP/XP. For example, if I record five shows at SP and then the six show at XP it locks up when it gets to the XP title. Sometimes if it doesn't work I rip it to the computer. I see that all the video is there but when I run a burning program like CloneDVD2 it only sees a few minutes of the first video. After that all other videos read 0:00. Even though you can see the video is there and no burning software I came across can fix this. About the same with DVD Author but that doesn't see any video except for the first one for a few minutes.

Point is, I seem to have most or just about all of these problems not when I make one or two video titles but when it's a disk containing many, many small titles (video) on a disk. i.e. music videos on a disk v.s. one long two hour movie.

I tried Sony -R, TDK +4 and 8 x, etc, etc, and it's all the same. Some seem to have no problems like this but I do and maybe you do too. If that's the case I don't know it's the file structure of all the Polaroids or certain machines?

Thanks for the feedback.

You might try a different brand of +Rs and see what happens. (There's some indication that this unit deals with +R's better than -R's. And, I haven't heard that TDK is a "better brand" of disk).

What serial number prefix do you have? How many disks have you made and how long have you owned the machine? Did the problem develop over time or has it been present since new?

My experience is that -Rs have more trouble in other machines....

Each time you press stop, a new title is created (though that's not important to me). It is however, nice to get the picture marker -- like any pro DVD. The manual says you can do this using the HDD and editing on RW discs, but I don't want to use them for permanent copies. This means my technique MAY be the only way to get pictured "chapters".

gp


Why not just record to the HDD, then split to however many titles you want. Record them to DVD. Then you can then choose any frame in a title (on any type of disc) for a picture in the menu.

Why not just record to the HDD, then split to however many titles you want. Record them to DVD. Then you can then choose any frame in a title (on any type of disc) for a picture in the menu.

After re-reading the manual last night, I figured that out. But.....

I'm not conviced that would solve the finalization problem. If it's not the media, the crashing seems to be due to the number of titles I'm using (often over 10).

The manual does not list a limit, but there may be one. The last couple of discs have had the most titles so far.... possibly in excess of 20. Since the last one was trashed, I can go back and see. :( :mad:

FYI, in both cases the finalization said 100% complete, but the display said "DISC" and the unit was locked up. I pressed every button, then had to unplug both times. This is the first time (first two times) I've had to unplug either of my units.

After powering back up, one won't load on the Polaroid. The other won't load in other machines.... The only change seems to be that I'm increasing titles....

gp

[QUOTE]I've often using the trick of pressing stop every 5 mins (vs using auto-chapter marking). This way, I get a picture of what's happening and could more easily jump to a scene. Also, I fill a disc a full as possible.

I am confused. When are you pressing "stop"? Editing on the HDD in the segment mode? Editing on a DVD?

I also have a loud whining during startup -- which I think is the fan but haven't confirmed yet. (Could be a failing optical drive). When the whining occurs, I can press on the back left corner and significantly change sound. (That's where the fan is). This leads be to believe it's the fan. Then again, maybe the optical drives are weak in these and they can't handle pause/play and stop/play editing very well. Maybe this leads the units to early failure. (Certainly one could assume that's what the HDD is for!) :D

Exactly the same noise with my "K" unit. Was the fan not the burner. Confirmed this by direct visualization and by replacing the burner with an external unit!

In my case, I've dubbed some failing DVDs and material that is stored to the hard drive in my cable HDD. That makes editing during the transfer to DVD just as easy -- if not easier than going to the Polaroid's HDD first.

Again I am confused. Sorry :confused: How did you dub DVDs to the cable HDD?

time shift buffer question - when you engage the time shift buffer the time line on the screen shows one hour. But when you press the record button the time line expands to three hours. Is this effectively expanding the time shift buffer to three hours?

Remember that the Polaroid is not supposed to work with -R (and does not work with -RW) so we are getting an extra that may have limits. You might try +R.

It would be interesting to see if the FF problem is solved with +R. My problem is I have all -R and -RW since I started with a Panny which only uses -R and have a lot of them., but do most of my burning on my computer, so no problem.

beekeeper look on the box. -RW is included. Only -R is excluded. But I have had no problems with -R. And I use -RW all the time.

The FF performance is the same with +R. FF performance is a function of how the +VR format has been inplemented with the Polaroid.

time shift buffer question - when you engage the time shift buffer the time line on the screen shows one hour. But when you press the record button the time line expands to three hours. Is this effectively expanding the time shift buffer to three hours?

Yes.

If you just want to use it as a three hour time shift buffer, at the end of you viewing time shift back to the beginning, press stop, and delete the saved short file..

Plus you can select what you want to keep. For instance, at the start of the show you want to keep, press the record button. When you get to the end of the show, press stop and you will save that show. The buffer will then have a start point of where you stopped recording. Anything in the time buffer that was before the show will be lost, but all the accumulated buffer after the show will still be intact.

I often use this feature. Another thing. You can go back in the time buffer, then press record, and the recording starts at that point. If the show is contained within the buffer, you can go to the end, press stop and you have saved the program to the HD and still be able to view what is left in the buffer.

You can also change the channel during recording, say on the hour even if you are still behind real time in your viewing. Unlike when you are watching without recording, the channel will change but you will stay where you are in the buffer. (When not recording, when you change the channel you go to real time and the new channel and have to go back in the buffer to where you were. (BTW, you have to set this feature in the set-up menu- do not dump the buffer when changing channels.).

Very flexible and another reason I see no good reason to be able to chase play scheduled recordings. If I am home watching, I can cancel the scheduled recording (it nicely lets you do that well in advance of the program), go do my thing for a while, chase play back to the start of the program, hit record, chase play and shift channels to my hearts content. When the next show is on, change channels and you can record it also. Try that with most other machines.

beekeeper look on the box. -RW is included. Only -R is excluded. But I have had no problems with -R. And I use -RW all the time.

The FF performance is the same with +R. FF performance is a function of how the +VR format has been inplemented with the Polaroid.

Mine does not recognize -RW (a G). They are Verbatim disks but it may be that old panny files are on them and that is the problem. I know it will not recognize finalized panny -RW DVDs made on my ES-20 with Verbatim -RWs.

Will do a little more experimenting.

Appreciate your work across the board in this forum. Learned a lot from you.

Mine does not recognize -RW (a G). They are Verbatim disks but it may be that old panny files are on them and that is the problem. I know it will not recognize finalized panny -RW DVDs made on my ES-20 with Verbatim -RWs.

Will do a little more experimenting.

Appreciate your work across the board in this forum. Learned a lot from you.

Thanks! Try maxell -RW's. They seem to work fine. I have used them to dub material to both a Toshiba and an Accurian. The Toshiba does not recognize +R media so I was pleased to be able to use -RW's with the Polaroid.

One thing when using -RW media. Unlike +RW's there is a finalization option available when using them with the Polaroid. The -RW needs to be finalized in order for the Toshiba to read them. It can then be erased in the Polaroid for subsequent use.

beekeeper look on the box. -RW is included. Only -R is excluded. But I have had no problems with -R. And I use -RW all the time.

Nextoo & Beekeeper:
The cardboard box my version "K" came in reflects what you're saying.

However, on page #46 of the manual, it states "Supported Recordable Disk Funtions: DVD +R/RW, DVD -R/RW"

Also, there was a glossy page insert that states: "Recordable DVD discs come in 4 formats of disc media that will work in your new Polaroid DVD Recorder: DVD+R, DVD-R, DVD+RW, DVD-RW"

I should mention though that the -R has not worked well in a Sony DVD Player. Haven't tried the +R/RW yet but suspect it may work better in the Sony.

If -RW is supported, I would be surprised if -R was not.

Update on my problem.....

Optical drive failed. Unit #2 heading back to the store. (I already returned a D serialed unit). More discs failed last night while try to determine the problem. One title, one burn, total failure. I noted during finalization that the optical drive sounded noisier (more of a clicking vs smoother whine). It still burned O.K. (checked the burn before finalization).

After finalization, the disc became unreadable. (3 in a row. 3 strikes, you're out).

When I bought this unit, Nextoo (and other posters) have always led me to believe this unit is worth having (keeping). So, I've always had two. The second in case the first dies before 90 days. (Since they are getting scarce, why not have a backup!).

Anyway, unit #2 back in box. Unit #3 is working great. (Unboxed and tried it last night). In fact, it is quieter than units 1 & 2 (D&K serial). This is an H. Before repacking, I swapped HDDs. No reason to lose material, right? :D (Thanks to the HDD swappers for this one!)

DLDSO: My post was referring to copying from external DVD to the Optical Drive. The HDD was not being used. Last night, I spent more time and learned how to copy to HDD, then segment. Very nice....

I guess reading is really a good thing!!!!!!!! :p


Summary:
Unit D... Bad remote, faulty chip/software (contrast issues), -Rs failed. -- returned.
Unit K... Optical drive failure, REALLY noisy fan (it was failing too). -- on its way back to WallyWorld.
Unit H... Crossing fingers. Hoping to find #4 during unit 3 return...

If these burners really are cheap, would I be better off doing the external HDD thing or can a good one be found/added later? How much $$$ for a burner?

Put in a new verbatim -RW and Polaroid took it fine, recorded a program from the HD, finalized it and would played in my panny ES-20.

Put it back in the panny, formated it, recorded a program, finalized it, put it in the Polaroid. It did not play automatically and and I could not get into dvd mode.

So, my problem was as I noted before. Recorded and finalized -RW disks on the es-20 would not play on the Polaroid. I thought it was -RW but it is a problem with -RW from another recorder.

So would someone check this on other recorders- record and finalize a -RW on the other recorder and see if the Polaroid takes it. It seems to be incompatible with the ES-20 recorded -RWs but that may just be that recorder.

Nice to know the Polaroid takes -RW since I have a lot of those and can use them either with the Polaroid or my computer or to the panny. But not the panny to Polaroid.

I erased (erase optical disk) the -RW in the Polaroid and the ES-20 did not recognize the disk. Got an error. Was able to get to the functions menu.

Formatted the disk in the panny and the Polaroid had no problems seeing it and writing to it.

Anyone have any ideas of what is going on?

I erased (erase optical disk) the -RW in the Polaroid and the ES-20 did not recognize the disk. Got an error. Was able to get to the functions menu.

Formatted the disk in the panny and the Polaroid had no problems seeing it and writing to it.

Anyone have any ideas of what is going on?
I may not have time before I head out of town next week to play with my Polo and Tosh KX50 but I'll try to find some. I just got some -RW's to use between the two so the timing of this discussion is great for me to learn more. I'll try to get to it but maybe Yoda nextoo will beat me to the punch.

I erased (erase optical disk) the -RW in the Polaroid and the ES-20 did not recognize the disk. Got an error. Was able to get to the functions menu.

Formatted the disk in the panny and the Polaroid had no problems seeing it and writing to it.

Anyone have any ideas of what is going on?

edit - after looking into it more my original post was wrong so I deleted it.

More for the database. -RW from the Polaroid works fine with my computer (as expected) and the -RW files are easily transferred to the computer's HD. Both dvdshrink and nero extracted the files perfectly.

The -RW recorded in the ES-20 play fine on the computer but the Polaroid will not startup with the recorded and finalized panny -RW or go to dvd when that button is pressed.

The Panny recorded -RW plays in all my players except the Polaroid.

The Polaroid does play Panny finalized -R .

Yes. Your Panasonic is writing to the -RW in VR mode. I don't believe the Polaroid will recognize VR mode discs. This is not uncommon. A lot of DVD players will not recognize a VR mode disc.

The Polaroid on the other hand writes to a -RW disc in +VR mode.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVD_Formats

That explains it. My guess is all panny -RW recorded disks are incompatible with the Polaroid since panny loves that format with -RW and RAM disks ( I have a lot of those too). And my other guess is that -RW from other players will be fine in the Polaroid. The problem is mainly with the pannys.

Thanks for the info.

I bought the DMR-2001G today at Walmart in Pahrump NV and will set it up tomorrow. I hope that I can figure this out. First stab at owning a DVD recorder, so wish me luck.

Thanks for all the help. May be back for more.:)

edit - after looking into it more my original post was wrong so I deleted it.

The Panny manual does show both the -R and -RW to be the same format (DVD-Video format) so there is more going on here than the format.

It would be interesting to see if the Polaroid will recognize -RW burned on other machines.

The other problem was the Panasonic ES-20 does not recognize the Polaroid "erased" -RW but it will recognize a finalized Polaroid -RW.

You can get past the non-recognition on both and erase (Polaroid) or format (panny) the -RW so the -RW is still usable.

The Polaroid will take the Panny finalized -RW and not reject the disk but will not see its contents. It will see that there is something there when you erase the optical disk and carry out the command. It also sees a blank disk when nothing is on the panny formatted -RW.

It is interesting that the problem is only with finalized -RW from the Panny to the Polaroid or erased -RW from the Polaroid to the Panny.

Continuing -RW saga or now for something completely different.

I formated the -RW as a data disk, added a file and the Polaroid accepted the disk and brought up a menu with the file on the menu. Could not go beyond that. The panny did not recognize the disk with a "cannot play". Both could format/erase the -RW.

I erased the disk in the Polaroid and the panny now recognizes the disk but says "the disk is not formatted properly" and asks to format it. It formats it into DVD-RW(V).

Formatted it, put it in the Polaroid and burned a program.

(Learned another interesting feature of the Polaroid- you can be in the middle of a scheduled recording and still burn to a DVD. Pretty impressive.)

Finalized it and it plays in the panny and computer. So the Polaroid recognizes the panny format but the panny does not recognize the Polaroids "erase", even after a panny format.

One other observation. When the Polaroid finalizes the -RW it says it is finalizing a +RW. But it is obviously a -RW since the panny will not play +RW but does play the Polaroid -RW.

I bought the DMR-2001G today at Walmart in Pahrump NV and will set it up tomorrow. I hope that I can figure this out. First stab at owning a DVD recorder, so wish me luck.

Thanks for all the help. May be back for more.:)
Hey, I bought my first only a couple months ago... now I have three (2 Polo's and a Tosh), :D .

Just keep tuned and reading here the folks will help out if you get stuck and little gems of usage wisdom are sprinkled throughout the thread.

Welcome aboard!

Second burn to the new H model occurred last night. (The first had 1 title).

Wanted to see if this one could handle multiple titles well. Put 13 segments on there. Seemed to burn and finalize O.K.

Put in other players and they choked. (Sony, Panny, and GoVideo). Buy what happened, it is clear there is a software issue going on. One player repeated the first 5 seconds over and over. Another player could not read it. The newest (Sony) would skip to the wrong titles, got confused, and eventually locked up.

It also showed 748:45 on the counter. (In other words the counter ran backwards on a reverse chapter/title skip).

This symptom was there for a D, H, and K unit. It is a consistent problem. This unit simply can not deal with much over a half dozen titles. Get used to it.

gp

Good to know - thanks. Wow 13 titles. You are really running it through its paces!

Second burn to the new H model occurred last night. (The first had 1 title).

Wanted to see if this one could handle multiple titles well. Put 13 segments on there. Seemed to burn and finalize O.K.

Put in other players and they choked. (Sony, Panny, and GoVideo). Buy what happened, it is clear there is a software issue going on. One player repeated the first 5 seconds over and over. Another player could not read it. The newest (Sony) would skip to the wrong titles, got confused, and eventually locked up.

It also showed 748:45 on the counter. (In other words the counter ran backwards on a reverse chapter/title skip).

This symptom was there for a D, H, and K unit. It is a consistent problem. This unit simply can not deal with much over a half dozen titles. Get used to it.

gp


You got my interest so i tried burning a disk.
This is on a G series
I placed 10 titles on a FujiFilm -RW
Unfinialized in played on my Tosh XS52 recorder
Finialized it played on the XS52 and also a Tosh 3800 player
All the titles appeared and showed correct times on both player
The video played smooth on both players.
Where i ran into problems is when i was doing a fast forward. Above 2X forward or reverse it would hang or jump to the next title.

Were you using an -R or -RW.

Question to Tosh owners, has anyone been able to do a high speed dub from a disk burned on the Polo to the Tosh?

I have some disks that have 20 - 30+ titles on the disk and I have problems with those. It's weird. Sometimes you can record 11 titles and the 12th messes up the whole disk. Sometimes I can go into the 20s and say number 23 destroys the disk. I think maybe 10 titles is still enough to be sort of o.k. I think I get into problems more often when I go past 10 or 11 titles on a disk. After that I don't know what number it will take to crash and burn the disk. It could be number 13, it could be number 23, etc. That's just my experience with the three units I tried.

OK I got the machine hooked up and recorded on a dvd from hbo. When recording was over I went in to do a finalize but it doesn't give me that option. I recorded on a DVD -R. I am guessing that I don't have to finalize the dvd? I haven't tried to play the dvd on another machine yet.

At least the old lady was able to do this. I have the time shift thing figured out to.

When hooking it up I ran the cable from my sat box to in on the recorder and then out to tv, but I still have to use the Yellow red and white connectors to be able use the recorder with my TV tuned to FRNT.

I thought I would have been able to use it just like my VCR, where the TV is tuned to channel 3 and the VCR set to channel 3, but it just would not work that way. Maybe I will fool around with it again later.

Thanks to all of you for your help.

I have some disks that have 20 - 30+ titles on the disk and I have problems with those. It's weird. Sometimes you can record 11 titles and the 12th messes up the whole disk. Sometimes I can go into the 20s and say number 23 destroys the disk. I think maybe 10 titles is still enough to be sort of o.k. I think I get into problems more often when I go past 10 or 11 titles on a disk. After that I don't know what number it will take to crash and burn the disk. It could be number 13, it could be number 23, etc. That's just my experience with the three units I tried.

So is it the Polaroid or the media or both? If this is not happening with an external burner setup to the Polaroid then you have your answer!

I burned a DVD from the HDD of "Hootie and the Blowfish" for my daughter recorded from HDNet. Already had the retail DVD (too many darn DVDs- I forgot I had it) but it gave me the unique opportunity to compare PQ side to side.

No difference in PQ by my 4 eyes on a 72" DLP! Impressive.

The Polaroid is the only machine I have this problem with many, many titles on one disk regardless of media. I thought it might be the machine but wasn't sure and tried again. Now after three machines pulling the same trick I think it's the machine video structure.

What bothers me the most is that I gave up a chance at a Pioneer 640 to try again with this thinking the 640 would be around all year but now it looks like it won't even be around by next month and I WISH I knew if Pioneer is coming out with a new model this year. I could handle it if I knew they would so I could get a new one at the end of the year but I'm going to be so upset if I either get one now/loose tons of money and they come out with something new later in the year; or if I skip it now and the whole HDD line is going to be discontinued and I'm stuck with the Polaroid. Because right now I'm back to were I started. I'm still using my expensive machines for 100% of the taping and saving using the burners every single day on those. I just don't trust the Polaroid. I could fill it full of stuff and it won't work when I take the disk out. So, right now I'm basically using the Polaroid as a DVR and not as a DVD recorder.

I noticed Pioneer U.K. does have hard drive models with 160g digital tuner, 160g digital turner with HDMI, and the big 500g with digital turner and HDMI. I'm hoping that some version of one of those machines will be a new one offered by them later this year so I can make up for my mistake of sticking with the Polaroid and not getting the 640.

The Polaroid is the only machine I have this problem with many, many titles on one disk regardless of media. I thought it might be the machine but wasn't sure and tried again. Now after three machines pulling the same trick I think it's the machine video structure.

What bothers me the most is that I gave up a chance at a Pioneer 640 to try again with this thinking the 640 would be around all year but now it looks like it won't even be around by next month and I WISH I knew if Pioneer is coming out with a new model this year. I could handle it if I knew they would so I could get a new one at the end of the year but I'm going to be so upset if I either get one now/loose tons of money and they come out with something new later in the year; or if I skip it now and the whole HDD line is going to be discontinued and I'm stuck with the Polaroid. Because right now I'm back to were I started. I'm still using my expensive machines for 100% of the taping and saving using the burners every single day on those. I just don't trust the Polaroid. I could fill it full of stuff and it won't work when I take the disk out. So, right now I'm basically using the Polaroid as a DVR and not as a DVD recorder.

I noticed Pioneer U.K. does have hard drive models with 160g digital tuner, 160g digital turner with HDMI, and the big 500g with digital turner and HDMI. I'm hoping that some version of one of those machines will be a new one offered by them later this year so I can make up for my mistake of sticking with the Polaroid and not getting the 640.

Justin - you have been given repeated advice to dump the Polaroid. And move on. But for some crazy reason you keep on returning to the Polaroid. As was advised many times before - move on to something besides the Polaroid. It doesn't work for you.

