Attn Newbies: You Cannot Record in Hi-Def Resolution on Current DVD Recorders - Page 4

If you read some more of this Topic (or many of the other Topics in this Forum that are talking about recording widescreen) you'll see that it's really up to your cable box as to whether it can output non-letterboxed widescreen 480i over a compatible kind of A/V connection (Composite, S-Video, Component). Then you have the second issue of whether your recorder will automatically recognize that it is receiving a widescreen signal, and set the flag on the resulting DVD appropriately, or if you can tell it manually to do that, or worst case, that you have to set the flag through a procedure involving a PC. So you see there is a fair bit to the answer(s) to your question, and "try it and see" is one of the best ways of finding the answer, I realize that doesn't help you without a DVD Recorder to try it with in front of you, but looking around at some of the Topics that talk about this problem/issue may help you find a model of DVD Recorder that at least can manually set the widescreen flag, if not automatically. Then it will just be up to your cable box, as to whether it can provide an appropriate signal, as I first outlined.

I am in the market for a DVD Recorder and would prefer one that allows me to manually set the 16:9 flag (since my STB will not send it). I'm leaning towards the DVR-533/633. Can anyone say for certain whether or not these units allow you to manually set the 16:9 flag?

Thanks!

I can say for certain that they DO NOT let you manually set the flag.

They will, however, honor and preserve a flag that was passed from the source device. Of course, the problem is that many sources do not pass the flag along.

I know this is a long shot, but does anyone out there have a list of DVD Recorders that DO allow you to manually set the 16:9 flag when the source does not pass it?

Unfortunately this is not something that is typically listed in model specs, so it's almost impossible to determine before you buy.

Sony GX7, GX300, HX900 and HX715 do. Note that Sony GX315 and VX515 do not. There might be other ones that do.

I am thinking of getting the Toshiba RD-XS54 combo DVD recorder/hard drive to archive SD copies of SD programs that I will not be able to get to before it is time to swap the HD Tivo for the new D* model.

1. Can I use the save to VCR feature to download directly to the Toshiba's hard drive or do I have to record to DVD and then from DVD to the hard drive? Does it take real time (actual length of the program) to make the copy through either or both of these methods?

2. The Toshiba records in DVD-RAM and DVD-RW. Are there any advantages of one over the other?

3. If I have a single sat feed connected to the HD Tivo (I have 2 units), can I record something from the sat while archiving? Can I play something else on the HD Tivo while archiving?

1. Direct to the HDD works fine on every model I'm aware of. Real time, yes.

2. No short answer for this, have a look around, there are many discussion about it, as well as other resources not in this Forum, an internet search should reveal much.

3. That's up to your HD Tivo box(es), that ability is not controlled by the DVD Recorder.

By the way it seems your questions are not appropriate to the subject of this Topic.

You can playback one program on the HD TiVo while recording (from satellite) one or two more.

The safest way to do this is using the "Save to VCR" function on the TiVo because it will prevent pop up windows from appearing during the playback.

I have done this myself, recording to a Pioneer 520H (roughly comparable to a current Pioneer 533 or upcoming Pioneer 540).

Ok if someone could point me in the right direction i would really appreciate it. i am getting a new 16:9 widescreen hdtv in a week. I have a comcast dct6412 motorolla dvr box and a JVC drm100s dvd recorder. What i want to do is record all of the HD material i have on this Dvr to DVD via JVC drm100s. I need this video to be anamorphic widescreen. i dont care for having this DVD playing right on a 4:3 screen because i am going to have a 16:9 so i want anamorphic widescreen.

1)is this possible with my setup?
2)is quality better when recording from hd?
3)if it is not possible, is there another dvd recorder that can do it?

It is not possible with your set up. The Motorola 6412 will not output an anamorphic widescreen video at 480i via any connection so there is no way to record in that format to a DVD recorder. You could do this with a JVC D-VHS recorder connected to the 6412's Firewire port in which case you will be recording the HD stream and not 480i. Information about D-VHS is in the AVS HDTV Recorders forum.

Are you surei cant? have you tried. Another member(dave harper) has said this in sanother forum



And then someone replied with this

Motorola cable boxes output HD sources as letterbox 4:3 from any connection when set to 480i. When set to 480p you get the anamorphic image via component output but your DVD recorder can't accept a 480p signal, nor can it accept 720p or 1080i. Comcast has plans to distribute a Panasonic DVR by year end (yeah, right!) and it may do this differently. Also there may be future DVD recorders that can accept something other than 480i. But for now, the Motorola-brand DVR doesn't do what you want.

Then, again, maybe I should try once more. It didn't work with a series 1 6412 but I just got a series 3 and haven't checked into this.

Just checked. No change.

yeah this guy was dead sure he got anamorphic widescreen onto the dvd. he said it squeezed the picture, then when you watch it on your widescreen display, just hit the full mode.