It has never worked for you. If somebody takes the time to follow your posts you were posting concerns about the Polaroid before you even owned one. You were worried about what your problems might be in advance of your purchase. I find this odd.

Give it up. Find something that works for you. Stop torturing yourself.

You got my interest so i tried burning a disk.
This is on a G series
I placed 10 titles on a FujiFilm -RW
Unfinialized in played on my Tosh XS52 recorder
Finialized it played on the XS52 and also a Tosh 3800 player
All the titles appeared and showed correct times on both player
The video played smooth on both players.
Where i ran into problems is when i was doing a fast forward. Above 2X forward or reverse it would hang or jump to the next title.

Were you using an -R or -RW.

Question to Tosh owners, has anyone been able to do a high speed dub from a disk burned on the Polo to the Tosh?

You won't be able to high speed dub a Polaroid disc to the Toshiba. But you can do it real time using line U dubbing.

Place the Polaroid disc in the Toshiba disc tray and do a line U dubbing - the quality of the material copied to the Toshiba HDD is excellent.

The Polaroid is the only machine I have this problem with many, many titles on one disk regardless of media. I thought it might be the machine but wasn't sure and tried again. Now after three machines pulling the same trick I think it's the machine video structure.

What bothers me the most is that I gave up a chance at a Pioneer 640 to try again with this thinking the 640 would be around all year but now it looks like it won't even be around by next month and I WISH I knew if Pioneer is coming out with a new model this year. I could handle it if I knew they would so I could get a new one at the end of the year but I'm going to be so upset if I either get one now/loose tons of money and they come out with something new later in the year; or if I skip it now and the whole HDD line is going to be discontinued and I'm stuck with the Polaroid. Because right now I'm back to were I started. I'm still using my expensive machines for 100% of the taping and saving using the burners every single day on those. I just don't trust the Polaroid. I could fill it full of stuff and it won't work when I take the disk out. So, right now I'm basically using the Polaroid as a DVR and not as a DVD recorder.

I noticed Pioneer U.K. does have hard drive models with 160g digital tuner, 160g digital turner with HDMI, and the big 500g with digital turner and HDMI. I'm hoping that some version of one of those machines will be a new one offered by them later this year so I can make up for my mistake of sticking with the Polaroid and not getting the 640.

I agree with nextoo. With any machine you will be stuck with its limitations. My panny has many which are of the hair pulling variety. Plus, as the series of posts on "how do you use it" show, it is not a good editing machine but excellent for about everything else.

I bought the Polaroid because I have excellent editing capabilities on my computer. Better than most all DVRs. Plus, I use the Polaroid more as a Tivo than a burner. Had I desired to get an all-in-one machine it would have been the panny 75. But go to that thread and you will see they have problems.

For half the price you get a fine machine that does well in most areas and better than most in others (like component inputs and pass through).

My third one comes in Wednesday at Wallies's world.

You won't be able to high speed dub a Polaroid disc to the Toshiba. But you can do it real time using line U dubbing.

Place the Polaroid disc in the Toshiba disc tray and do a line U dubbing - the quality of the material copied to the Toshiba HDD is excellent.

That's what i was afraid of. When i do the line u dubbing the picture is completely washed out and basically not watchable. I guess the best option here would be to record it from the Polo to the Tosh. Or directly to the Tosh. The only time i would want to do this is when i want to create some nice Menus and chapters on disk. These are usually only programs that aren't available on disk commercially. Discovery HD and National Geographics HD are a couple of channels i like to record. The polaroid really shines when recording these channels.



I gotta tell you, i did put my XS52 through the works, a friend of mine wanted Dynasty and Dallas on disk. So over 20 months i recorded Dynasty and Dallas daily. I then edited them removing all commercials, created chapters and menus. Recording at a 3.0 bitrate I was able to get 4 episodes on each disk. Quality was good for these old soaps.
So i ended up doing : Dynasty 220 episodes burnt to 55 disks and Dallas 358 episodes burnt to 90 disks. The next soap she wants she is getting her own recorder.

It would be cool to have all these on a hard drive as a VOD, but i'm NOT going to even go there!

I use the Polaroid more as a Tivo than a burner.
For half the price you get a fine machine that does well in most areas and better than most in others (like component inputs and pass through).

My third one comes in Wednesday at Wallies's world.

This is what i use my machine for too. That's why the hard drive upgrade was sooo attractive.

The Walmarts in my area keep saying they are going to get more in but haven't yet. I've been checking them often.

What editing software do you like, I've been using DVD Workshop for a couple of years, also have Movie Factory 5. I've looked at Sony Vegas but haven't used it.

Final Cut Studio Pro for the Mac looks really impresive, but i don't have a Mac or $1300.00 bucks to put out for software.

That's what i was afraid of. When i do the line u dubbing the picture is completely washed out and basically not watchable. I guess the best option here would be to record it from the Polo to the Tosh. Or directly to the Tosh. The only time i would want to do this is when i want to create some nice Menus and chapters on disk. These are usually only programs that aren't available on disk commercially. Discovery HD and National Geographics HD are a couple of channels i like to record. The polaroid really shines when recording these channels.

Too bad on the washed out line U dubbing. I get excellent quality using it. I mean really really good. Only downside for me is that it is real time. But remember the Polaroid uses the +VR recording mode for finalized discs and the Toshiba uses Video Mode. Thus the real time transfer.

As far as the washed out problem. Could it be something in your settings? I have the KX50 which is identical to your XS52 performance and feature wise. I always thought using Line U dubbing was a shorter path than using analog inputs and thus would provide better quality. Not sure.

Also, I get excellent results recording Discovery HD (for example) to the Toshiba by using the Polaroid to convert the component source and then pass it on to the Toshiba via svideo (at 480i). This preserves the full widescreen 16x9 image.

I too use the Toshiba more for editing and the Polaroid more for archiving. The Polaroid does get more use as a result. But using the two together provides for a very powerful combination.

Sorry nextoo and everyone but I can't take it back. My Walmart has been out for months and months and isn't getting anymore in. I couldn't decide if it was the machine or all of the machines. Some people had great machines so I thought maybe it's the machines I got. Because the local Walmart had no more I had to send my machine into Polaroid but once I sent it in to Polaroid I "could not return it again to Walmart -- ever!" The serial number of the two machines were now different and because of that Walmart will not take it back. Like I said in an earlier post I CAN'T take the Poloarid back because of this. The only thing I can do is keep getting replacement after replacement after replacement . . . from Polaroid itself. Walmart is totally out of it. I CAN'T return this or any Polaroid because of this situation.

Also, I never complained before I got one only after. I had problems on the first day with my D unit and said something about it. I then returned that one to the store just three days after I got it. I tried again with the second before Walmart.com sold out. That was the worst of all of them. I sent that unit into Polaroid thus giving up my chance to take it back for good thinking again that maybe it was the machine -- because I read about all the tons of people here that love theirs and have no problems. So, I passed on taking it back and getting the money and use it toward a Pioneer 640. Once I got this one Walmart and returning it back to Walmart became out of the picture totally. So, I can only keep returning the units over and over back to Polaroid.

Now the best I could do if everyone would like is to keep my observations, or complaining about the problems I see to myself. Which is what I was doing but when I read that someone here was getting the same thing I was then I added that I have those problems too. I think maybe it might be best since I can't return the unit to Walmart ever again that maybe I should just read the posts and not add to posts where someone notices a probelm with their Polaorid.

I don't want to make enemies here -- only friends!

[QUOTE]My third one comes in Wednesday at Wallies's world

Did you order one? I was not aware you could order one other than online. What is the series of the unit your getting?

[QUOTE]I gotta tell you, i did put my XS52 through the works, a friend of mine wanted Dynasty and Dallas on disk. So over 20 months i recorded Dynasty and Dallas daily. I then edited them removing all commercials, created chapters and menus. Recording at a 3.0 bitrate I was able to get 4 episodes on each disk. Quality was good for these old soaps.
So i ended up doing : Dynasty 220 episodes burnt to 55 disks and Dallas 358 episodes burnt to 90 disks. The next soap she wants she is getting her own recorder.

Oh my! That is alot of work. Must be a very good "friend" ;)

This is what i use my machine for too. That's why the hard drive upgrade was sooo attractive.

The Walmarts in my area keep saying they are going to get more in but haven't yet. I've been checking them often.

What editing software do you like, I've been using DVD Workshop for a couple of years, also have Movie Factory 5. I've looked at Sony Vegas but haven't used it.

Final Cut Studio Pro for the Mac looks really impresive, but i don't have a Mac or $1300.00 bucks to put out for software.

Teach me please.

I similarly archive primarily to the HDD as most of you know. I do a little bit of burning to disc. The editing capabilities of the Polaroid have actually been fine for me. I do not have any experience with editing on the computer. I have Nero on the computer but never use it. I think I would like to try to edit on the computer.

Is this software going to work? If not then what should I use?
I assume that I need to finalize the Polaroid DVD 1st, yes?
Then I save it to the HDD of the computer, edit and reburn?
Do you use RW media with the original burn from the polaroid so you can erase after you edit and reburn?

Sort of off topic. Thanks for the help.

Sorry nextoo and everyone but I can't take it back. My Walmart has been out for months and months and isn't getting anymore in. I couldn't decide if it was the machine or all of the machines. Some people had great machines so I thought maybe it's the machines I got. Because the local Walmart had no more I had to send my machine into Polaroid but once I sent it in to Polaroid I "could not return it again to Walmart -- ever!" The serial number of the two machines were now different and because of that Walmart will not take it back. Like I said in an earlier post I CAN'T take the Poloarid back because of this. The only thing I can do is keep getting replacement after replacement after replacement . . . from Polaroid itself. Walmart is totally out of it. I CAN'T return this or any Polaroid because of this situation.

Also, I never complained before I got one only after. I had problems on the first day with my D unit and said something about it. I then returned that one to the store just three days after I got it. I tried again with the second before Walmart.com sold out. That was the worst of all of them. I sent that unit into Polaroid thus giving up my chance to take it back for good thinking again that maybe it was the machine -- because I read about all the tons of people here that love theirs and have no problems. So, I passed on taking it back and getting the money and use it toward a Pioneer 640. Once I got this one Walmart and returning it back to Walmart became out of the picture totally. So, I can only keep returning the units over and over back to Polaroid.

Now the best I could do if everyone would like is to keep my observations, or complaining about the problems I see to myself. Which is what I was doing but when I read that someone here was getting the same thing I was then I added that I have those problems too. I think maybe it might be best since I can't return the unit to Walmart ever again that maybe I should just read the posts and not add to posts where someone notices a probelm with their Polaorid.

I don't want to make enemies here -- only friends!

I'm not saying you are complaining. It is just that your experience has not been good. It almost appears painful at times. And a lot of the things you experience seem to be unique to you so it is difficult to suggest solutions. Thus the suggestion that the Polaroid is not a good fit for your usage patterns.

One thing i found today, since we are in the middle of an ice storm and my power has gone out 5 times, whenever the unit looses power for more than 10 seconds it looses the time. I have it set to auto and if go into setup and select auto again it will find and set the time. But it doesn't do it automatically. After a power failure shouldn't it search and set the time by itself. I assumed thats was Auto was for.

Anyone else tried the auto setting?

One thing i found today, since we are in the middle of an ice storm and my power has gone out 5 times, whenever the unit looses power for more than 10 seconds it looses the time. I have it set to auto and if go into setup and select auto again it will find and set the time. But it doesn't do it automatically. After a power failure shouldn't it search and set the time by itself. I assumed thats was Auto was for.

Anyone else tried the auto setting?

Consider a UPS unit. You can pick one up cheap. It is the only way to protect against loss of accurate time with power fluctuations.

I run all my equipment on 2 UPS. It not only keeps things going during the very rare outages we have here, it also is excellent protection from spikes and surges. I could do without the "power off" warning beeps at 3 AM though.

OK guys I just wanted to thank you for all your help to a newbie. I have to say this is my first recorder ever and I love it. Keep the suggestions coming. I have read all the posts at least twice and I keep finding things out.

Thanks again.

The Walmarts in my area keep saying they are going to get more in but haven't yet. I've been checking them often.

What editing software do you like, I've been using DVD Workshop for a couple of years, also have Movie Factory 5. I've looked at Sony Vegas but haven't used it.
.

I have a bunch including Adobe Premier Elements. But for quick and dirty I mostly use Movie factory. I have not used DVD workshop but hear it is very good. Plus, I have a capture card so there is little need to go from the Polaroid to DVD to computer when I can do it directly, if I want to. .

However, all that is for use if I intend to give it to someone else and I want it to look a little more professional. For my own use, I just use the Polaroid, since who cares about how pretty the menu is? You are really only interested in the program. I do put in 5 min or scene (chapter) breaks for easy maneuvering in the program.

I save few programs. I buy DVDs as they do have more features, including commentaries, surround sound, and other extras. We like old movies, and the 50 for $15 is a great buy and fun to watch (quality is generally terrible, but who cares for $.30 a film). I have found that we have few movies or programs that we will ever watch again.

As far as Wally's world, several weeks ago I talked to the people in electronics and they put one on order. One came in but I rejected it since the packing was nearly non-existent but the machine was still in its original bag. I decided to go back and get it and it was gone. So they ordered two more (nice folks) and they should be in Wednesday. According to the people at WW, they are still in the system and your local Walmart should be able to order one.

OK guys I just wanted to thank you for all your help to a newbie. I have to say this is my first recorder ever and I love it. Keep the suggestions coming. I have read all the posts at least twice and I keep finding things out.

Thanks again.

Sorry I kept telling you to shift over here when you had done so already. Should have recognized your name.

Checked WW and they had one in so bought it, a G.

I'm not saying you are complaining. It is just that your experience has not been good. It almost appears painful at times. And a lot of the things you experience seem to be unique to you so it is difficult to suggest solutions. Thus the suggestion that the Polaroid is not a good fit for your usage patterns.

I would agree that the Polaroid is not the best unit for creating sophisticated DVDs. If you want lots of titles or even lots of chapter markers, DO NOT go this route. (This is for the general public). I see this unit as a combo Tivo/burner -- something you can capture 16x9 material on. Then, if you want to keep it for a long time, burn it!

Obviously, this bears repeating... This is a unit you can capture 16x9 material on. And, this is possible only because 16x9 material can be seen thru it's RARE component interface. In addition, you need a video source that will transmit a 480i Wide signal. It's good for TiVo from a cablebox that outputs 480iWide. It's good to dub video from 16x9 DVD. It's not good to store lots of titles to DVD. It is good to store lots of titles to disc (and is expandable). Finally, it's mediocre for editing.

Now that were past the overview of the unit's capabilities, lets talk more about marking/formatting your media.

Right now, I'm on my 3rd unit and I'm proceeding with the notion that I should not exceed any combination of 16 titles/chapters. As a computer person, I'm going on the notion that a problem lies in the software. 16 is obviously a power of 2 and I have reason to believe this new formula might work.

I have made some discs with up to 10-12 titles that work -- some less. With the ones that are less, I found that editing chapter markers seemed to lower success rates (finalization). The menu allows for automatic chapter marking up to 5 min. intervals. On a HQ disc, that would mean 12 markers (11). I've already said going above 6 titles is my limit, but I think 10-12 can be doable -- especially if you reduce/eliminate chapter markers.

I tried using the HDD to edit first this weekend. I could not find a means to edit chapter markers on the HDD. In my case, I'm burning to permanent storage (I use Sony +Rs). The unit allows editing of chapter markers on disc. But, you know there has to be a limit! The way it formats and leaves room for title space and chapter markers must be somewhat limited. As I was editing a feature last night, it simply stop allowing the addition of chapter markers after I'd reached about 16. This points to a lack of admin overhead on the disc. That may be determined by software, the discs, or both. (Haven't done the research).

For now, try not to exceed 6 titles or markers more than 5 min @ HQ density. I haven't done as much lower quality burns but I'm planning on using consistent spacing. In other words, 5 min chapters for HQ, 10 min chapters for SP, etc....

Justin, you've mentioned putting songs in addition to video on discs. I would conclude they dont have (chapter markers). Using my "formula", I would allow for up to 16 titles (since no chapter markers would be present).

I may change my mind, but that's my conclusion after being on my 3rd unit. (I've burned about 50 DVDs).

Nextoo. Not to be critical, but your comment points to using/selecting a unit for your needs. You've done great work in drive expansion and for the purpose of archiving. But, I don't get something. Why burn to a drive that may eventually fail? When that happens, you'll lose dozens/hundreds of titles?

I understand the allure of expandable and lower cost storage to disc. But I would allow for completely dupping drives if you really want to be safe. If you do that, you may exceed the cost of optical storage, but certainly the ease of storage cannot be argued with.

If your goal is to LOAD your collection for ease of viewing -- while the collection itself is an "archive", then I understand. That's cool.

gp

I just had something unexplained happen.
I went to finalize a -R with a 2:02:36 movie recorded in SP. Pressed the up arrow, got the second menu, pressed the right arrow and got nothing. Turned unit off and on and tried again, no success. Decided it was a bad burn and reburned to another -R. Tried to finalize - same thing. I thought maybe there was not enough room on the disc so I went to segment to get rid of a few minutes, but the movie took up the whole time, there was nothing to cut.
I burned a 1/2 hour show and tried to finalize it, and it did - no problem so I knew it wasn't a complete failure of the finalize capability.
This was in my "B" unit. I took the movie dvd to my "K" unit and it did finalize without problem.
So, I'm not sure why it wouldn't finalize in the "B" unit, first time I've had this problem.

GreggPenn - the Polaroid fits my recording needs perfectly. Let me say I use the Polaroid and manage into its strengths. Here's why:

1. I record from an HD DVR via component (480i) and use the Polaroid because it has component inputs. This allows for full wide screen 16x9 recording.

2. I use the Polaroid to record and archive movies. The HDD expansion capabilities makes the Polaroid ideal for this application.

3. I do very little editing with the Polaroid. I archive movies and typical editing involves trimming off the end of the recording.

4. I do very few video compilations that are subsequently burned to disc. So the fact that the Polaroid may not be strong in this area doesn't bother me.

5. When I do burn to disc it is typically just one title - the movie. So I have none of the multiple title issues I've read about on here recently

6. The simplicity of the Polaroid makes archiving movies to HDD very easy. There is not the additional work of setting up and burning to disc.

For editing and video compilations I have a very powerful Toshiba XS series DVD recorder which is integrated into the system. I do not use it for long term HDD archiving. I use it for editing and video compilations.

As far as archiving to an HDD for long term storage I agree that it is typically not recommended. But remember I use removable drives. When drives are not in use they are sitting on the shelf powered down. With the Polaroid there is no need for RAID redundancy etc - these drives are not running 24/7. It is a very simple approach. Only one drive at a time can be in use. For HDD intensive activity like time shifting etc I segregate this activity to one HDD that is not used for long term archiving. This drive is not part of the video juke box HDD population.

Using the Polaroid primarily as a video juke box for full screen 16x9 material I believe plays into its rather unique strengths. And also avoids some of its weaknesses.

This post sums up what I think as it relates to archiving to HDD's :

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=9860648&&#post9860648

GreggPenn - the Polaroid fits my recording needs perfectly. Let me say I use the Polaroid and manage into its strengths. Here's why:

1. I record from an HD DVR via component (480i) and use the Polaroid because it has component inputs. This allows for full wide screen 16x9 recording.

2. I use the Polaroid to record and archive movies. The HDD expansion capabilities makes the Polaroid ideal for this application.

etc....



Wow, if i had to summarize how i use the Polaroid i don't think i would change a thing. This is exactly what i purchased it for, along with my Toshiba XS52 for burning.
As for the hard drive, like you said, it's not running 24/7, but if you have a good drive it should handle it. Cable DVR, TIVO etc, these are all running 24/7 and seem to last for years. My experience anyway. Video that is irreplacable (ie: home videos, etc) keep on a separate drive or on disk. Or on both for double protection.

Burnerbum - thanks. It's what I found works for me.

There is another list of Polaroid features that work for the folks that use the Polaroid as a time shifting DVR. All of the multitasking things that have been reported. So it seems like a pretty good all around machine.

It's the heavy editing that seems to stress the machine. Editing has never been looked upon as a strength of the Polaroid. GreggPenn seems to be running it through its paces for editing and burning potential. And reporting what to look out for which is great information. Once those boundaries are defined staying within them will really help ground expectations and make the whole experience more predictable.

Will the Poloroid switch between external inputs? I hope I'm just confused, but it doesn't appear to have separate audio inputs to go along with the separate video inputs. I have 2 set top boxes. I want to be able to schedule recordings from either. I can use component, composite, or s-video from either STB.

Edit... Yes I was confused. I didn't even think about the front inputs. They can be selected for timed recordings.

Will the Poloroid switch between external inputs? I hope I'm just confused, but it doesn't appear to have separate audio inputs to go along with the separate video inputs. I have 2 set top boxes. I want to be able to schedule recordings from either. I can use component, composite, or s-video from either STB.
Only switches the video inputs for the rear connections. You can either manually swap the audio when needed or buy a switch to push a button to swap. Doesn't have the capability to do what you would like unfortunately.

If only one box will be feeding audio at a time you might be able to split the audio input (with a y adapter) but only one box could be feeding sound. Might be Rube Goldberg but could work but won't provide the unattended operation you seek unless your stb's can start up and shutdown by themselves.

Edit: Per kbgl's reminder to me, if one is willing to use the front input on a permanent basis and willing to use composite video; feeding two stb's can be accomplished.

I have to ask something here. I hate to ask the same question twice but I think this is the main area. There is another post on this site that was just started and one of the posters said that the "B" unit is the only one that does not pass though component or maybe HD 16x9 video. Well, I was sent a "B" unit. I thought that the "B" units also pass through component or HD content just like all the other models except that the "B" unit was the only one that had to be turned on to do this while all the others could be turned off. Since I don't have HD or HD box I can't test this out. I have to ask those that have an HD box and a "B" unit. So, I would like to ask here to make sure. Does the "B" units pass through component or 16x9 content without the letterbox like all the other Polaroid units? If someone here has a "B" and says no then I might have to think about turning this one in and hope to get a new model.

I have to ask something here. I hate to ask the same question twice but I think this is the main area. There is another post on this site that was just started and one of the posters said that the "B" unit is the only one that does not pass though component or maybe HD 16x9 video. Well, I was sent a "B" unit. I thought that the "B" units also pass through component or HD content just like all the other models except that the "B" unit was the only one that had to be turned on to do this while all the others could be turned off. Since I don't have HD or HD box I can't test this out. I have to ask those that have an HD box and a "B" unit. So, I would like to ask here to make sure. Does the "B" units pass through component or 16x9 content without the letterbox like all the other Polaroid units? If someone here has a "B" and says no then I might have to think about turning this one in and hope to get a new model.

Justin,

(Big gracious smile on my face and a shoulder shrug) :)

No doubt your genuine. One of a kind. You are growing on me.

The "B" units do not pass 16x9 content by "component in" when powered off.

If you plan on HD content you will be limited in this regard with a "B" unit.

If you can return it and get another model then you will then have this capability. I assume you have plans for HD otherwise you would not have asked the question.

BTW..Your workaround with the "B" unit should you desire could be to utilize a splitter that would send component directly to the TV and also to the TV by way of the Polaroid. That way the passthrough would not be necessary.

I still don't get it exactly?

I know the B unit doesn't send the signal with the power off that's been said here but I thought that it sends the signal with the power on. You mean it doesn't send the 16x9 signal at all? Even if the power is on?

So what you are saying is that everyone else can turn on their Polaroid and then run component cables from the cable box into the Polaroid and then an S-video line out of the Polaroid into say a Toshiba DVD recorder and be able to record HD video at 480i without letterboxing. Yet, because I have a B unit I can't do that? If I turn on my Polaroid and run component cables out of an HD box into the Polaroid and then hit either record on the Polaroid or pass the signal to my Pioneer DVD recorder via S-Video cable out of the Polaroid I will still get letterboxing on the recorded video because I have the B unit. Even though the Polaroid is turned on?

While I don't need that feature now I would like to have it for the future. Maybe this year or next who knows? I got it because that was one of the main features of this unit. Component in, 16x9 pass through, upgradable hard drive, etc.

I still don't get it exactly?

I know the B unit doesn't send the signal with the power off that's been said here but I thought that it sends the signal with the power on. You mean it doesn't send the 16x9 signal at all? Even if the power is on?

While I don't need that feature now I would like to have it for the future. Maybe this year or next who knows? I got it because that was one of the main features of this unit. Component in, 16x9 pass through, upgradable hard drive, etc.

Yes. It passes widescreen 16x9 HD @ 480i by "component in" when the Polaroid is powered on. Otherwise the "component inputs" would be worthless.

Yes. It passes widescreen 16x9 HD by "component in" when the Polaroid is powered on. Otherwise the "component inputs" would be worthless.

HD source at 480i when the Polaroid is powered on. Same as with all of the Polaroid serial "lettered" versions.

I have a question on recording. I've been recording some lengthy programs (approx 4 hours each). So i just press the record button, don't set any length of time and the recorder starts recording, records 3 hours and then stops recording and starts another recording. It has done this on 3 trys now. Why won't it record continuously longer than 3 hours?

Sorry, I was adding to my post and missed your reply. You did it while I was adding.

So, I'll try to get this straight to me again.

Because you said yes I take it that it's what I thought it was. I can get 16x9 pass through or video scaling but I have to have the unit on while everyone else can get the same results but they can have the power turned off. They get true non-turned on pass through. I get sudo pass through because I can get it BUT I have to have the power on for it to do this function -- right?

Now, what about recording HD video from an HD box into the Polaroid and then to either the Polaroid or S-video a line out of it to another DVD recorder. I read (I think) that some run HD video out of their box, through the Polaroid, and into their DVD recorder and record video content without letterboxing. Now can I do that too? Say, I get an SA8300 HD box this year and I want to record HD content to my Pioneer 310 DVD recorder without letterbox. I can do that like everyone else that has a Polaroid BUT I have to make sure my Polaroid is turned on for that to work. If the Polaroid is turned on then I too can get either non-letterbox video either to my Pioneer 310 for video recording or component output of the Polaroid into the back of the TV and not get any letterboxing? Am I wrong?

Sorry for being such a video deeb. Since I don't have some of these things I can only go by what people who do have it are saying. I don't have HD now so I can't try out this Polaroid and 16x9 letterboxing/scaling for myself. I don't have QAM or ATSC DVD recorders so I can't try out for myself what works and what doesn't. When and if I get these things then I can try it out for myself and see what works and what doesn't. Then I could add to some solutions to this place instead of asking questions. :(

I still don't get it exactly?

I know the B unit doesn't send the signal with the power off that's been said here but I thought that it sends the signal with the power on. You mean it doesn't send the 16x9 signal at all? Even if the power is on?

So what you are saying is that everyone else can turn on their Polaroid and then run component cables from the cable box into the Polaroid and then an S-video line out of the Polaroid into say a Toshiba DVD recorder and be able to record HD video at 480i without letterboxing. Yet, because I have a B unit I can't do that? If I turn on my Polaroid and run component cables out of an HD box into the Polaroid and then hit either record on the Polaroid or pass the signal to my Pioneer DVD recorder via S-Video cable out of the Polaroid I will still get letterboxing on the recorded video because I have the B unit. Even though the Polaroid is turned on?

While I don't need that feature now I would like to have it for the future. Maybe this year or next who knows? I got it because that was one of the main features of this unit. Component in, 16x9 pass through, upgradable hard drive, etc.
I think you are confusing HiDef aspect ratio with HiDef resolution.

The advantage of the later units is that when the unit is off, you can feed it a 720 or 1080 signal via the component input, and it will pass through to the component output. The B unit will not do this.

ALL the units will choke on a 720 or 1080 signal when powered on, even the later ones, because DVD recorders cannot record in those resolutions.

Whether or not you get letterboxing on the 480i signal depends on what your cable box puts out.

Hmmm!

Did you know that by the time I added to this post two more people wrote in again and one wrote to me. So, it looks like I'm not even paying attention to you guys but I really am. It's just by the time I write and post, refesh the page, there is more posts. Sorry if you guys think I'm not paying attention but I am.

About that other persons question. I'll try to add my 2 cents.

Maybe the Polaroid can only handle three hours of straight video? Just like other machines seem to have a limit. After that I guess they split the video into another video. This one might just stop recording. Maybe this one can only handle three hours? I do know this. I taped four and a half hours of straight video last night. It was still taping when I turned it off by hand. I think I had it set for like five hours of straight video. The thing is that I set it up by timer setting not just pushing the record button.

I think when you get the chase playback feature on screen (the big blue bar with the word "live" on the right and you keep pushing record then I get only 150 mins of video.

So, bascially I don't know how many hours a straight record will do on this unit but I do know I set up a recording for five hours last night and after four and a half it was still taping. My stuff was over so I turned it off by hand. If I would have know about this question I would have let it go the full five hours and tell you if it can do that with a timer recording.

I have a question on recording. I've been recording some lengthy programs (approx 4 hours each). So i just press the record button, don't set any length of time and the recorder starts recording, records 3 hours and then stops recording and starts another recording. It has done this on 3 trys now. Why won't it record continuously longer than 3 hours?
I haven't seen this problem at all, but like Justin, I usually set up a timer recording for the longer stuff.

I just recorded "Gone with the Wind" on TCM (4 hrs @ EP), with no problems.

Do you have TimeShift on? What mode are you starting your recordings from?

I have a question on recording. I've been recording some lengthy programs (approx 4 hours each). So i just press the record button, don't set any length of time and the recorder starts recording, records 3 hours and then stops recording and starts another recording. It has done this on 3 trys now. Why won't it record continuously longer than 3 hours?

Turn off the time shift buffer.

I tried (as a test) to record the entire extended versions of the three LOTR movies and was able to record them to an HDD in HQ quality as one title. After editing out the credits (and the disc swaps) I have an 11 + hour recording of the trilogy at HQ quality. My understanding is that the Polaroid will record one title until the HDD is full.

I think your problem may be that you have the time shift buffer engaged.

Justin,

Slow down.

All the Polaroids except the "B" series simply allow the component video to pass through when powered off. Otherwise most every desirable (and undesirable) feature is available regardless of series.

I posted earlier about this. My "K" unit was making a very loud noise when powered on that would subsequently go away a few minutes later.

I thought it was the optical drive until I opened it up again to find that it was the fan.

I remember Greggpenn and Beekeeper had a similar experience. They also had "K" units. I have not heard this reported with any other series of units.

I tried cushioning the fan thinking it might be vibration. I changed the angle suspecting turbulent airflow at start up. I even disconnected the 2 pin power supply from the board and rigged an external power supply. None of these approaches worked.

I finally changed out the fan and rigged the power supply to the board. It has worked perfectly so far.

I have a suspicion that the "K" series may have a bad batch of fans. Regardless as is the case with most everything with the Polaroid it was an easy fix. I post to assist others that might experience the same.

Turn off the time shift buffer.

I tried (as a test) to record the entire extended versions of the three LOTR movies and was able to record them to an HDD in HQ quality as one title. After editing out the credits (and the disc swaps) I have an 11 + hour recording of the trilogy at HQ quality. My understanding is that the Polaroid will record one title until the HDD is full.

I think your problem may be that you have the time shift buffer engaged.

All true, especially that it will record until the drive is full. When you are in time shift it records for 3 hours and saves then starts again for the next three.

I remember Greggpenn and Beekeeper had a similar experience. They also had "K" units. I have not heard this reported with any other series of units.

.

Mine is a G but the sound went away by itself. I do have the fan mounted on a damper (rubber piece of an inner tire).

Mine is a G but the sound went away by itself. I do have the fan mounted on a damper (rubber piece of an inner tire).

Oops. Thanks. :o
The fan swap worked well for me. The damper didn't work with my fan.

DLSDO -

How did you fix it? Did you swap out the fan? Mine has a similiar problem, when it starts it is very loud, after about a minute it quiets down. Thanks

I posted earlier about this. My "K" unit was making a very loud noise when powered on that would subsequently go away a few minutes later.

I thought it was the optical drive until I opened it up again to find that it was the fan.

I remember Greggpenn and Beekeeper had a similar experience. They also had "K" units. I have not heard this reported with any other series of units.

I tried cushioning the fan thinking it might be vibration. I changed the angle suspecting turbulent airflow at start up. I even disconnected the 2 pin power supply from the board and rigged an external power supply. None of these approaches worked.

I finally changed out the fan and rigged the power supply to the board. It has worked perfectly so far.

I have a suspicion that the "K" series may have a bad batch of fans. Regardless as is the case with most everything with the Polaroid it was an easy fix. I post to assist others that might experience the same.

When you talk about the "K" series do you mean the ones whos serial number begins with K? If so I bought one last weekend and its serial number begins with K and I can't hear the unit operating at all. It is really quiet. Even when I turn it on you can't even hear it coming on.

Does it hurt to leave the unit on all the time? I found that when I have a timed recording set, after it is done the unit does not shut off. Is that normal?

When you talk about the "K" series do you mean the ones whos serial number begins with K? If so I bought one last weekend and its serial number begins with K and I can't hear the unit operating at all. It is really quiet. Even when I turn it on you can't even hear it coming on.

Does it hurt to leave the unit on all the time? I found that when I have a timed recording set, after it is done the unit does not shut off. Is that normal?

It will return to whatever state it was in prior to the timer recording. So if you have timer recordings set and the unit is off after the timer recording is completed it will turn off. If it was on when the timer recording starts after the recording is completed it will remain on.

[QUOTE]How did you fix it? Did you swap out the fan? Mine has a similiar problem, when it starts it is very loud, after about a minute it quiets down. Thanks

I have alot of different size fans lying around. I tested 2, 3, and 4 pin fans and they all work from the main boards power supply. The main board is 2 pin (red and black).

I settled on the fan from this drive rack here..http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=GN210-2-BLK&cat=CAS. It is the same size as the stock fan and is also 2 pin. You will have to modify the connector as the 2 pin connector for the replacement fan is too small. I used the original fans 2 pin connector and wires and spliced them into the new fans wires. I remounted the new fan into the old fans place. Voila! Works like a charm. I thought about a larger fan to an external power source but this is unnecessary as overheating is not a problem. I also like the idea of the fan only turning on when the unit is on. My HDD is external and has its own fan.

I am fairly confident its just a bad fan. I was worried that it might be a power supply issue at startup but when the stock fan is connected to an external power supply it still acts up. Its not turbulent airflow as it still does it when its been removed from the case. Its not vibration for the same reasons. So far so good.

When you talk about the "K" series do you mean the ones whos serial number begins with K? If so I bought one last weekend and its serial number begins with K and I can't hear the unit operating at all. It is really quiet. Even when I turn it on you can't even hear it coming on.

Unfortunately it was quiet when I first purchased it but after a few weeks started acting up. Hopefully yours will be fine. If not, its an easy fix.

Help me out please! I recently bought an F unit that works perfectly except for the pass through everyone talks about. I don't need the pass through, but I wonder if something could be wrong with my recorder. When I turn it off, the picture quality drops dramatically. It looks like someone pulled one of the component cables loose. I hate to return it and look for another unit, but I'm concerned that this one could be defective.

Help me out please! I recently bought an F unit that works perfectly except for the pass through everyone talks about. I don't need the pass through, but I wonder if something could be wrong with my recorder. When I turn it off, the picture quality drops dramatically. It looks like someone pulled one of the component cables loose. I hate to return it and look for another unit, but I'm concerned that this one could be defective.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=9893455&&#post9893455

Thanks !!! So you're pretty sure it's defective.... Shucks! Time to pack it up and return it I suppose.

I hope my question will get noticed here so I won't have to make a new thread. I was watching DVDs on this unit last night and one of the DVDs just did not work correctly. Everything was all choppy and there were huge squares all over the place. I can't really explain how it looked but it was really bad. However, when I played it in my XBOX everything worked fine. I have tried other discs and they work fine in both units. So I'm guessing that means there is a problem with the DVD but why would it work fine (I mean it was perfect in the XBOX and didn't have any issues) in the XBOX and not in the DVD player?

Another thing I noticed was that the unit made almost a grinding noise when I hit the fast forward button. The show would still fast forward correctly but each time I pressed the button and it went into fast forward mode, the unit would just make an odd sound.

Does this mean I should probably return the unit and get a different one or should I just return the DVD and not worry about the fast forward sound? Thanks.

[QUOTE]I hope my question will get noticed here so I won't have to make a new thread. I was watching DVDs on this unit last night and one of the DVDs just did not work correctly. Everything was all choppy and there were huge squares all over the place. I can't really explain how it looked but it was really bad. However, when I played it in my XBOX everything worked fine. I have tried other discs and they work fine in both units. So I'm guessing that means there is a problem with the DVD but why would it work fine (I mean it was perfect in the XBOX and didn't have any issues) in the XBOX and not in the DVD player?

Another thing I noticed was that the unit made almost a grinding noise when I hit the fast forward button. The show would still fast forward correctly but each time I pressed the button and it went into fast forward mode, the unit would just make an odd sound.

Does this mean I should probably return the unit and get a different one or should I just return the DVD and not worry about the fast forward sound? Thanks.

Hmmm. The Polaroid does a mediocre job with DVD playback as do all DVD recorders. Could be a Polaroid issue or a Polaroid issue with that particular disc.

The FF sound. Was it only with the troubled DVD? Or was this with all DVDs?

Ultimately I would return the unit if it its acting up with FF across all discs. I would utilize a good upconverting DVD player for playback. Just my 2 cents worth.

Justin,
I think you should try to get another batch (if possible) from Polaroid. At the very least, find out if you B unit had any upgrades and/or is a refurb. Though the original B's don't sound like they pass HD material in the off position, yours might have been upgraded by Polaroid before they sent it to you.

There is no reports of upgrades per se, but newer units have better operation. One might assume that returned units to Polaroid may have had improvements during their refurb. That is unless a hardware change was required.
----------
As for the unit that degrades in the off mode (kgbl), I agree it should be returned.
----------
Nextoo, thanks for the lengthy reply.... I think HD's are pretty reliable these days so you're probably O.K. for the 5 yr range....

I do think this unit has some serious editing limitations. For example, I can't figure out how to set chapters on the HDD. (Hopefully, I just haven't figured it out yet).

I don't think it's designed to do well with lots of editing, chapters, or titles when recording directly to DVD. If it could have everthing edited before dubbing, the results MIGHT be better. Still, it would have to analyze your sum selections before the dubbing to create the necessary admin room on a DVD. And, I really doubt this logic is there.... If I can figure out how to add chapter marks on the HDD, I'll give this a whirl.

I agree with DLDSO's/Nextoo's list of strengths -- though I personally will go for DVD as long-term storage. This might change if/when I get a PC where I could deal with the HD's indepentantly. (Currently, I have a laptop). Getting a different projector might also be a key (see last paragraph for reason).

I like the idea of using first-run DVDs as the storage while loading them onto a HDD for ease of access, reduced handling/longevity (for the originals), and the ability to add aired (segmented) material to your library.

Mostly, I like the component interface and the result of playing it's DVDs in my upconverting player. The resulting quality is really impressive. This is something I could not do with HDD-stored material -- though my PJ has a pretty good upconverter (scaler) built in. :D But my Sony HDMI player is newer does a little better job. Scaler's always get better with time.....

gp

[QUOTE=djtwyce]


Hmmm. The Polaroid does a mediocre job with DVD playback as do all DVD recorders. Could be a Polaroid issue or a Polaroid issue with that particular disc.

The FF sound. Was it only with the troubled DVD? Or was this with all DVDs?

Ultimately I would return the unit if it its acting up with FF across all discs. I would utilize a good upconverting DVD player for playback. Just my 2 cents worth.

The FF sound is with every disc. Like I said, it still works just fine except for that sound. But I'm guessing the sound isn't something normal with the unit. But you are saying that most DVD recorders have poor DVD playback? That upsets me a bit because it was one of the reasons why I got this. I hate using my XBOX to play DVDs and I want to get rid of it soon. But if the Polaroid works great to record TV is it worth keeping and getting a separate stand alone DVD player? Would the Wal-Mart RCA recorder be a stronger DVD player?

[QUOTE=DLSDO]

The FF sound is with every disc. Like I said, it still works just fine except for that sound. But I'm guessing the sound isn't something normal with the unit. But you are saying that most DVD recorders have poor DVD playback? That upsets me a bit because it was one of the reasons why I got this. I hate using my XBOX to play DVDs and I want to get rid of it soon. But if the Polaroid works great to record TV is it worth keeping and getting a separate stand alone DVD player? Would the Wal-Mart RCA recorder be a stronger DVD player?

None of the DVD recorders do a very good job with playback. You can pick up a very high quality upconverting player at a reasonable cost. Toshiba and some of the higher end DVDRs have HDMI out and playback much nicer than the Polaroid. The Polaroid is a decent unit as is outlined in this thread.

Unfortunately I think you have a bad unit. I would return it to Walmart.

The FF sound is with every disc. Like I said, it still works just fine except for that sound. But I'm guessing the sound isn't something normal with the unit.