You don't know you have anamorphic widescreen on the DVD until you play it back on a 4:3 display and see the letterboxing as opposed to everything being too tall. It's the anamorphic part that makes the DVD Player play it back differently depending on the aspect ratio of the display.

i just want to record this HD widescreen stuff and then to be able to play it on my widescreen tv as though it was true widescreen. This guy dave harper says he can do it in that thread. He says set the motorola to 480i output and use compoent to the DVD recorder

No problem, all you need for that is your STB to send out 480i with no letterboxing on a conncetion type (Composite, S-Video, or Component) that is accepted by your DVD Recorder. Some will do it and some insist on adding the letterboxing.

dwhen you said "some", did you mean some dvd recorders or some STB's????

Your STB needs to be able to send the signal with no letterboxing. Some STB's will do it, others insist on adding the letterboxing.

DVD Recorders do not add letterboxing.

I wish it was true, too. When I set the Motorola box to 16:9 and component output to 480i the signal received by my TV is 4:3 letterboxed. Probably in this thread and definitely in others there is discussion of boxes that will output the anamorphic 16:9 via 480i component connections. If there is a satellite service that has one of those boxes you might go that route instead of Comcast.

I just set-up a Panny Plasma, that I will be doing 90% of my viewing on. Use TWC SA-8300, watch mostly HD channels. Record HD and SD to DVR.

I have a JVC DVHS and Panny E80H. I currently have the SA-8300 S-video out to E80H, but have not experimented much. Will DVHS do a better job than the E80H?

SD content in "Just" mode looks good on the Plasma, but I would not want PQ to be much worse than that for HD archiving. Archiving to 300 gig hard drives through the SA-8300 SATA port is appealing, but not convenient if I want to watch a DVD on another set.

I'm sure DVHS will record better Picture Quality than a current DVD Recorder, since DVD Recorders are limited to 480x720 resolution and DVHS can record full 1920x1080 resolution. Assuming of course that the material you want to record takes advantage of that resolution.

Just got a Sony RDRHX900 DVD recorder with Component In. When I output 16:9 video (480i) from my Sony DHG-HDD500 HDTV DVR via Component the 900 records it letterboxed. I have to hit Zoom on the TV to get a full screen 16:9 out of the 900, I'm recording onto the hard drive in SP mode. TV aspect settings on the 900 make no difference. I thought this DVD recorder would accept 16:9 in full without zooming. Zooming degrades the picture slightly, is this the best 16:9 image I'm gonna get on a SD DVD recorder??

Probably the tenth time I've had to say this in this Forum:

Your STB is letterboxing it, not the DVD Recorder.

NO DVD Recorders letterbox the incoming signal, they just record it as it is.

Along the same topic (but not exactly on the "recording" topic... I just tried to watch Diehard on my new 16:9 Plasma from my E80H recorder (the original DVD, not a recording). It comes through letterboxed (no STB involved), but the zoom mode on the 42PX60U doesn't zoom nearly enough to get rid of the black bars. Same size no matter what settings I have on the E80H. Suggestions? I don't want black bars on anything during "burn-in", which means I can only watch 16:9 DVD's?

Most movies are even wider than 16:9. So some black bars are still needed even on a 16:9 display.

I realize that, 2.35:1. But I would think "Zoom" mode would get rid of the bars (and cut-off the L&R sides), but it doesn't. On a letterboxed TV show, the zoom will get rid of the top and bottom bars, why wouldn't zoom work any differently on a DVD?

OK BOB. I seemed to remember dubbing 16:9 from the same HDTV recorder to my older Panny DVD recorder and did not have to zoom for fullscreen 16:9 playback, but this was via S-Video. I thought the Sony DVD with component in would be an improvement over using S-video, so far it is not.

Zoom only enlarges the picture enough to get rid of the black bars of the size needed to make a 16:9 image fit a 4:3 display (typically). For movies, wider than 16:9 as you point out, those bars need to be even thicker (vertically). Zoom does not enlarge the picture enough to completely push the even-thicker-than-16:9 bars offscreen, otherwise it would also push some of the sides of the image off the left and right edges of the display.

The enlargment factor needed to get a 16:9 image that is letterboxed to 4:3 to fill a 16:9 display is 4/3 (12:9 -> 16:9). The amount of black bars you need to add to letterbox a 16:9 image to fit in a 4:3 display is 1/3 of the original image height (16:9 -> 16:12). That makes the height of the image portion of a letterboxed 16:9 screen take up 3/4 of the overall screen height. Multiply that 3/4 image portion height by the 4/3 "Zoom" enlargment factor and you have the height back to 1 again, with the width 33% wider than it was when shown as a 4:3 image (black bars on all four sides).

If your STB put out non-letterboxed video on its S-Video output, then that would explain it.

Funny because usually it is the other way around with STB's, they put non-letterboxed out the Component Video and letterboxed out the S-Video.

I see what you're asking for, a Zoom that enlarges a different amount based on how "letterboxed" the image is. No it doesn't work that way, typically it enlarges enough for 16:9 to just fit but 2:35 will still leave (thinner) bars. The "smarter" Zoom might be a good idea, as long as you don't mind losing some of the sides as you correctly point out would happen.