You'd be guessing right. I agree with DLSDO -- exchange it.

I hate using my XBOX to play DVDs and I want to get rid of it soon. But if the Polaroid works great to record TV is it worth keeping and getting a separate stand alone DVD player? Would the Wal-Mart RCA recorder be a stronger DVD player?

For recording in 16x9 format, this recorder is hard to beat. And, it's also a "TiVo" -- because of the hard drive. As a player, it's mediocre. Kind of odd -- that it doesn't play WELL what it writes. But, it is O.K.

The answer depends on your other equipment. If you have a great HD display, get another dedicated player. If you have a 4:3 TV, stick with this unit for playback -- at least for awhile....

Since Wal-Mart doesn't sell any other component players, I'd say no to the RCA -- (unless a 4:3 TV is your platform).

One man's socks are another man's mittens.

I like the Polaroid much much more than the RCA. All of these units have crappy burners, the RCA's is just as crappy. Happily, most any other burner will work with these units - which is not the case for many other high-end name brands. As far as the hard drive, it's a western digital, which again, almost all DVD HDD recorders use. Also, every DVD HDD unit I've seen with the LSI chipset uses the same heatsink, held on with a blob of heatsink epoxy - so that must be within spec.

The Polaroid beats the RCA (for me) because of the divx playback, the component input, and much superior video ouput. The RCA is decent, but the Polaroid is better.

I just returned my 34 day old RCA to walmart ,NOT because i was unhappy with the picture quality, but because the HD crashed last night

my walmart has no more RCA's the was one display Polaroid and one display phillips no stock

so now its a waiting game, guess i' m going to try the polaroid when they get some more in stock, to bad i have to spend more money

I am running in pure standard def here. My TV is nothing special. The biggest thing it has is 4 inputs (1 composite, 1 s-video and 2 AV). I only bought the recorder to replace my XBOX as a DVD player and to have a HDD recorder for shows while I'm at work. I don't and probably won't ever record to a DVD with this. The big reason why having a strong DVD player is because I watch a lot of anime and tend to marathon the shows. That could easily mean watching 10 hours of DVDs all in a row. It sounds like no unit is best for this so now I need to decide what to do for my recording needs. I don't think my WalMart still has any of these Polaroids. Actually, last time I was there they didn't have the RCAs either. I did see that Fry's had a Toshiba HDD recorder (it was nothing other than a recorder) for $200 that had a Firewire input. Maybe I can get that and find a DVD player that will work with it?

Anyway, thanks for the advice with this unit. If you guys have any more input please let me know. I'll be checking this thread for awhile.

Thanks !!! So you're pretty sure it's defective.... Shucks! Time to pack it up and return it I suppose.

He also said to check your cables.

When off it is the same input and output. If on, you can have a different input and output. There was another thread on this that was a problem with crossed component cables. I have no idea what your setup is, but know I have had problems when I connected new equipment and had no sound, picture or whatever and it always is the hookup. It looked right but was very wrong. It is amazing how many times you can continue to do it wrong. I have also had bad cables, so have a few extra just for that.

I suggest standard trouble shooting and disconnect all cables from and to the recorder and methodically reconnect them.

The cables are fine. I tried a different STB and it passes the signal. Perhaps the output is not as strong on some HD STBs as others. I may try another unit and see if I get the same results.

Update. Just bought an H unit and it does the same thing. Is anyone here using a Sansung H260 with the Poloroid? Or the Poloroid with a Toshiba RPTV?

I am running in pure standard def here. My TV is nothing special. The biggest thing it has is 4 inputs (1 composite, 1 s-video and 2 AV). I only bought the recorder to replace my XBOX as a DVD player and to have a HDD recorder for shows while I'm at work. I don't and probably won't ever record to a DVD with this. The big reason why having a strong DVD player is because I watch a lot of anime and tend to marathon the shows. That could easily mean watching 10 hours of DVDs all in a row. It sounds like no unit is best for this so now I need to decide what to do for my recording needs. I don't think my WalMart still has any of these Polaroids. Actually, last time I was there they didn't have the RCAs either. I did see that Fry's had a Toshiba HDD recorder (it was nothing other than a recorder) for $200 that had a Firewire input. Maybe I can get that and find a DVD player that will work with it?

Anyway, thanks for the advice with this unit. If you guys have any more input please let me know. I'll be checking this thread for awhile.

For marathoning shows, recording to a HD (like the Polaroid) will get you there. You don't need a unit with component connections like the Polariod, just a DVD recorder with a HD. But, the ease with which you can load and expand drives makes this an attractive choice for you -- one you shouldn't dismiss lightly.

For your standard def TV, using the recorder for playback shouldn't be a problem (detriment). In fact, if you're recording to the HDD playback will be from disk vs. DVD. Other players may improve quality and/or provide more playback features, but that may not be necessary for you. Don't let us steer you away from it. Your needs and equipment are different and the unit is obviously not "bad". It has it's strengths and weaknesses.

To replace an XBox as a player, it's fine. To load marathon video, it's great. Because of the easy HD expandibility, it's actually really, really great. If you ever want to save that video to DVD, it's friggin great! And, for the price, you should look no further.

I haven't noticed another unit with the ease of HD upgradability in this forum, but I've focused on component interfaced units. If there isn't another one that's this easy, stick with the Polaroid.

OK the newbie is back. I recorded a DVD from the HDD today on a Maxell -R 16X. Did all my segments on the HDD then copied to DVD. Put in my chapters and Index picture. Finalized it and low and behold it worked. Yea me! (and of course you guys) Couldn't have done it without all your help. It took a little longer to record to dvd (SP+) than I thought, (12 min) but it was fine and I can live with that.

I took the newly recorded dvd and played it in my Sony dvd player and it worked. See you can teach old dogs new tricks. I am in the digital age now. Have another question, but my Hurricanes hockey team is playing now so it will wait.

Thanks you guys.

See you can teach old dogs new tricks.
Glad to hear it worked out for you. Us old dogs can always learn a new trick, it's teaching new dogs old tricks that's hard :D

Hi,

Newbie posting here. I stumbled upon this forum while DVR shopping before Christmas. After reading this thread (almost the entire thread back in November) I decided on the Polaroid. It is an absolutely great unit for the price, and what it offers. And withe the help of everyone here, I've been able to figure my way around this unit, and for the most part, find my way through what I want to do.

I have one really annoying reoccurring problem. (and if I missed a post or two on it here, I apologize) The clock will shift while recording. It's happened, maybe 8-10 times. What happens is, that the timer starts, and somewhere in the recording process the time switches to ~25 minutes into the future. So the ending time is off by almost 1/2 hour, since it's usually an hour show, I end up missing the last half of the program. Looking at the HDD it even looks like the program started later than programmed. I then use the automatic time set, but the problem happens again. I've seen no pattern or reason for the jump.

I have the "G" model, with no other problems that concern me.

Anyone else have this happen?

Thanks!

For marathoning shows, recording to a HD (like the Polaroid) will get you there. You don't need a unit with component connections like the Polariod, just a DVD recorder with a HD. But, the ease with which you can load and expand drives makes this an attractive choice for you -- one you shouldn't dismiss lightly.

For your standard def TV, using the recorder for playback shouldn't be a problem (detriment). In fact, if you're recording to the HDD playback will be from disk vs. DVD. Other players may improve quality and/or provide more playback features, but that may not be necessary for you. Don't let us steer you away from it. Your needs and equipment are different and the unit is obviously not "bad". It has it's strengths and weaknesses.

To replace an XBox as a player, it's fine. To load marathon video, it's great. Because of the easy HD expandibility, it's actually really, really great. If you ever want to save that video to DVD, it's friggin great! And, for the price, you should look no further.

I haven't noticed another unit with the ease of HD upgradability in this forum, but I've focused on component interfaced units. If there isn't another one that's this easy, stick with the Polaroid.

Ok. I was afraid that a standard DVD drive in a DVD recorder wouldn't be able to handle my work load. 10 hours at a time can be a bit daunting. I suppose I will just see if they have any more (or are planning to get anymore) of these in stock. I'm also going to try my problem DVD is other drives to see what could be happening. And even though I don't plan on ever expanding the HDD (I just delete the shows every week or 2 weeks) it is good to know this one can do it. I just hope I'll be able to get another one that works better.

when i was at walmart yesterday the sales guy, told me, they were expecting more of the 2100g's he just didn't know when, he wouldn't sell me the display model, saying, they are still carrying that model, not discontinued, just temp sold out

I don't know if he really knows whats going on or was just BSing me

I have one really annoying reoccurring problem. (and if I missed a post or two on it here, I apologize) The clock will shift while recording. It's happened, maybe 8-10 times. What happens is, that the timer starts, and somewhere in the recording process the time switches to ~25 minutes into the future. So the ending time is off by almost 1/2 hour, since it's usually an hour show, I end up missing the last half of the program. Looking at the HDD it even looks like the program started later than programmed. I then use the automatic time set, but the problem happens again. I've seen no pattern or reason for the jump.

I have the "G" model, with no other problems that concern me.

Anyone else have this happen?

Thanks!

I gave up on automatic time set because my cable company seems to remove that feature from my PBS signal. When I tried it, it seemed to work but then my scheduled programs were starting at the "wrong" time. They were set properly, but it seemed the automatic timer was picking up a signal that was not even as close as yours. Mine was sometimes hours off.

I suggest disabling the automatic timer. You will have to re-set the time every couple of weeks since it will either lose or gain time, but it is easy to notice and correct. I am lazy, so just set the scheduled times a minute early and late (if there is no interference with another program) and re-set it about every month.

when i was at walmart yesterday the sales guy, told me, they were expecting more of the 2100g's he just didn't know when, he wouldn't sell me the display model, saying, they are still carrying that model, not discontinued, just temp sold out

I don't know if he really knows whats going on or was just BSing me

All 3 Walmarts in the area have told me the same thing. It is still a current item and they would be getting more in. One store told me that it may be a few weeks because they were going through store inventory. so that may be why they aren't getting them in immediately.

when i was at walmart yesterday the sales guy, told me, they were expecting more of the 2100g's he just didn't know when, he wouldn't sell me the display model, saying, they are still carrying that model, not discontinued, just temp sold out

I don't know if he really knows whats going on or was just BSing me

I was told the same thing and new recorders did come in. Mine was a G.

You can ask them to scan the shelf price label and they can tell you a delivery date, if there is one. They can also tell you which stores have them.

Has anyone got thier DV input to record more than a few seconds?

I was told the same thing and new recorders did come in. Mine was a G.

You can ask them to scan the shelf price label and they can tell you a delivery date, if there is one. They can also tell you which stores have them.

My local walmart did that, they told me another store had 2 in stock. So i drove across town to get one and when i got there i was told no, they had been out for a couple of weeks. They said never trust the inventory and CALL first. I should have known better and called first but i didn't. Actually, they should have called and confirmed. so before running all over town, call and ask. If they have one they will usually hold it for 24hours, if it isn't a clearance item.

I gave up on automatic time set because my cable company seems to remove that feature from my PBS signal. When I tried it, it seemed to work but then my scheduled programs were starting at the "wrong" time. They were set properly, but it seemed the automatic timer was picking up a signal that was not even as close as yours. Mine was sometimes hours off.

I suggest disabling the automatic timer. You will have to re-set the time every couple of weeks since it will either lose or gain time, but it is easy to notice and correct. I am lazy, so just set the scheduled times a minute early and late (if there is no interference with another program) and re-set it about every month.

I'll give that a try. It always went to the correct time when I reset with automatic time, so trying that didn't even dawn to me.

I've had my Polaroid DRM-2001G since November 2006, and am generally very happy with it. I got it to mostly to transfer my huge library of video camera tapes to DVD -- so far I've burned about 100 DVDs worth of home videos with great success, the sources being VHS, 8mm, and Hi8 Digital tapes. I've also used it to record shows off the cable, and burned them from HD to DVD.

All of a sudden, I'm seeing a problem. When I put a completed DVD into the unit (both commercial DVDs and ones I've burned myself) it is now often not "seeing" the disc at all. It says "Loading", but then nothing happens. No blank screen, no disc menu, nothing. It acts as if I never put a disc in at all. It doesn't happen on every disc -- just certain ones. This sometimes even happens at the end of trying to burn a new disc -- it won't allow me to finalize the disc because it won't even read that there is a disc in there! The same finished discs that won't play on the Polaroid play fine on my other DVD player (a Panasonic unit in another room).

Can anyone suggest a remedy? If my burner is simply going bad, is there anything I can do to repair/replace it, or do I need to get a whole new machine? If the burner is replaceable, where could I get that part? HELP!

[QUOTE=mdspiro]

What is the series of your unit (letter designation)?
To determine if its the burner you will need to disconnect the internal burner and attach an external burner. It is very simple and outlined in this thread...http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=736151

All of a sudden, I'm seeing a problem. When I put a completed DVD into the unit (both commercial DVDs and ones I've burned myself) it is now often not "seeing" the disc at all. It says "Loading", but then nothing happens. No blank screen, no disc menu, nothing. It acts as if I never put a disc in at all. It doesn't happen on every disc -- just certain ones. This sometimes even happens at the end of trying to burn a new disc -- it won't allow me to finalize the disc because it won't even read that there is a disc in there! The same finished discs that won't play on the Polaroid play fine on my other DVD player (a Panasonic unit in another room). HELP!

My second one was doing that before I finally decided the burner was going bad. During finalization, I could tell it was making a different noise than earlier in it's life. So, I returned it. The new one is working fine.

After getting a new one, I noticed the manual states chapter editing is only available for +RW DVD's. I had begun to do that before I gave up on it. OTOH, you said commercial DVD's wouldn't work and an earlier poster on this page stated she successfully placed chapter marks on -R discs. So, I really think the optical drive was headed south.

After getting a new one, I noticed the manual states chapter editing is only available for +RW DVD's. I had begun to do that before I gave up on it. OTOH, you said commercial DVD's wouldn't work and an earlier poster on this page stated she successfully placed chapter marks on -R discs. So, I really think the optical drive was headed south.

GP I don't know why in the manual it says the chapter editing function is only available for DVD+RW. (pages 43-44) I used a -R and was able to do all the steps on those pages. I have only made 2 dvds but it worked on both -Rs. I have noticed that when I copy from HDD to DVD it says I am copying to a +R but really it is -R. Go figure.

When you guys talk about a G or K are you talking about what letter the serial number starts with or something else? I am confused when you guys talk about G or K.

Just trying to get on the same page.

Yeah ... I never tried the chapter editing feature ... and I only use +R DVD's. I'm leaning more and more towards the return-exchange route, although it's probably past the 90-day Walmart return period.

[QUOTE=mdspiro]

What is the series of your unit (letter designation)?
To determine if its the burner you will need to disconnect the internal burner and attach an external burner. It is very simple and outlined in this thread...http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=736151

Please excuse me if I'm repeating things written elsewhere in these threads ... but can you tell me where to find the letter designation on my unit, and what is the signifigance of that letter? I've read many references to those series letters -- is one letter better than another? Do the later letters have updated components that work better or differently?

Regarding the burner going bad ... is there a replacement available for the internal burner, or is my only option to buy a self-contained external burner and connect it with a cable snaked through the chassis?

[QUOTE]Please excuse me if I'm repeating things written elsewhere in these threads ... but can you tell me where to find the letter designation on my unit, and what is the signifigance of that letter? I've read many references to those series letters -- is one letter better than another? Do the later letters have updated components that work better or differently?

On the unit you will find a serial number preceded by a letter. This is the letter of interest. I ask just to see if any particular "series" seems to have a recurrent problem. Some of the earlier series had louder fans and poor remotes for example. Just curious.

Regarding the burner going bad ... is there a replacement available for the internal burner, or is my only option to buy a self-contained external burner and connect it with a cable snaked through the chassis?

I do not think anyone has found an internal replacement for the optical drive. It may exist but I have yet to see it done. If you have an extra internal burner available it might be worth the effort to plug it in and see if the burner is the problem. Otherwise just exchange it for another one if you do not like to tinker :)

[QUOTE=mdspiro]

I do not think anyone has found an internal replacement for the optical drive. It may exist but I have yet to see it done. If you have an extra internal burner available it might be worth the effort to plug it in and see if the burner is the problem. Otherwise just exchange it for another one if you do not like to tinker :)


The only other burner I have is an ASUS internal drive I bought for my computer. I do not own an external burner. I don't mind tinkering -- in fact I like to tinker! ... but I'm not sure it's worth the trouble of removing that internal computer drive and trying hooking it up to the Polaroid. Exchanging the whole thing is probably the best solution, however it's past the 90-day return-exchange period for Walmart. If I can find a new one (I've heard they're scarce now), I guess I can just buy it, switch them in the box and then return the "new" one right away. I hate to be so sneaky, but I don't think I should have to buy a separate external drive to fix a 4-month old machine.

I hate to be so sneaky, but I don't think I should have to buy a separate external drive to fix a 4-month old machine.

There's no arguing with that!

(For future reference, I bet a consumer could buy a replacement drive from Polaroid. Normally, buying a part doesn't require that someone else installs it).

gp

Update...
I went through some of the DVDs I've burned in the past couple of months. I found one disc with 22 titles (none with internal chapter markers). I also found discs with a combination of 22 titles/chapter (i.e., 4 titles + 18 chapters or 6 titles + 16 chapters).

JustinTime proposed a limit of 22-23 titles on a disc. I suggested 16 might be safe. After my review, I think his guess is better. And, I'm going to say 22 is the sum of the titles and chapter markers (combined) that can be placed on any disc.

That said, you have to consider what happens when markers and titles are put on a disc. This information has to be placed in an area separate from the video -- a T.O.C. area. Title's can be created by splitting a burn on the HD. But chapter editing can only be done directly on a DVD. There has to be a limit to what can be placed in the TOC area -- because it only reserves so much space for this task!

The menu allows you to pick from 5, 10, 15, or 30 min as automatic chapter markers. Based on the choice and the resolution, you get an available amount of video space. I noticed that switching from 5 min chapters to no chapters provided more video space. So the software is definitely reserving a certain amount of room for markers -- and titles. No surprise.

Experimenting with these limits will provide you with a better knowledge of how thoroughly a disc can be segmented/marked.

You also have to remember that removing and then adding chapter markers before finalizing a permanent (+/-R) disc is likey to hit limits before a re-writable disc. It's just the nature of the beast.

gp

Is anyone else having trouble accessing the Forum. For the past 2 days, about 50% of the time i'm getting "Internet Explorer Cannot Access Your Page".

My Poloroid is not defective! Whoopeee....

Something odd is happening, but it's not the Poloroid's fault. I connected my Samsung H260 STB directly to my Toshiba 46H84 RPTV. At 1080i setting, all is normal. When I set the output to 480i, I get the pinkish tint.

I found something that could cause some problems. I set a timed recording tonight and after setting it and turning the polo off the component no longer passed through. It wouldn't pass through until the recorder came on to record. So if i set timers in advance i loose my component pass through to the tv. when no timers are set it's passed through. This is on a K unit. Is this the same on others.

All of a sudden, I'm seeing a problem. When I put a completed DVD into the unit (both commercial DVDs and ones I've burned myself) it is now often not "seeing" the disc at all. It says "Loading", but then nothing happens. No blank screen, no disc menu, nothing. It acts as if I never put a disc in at all. It doesn't happen on every disc -- just certain ones. This sometimes even happens at the end of trying to burn a new disc -- it won't allow me to finalize the disc because it won't even read that there is a disc in there! The same finished discs that won't play on the Polaroid play fine on my other DVD player (a Panasonic unit in another room).



Try pulling the plug on the unit and allow it to reset. Often this fixes problems.

Try pulling the plug on the unit and allow it to reset. Often this fixes problems.

Thanks, but I already unplugged it several times and allowed it to reset (I had to when it locked up during the finalization stage). I even opened it up, took the cover off the burner unit and cleaned the lense. Slight improvement, but the problem did not go away.

I found something that could cause some problems. I set a timed recording tonight and after setting it and turning the polo off the component no longer passed through. It wouldn't pass through until the recorder came on to record. So if i set timers in advance i loose my component pass through to the tv. when no timers are set it's passed through. This is on a K unit. Is this the same on others.

Hmm. (Scratch head). I have 2 Polaroids and one is a "K". I have timer recordings set on both and am still able to passthrough when powered off. I am not at home to experiment but I seem to recall a circumstance when what you describe occurs. I will let you know if I can figure it out.

Here's another good one for you...

If I let the polo automatically set 5 minute chapter markers for me, that works fine. Upon finalization, my (better) Sony player sees the chapter markers.

If I disable the auto chapter feature (placing zero markers) during a copy to HDD, then dub to DVD, then edit to apply chapter markers, and finalize, my Sony can't see the added chapter markers. But the polo can see them. This means there's a difference in the auto vs manual option of creating chapter markers....

The manual says chapter editing to add markers is only available for +RWs. Maybe this means they can only be seen by other players if done on +RWs?

Man... the editing just keeps getting crapier and crapier, and crapier (or the compatibility with other players may not be so hot). It's a good thing it's got other things going for it!

Hmm. (Scratch head). I have 2 Polaroids and one is a "K". I have timer recordings set on both and am still able to passthrough when powered off. I am not at home to experiment but I seem to recall a circumstance when what you describe occurs. I will let you know if I can figure it out.

My works like your DLSDO.

How about if the timer is set to record from another source besides YUV?

My works like your DLSDO.

How about if the timer is set to record from another source besides YUV?

I tried recording off S-Video and it still shuts off the pass through. I tried it with my G unit too and it does the same.

I have video on the tv when the polo is off, turn it on and i have video, set up a timer and shut the polo off and video shuts off. This is on both component and s-video pass through.

If two of you get pass through i can't figure out what is going on here.

I just tested it and I still have video. I set up a timer recording and turned the Polaroid off. No problems with passthrough. So I guess I'm #3. Try taking another look at your cabling perhaps? To pass through s-video you need to have s-video input/output for it to work when powered down.

I tried recording off S-Video and it still shuts off the pass through. I tried it with my G unit too and it does the same.

I have video on the tv when the polo is off, turn it on and i have video, set up a timer and shut the polo off and video shuts off. This is on both component and s-video pass through.

If two of you get pass through i can't figure out what is going on here.

How soon till the next timer recording?
What happens if you turn off the TV and turn it back on? Still no passthrough?

I will mess with it tonight and let you know.

Ok, i think i got it. If you set up a timed recording to start within 10 minutes of the current time, when you shut the recorder off, the pass through won't come on. If the start time is greater than 10 minutes from the current time, the pass through works. During these 10 minutes the recorder must be in some type of prep mode or something. I know my Toshiba powers on almost 10 minutes before the actual recording starts.

Try setting a recording to start less than 10 minutes of the current time and see if it does this

Thanks.

GreggPenn: I have found the same with chapter markers for DVD-R's & -RW's. Applied segments are seen as chapters by other machines, but applied chapters are not seen unless I copy->ifoedit->reburn. Have not tried with +R/RW's yet. Anyone?

BurnerBum: Component passthrough works on my "F" unit with timers set, powered on or off.

Ok, i think i got it. If you set up a timed recording to start within 10 minutes of the current time, when you shut the recorder off, the pass through won't come on. If the start time is greater than 10 minutes from the current time, the pass through works. During these 10 minutes the recorder must be in some type of prep mode or something. I know my Toshiba powers on almost 10 minutes before the actual recording starts.

Try setting a recording to start less than 10 minutes of the current time and see if it does this

Thanks.

Precisely! In addition if you set to timer record within 10 minutes then power off it will automatically power on exactly 1 minute prior to recording.

GreggPenn: I have found the same with chapter markers for DVD-R's & -RW's. Applied segments are seen as chapters by other machines, but applied chapters are not seen unless I copy->ifoedit->reburn. Have not tried with +R/RW's yet. Anyone?

BurnerBum: Component passthrough works on my "F" unit with timers set, powered on or off.

I have autochapter marked with +R and the chapters are seen on my other players

I have autochapter marked with +R and the chapters are seen on my other players

Yes, autochapter markers show on my other players too. I'm saying any applied ones (using the edit chapter function) are not seen on other players.

gp

GreggPenn: I have found the same with chapter markers for DVD-R's & -RW's. Applied segments are seen as chapters by other machines, but applied chapters are not seen unless I copy->ifoedit->reburn. Have not tried with +R/RW's yet. Anyone?

If you are saying the segments (removed sections) create a chapter marker, I've observed that too. When you say applied chapters are not seen unless you "copy->ifoedit->reburn" I don't follow.

As it stands now, I can't see a way to control the placement of my own chapter markers -- that will be visible to other players!

I was wondering if applied a null segment (clicked twice while on pause) would create a chapter marker on the HDD titles (without removing any video). If so, those might dub to DVD. And, that might be the way to control it.

gp

I was wondering if applied a null segment (clicked twice while on pause) would create a chapter marker on the HDD titles (without removing any video).

gp


That sounds like a great idea but the problems is that you may see a long pause where that marker is. That would be a great distraction, for me that is. Then again it may work, I have not tried it yet. If you try it please report back to us. :)

If you are saying the segments (removed sections) create a chapter marker, I've observed that too. When you say applied chapters are not seen unless you "copy->ifoedit->reburn" I don't follow.

As it stands now, I can't see a way to control the placement of my own chapter markers -- that will be visible to other players!

I was wondering if applied a null segment (clicked twice while on pause) would create a chapter marker on the HDD titles (without removing any video). If so, those might dub to DVD. And, that might be the way to control it.

gp

By "copy-ifoedit" I mean to trsnfer the disc contents to my PC, then burn an image with IfoEdit, then burn a new disc. Blecch.

As for the null segments - tried it. The polaroid will not place two segment points that close together.

By "copy-ifoedit" I mean to trsnfer the disc contents to my PC, then burn an image with IfoEdit, then burn a new disc. Blecch.

As for the null segments - tried it. The polaroid will not place two segment points that close together.

Thanks for the info!!!!!!!!!!

Just a quick note for any new people on the thread.
I just experienced my first "hangup" I thought with my new "k" unit. But I decided to wait it out like I do with my "B". Sure enough, about 5 minutes later, it came to life again.
So if it seems to hangup, have patience and it likely will resume.
I think I know what causes my "hangups." Every now and then the machine will slow down in reaction time. I then think that I didn't press a button on the remote right and press it again and again - voila - hangup.
Everytime I notice it slowing down in response I shut it off and start up again and it goes back to normal.

Here's another question I have (again sorry if was talked about before)

I've burned from the HDD to a +R. Playing back on the polo and the only other dvd player I have that will play it (my other unit is pretty old) plays fine, and will jump to chapter marks fine. The only problem is playback functions are limited to 1X ff, play and pause. That's it. When I try a faster FF or rewind, the it skips segments. Not sure it it it skips to chapter points, or something more random.

Is this common? Is it something I did?

(p.s. on the time issue, so far, manual time set for 5-7 programs with no problems)

By "copy-ifoedit" I mean to trsnfer the disc contents to my PC, then burn an image with IfoEdit, then burn a new disc. Blecch.

As for the null segments - tried it. The polaroid will not place two segment points that close together.


By this does it mean that you can take your HDD from the Polaroid and read it on a PC?

The newbie is back and I just wanted to thank you guys again for helping me with this machine. I love it!!!! It has done everything I wanted it to do and I couldn't be happier. It is quiet and the picture it great.

I have one question. We live fulltime in an RV and travel alot. Should I pack the recorder up each time we move so it does not get bumped around while going down the road. I am thinking I should, just so it does not get messed up. The DVD and VCR unit I had road well and I did not pack it up, but this is so different than that. Any ideas?

[QUOTE]The only problem is playback functions are limited to 1X ff, play and pause. That's it. When I try a faster FF or rewind, the it skips segments.Is this common? Is it something I did?

FF playback issues have been described in detail in this thread. An anomaly of the Polaroid burn.

By this does it mean that you can take your HDD from the Polaroid and read it on a PC?

No one has successfully achieved this endeavor.

No one has successfully achieved this endeavor.

I think this would be the ultimate hack. Good luck to who ever is working on it.

After much searching (they're mostly out-of-stock these days) I finally located the last remaining Polaroid DMR 2001G unit at a local Wal-Mart, and did the old "switcheroo" with my 4-month old unit with a defective burner. The new one seems to be working fine, although I haven't had time to fully test it. The old one was a "B" series, and the new one is a "K" series. Has anyone found any significant differences in these letter series? Have they upgraded any internal components, or fixed any bugs from one letter to another?

After much searching (they're mostly out-of-stock these days) I finally located the last remaining Polaroid DMR 2001G unit at a local Wal-Mart, and did the old "switcheroo" with my 4-month old unit with a defective burner. The new one seems to be working fine, although I haven't had time to fully test it. The old one was a "B" series, and the new one is a "K" series. Has anyone found any significant differences in these letter series? Have they upgraded any internal components, or fixed any bugs from one letter to another?

Improved remote responsiveness and "power off" passthrough ability with the "K"

I am going to ask a huge newbie question. In considering the Polaroid recorder, I have read a lot about the mono tuner. I do not have a cable box, but rather just connect cable coax directly to my TV.

If I get the Polaroid, does this mean that if I run the coax to it, and then out to my TV, will the sound come out in mono or stereo when just watching TV? Sorry for such a simple question.

FF playback issues have been described in detail in this thread. An anomaly of the Polaroid burn.

I'm not sure how detailed the discussion has gotten, but I have seen reference to it. That said, I was actually going to add my observation today....

First of all kbbl, it is normal -- for this unit. Not ideal -- just normal.

My observation is this phenomenon is much worse when dubbing from the HDD. When I copy to the HDD, then dub to a DVD, I can only use the single FF speed with my other player(s). Going faster than that drives the disc into warp and skips thru all chapters within a second/two. NOT GOOD. (But the Polaroid is still able to hit it's various FF speeds without problem).

If I write directly to a DVD, this phenomenon is much less pronounced. In that case, I can hit double/triple FF speeds without an issue -- though they still run faster than a commercial DVD. If I write HQ directly to DVD, the result is nearly as good as commercial. But I think the FF is about one notch more "touchy".

My conclusion is that higher (or extra) compression is used during the operation of copying to HDD before creating your DVD. If you want better results, copy straight to a DVD. I think the image will even be slightly clearer.

gp

This is slightly off-topic.

Has walmart's return policy changed? I reccomended the Polaroid to someone. The person ultimately did not like it and tried to return it to walmart about 4 weeks after purchase. She was told that refunds were limited to within 15 days of purchase? I thought it was somewhere between 30-90 days.

Anyway, after arguing some she settled for a gift card, which I guess is almost as good as a refund.

What is the return policy for electronics, and is it chain-wide or store-by-store?

This is slightly off-topic.

Has walmart's return policy changed? I reccomended the Polaroid to someone. The person ultimately did not like it and tried to return it to walmart about 4 weeks after purchase. She was told that refunds were limited to within 15 days of purchase?

Maybe it's because they wanted a refund? Maybe they could get a replacement within 90 days, but refunds are limited to 15 days???

Website prob has your answers.

Ron

just last week I returned a DEFECTIVE rca unit to walmart, it was 34 days old, they checked inside the box to make sure IT was the correct unit and all cables manula remote rtc.. where there and gave me a full refund , with out so much as even a 'blink', camcorders cameras and computers are 15 days, TV's vcrs and DVD electronics is 90 days, this has been posted in other threads

they are out of stock on the RCA and also the polaroid or i would have bought a replacement before leaving the store

I am going to ask a huge newbie question. In considering the Polaroid recorder, I have read a lot about the mono tuner. I do not have a cable box, but rather just connect cable coax directly to my TV.

If I get the Polaroid, does this mean that if I run the coax to it, and then out to my TV, will the sound come out in mono or stereo when just watching TV? Sorry for such a simple question.

if you are using the ant RF passed thru the recorder box and using the TV tuner, it will still be stereo when watching TV with the unit turned off

it will be in mono when you are watching or recording using the polaroids tuner

like when doing the tivo chase & play to pause live TV, that will be on the units mono tuner

Has anyone found any differences between using DVD+R vs. DVD-R discs for buring on the Polaroid DMR 2001G? I've read that the +R discs are newer technology, and thus better on some obscure techie level ... but I'm not sure how that translates into real world terms. Supposedly -R discs are more compatable with older DVD Players. Has anyone experienced those compatablilty issues or any other noticeable differences?

Has anyone found any differences between using DVD+R vs. DVD-R discs for buring on the Polaroid DMR 2001G? I've read that the +R discs are newer technology, and thus better on some obscure techie level ... but I'm not sure how that translates into real world terms. Supposedly -R discs are more compatable with older DVD Players. Has anyone experienced those compatablilty issues or any other noticeable differences?

I've had 3 units. The first one began to have issues with -R discs -- though +Rs continued to work O.K. It was a D unit. I ended up returning it because the remote and contrast were flaky. I decided the issue was with the unit, not the media.

I refrained from using -Rs on my second unit -- which had a fan and optical drive that died.

Last night, I burned my first -R on my H unit. It worked fine. I could not see a difference (funtionally/physically) as compared to +Rs.

It would seem that the "native" format (of this recorder) is +RW since there are more references to +R/+RW in the manual and on the box. However -Rs will work -- at least on the newer ones. An insert (flyer) in my H unit specifies all disc types will work.

I think you'll find more limitations with the editing and software of the Polo vs. issues with the media selected (unless you pick poor quality DVDs in general).

gp

if you are using the ant RF passed thru the recorder box and using the TV tuner, it will still be stereo when watching TV with the unit turned off

it will be in mono when you are watching or recording using the polaroids tuner

like when doing the tivo chase & play to pause live TV, that will be on the units mono tuner


Thanks for answering the stereo question.

A final question, though. Is there a buffer on this unit, like a Tivo (which I am used to)? When watching live TV, will I be able to pause, rewind, FF, etc? I am comparing this Polaroid with the $298 Philips recorder at Walmart's website.

Interesting. I'm also on my 3rd Polaroid now. The first one (B) had a bad optical drive right out of the box. The second one (D) lasted 4 months before the optical drive began going bad. I just got the third (K) a couple of days ago. I wonder if the failure rate on these DMR 2001-G units are high in general, or if we are the exceptions?

I only use well-known high-quality brands of DVD's (Sony, Philips, HP, TDK). Up until now, I've only used +R, but the -R's were on sale, and the guy in Circuit City said that the -R's were much more popular sellers than the +R's, and that he's never heard anyone say that one worked better than another -- unless they had a really old computer or DVD player. Of course, I don't neccessarily trust such info from a sales guy in a big box store! Just wondered if anyone here had more experience with one type of media being better than another on the Polaroid.

I wonder if the failure rate on these DMR 2001-G units are high in general, or if we are the exceptions?

In general, the failure rate on DVD recorders is a lot higher than it is on a lot of electronics products. I am already on my 5th model (not my fifth Polaroid). The longest any model has lasted is about 18 months. I do not burn that many DVDs (maybe three a week). After my first two died within months of purchase I started buying the extended waranty. It has paid off for me for the last couple of DVD recorders that failed.

Thanks for answering the stereo question.

A final question, though. Is there a buffer on this unit, like a Tivo (which I am used to)? When watching live TV, will I be able to pause, rewind, FF, etc? I am comparing this Polaroid with the $298 Philips recorder at Walmart's website.

From what I have seen they are both the same as far as the way they act like a Tivo. It is a one hour buffer but you can hit record and have a "buffer" as large as the HD, at least on the Polaroid.

You can do a lot with time shift that is not in the manual, which is not very well written.

There is a lot about this feature and how to use it in this thread. Just look for "time shift". On both machines you cannot time shift when recording a scheduled program. For a few, this is a problem, but you can watch a recorded program at the same time you are recording a scheduled program which is a better, IMHO, feature.

Got this on the recommendation and reviews I read here. MAN this unit is great for my needs.
I like almost everything except the manual. poor at best.

2 things I can't figure out...when cutting commercials you hit ok at begin and end of segment...how do you know when you pressed ok, start always seems to work but stop sometimes I fast forweard looking for next commercial and still on the first one
I sometimes hit ok but it didn't catch it...
one fix is put in a better led...anyone got pics of how to take it apart?
But I still don't know when it works or doesn't.
Right now its hooked up to an older S12 Sony 32in and I can see some icon in the bottom right of screen but its cut off(shows off) the bottom of the screen.


the other is the little fan...worked great for about 2 weeks then last time it came on for timed recording I thought the HD was going to fly out the top of the unit....thats when I took it apart and it was the little junker fan LOL

I want to cut a hole in the back and mount an exaust, would this be a better cooling solution?

overall its a tinker dream, getting an external box for the HD next.

I sometimes hit ok but it didn't catch it...
one fix is put in a better led...anyone got pics of how to take it apart?

A simpler fix for the piss poor remote is to replace it with a Sony RM-VL600. It will "learn" all the commands from the Polaroid remote, and has a much more user-friendly ergonomic layout. Big buttons, logically laid out. About $25, and worth every penny! It beats the Polaroid remote original hands down.

I wonder if the failure rate on these DMR 2001-G units are high in general, or if we are the exceptions?


I was wondering this too because there have been a few posts about it recently. I personally am not concerned because I burn to an external Sony DVD drive but I wonder if when using the stock burner usage patterns come into play. For example, when you record do you record directly to the disc or do you record first to the HDD and then dub it to a disc?

I was wondering this too because there have been a few posts about it recently. I personally am not concerned because I burn to an external Sony DVD drive but I wonder if when using the stock burner usage patterns come into play. For example, when you record do you record directly to the disc or do you record first to the HDD and then dub it to a disc?

Since owning my first "good" Polaroid, which lasted 4 months, I've burned nearly 100 DVD's by going direct from external sources (VCR, camera tapes, etc.) without a glitch. It's only been in the last few weeks that I started burning DVD's from programs stored on the HDD. THAT's when the problems began. Hmmm ....

Since owning my first "good" Polaroid, which lasted 4 months, I've burned nearly 100 DVD's by going direct from external sources (VCR, camera tapes, etc.) without a glitch. It's only been in the last few weeks that I started burning DVD's from programs stored on the HDD. THAT's when the problems began. Hmmm ....

Interesting. You may have posted this before but what type (+ -) and brand of media are you using?

Interesting. You may have posted this before but what type (+ -) and brand of media are you using?

So far I've only used DVD+R type, with the brands being a variety of well-known ones with good reputations: HP, TDK, Sony, Phillips. I just bought my first pack of -R's (they were on sale) but have not yet tested them on my newest Polaroid.

...when cutting commercials you hit ok at begin and end of segment...how do you know when you pressed ok, start always seems to work but stop sometimes I fast forweard looking for next commercial and still on the first one
I sometimes hit ok but it didn't catch it...
one fix is put in a better led...anyone got pics of how to take it apart?
But I still don't know when it works or doesn't.
Right now its hooked up to an older S12 Sony 32in and I can see some icon in the bottom right of screen but its cut off(shows off) the bottom of the screen.


I would say it's the led. I purchased the Sony RM-VL600 and do not have any problems with the unit not picking up on which button I press.

And thanks to all for helping me with my other questions:

1) the FF playback issues (honestly, I can live with only one slow FF, the rewind can really bother me since I often like to rewind to catch what I miss) But I figure, I have it on DVD, so if it really bothers me, in the future, I can transfer it with a more advanced unit.
2) I have not had any time "warping" problems since I took the unit off of automatic time. Maybe my cable's Discovery channel gave my unit bad times while recording?

I have not had any time "warping" problems since I took the unit off of automatic time. Maybe my cable's Discovery channel gave my unit bad times while recording?

I use the "auto time" feature on my Polaroid with no problems. It retrieves the time from my local PBS station. However, I thought it only updates the time when I go to that feature and choose to update it. Are you thinking it goes out looking for time updates during your recordings without you asking it to -- on some sort of regular schedule??? That's news to me!

[QUOTE]one fix is put in a better led...anyone got pics of how to take it apart?

I did the LED fix awhile back. Purchasing a learning remote works great also. I like to tinker so I chose to do the LED fix. I had never soldered and it was pretty easy. It took about 5 mins, $2 and was kinda fun. I used the Radio Shack 276-143 blue LED. Read this post also. http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=9107741&&#post9107741

Aside from the post I noted here are a few tips. Pop open the remote. Identify the LED. NOTE THE ORIENTATION OF THE LED AND DRAW A PICTURE BEFORE YOU REMOVE IT!! Heat up your soldering iron. Touch it to the current LEDs connection at the board. The LED will easily release when heated. Shape and trim the new LED into the same configuration as the old one. Set it on the board and 2 drops of solder should do the trick. I was amazed how easy it was to replace. It works great.

the other is the little fan...worked great for about 2 weeks then last time it came on for timed recording I thought the HD was going to fly out the top of the unit....thats when I took it apart and it was the little junker fan LOL

I want to cut a hole in the back and mount an exaust, would this be a better cooling solution?

I am convinced it is the fan not the ventilation. Read my post here. http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=9892804&&#post9892804

I did some testing to come to this conclusion. I recommend replacing the fan. It has worked great also! Good luck and enjoy.

BTW...Which model (letter designation) do you have with the fan problem?

I personally am not concerned because I burn to an external Sony DVD drive but I wonder if when using the stock burner usage patterns come into play. For example, when you record do you record directly to the disc or do you record first to the HDD and then dub it to a disc?

By necessity I had to externalize my burner also. It bit the dust. I think the stock burner is marginal at best. It turns out that the external burner Nextoo refers to is affordable (~$40), faster and more reliable.

I also will hook it up to my laptop occasionally. If I need to join Titles recorded @ HQ longer than 1 hr and burn onto a single DL disc. Or just for more advanced editing capabilities.

DLSDO - you weren't really burning a lot of discs were you? Were there symptoms before it went bad?

So far I've only used DVD+R type, with the brands being a variety of well-known ones with good reputations: HP, TDK, Sony, Phillips. I just bought my first pack of -R's (they were on sale) but have not yet tested them on my newest Polaroid.

Thanks. Well the media seems fine.

I personally am not concerned because I burn to an external Sony DVD drive ...

I know this has been posted before, but I can't find it now. Can you please post the makes/model nos. of compatable external burners that can be used to replace the stock burner in the Polaroid, should it prove to be too failure-prone. Thanks.

I've been burning DVD's from my Sony Digital-8 camera onto the Polaroid Burner for permanent archiving. At first I assumed that the direct DV input would produce the best results, since it's digital to digital. However, I began to notice a lot of digital "artifacts" on the picture when using that input, as well as a slight jagged fuzziness around the edges of objects. I tried a comparison test by burning one of my camera tapes 2 ways -- using the DV input (firewire cable), and the AV inputs (RCA cables). To my surprise, the AV version looked slightly better! Fewer artifacts, and clearer edges around objects on the screen, etc. Has anyone else experienced this? Could it be the nature of the "Digital 8" hybrid format, which supposedly stores the digital info on an analog Hi8mm tape? Do I really have a digital video signal on my tapes, or have I been misled by Sony all these years?

Okay, you convinced me, but as a newly registered user, I need some guidance.

After giving up on the RCA 80GB DVR, I decided to try the Polaroid DRM2001G, a K-unit. Besides, it was the only unit my local Wal-Mart had in stock. All the positive info on this thread encouraged me to try it.

After purchasing and trying the K unit, before a week was over, the unit developed the typical reported fan noise problem at power-on. The noise gradually seemed to be getting longer in duration from about a minute to even longer but would eventually clear up.

I kept checking the local Wal-Mart stores until I finally found a B-unit in a store 50 miles from my residence. I purchased the B-unit but I returned it for refund due to all the negative info about the B-units. I was tempted to cannibalize the fan from the B-unit for my K-unit but I resisted.

Finally, the store closest to me received 2 units, a K-unit and a G-unit. I purchased the K-unit, installed it, and later returned my original K-unit. The fan noise was not prevalent in the new K-unit, so I started the review process. Within 24 hours, I discovered significant TV picture interference (not on the tuner but on my TV) on several cable channels; I attributed this to the fan, i.e., the inteference stopped when the unit was powered off.

I returned to the aforementioned Wal_Mart and puchased the G-unit. I installed it and no fan noise, and no interference. I'm currently reviewing the G-unit.

I currently am keeping the K-unit pending further review of the G unit.

Here's my concern: should the G-unit perform as well as the K-unit notwithstanding the fan problem? May I feel comfortable to return the K-unit and proceed or should I consider keeping it and finding a replacement fan?

If I keep the G-unit and return the K-unit, I'll keep the K-unit remote control.

DLSDO - you weren't really burning a lot of discs were you? Were there symptoms before it went bad?

Your right.

Very little burning....until................The wife caught on to the technology and had me put the bedroom Polaroid to work. I timer recorded and burned every darned episode of Franklin, Magic School Bus and Curious George aired everyday until my burner said "I give up!" :eek:

Here's my concern: should the G-unit perform as well as the K-unit notwithstanding the fan problem? May I feel comfortable to return the K-unit and proceed or should I consider keeping it and finding a replacement fan?

If I keep the G-unit and return the K-unit, I'll keep the K-unit remote control.

I started with a D and returned it, then I returned a K (and kept the remote). I'm on an H and it's doing the best of the 3 so far. Maybe the F-G-H era is the best? Don't be afraid to keep the G over the K. There is no advantage we've seen (of the K over the mid-production units).

I know this has been posted before, but I can't find it now. Can you please post the makes/model nos. of compatable external burners that can be used to replace the stock burner in the Polaroid, should it prove to be too failure-prone. Thanks.

I had not noticed any post regarding the addition of an external burner -- but that's great to know! Now, I'm leaning against the extended warranty! Knowing this can be done -- in addition to an easy replacement of the HDD (and the fan) makes this pretty darn indestructible. Because no other parts are moving inside.

Obviously a bigger HDD and better fan can be installed.... what about a BETTER optical drive? Any functional gains? :p

Nextoo, DLSDO please comment....


Note: if the contrast is a function of the burner, then my first one was bad... otherwise I'd have to suspect the LSI chipset on that one. With the second one, I tried a lot of editing (pause/play, stop/play, etc...) This may have been the cause of the optical drive failure -- though it happened at about 50 discs. (Still not good even with my editing).

Now I find that using the HDD to edit creates its own set of "issues". The FF problem is way worse -- when using the HDD as the middle step. Plus segmenting causes a pause during playback (like dual layer shifting). Knowing that the optical drive can be put thru the paces -- then replaced -- may hold the answer....

If I'm going to make DVD's, I really want them to have good access thru chapters/titles.... Otherwise, buying them used (or cut-rate) is really creates better results. But, there are some things you'd only want to get from TV. And, for that, this is really worth investigating.

I had not noticed any post regarding the addition of an external burner -- but that's great to know! Now, I'm leaning against the extended warranty! Knowing this can be done -- in addition to an easy replacement of the HDD (and the fan) makes this pretty darn indestructible. Because no other parts are moving inside.

Obviously a bigger HDD and better fan can be installed.... what about a BETTER optical drive? Any functional gains? :p

Nextoo, DLSDO please comment....

Here's the thread that discusses both an external HDD and external burner:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=736151

It is from the beginning so the concept looks a bit rough at first but as the thread moves on things mature a bit.

Be aware.

I stumbled some with the Burner swap. I initially tried 2 different burners than the ones described as "okay" by Nextoo in the thread he noted. I had troubles with editing and stuttering on playback. I thought it was the burners and an incompatibility with the Polaroid so I returned them and bought a Sony DRU-120C burner. (On Nextoo's "okay" list)

But, and this is important, I also changed the IDE from a standard 40pin to a high efficiency 80 strand 40pin and everything worked great. So I am not sure if I ran into troubles because the 2 other burners were incompatible or if it was the cheap IDE cable.

Regardless...it works well now with the burners described as "okay" in Nextoo's thread but I would recommend a good IDE cable!

GreggPenn,

The dub from HDD and finalization process are alittle faster than the stock burner. I will still get a failed burn or troubles with editing with the external burner but its infrequent.

I had the same problems with the burner I'm using now. And this was after it was working fine for a while. Turns out it was a bad IDE cable as well. What I recommend when testing a burner is to have the cover of the Polaroid off. Set the replacement burner on top of the OEM burner. Unplug the power cable and IDE cable from the OEM burner and plug them into the replacement burner. Run the replacement burner through its paces. If things work as they should you're golden. Then if you are having problems when it is installed outside the case it is probably the IDE cable. IDE cable runs can be finicky. Especially with longer runs.

[QUOTE=Compubooth]

Welcome to the forum Compubooth. I would dump the unit with the interference. Keep the "G" unit if its working well.

You are asking the wrong guy about whether to purchase another unit. I have 2 that work well and am fighting off the urge to buy a 3rd to leave in the box.

I think the new line of ATSC DVDR's are going to be very disappointing. If a HDD/ATSC DVDR is marketed anytime soon in North America, and that is a big "if", it will be priced out of a reasonable range. For my purposes the Polaroid meets my needs!! Just my opinion. I might very well be wrong. ;)

The past 2 days when i turn on my K unit it sometimes sounds like a buzz saw. I haven't opened it up yet, but after reading the past few threads i'm hoping it's the fan and not the burner. The fan i can replace easily. I'll have to pull the cover off for a while to see what's making the noise.

Nextoo
I got my RD-XS54 yesterday. The first thing i did was set up the Network Navi. I have everything working great including the email scheduling. Sent it 2 emails and it recorded and sent back an email. However, the problem is the picture looks terrible. All washed out. i turned on the enhanced black level, set brightness to min, Gamma to min and it still looks bad. Over HDMI it's really bad. I tried different inputs and outputs but no go. I know its the recorder because my XS52 is much better, I'm going to call about the firmware upgrade since mine has the old firmware but i don't know if that will improve the picture. If not, i'll have to send it in to Toshiba. The TVGOS started loading immediately, got about 1/2 days programming and then it all disappeared. I know the firmware upgrade had some improvements for that but i'll have to wait and see.

The past 2 days when i turn on my K unit it sometimes sounds like a buzz saw. I haven't opened it up yet, but after reading the past few threads i'm hoping it's the fan and not the burner. The fan i can replace easily. I'll have to pull the cover off for a while to see what's making the noise.

Nextoo
I got my RD-XS54 yesterday. The first thing i did was set up the Network Navi. I have everything working great including the email scheduling. Sent it 2 emails and it recorded and sent back an email. However, the problem is the picture looks terrible. All washed out. i turned on the enhanced black level, set brightness to min, Gamma to min and it still looks bad. Over HDMI it's really bad. I tried different inputs and outputs but no go. I know its the recorder because my XS52 is much better, I'm going to call about the firmware upgrade since mine has the old firmware but i don't know if that will improve the picture. If not, i'll have to send it in to Toshiba. The TVGOS started loading immediately, got about 1/2 days programming and then it all disappeared. I know the firmware upgrade had some improvements for that but i'll have to wait and see.

Not good news on the PQ - that does not sound good. I'd jump on that immediately. I'd call the supplier first and request/demand an exchange.

The guide seems to take a few days of cycling to download completely. The first day or two I only had something like 10 hours of scheduling. After a few days it expanded to a full 8 days as it should. My network navi works fine. I have not set up the email scheduling yet.

My network navi works fine. I have not set up the email scheduling yet.
What Browser are you using, i've been using Firefox, i can't get IE7 to work. I read through the posts about IE7 but couldn't find a fix yet.

What Browser are you using, i've been using Firefox, i can't get IE7 to work. I read through the posts about IE7 but couldn't find a fix yet.

Firefox works fine. IE7 has been reported not to work. I never even tried it because of the success using Firefox.

I started with a D and returned it, then I returned a K (and kept the remote). I'm on an H and it's doing the best of the 3 so far. Maybe the F-G-H era is the best? Don't be afraid to keep the G over the K. There is no advantage we've seen (of the K over the mid-production units).

Thanks GreggPenn for your quick response and for all your postings. This helps very much.

[QUOTE=Compubooth]

Welcome to the forum Compubooth. I would dump the unit with the interference. Keep the "G" unit if its working well.

Thanks DLSDO. Glad to be on board and having "fun"!!!

Your quick response to my question eases my mind and is very helpful. I appreciate all of your postings and the many others who provide substantive information about the subject 2001G, et al.

I'm looking forward to somehow contributing myself as I become an avid user of this "new" tech toy.

I use the "auto time" feature on my Polaroid with no problems. It retrieves the time from my local PBS station. However, I thought it only updates the time when I go to that feature and choose to update it. Are you thinking it goes out looking for time updates during your recordings without you asking it to -- on some sort of regular schedule??? That's news to me!
Mine will auto update when I turn it back on for a bit after it has lost power and reset the time to 00. I usually try to set it on PBS when that happens and when I cycle the power it's reset to proper time again. I need to hook it into the small UPS I have for the low power AV gear.

[QUOTE]The past 2 days when i turn on my K unit it sometimes sounds like a buzz saw. I haven't opened it up yet, but after reading the past few threads i'm hoping it's the fan and not the burner. The fan i can replace easily. I'll have to pull the cover off for a while to see what's making the noise.

I am fairly certain its the fan. It must have been a bad batch. Pop the top and fire it up from a cold start. If its the fan change it out! You will not regret it. This is how I did it...http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=9892804&&#post9892804

Can somebody point me to a good step-by-step guide to use IfoEdit to put the widescreen flag on my dvds from the Polaroid? I'm burning 1 hr HD Episodes to TDK DVD+RW's. I want to put them on the computer, add the flag and then burn to DVD+R and reuse the RW.

peace.
unloaded

edit: I found a link nextoo posted in a different thread:
http://www.dvdr-digest.com/articles/42_1.html
Followed simple steps and got what I needed. I also used IfoEdit to make the image file, but couldn't get it to burn it. Had to use DVD Decryptor for that.

[QUOTE=Burnerbum]


I am fairly certain its the fan. It must have been a bad batch. Pop the top and fire it up from a cold start. If its the fan change it out! You will not regret it. This is how I did it...http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=9892804&&#post9892804

Going to ask a dumb question. Is the fan in the enclosure that you linked to or is it purchased separately, and if so, is there a link?

I share your opinion of the Polaroid and also have two. My second G did go through the LOUD startup fan noise and what I heard on my other one was minor compared to the new one. It also settled down and is fairly quiet. When it started up, if you did not know it was the fan, you would return the unit in a heartbeat. It sounded like every mechanical object in the unit was coming apart.

My guess is my first one, where I mounted the fan on a rubber mount, probably had the same problems but the sound was buffered and much less.

Another thing I have noticed is the loudness of the fan is (obviously) dependent on the other noises in the room. When our fridge or freezer fans come on in the kitchen, they effectively drown out the Polaroid. When off, the Polaroid seems loud. So it might be that some who have little problem with fan noise only have louder ambient noise.

Also, there are at least four states that the fan can have- 1. loud thrashing at startup, 2. fairly quiet 3. quiet then louder but not too bad 4. loud but not too bad unless in a quiet room. It really pays to get rid of it.

An obvious observation, but add it to the data base. I can take an un-finalized disk from one Polaroid to another and it plays fine.

Another obvious observation- if the scheduled recording comes on when you are viewing a DVD, after you return to the DVD (press DVD) it starts from where you were cut off. That does not happen if you are watching a stored program on the HD. When you go from the recording screen to HD and the program, you start all over again. It is a good idea to hit display before the program starts and see where you are so it is easy to return.

Third obvious observation- If you decide to stop a scheduled recording while watching a stored HD program and hit stop, you also turn off time shift, so if you want to see that program, you do have to go back to the tuner/normal display and turn it back on. That happens any time you are scheduled recording and hit stop. You have to restart time shift. If you are using the record button, time shift stays on. You do dump everything before the recording started and keep all after.

[QUOTE=DLSDO]

[QUOTE]Going to ask a dumb question. Is the fan in the enclosure that you linked to or is it purchased separately, and if so, is there a link?

Beekeeper, Your the last guy that would ever ask a "dumb question". I have learned much from your contributions. Thank you!

The link is to a fan equipped external enclosure. I did not buy this enclosure for the fan. I just happened to have it lying around. The fan is the exact same size as the Polaroid's and is also 2 pin. It was a perfect fit and has worked great. But I did try many different size fans both internally and externally powered and they all worked. So be creative if you like. I almost went with an externally powered fan but I wanted the fan to turn on and off with the Polaroid. Another option is to splice it in with your external HDD's power supply. Options are endless.

BTW. I bet you could buy a 2 pin replacement fan that would not require any splicing. Early in the thread I think this was described. I have so many fans and parts lying around l chose to use what I had.

I share your opinion of the Polaroid and also have two. My second G did go through the LOUD startup fan noise and what I heard on my other one was minor compared to the new one. It also settled down and is fairly quiet. When it started up, if you did not know it was the fan, you would return the unit in a heartbeat. It sounded like every mechanical object in the unit was coming apart

I did not return the unit because I was afraid I would exchange one problem for another. At least with this unit I knew what the problem was and that it was an easy fix. And I think you know how much I like to tinker also.

My guess is my first one, where I mounted the fan on a rubber mount, probably had the same problems but the sound was buffered and much less.

Tried this also but it did not completely resolve the problem. Yes..fan replacement was the way to go. Let me know if you have any other questions.

Can somebody point me to a good step-by-step guide to use IfoEdit to put the widescreen flag on my dvds from the Polaroid? I'm burning 1 hr HD Episodes to TDK DVD+RW's. I want to put them on the computer, add the flag and then burn to DVD+R and reuse the RW.

peace.
unloaded

edit: I found a link nextoo posted in a different thread:
http://www.dvdr-digest.com/articles/42_1.html
Followed simple steps and got what I needed. I also used IfoEdit to make the image file, but couldn't get it to burn it. Had to use DVD Decryptor for that.

For those interested.

I new very little of editing on a computer. I wanted to be able to merge 1hr plus titles and burn them to a single DL DVD and other advanced editing techniques beyond the scope of the Polaroid.

A very nice poster...you know who you are, PM'd all the necessary links to a combination of safe, efficient, software for this and many other purposes. I use it selectively but it has worked great and been alot of fun.

PM me if you would like the links. ;)

In case you did not realize what a mistake you made buying a Polaroid...you better read this thread here....http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=817684

I don't know about you but I plan on returning my Polaroids ASAP.

Thanks for the "heads up" HG :eek:

In case you did not realize what a mistake you made buying a Polaroid...you better read this thread here....http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=817684

I don't know about you but I plan on returning my Polaroids ASAP.

Thanks for the "heads up" HG :eek:

:D :D :D

"Quadilious" had an ingenious way of cooling his HD-DVR. He uses a notebook cooling pad connected by USB. The fan noise was driving him nuts. He reports that the fan doesn't even turn on anymore its so cool!

It got me thinking. If the Polaroid fan is driving you nuts and you do not want to replace it you could place the unit on a notebook cooling pad and disconnect the fan from the board altogether. Like this one here..http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=136&products_id=838

Just a thought. :cool:

Polaroid DVD Recorder Model# DRM-2001G. With a 80 gig hard drive, LSI chipset
$219.88. Comming to Walmart ?
Joe

CAN SOMEONE PLEASE HELP ME FIND THE RIGHT CONNECTIONS FOR THE POLAROID DRM-2001G. I NEED SERIOUS HELP HERE. I NEED INSTRUCTIONS ON HOW TO CONNECT THE POLAROID DRM-2001G TO MY DIRECT TV SATELLITE RECEIVER, MY SONY WEGA HD TV AND HOME THEATRE SYSTEM.

CAN SOMEONE PLEASE HELP ME FIND THE RIGHT CONNECTIONS FOR THE POLAROID DRM-2001G. I NEED SERIOUS HELP HERE. I NEED INSTRUCTIONS ON HOW TO CONNECT THE POLAROID DRM-2001G TO MY DIRECT TV SATELLITE RECEIVER, MY SONY WEGA HD TV AND HOME THEATRE SYSTEM.
Depends on how simple or complicated/flexible you want the setup to be. Why don't we start with which D* receiver/dvr you are using and how you have it connected to the Sony/ht system now? Is the D* box the latest HD capable H20 or HR20 dvr? Is it connected to the Wega via HDMI, component, svid or composite? How do you have the audio feeding from the D* to the ht system via digital connection or analog?

btw I think your caps lock was stuck on :)

[QUOTE=beekeeper][QUOTE=DLSDO]

[I share your opinion of the Polaroid and also have two. My second G did go through the LOUD startup fan noise and what I heard on my other one was minor compared to the new one. It also settled down and is fairly quiet.] QUOTE]

I just got the bad start-up on my "K" that I got to back up my "B." I'm glad this thread prepared me for it or I would have been running to shut it down before it self destructed.
The noise went away after about a minute.

It is very inconvenient for me to exchange it since I live in Canada. I also don't have time to tinker and change the fan right now. If I just leave it is there any likelihood that the fan will break in and the problem will go away?

[QUOTE=beekeeper][QUOTE=DLSDO]

[I share your opinion of the Polaroid and also have two. My second G did go through the LOUD startup fan noise and what I heard on my other one was minor compared to the new one. It also settled down and is fairly quiet.] QUOTE]

I just got the bad start-up on my "K" that I got to back up my "B." I'm glad this thread prepared me for it or I would have been running to shut it down before it self destructed.
The noise went away after about a minute.

It is very inconvenient for me to exchange it since I live in Canada. I also don't have time to tinker and change the fan right now. If I just leave it is there any likelihood that the fan will break in and the problem will go away?
My experience with fans in my pc's is they generally never get better. As long as it spins up and quiets down after a little while you should be fine for now but prepare yourself for it to gradually get worse or stop altogether.

Ok, the Polaroid that I have a "K" unit has the following problem - I plug it in the red light comes on. I press the power button, 25 % of the time the machine turns on, 75% everything goes dark. I have to unplug and plug in again. Even if it works, once i turn it off, I can't turn it on again.

Sound familiar or am I really doing something wrong???

Ok, the Polaroid that I have a "K" unit has the following problem - I plug it in the red light comes on. I press the power button, 25 % of the time the machine turns on, 75% everything goes dark. I have to unplug and plug in again. Even if it works, once i turn it off, I can't turn it on again.

Sound familiar or am I really doing something wrong???

Sounds like a bad machine to me. There can be some confusion because of the poor remote and you don't know whether or not the machine is getting a signal. But if it is getting the signal and the front panel goes dark, looks like fatal error.

After much searching (they're mostly out-of-stock these days) I finally located the last remaining Polaroid DMR 2001G unit at a local Wal-Mart, and did the old "switcheroo" with my 4-month old unit with a defective burner. My first one (a "B") was dead on arrival, and the second one (a "D") started having optical drive problems after 4 months and about 100 burned discs. The new one seems to be working fine, although I haven't had time to fully test it.

Ok, this is getting ridiculous! My 3rd Polaroid DMR 2001G unit (a "K") is now showing the same optical drive problems that my last one did -- not recognizing discs (both home-made and commercial), not finalizing after burning, etc. I've only burned 3 discs since I got it last week!!! Is it REALLY worth adding an external burner, or should I try for Polaroid #4? (My 90-day warrenty is up, so if I get lucky and actually locate another new one at a Walmart, I'd have to do another "switcheroo" to get it replaced again. A refund is not an option for me anymore.) Despite all the positives I've read in this thread, I must say I've never owned any other brand of electronics with such a high failure rate!

Ok, this is getting ridiculous! My 3rd Polaroid DMR 2001G unit (a "K") is now showing the same optical drive problems that my last one did -- not recognizing discs (both home-made and commercial), not finalizing after burning, etc. I've only burned 3 discs since I got it last week!!! Is it REALLY worth adding an external burner, or should I try for Polaroid #4? (My 90-day warrenty is up, so if I get lucky and actually locate another new one at a Walmart, I'd have to do another "switcheroo" to get it replaced again. A refund is not an option for me anymore.) Despite all the positives I've read in this thread, I must say I've never owned any other brand of electronics with such a high failure rate!

Very strange. Just a thought. Are you using the same batch of media? I ask because I picked up some low end Office Max -R's that worked fine for the first 30 or so but as I moved deeper into the spindle I started getting a lot of read errors. Now none of my recorders can use the blank discs.

edit - sorry I think I already asked this.

Sounds like a bad machine to me. There can be some confusion because of the poor remote and you don't know whether or not the machine is getting a signal. But if it is getting the signal and the front panel goes dark, looks like fatal error.

does the same thing if I just press the power button without the remote

Very strange. Just a thought. Are you using the same batch of media? I ask because I picked up some low end Office Max -R's that worked fine for the first 30 or so but as I moved deeper into the spindle I started getting a lot of read errors. Now none of my recorders can use the blank discs.

edit - sorry I think I already asked this.

I'm currently using a batch of Phillips DVD-R's that I picked up on sale. In the past, Phillips DVD+R's worked fine. I suppose I can try going back to +R's to see if there's any difference ... but I don't see how using -R's could cause the drive to suddenly not recognize a commercial DVD.

Also, there's a new glitch that I just found: I have it set up to use the "YesDVD" software to make thumbnails and chapters on my home movie transfers, but it's not doing that anymore. When I hit STOP at the end of a recording, it just stops instead of offering to create the "YesDVD" disc. It will let me finalize it manually, but then I do not get thumbs on the menu. I cannot get that option to come back, even though it says I've got it turned on in the setup. That's gotta be a software problem, no? -- in addition to the optical drive problems! AAAHHHGGGHHH!

I've owned dozens of TV's, Audio Tape Decks, CD Players, VCR's and DVD Players over the years. Admittedly, this is my first experience with a stand-alone DVD Recorder ... but I've never seen any other brand or model of a consumer electronics device have SO many defective units. An isolated lemon here and there I can understand, but 3 in a row is unheard of! I'll probably go for 4, but I'm getting very suspicious.

I'd been getting strange results using Sony DVD+R so I picked up a 5-pack of TDK DVD+RW the other day. I've had no trouble with any burns to them, and since I need to move the files to laptop to change the 16x9 flag it works out better all around.
If I were you I'd at least try +R and preferably +RW before diciding anything else. Can't really see why it would effect a commercial disc (maybe scratched)but all other symptoms could be related to -R. Give it a shot and let us know what happens.

peace.
unloaded

Very strange. Just a thought. Are you using the same batch of media? I ask because I picked up some low end Office Max -R's that worked fine for the first 30 or so but as I moved deeper into the spindle I started getting a lot of read errors. Now none of my recorders can use the blank discs.

edit - sorry I think I already asked this.

Another possible problem would be in disk recording speed. Some of the higher speed (12x and higher) disks do hiccup in some burners. I do know that even with my computer, if I run into a burning problem when everything freezes, I sometimes will have to shut down and restart the computer, even with XP. Does not happen very often, but bad media will certainly help it along.

Also, even if my computer does not look like it needs a re-start, I find that the burning software will not work correctly because of the prior problems and actually needs a computer restart. That would also explain the commercial DVDs not working.

With the Polaroid and other recorders you need to pull the plug, not just turn it off and on again to get a full re-start like the computer.

When three in a row are bad, I doubt it is the machines but something else is going on.

As you noted, very strange.

Has anyone had any other burn glitches.
I marked 4 episodes of a show, burned to dvd.
Put into my player and I had 4 of the same episode.
This was the last one on the list. so I had 4 of the last
episode selected.

The last one was the only one I sectioned to get rid of a
few commercials to get to fit, the other 3 took up 76%.
Could this have to do with add,,won't fit,,,cut,,,won't fit...cut..fit

so maybe each time I tried to add it created a mark that said put
that episode on the dvd and just got cunfused...of course there was that
daylight savings time last night HUMMMMM LOL

Nextoo, Unloaded and Beekeeper:
Thanks for all the advice. I already did try unplugging the Polaroid and re-starting it -- same results. I will try switching back to +R's to see what happens before doing anything. I'd sure like to believe that it's something other than the machines that are causing the problems.

About the YesDVD not working. Sometimes things go bonkers with the machine. I know mine once wouldn't eject the DVD I put into it. I took the thing part but couldn't get to the DVD. So, in a last ditch effort, after unplugging the unit didn't work, I reset the factory default setup. After that the unit let the DVD out of the machine. So, my guess is if your YesDVD is not working then something in the software got messed up and you should go into the setup menu and reset the factory default settings. It kind of gets things in order again. You might have to reset your clock again after though.

About the four movies but only one being seen. I've had that problem too but with me it is the first show. I sometimes get only a few minutes of the first show and then it freezes. Sometimes I get only the last show. When I get just the last show what happens is that I put a DVD into the recorder and when you start to record on to disk you get the "preparing disk" sign. For some reason when that happens it kind of ignores everything before that and thinks things after that is a new blank disk and reads only that. I also noticed that sometimes my DVD shows that a disk is made but it can't be read. When I take it to the computer I can see that a total video has been recorded and ripped but no machine can see it. It's like no recorder can see the video headers that leads machines to read the video there. So, basically, my advice is that if you got four shows moved over and it only sees one then the video headers are messed up and your players can't find where the video information is. So, in this case, if you still have the movies on HDD you should try to reburn them to another DVD disk. Also, try moving over one show at a time and not all at the same time. I have more problems when I fill up a whole DVD and move them over all at once as oppose to doing a video one at a time. Also, try not to do anything else with it while it dubbing.

About the YesDVD not working. Sometimes things go bonkers with the machine. I know mine once wouldn't eject the DVD I put into it. I took the thing part but couldn't get to the DVD. So, in a last ditch effort, after unplugging the unit didn't work, I reset the factory default setup. After that the unit let the DVD out of the machine. So, my guess is if your YesDVD is not working then something in the software got messed up and you should go into the setup menu and reset the factory default settings. It kind of gets things in order again. You might have to reset your clock again after though.

Good idea about resetting to factory defaults to fix the YesDVD feature. I've never tried that ... I will tonight. Isn't the software permanently burned onto the ROM in this machine? I didn't think that software like that could get messed up?!

Good idea about resetting to factory defaults to fix the YesDVD feature. I've never tried that ... I will tonight. Isn't the software permanently burned onto the ROM in this machine? I didn't think that software like that could get messed up?!

Got to be some ram in there somewhere. Need to execute the ROM program in ram. The messed up part will be in ram. If the ROM is bad, then you are in deep trouble. If the ram has some bad data, then either re-setting to defaults or pulling the plug should clear it. I like the default suggestion since it will write over specific areas in ram that may have the bad data.

It sounds like you are using yes dvd. I wonder if that is the problem. It seems like most are not using it and have success. The problem with most diagnosis of this kind is we do not know all that you may be doing and maybe there is something that you do that is correct on other machines but causes the problem. It is just that we are not, so we do not have the problem. Could be something a simple as sequence of button pushing. Or it may be that the remote is not positioned perfectly and the machine is picking up an incorrect sequence since it may miss some commands.

I ran into a problem a while back when I pushed the chapter button several times at the end of a HD program. That sequences to the next program on the HD, but there was none. I thought there was so kept hitting the button (when in doubt, use a bigger hammer). The picture froze, as if paused, and the machine would not take any inputs from the remote. I had to turn it off by pushing and holding the power button. Turned it back on and all was well. (Another one for the data base.)

Got to be some ram in there somewhere. Need to execute the ROM program in ram. The messed up part will be in ram. If the ROM is bad, then you are in deep trouble. If the ram has some bad data, then either re-setting to defaults or pulling the plug should clear it. I like the default suggestion since it will write over specific areas in ram that may have the bad data.

It sounds like you are using yes dvd. I wonder if that is the problem. It seems like most are not using it and have success. The problem with most diagnosis of this kind is we do not know all that you may be doing and maybe there is something that you do that is correct on other machines but causes the problem. It is just that we are not, so we do not have the problem. Could be something a simple as sequence of button pushing. Or it may be that the remote is not positioned perfectly and the machine is picking up an incorrect sequence since it may miss some commands.

Here's my latest update. Last night I reset the the Polaroid to the default settings. (I had already pulled the plug and let it reset a few times before this.) Then I tried to burn another DVD using the YesDVD feature with a direct input from my camera using the front AV connections. Same problem -- when I hit STOP at the end of the recording it did not offer to make a YesDVD ... it simply stopped. When I then hit the DVD button, it showed the recorded program in the DVD menu, but did not even give me the option of finalizing the disc.

Please understand that I successfully burned almost 100 DVD's using the YesDVD feature on my last Polaroid before the optical drive began acting up and I exchanged it for my current unit -- so I'm pretty sure I'm not doing something wrong with pushing buttons repeatedly, or out of sequence, etc. It's simply not doing what it's supposed to do!

I have not yet tried switching media, so before I do anything else I need to try that. I did discover that the TDK-R's I've been using are actually total garbage! I found a really usefull free tool to analyze DVD media: DVDInforPro (http://www.dvdinfopro.com/) It reveals the "manufacturer ID code" on a blank DVD. Here's a site that lists all the media ID codes, and shows which ones are reliable, and which ones are "garbage": http://www.best-dvd-burning-software-reviews.com/best-blank-dvd-media.asp It claims that the brand names don't really mean very much ... it's the manufacturer of a particular batch, and the media ID codes that really matter. I ran the tool on my TDK's, and the ID code was in the "garbage" list. It's actually kind of scary. If what it says is true, DVD's that I've already burned might break down in as little as 6 months! The best ID codes are 95-100% reliable, while the worst ones only have a 0-50% reliability rating.

how do you perform the factory reset on the polaroid ? I might need this info in the future

how do you perform the factory reset on the polaroid ? I might need this info in the future

It's an option you can choose in one of the setup screens.

-- when I hit STOP at the end of the recording it did not offer to make a YesDVD ... it simply stopped. When I then hit the DVD button, it showed the recorded program in the DVD menu, but did not even give me the option of finalizing the disc..

When you see the menu with the thumbnail on it, try the up arrow then right to get to finalize option. I've had to do that on some of mine.

peace.
unloaded

I like the Polaroid a lot but will they ever come up with a firmware to address the low volume. That's my only concern about this recorder. A firmware or hack will do, anything to boost the volume to normal levels.

Nextoo, Unloaded and Beekeeper:
Thanks for all the advice.

I'm slowly plugging away checking out my latest unit, an F-series.

Comments regarding problems with recorded DVD-R's remind me of an observation I have with the units I've tried including two K-series and the current F-series unit.

I observe that each unit will read and write every DVD format I've tried, ie., Sony -R's, Memorex +R's and Sony +RW's, no problem. The speed for the -R's and +R's is 16x.

I have encountered a problem with the Sony -R's using an Sony CD/DVD player in the bedroom, an DVP-NC665P model. It will read every DVD recorded by an RCA 8030N and the subject Polaroid recorders except Sony -R's from the Polo. I'm not sure what causes this problem. I've yet to check the Polo recorded -R's on any other players. Please note, I've only used Sony -R's and they were finalized SP+ discs.

Anyone encountering similar problems with -R's in trying to play them on other players?

Ok, this is getting ridiculous! My 3rd Polaroid DMR 2001G unit (a "K") is now showing the same optical drive problems that my last one did -- not recognizing discs (both home-made and commercial), not finalizing after burning, etc. I've only burned 3 discs since I got it last week!!! Is it REALLY worth adding an external burner, or should I try for Polaroid #4? (My 90-day warrenty is up, so if I get lucky and actually locate another new one at a Walmart, I'd have to do another "switcheroo" to get it replaced again. A refund is not an option for me anymore.) Despite all the positives I've read in this thread, I must say I've never owned any other brand of electronics with such a high failure rate!

I must say that I'm getting discouraged too. I started looking for an Pioneer 640 H-S or an Toshiba XS35 but as you probably know, they are scare if available at all at this point, and expensive.

I'm don't tinker well and I'm worried as I anticipate the day the Polo's will not be available any longer and we're unable to do an exchange.

Consequently I'm thinking, in the event I get stuck with what I have on hand, I'd like to obtain a fan with an exact 2-pin switch. I think I can handle the remote fix but if I encounter an DVD burner problem, I surely would not want to go the external route.

Come on you guys, give me some feedback to encourage me to keep on trucking with the Polo. For example, help me find a fan swapout that fits the 2-pin without splicing. And, of course, I've read much of what's on this thread in the latter pages, consequently, I'm getting smarter. At this point however, I'm like the lion in the Wizard of Oz, "Give me some courage!"

I must say that I'm getting discouraged too. I started looking for an Pioneer 640 H-S or an Toshiba XS35 but as you probably know, they are scare if available at all at this point, and expensive.

I'm don't tinker well and I'm worried as I anticipate the day the Polo's will not be available any longer and we're unable to do an exchange.

Consequently I'm thinking, in the event I get stuck with what I have on hand, I'd like to obtain a fan with an exact 2-pin switch. I think I can handle the remote fix but if I encounter an DVD burner problem, I surely would not want to go the external route.

Come on you guys, give me some feedback to encourage me to keep on trucking with the Polo. For example, help me find a fan swapout that fits the 2-pin without splicing. And, of course, I've read much of what's on this thread in the latter pages, consequently, I'm getting smarter. At this point however, I'm like the lion in the Wizard of Oz, "Give me some courage!"

I hear you loud and clear. I would love to tell you to hang in there but you make some valid points based on your usage pattern.

How about this. Instead of trying to convince you why you should keep this unit I will briefly list why the unit works well for me.

1) It is the only unit that has an endless storage capacity. I archive movies to the HDD's which are removable and portable. I have Polaroids in several rooms and move the HDD's to the room I want to do my viewing.

2) I do very little burning to disc compared to most individuals. Look..nothing lives forever. All discs will die. Some sooner than others. Same goes for HDD's. They do not last forever. BUT...if you calculate the manufacturers prediction for longevity based on usage patterns of the HDD sitting on a shelf infrequently being used then the life of each of my HDD"s will outlive me and my DVD's regardless of quality. When I burn to disc I do not require advanced editing capabilities. In the rare instance that I need more advanced editing abilities I move it to the computer.

3) Since my optical drive is external its portable and can be transported to my laptop without difficulty.

4) With an externalized HDD and burner -longevity of the hardware is preserved. This unit should live a long time! If the drive or burner die...I will replace them. (Shoulder shrug)

5) Component input is not exclusive to this unit but is surely valuable and unique. Most STB's do not output widescreen from s-video or composite. Who the heck wants to record a widescreen movie letterboxed.

6) The price is reasonable for the return. VALUE

7) Most everything is modifiable..fan, remote, power supply etc.. If you like to tinker then you have bought the right unit.

8) Picture quality is surprisingly good. Likely the LSI chipset.

9) I am getting tired of typing so thats it for now but I think you get the idea.

This unit is NOT a Toshiba!! For those of you that are looking to burn a heavy load of disc's, advanced editing capabilities, internet interfaces, etc..RETURN IT...you will not be happy. Or even better...hang on to this unit and use it for its strengths and pick up another brand that compliments it. If you have interest using it like I do then the unit is really alot of fun.

Just my thoughts ;)

I got a pack of new TDK 16x disks a few weeks ago. My old 8x was like TTG02 ID number but this new 16x TDK is showing CMC Magnetics as it's ID.

I don't what to say about the YesDVD not working. I mean after you pulled the plug and waited it should have reset things. After you reset the factory default settings and restarted the unit it should have fixed things. I was told by a Polaroid guy to switch to +R/RW media. The unit likes that media the best and does more stuff with it. So, if your not useing +R/RW media try that out. I guess try Sony or Verbatim.

What I do when I use YesDVD is that I get a new disk and put it in. After it loads and reads the disk I then push the DVD button on the remote. On the screen you should see the words "preparing disk." After that is done, push the record button while still in DVD or optical disk mode. The YesDVD sign should pop up on the right side when you start the recording when you hit the display button on the remote. Are you doing all of that? If so, do you see the word "YesDVD" on the bottom right side of the screen when you hit the display button? If you don't get that sign then it's not recording with YesDVD I don't think. The problem is if you don't see that sign and you still reset everything then I don't know how to get that sign back.

I hate to interrupt the ongoing indepth discussion, but this should be an easy newbie question.

How well does the Polo interact with a digital cable box? Meaning, I assume the cable signal must first pass through the cable box, then to the recorder, and out to the TV. I say that b/c my question is whether the Polo will record channels above 100 (what is usually considered the digital tier).

In trying to decide between this unit and the 160gb Philips model at Wally World, the reviews I read say the Philips model won't record above channel 100. I sure wish I could come across a recorder with a HD, which has a guide service and could play Divx.

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks

When you see the menu with the thumbnail on it, try the up arrow then right to get to finalize option. I've had to do that on some of mine.

peace.
unloaded
I know ... I've finalized non-YesDVD's burned from the HDD before. This time the up arrow does nothing.

Has anyone had any other burn glitches.
I marked 4 episodes of a show, burned to dvd.
Put into my player and I had 4 of the same episode.
This was the last one on the list. so I had 4 of the last
episode selected.

The last one was the only one I sectioned to get rid of a
few commercials to get to fit, the other 3 took up 76%.
Could this have to do with add,,won't fit,,,cut,,,won't fit...cut..fit

so maybe each time I tried to add it created a mark that said put
that episode on the dvd and just got cunfused...of course there was that
daylight savings time last night HUMMMMM LOL
Just curious... were the different titles recorded at different bitrates/quality settings (HQ/SP/LP...)?

I had a lot of trouble copying a disc that I had recorded on the Polaroid, with 2 titles at different bitrates. Everything fit fine on the disc, but my computer said the final (single-layered) DVD-RW contained 7+ GB (!) & would not create a disc image.

So maybe the Polo doesn't handle multiple titles well.

(Or it just handles disc space management VERY well!)

I got a pack of new TDK 16x disks a few weeks ago. My old 8x was like TTG02 ID number but this new 16x TDK is showing CMC Magnetics as it's ID.
CMC Magnetics is one of the Media ID's listed as "4TH CLASS MEDIA ... Pathetic garbage media, landfill material, about 0-50% success rate" on the web site I referred to in my earlier post. It's typcially a sale item at Circuit City. Same ID as the TDK-R's I'm currently have all the problems with.

I hear you loud and clear. I would love to tell you to hang in there but you make some valid points based on your usage pattern. ;)

Thanks DLSDO. I haven't given up yet!

I'm proceeding by using the F-unit currently installed. The fan in this one sounds like my PC, a little louder than the normal K-units I've tried running normally after the inititial startup. I'm still into the first week and the loud fan noise at startup hasn't developed but as noted, the fan runs too loud normally.

I'll likely be around calling for help again. Wish me luck!

Thanks again for all your contributions.

I don't what to say about the YesDVD not working. I mean after you pulled the plug and waited it should have reset things. After you reset the factory default settings and restarted the unit it should have fixed things. I was told by a Polaroid guy to switch to +R/RW media. The unit likes that media the best and does more stuff with it. So, if your not useing +R/RW media try that out. I guess try Sony or Verbatim.

What I do when I use YesDVD is that I get a new disk and put it in. After it loads and reads the disk I then push the DVD button on the remote. On the screen you should see the words "preparing disk." After that is done, push the record button while still in DVD or optical disk mode. The YesDVD sign should pop up on the right side when you start the recording when you hit the display button on the remote. Are you doing all of that? If so, do you see the word "YesDVD" on the bottom right side of the screen when you hit the display button? If you don't get that sign then it's not recording with YesDVD I don't think. The problem is if you don't see that sign and you still reset everything then I don't know how to get that sign back.
I just tried again -- I unplugged it and let it sit for a few minutes, plugged it back in, re-set it to the factory defaults. I re-checked the settings screens to make sure YesDVD is turned "ON". Then I put a new blank DVD in, and started a recording to the optical disk. No, I do NOT see the "YesDVD" logo on the bottom right corner anymore! I do recall seeing that logo in the past, now that you mentioned it. I don't think my garbage -R media could be causing this, do you? I've somehow lost that feature altogether and can't get it back!!!

Wait a minute. Did you say your garbage -R media? I'm not 100% sure but I THINK that YesDVD only works with + media. Check your owners manual to be sure. I think I was using -R media and didn't get the YesDvd sign. Then I stared using +RW and I have that sign. If you have been using -R try again with +RW and +R and see if any of those get that "YesDVD" sign back when you start to record. Remember you have to hit the display button or do what you have to do to get info on the screen (like where it's recording, how much disk space you have, etc) but I think you know all about how to do that.

Wait a minute. Did you say your garbage -R media? I'm not 100% sure but I THINK that YesDVD only works with + media. Check your owners manual to be sure.

Page 23 of the manual explaining how to use YesDVD- "Place a blank DVD+R/RW disk in the DVD tray."

Well done, Justin. I feel the force in this one.

The other thing I noticed was DV input. That does not work on the G and most all others. It may look like it does because you usually get a quick copy protect box and then it looks like it is recording, but it is not. In that case, again, you would not be able to finalize anything since nothing is there. Add that to -R media and you have a lose-lose situation with the Polaroid, -R media, and home movies.

Of all the drawbacks of the Polaroid, not working DV input is probably the worst. I got one from my son, but he would rather use the editing features on his computer to make DVDs since he can add titles, music and pictures of his choice using the generic XP software and firewire input.

There are different firewire cable terminations. Anyone try different cables to see if they work?

Wait a minute. Did you say your garbage -R media? I'm not 100% sure but I THINK that YesDVD only works with + media. Check your owners manual to be sure. I think I was using -R media and didn't get the YesDvd sign. Then I stared using +RW and I have that sign. If you have been using -R try again with +RW and +R and see if any of those get that "YesDVD" sign back when you start to record. Remember you have to hit the display button or do what you have to do to get info on the screen (like where it's recording, how much disk space you have, etc) but I think you know all about how to do that.
Ah-HAH! Boy, I hope that's true -- it would explain everything. I'll pick up some good quality +R's and try it.

The other thing I noticed was DV input. That does not work on the G and most all others. It may look like it does because you usually get a quick copy protect box and then it looks like it is recording, but it is not. In that case, again, you would not be able to finalize anything since nothing is there. Add that to -R media and you have a lose-lose situation with the Polaroid, -R media, and home movies.

Of all the drawbacks of the Polaroid, not working DV input is probably the worst. I got one from my son, but he would rather use the editing features on his computer to make DVDs since he can add titles, music and pictures of his choice using the generic XP software and firewire input.

There are different firewire cable terminations. Anyone try different cables to see if they work?
My DV input worked fine for home movie transfers (at least on my previous units ... haven't tried it on my current K unit). However, as previously noted, I found that that the picture quality actually looked better with an AV transfer from my Sony Digital 8 camera tapes, using RCA cables. I'm not really sure why an analog signal produces better results than a digital-to-digital firewire transfer -- it might have something to do with the Sony camera's hybrid format, which stores the digital info on Hi8 tapes. In any case, the DV input on the Polaroid worked fine for me. The DVD's finalized without problems, and played on other machines.

The other thing I noticed was DV input. That does not work on the G and most all others. It may look like it does because you usually get a quick copy protect box and then it looks like it is recording, but it is not. In that case, again, you would not be able to finalize anything since nothing is there. Add that to -R media and you have a lose-lose situation with the Polaroid, -R media, and home movies.

Of all the drawbacks of the Polaroid, not working DV input is probably the worst. I got one from my son, but he would rather use the editing features on his computer to make DVDs since he can add titles, music and pictures of his choice using the generic XP software and firewire input.

There are different firewire cable terminations. Anyone try different cables to see if they work?
On my first 2001G, a E version, the DV input will only detect that my Panasonic PV-DV601 camera is connected but cannot detect the video signal. I just picked up a K version and it works fine. I noticed the DV jack on the K is "upside down" compared to the jack on the E.

The K also keeps it time when it's set to "Auto" wherea the E would loose the correct time after a few hours. The remote on the K is better than the E, almost as good as a remote with the LED upgrade; and the K has slightly quieter fan, but in my samples the hard drive whine on the K is slightly louder.

They both have below average volumn level when in tuner mode. I was really happy with the K... until it locked up on the second night I keep it on overnight to burn it in, my E model have never locked in the two months I've had it and it went through the same burn in process. BTW the 2-year extended warranty for it is only $17.88 and I went for it on the K unit.

Anyone have an opinion on this lock up issue? I was going to return the E because it does have the time and DV issues, but even though the K doesn't have those issues it did lock up and I don't know it that's just the tip of the iceberg.

I'm considering putting in a 500 GB drive too (down to about $140 now)...if anyone want to share your experience with that.

CMC Magnetics is one of the Media ID's listed as "4TH CLASS MEDIA ... Pathetic garbage media, landfill material



That's right. Even if you manage to make a good burn, the media will deteriorate and you find yourself with a coaster in no time.
Thanks Mike

That's right. Even if you manage to make a good burn, the media will deteriorate and you find yourself with a coaster in no time.
Thanks Mike
SO ... if I buy a big batch of "good" media, and then copy all my previously burned DVD's done on "bad" media over to the new discs before they fail, the new copies should be OK for the future, right?

SO ... if I buy a big batch of "good" media, and then copy all my previously burned DVD's done on "bad" media over to the new discs before they fail, the new copies should be OK for the future, right?

Yes in theory. I highly recomend it. How long the good disks will last, no one knows for sure.
I can tell you for sure, that the most important part of burning DVDr's is the media it self, followed by a good quality burner.
The best you can do is, use a high quality burner, burn at a slow speed, on to the best media you can find. Those are known facts. If the burner on the Polariod is not giving good burns, I would think about coping those disks with a computer, that's what I have done with most of the disks.
Thanks Mike

Yes in theory. I highly recomend it. How long the good disks will last, no one knows for sure.
I can tell you for sure, that the most important part of burning DVDr's is the media it self, followed by a good quality burner.
The best you can do is, use a high quality burner, burn at a slow speed, on to the best media you can find. Those are known facts. If the burner on the Polariod is not giving good burns, I would think about coping those disks with a computer, that's what I have done with most of the disks.
Thanks Mike
Yep, that was my plan. My computer has 2 DVD drives, and Roxio software for copying from one to the other. Thanks for the advice!

Amazon used to sell archive media that supposedly last for decades, haven't checked them lately so don't know if they still carry it.

I hate to interrupt the ongoing indepth discussion, but this should be an easy newbie question.

How well does the Polo interact with a digital cable box? Meaning, I assume the cable signal must first pass through the cable box, then to the recorder, and out to the TV. I say that b/c my question is whether the Polo will record channels above 100 (what is usually considered the digital tier).

In trying to decide between this unit and the 160gb Philips model at Wally World, the reviews I read say the Philips model won't record above channel 100. I sure wish I could come across a recorder with a HD, which has a guide service and could play Divx.

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks

If you run wall cable--> digital STB--> Polaroid--> TV, then any channel delivered from the STB @ 480i can be recorded by the Polaroid ;)

Yes in theory. I highly recomend it. How long the good disks will last, no one knows for sure.
I can tell you for sure, that the most important part of burning DVDr's is the media it self, followed by a good quality burner.
The best you can do is, use a high quality burner, burn at a slow speed, on to the best media you can find. Those are known facts. If the burner on the Polariod is not giving good burns, I would think about coping those disks with a computer, that's what I have done with most of the disks.
Thanks Mike

This is excellent advice folks! Thanks Mike1061

Some additional info that you might find interesting.

Here is a thread that shows you how to check for disc errors.
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=9812950&&#post9812950

Here is a thread about disc fade
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=521692&highlight=disc+error

I'm considering putting in a 500 GB drive too (down to about $140 now)...if anyone want to share your experience with that.

You might want to reconsider the 500gb HDD. Early experience was thought to be successful but later failed. 320gb was the largest confirmed to work best I can remember.

Even if you can get the 500gb drive working it is physically a huge number of titles to scroll through. When I scroll through my 250gb drives it's a bit cumbersome.

Edit-

You know what? I think you might be okay with the 500gb HDD. See this thread here http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=9788235&&#post9788235

It might be a failure secondary to ATA 133 not the size of the drive. I bet an ATA 100 would work fine regardless of the size

Let us know what you decide!

Wait a minute. Did you say your garbage -R media? I'm not 100% sure but I THINK that YesDVD only works with + media. Check your owners manual to be sure. I think I was using -R media and didn't get the YesDvd sign. Then I stared using +RW and I have that sign. If you have been using -R try again with +RW and +R and see if any of those get that "YesDVD" sign back when you start to record. Remember you have to hit the display button or do what you have to do to get info on the screen (like where it's recording, how much disk space you have, etc) but I think you know all about how to do that.

Justin Time: You're a genius!!! I tried a stray +R disc that I had laying around last night, and the YesDVD feature came back! I've learned a valuable lesson here -- the type (+R, not -R) and quality of the blank media is critical to the performance of the Polaroid (and probably any brand of DVR) as well as the results and longevity of finished DVD's burned. Now I need to buy a large batch of high quality DVD+R's, finish my home movie transfers, and then back up every DVD I've already burned onto more stable media. THANKS EVERYONE!

What interface can be used for an external DVD burner? The only ones I see have a USB but obviously that wouldn't work for the Polaroid.

That's great you got your YesDVD to work again! :)

You said you are going to back up your stuff after you burn it on the Polaroid? I take it you have a computer then. If that's the case have you considered just recording it to +RW disks and then rip it to the computer and make your copy using your computer burner and good media there? This way you won't loose twice the amout of +R disks and you can keep resuing the same pack of +RW disks while you make the disks the first times. I know I was loosing disk after disk with this thing. -R and +R. So, by the time I decided to use YesDvd as much as possible I turned to +RW to make my first copy from the Polo and then just rip it to computer. From there I can see if it turned out o.k. and then make my disk. This way I just use -R disk in the computer and then just reuse the +RW again. By the way, if you use a +RW disk to burn from the Polo and then rip it to your computer you can use either -R or +R disks with your computer burner if you have a lot of -R disks around.

By the way, I burn my Polo stuff with YesDVD when I have a full disk to fill up. As you know, you can't stop the disk part of the way. If you do it asks you to create a YesDVD and basically finalizes the disk even though you might have only 10 minutes of stuff on it. If you choose "no" then it creates a normal Polo looking disk (no YesDVD) that (in my case) has tons of reading/playing/freezing errors.

So, anyway, I burn a full disk using YesDVD to a +RW disk. I then rip the disk using DVD Decrypter's "read ISO" mode. After it reads the disk it creates a perfect copy. Now, if you open up a program called DVD Shrink, there is a drop down menu that says "read disk image." You can then find that Polo ISO file you just made and it will start to read the ISO. This way you can see if the burn or rip worked. You can then either use that program to make your copy on your computer but I just close the program down and use the "ISO write" function of DVD Decrypter.

All in all, I only waste one disk doing this (the DVD -R disk that I burn using the computer drive instead of two like you might be doing (+R from Polo and what ever disk you use as your back up media disk.) Plus, I get to see if anything went wrong or won't turn out right thanks to DVD Shrink letting me see that video ISO before I burn it to disk. If it turns out bad I didn't lose any disks.

That's great you got your YesDVD to work again! :)

You said you are going to back up your stuff after you burn it on the Polaroid? I take it you have a computer then. If that's the case have you considered just recording it to +RW disks and then rip it to the computer and make your copy using your computer burner and good media there? This way you won't loose twice the amout of +R disks and you can keep resuing the same pack of +RW disks while you make the disks the first times. I know I was loosing disk after disk with this thing. -R and +R. So, by the time I decided to use YesDvd as much as possible I turned to +RW to make my first copy from the Polo and then just rip it to computer. From there I can see if it turned out o.k. and then make my disk. This way I just use -R disk in the computer and then just reuse the +RW again. By the way, if you use a +RW disk to burn from the Polo and then rip it to your computer you can use either -R or +R disks with your computer burner if you have a lot of -R disks around.

By the way, I burn my Polo stuff with YesDVD when I have a full disk to fill up. As you know, you can't stop the disk part of the way. If you do it asks you to create a YesDVD and basically finalizes the disk even though you might have only 10 minutes of stuff on it. If you choose "no" then it creates a normal Polo looking disk (no YesDVD) that (in my case) has tons of reading/playing/freezing errors.

So, anyway, I burn a full disk using YesDVD to a +RW disk. I then rip the disk using DVD Decrypter's "read ISO" mode. After it reads the disk it creates a perfect copy. Now, if you open up a program called DVD Shrink, there is a drop down menu that says "read disk image." You can then find that Polo ISO file you just made and it will start to read the ISO. This way you can see if the burn or rip worked. You can then either use that program to make your copy on your computer but I just close the program down and use the "ISO write" function of DVD Decrypter.

All in all, I only waste one disk doing this (the DVD -R disk that I burn using the computer drive instead of two like you might be doing (+R from Polo and what ever disk you use as your back up media disk.) Plus, I get to see if anything went wrong or won't turn out right thanks to DVD Shrink letting me see that video ISO before I burn it to disk. If it turns out bad I didn't lose any disks.
I do have a computer with 2 DVD drives -- one is play-only, and the other is an ASUS burner I recently installed. I use Roxio Media Media Creator 9 to copy from one disc to another. Making an exact copy of a DVD using both drives takes about 15 minutes. I have over 150 DVD's to archive (home movies, etc.) My plan was to simply create a full backup set on good media, but keep the originals also -- just in case.

I've never tried using +RW discs. If you create a YesDVD disc on one, can you then erase and re-use that same disc to create a different YesDVD? Then, how long does it take your computer to rip a DVD to an ISO file? And how long does it take to then burn a new DVD from that file? I've tried ripping DVD's to my computer using Roxio, and it takes a LOT longer than the straight copy method from one disc to another -- close to realtime when ripping to a playable format for editing purposes (mpg, avi, etc.) Perhaps ripping to ISO is quicker ... but with so many DVD's to copy, I'm concerned with how long it might take using your method.

5) Component input is not exclusive to this unit but is surely valuable and unique. Most STB's do not output widescreen from s-video or composite. Who the heck wants to record a widescreen movie letterboxed.


I want to make sure i have this set up right. So, you are saying when you record through component you get full widescreen recordings. And when you play back the recording it's full widescreen on a 16:9 WS set?

I record through the component and the picture fits the width of the widescreen but it's has bars on top and bottom and the picture is squished. I have to hit the zoom on the TV to get it to fill the screen and look natural. Is this how you are achieving the full widescreen picture? Using the zoom on playback. When it's played back on a standard set it is letterboxed as it should be. If there is a way i can record and play back the full widescreen without zooming i would like to know how. I have the component video input into the polaroid and have the cable box at 480I when i record. And output to the tv with component video. Is there anything else i am missing.

What interface can be used for an external DVD burner? The only ones I see have a USB but obviously that wouldn't work for the Polaroid.
The "external" burners and HDD's discussed here appear to actually be intended as internal computer components, and are connected with long IDE cables, not USB. People seem to be mounting them in special housings that sit on top of or next to the Polaroid, with the cables being fished through the original case. Here's the thread that discusses both an external HDD and external burner:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=736151

Oh, I thought you were going to make two copies. If you plan on just making one copy just do it through the Polaroid with a stack of +R disks.

If you use a +RW you can record to it with YesDVD and then rip it. It takes me 9 to 13 minutes to rip the disk to ISO depending on what drive I use to rip with. After that you then take that +RW disk and put it back into the Polaroid. Then go into your disk set up menu and push the "disk erase" selection. It asks you if you want to erase the optical disk. You chose yes and it's a blank disk again. You can then refill the disk with your next YesDVD video. Since you only plan on doing one copy with YesDVD then a stack of +R disks will do. You get a lot more for a lot less. I think I got 15 +RW disks for the same price I was able to get 50 +R disks.

This is a very long thread so please forgive my not reading the entire thing to try to find an answer for this question - Did you guys ever find a cure for the FF/REW Chapter Skip problem? I ask because my Philips DVDR has the same problem on DVDs that I edit on the unit. Would be nice to not have that problem. Thanks in advance for any help.

This is a very long thread so please forgive my not reading the entire thing to try to find an answer for this question - Did you guys ever find a cure for the FF/REW Chapter Skip problem? I ask because my Philips DVDR has the same problem on DVDs that I edit on the unit. Would be nice to not have that problem. Thanks in advance for any help.
I don't think anyone has mentioned any resolution. I have it when I play back on my Phillips 642 DVD but I'm pretty sure (but need to verify) that my Oppo 971 handled Poloroid disks without an issue but I need to test again that to be sure.

I want to make sure i have this set up right. So, you are saying when you record through component you get full widescreen recordings. And when you play back the recording it's full widescreen on a 16:9 WS set?


Almost. Because the 16:9 flag is not present on the disc, you simply have to set your widescreen TV in 16:9 mode. As you know 4:3 material would look too fat, but Polaroid recordings can be correct -- if you RECORD them correctly.

I record through the component and the picture fits the width of the widescreen but it's has bars on top and bottom and the picture is squished. I have to hit the zoom on the TV to get it to fill the screen and look natural. Is this how you are achieving the full widescreen picture? .... I have the component video input into the polaroid and have the cable box at 480I when i record. And output to the tv with component video. Is there anything else i am missing.

YES!!!!!!!! You have to output a 480iWide picture to get 16:9 recordings. With a DVD simply set the output to 16:9 and you're set. With a cablebox, you need an extra setting. On mine, 480i, 480p, 480iWide, and 480pWide exist (in addition to 720p and 1080i). When you output one of the Wide options, the picture is squished horizontally to fit a 4:3 window. (Or it's stretched vertically, I'm not sure). The end result is the picture would look too tall on a regular TV. But, when you stretch it to fill a WS TV, it looks EXACTLY the way it would if you would have watched a live 480 feed.

When it's played back on a standard set it is letterboxed as it should be.

This is a result of the way you recorded it. Because the cablebox knows the material should be WS and because you told it to output a 4:3 signal (by selecting 480i vs 480iWide), your cablebox is transmitting blackbars to be recorded on your DVD. YOU DON'T WANT THAT! You want a tall, skinny squished picture that stretches to the correct aspect ratio.

I haven't tried it, but I suspect you would not be able to play a 480iWide recording on a standard TV and have it look right. That's because the 16:9 flag will be missing. When you play a 16:9 DVD on a player configured to display on a 4:3 TV, it adds the black bars -- when it sees the 16:9 flag. Without that flag, it will always assume 4:3 material is present. On a WS TV, you can use your TVs display button to force a full-screen stretch. On a SD TV, you can't.

You need a computer to create DVDs that will play correctly on both a 4:3 TV and a WS TV. That's what it takes to add the 16:9 flag. (Of course, the way you are doing it now also works, but you're not creating the highest resolution that you can. With black bars added, you're reducing the pixel size of each frame).