LG RC199H DVD/VHS Recorder Reviews? - Page 2

Anyone tried playing a DIVX file burned to a CD (not DVD) with the RC199H?

My first attempt at this was succesful. However when I tried to play the exact same disk again it would not recognize it.

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Well i'm not as technical savvy as some of you. I have recorded from Dish Network PVR to my unit and had no problems. Of course none of them were movies. Just soccer games.

I use Magnavox DVR+ and have had no issues with the blank DVD's recording. It was after i bought this brand that I saw LG had recommended brands listed. Magnavox wasn't one of them. But they've worked fine for me.

I'm interested in the LG RC199H , but also considering the Sony RDRVD530. The Sony has a 102 Mhz 12 bit DAC , while the LG has a 10 bit converter at approx 52 MHZ. DOes this make a difference in tems of quality?

I believe that would be 108MHz and 54MHz instead of 102MHz and 52MHz.

12-bit versus 10-bit definitely makes a difference. I believe the doubling of frequency (54MHz to 108MHz) is to handle progressive scan output, but don't quote me on that one.

I cannot find any such creature as a Sony RDRVD530 via Google. Is it the RDR VX-530? If so, between it and the LG you will not get HDMI out or upconversion to 720p or 1080i. May or may not be important to you.

I really want to like this unit, and have not returned it yet. My problem is somewhere in the connections I think? I have a new 1080p Tv with HDMI & component inputs, etc. I also have a digital HD cable box connected to the TV. I have the traditional connection of the RF out of the cable box to the RF input on the LG199H, I then have the HDMI out of the LG to my TV. This is where things get weird? When playing a Comercial DVD through the HDMI it looks awesome!! But if I'm viewing the cable chanels through the LG or recording programs on the LG there are weird grey cropping borders around the image. I'm assuming that I have something incorrectly connected, but I can't seem to figure out what? If anyone has any suggestions, I would greatly appreciate it.

Thanks.

When you play back these recordings, do they look the same on the TV as when you were recording them?

Are your recording sources 4x3 or 16x9? If they are 16x9, are you able to set the source output video to give you an anamorphic picture, i.e., tall and skinny when filling a 4x3 screen or proper proportions when filling a 16x9 screen?

Many cable and satellite boxes will only give a letterboxed output to s-video or composite video (yellow RCA) or RF, including black bars above and below the letterboxed 16x9 picture placed in a 4x3 frame/screen. In those cases, when recording and viewing on a 16x9 TV, you end up seeing black bars on all 4 sides of the letterboxed 16x9 source video.

Is there any setting on your source device for choosing 16x9 vs. 4x3 display?

I just picked this machine up yesterday after having a horrible time with the Samsung 330 and I'm quite impressed with it. In my opinion this is not only a very attractive looking machine but, a well thought out one as well. I'm not usually one who is all that interested in a ton of features but, not only does this machine have those but, they are things that I'll actually use. As for the picture I have to say that my old VHS look about as good as they ever could and the DVD picture looks almost as good as my OPPO. The other neat aspect of this machine is the fact that even the VCR plays through the Optical and Coaxial digital audio connections. Love it ..... good buy at Circuit City. $269.00

Just a note..... if something locks up on you it is not good. It is a piece of crap. I know that misery loves company but don't try and push it on someone else.

Atrac, I have my LG connected via the optical outs and like you tried both of the bit rates and hear audio dropouts on some DVD's. Some DVD's e.g. Aeon flux do not have the audio drops. Have you managed to find a fix for this yet?

I read elsewhere that ppl with this problem can avoid the audio drops by using 480p. Hardly a satisfying answer I know.

I'm getting the audio dropouts on all 4 DVDs that I tried. I am getting them through both the optical and coax digital outputs, but I didn't get them over HDMI or the analog outputs. I've been running 720p. I tried calling LG customer service and after sitting on hold for a while, their computer took my telephone number and said they would call back, but they have not.

My final troubleshooting was to hookup my old mintek DVD player and it worked fine over the coax digital audio output, so that narrows it down to the DVD player in my mind.

I'm taking it back to Bestbuy for a refund.

I just bought the DR1F9H today, and hooked it up to my Panasonic Plasma via HDMI. I too notice the dropouts every few minutes when the resolution is set to 720p. The audio is fine at 480i, 480p, and 1080i.

Well, that is the resolution I was running, 720p.

Here's a section from a oppodigital.com Q&A re: "the audio sync problem with 720p." Altho it applies to an Oppo player, the two Q&A's I copied below, thanks to oppodigital.com, may apply or at least give some hints on your situation?

"Q: What causes Audio sync issue?
A: The Audio-sync error can be caused by several factors. The most common are video source (DVD mastering) and video buffering.

How the DVD was mastered will affect the overall playback. There are many DVDs which have been mastered incorrectly and suffer from slight audio-syncing not matter what player or display unit is used. The effect of de-syncing can be so negligible it is barely noticeable, to such an extreme that whole audio bits are audible before the according visual actions.

Another common type of Audio-sync errors is the cumulative effect of video buffering. In order to produce the best possible video quality, when the Faroudja chip in the DVD player performs de-interlacing and scaling, it may need to buffer some video frames to do motion analysis. This introduces a slight delay to the video. Usually this delay is not noticeable by the viewers. Certain displays also buffer video frames for many reasons - to scale up the 720p or 1080i video to the display's native pixel resolution, or to process the video in order to reduce the "rainbow effect" on some DLP displays, or even to do motion analysis and adaptation (duplicated effort but cannot be turned off). The buffering by displays introduces another video delay. Since normally audio is not delayed, the cumulative video delay becomes noticeable and causes the Audio-sync problem. The problem happens rarely and randomly because the time it takes the DVD player and the display to process the video depends on the complexity of the video scene.

As a rule of thumb, if the Audio-sync error occurs infrequently and at preset moments, it is a DVD mastering issue. When it occurs frequently and is not repeatable by rewinding, stopping and resuming playback, then there are several steps you can take to prevent instances of Audio-sync errors. See below.

Q: How to fix Audio-sync issue?
A: Audio syncs are DVD player, display device, and DVD discs dependent. From DVD player perspective, the solution to the Audio-sync error is to introduce an audio delay to compensate for video buffering. There are two ways to do this: 1. The OPDV971H has an audio delay feature. To access this feature, press the Setup button, then select Delay in the Audio tab. Audio delays are selectable from "no delay" to 50ms in 10ms intervals. 2. Some audio receivers can also adjust audio delays. The optimal audio delay depends on the display device so it can only be obtained by experimenting. For extreme cases, Stopping and Resuming DVD playback will stop Audio-sync errors."

I just bought an open-box RC-199H unit from Circuit City. As soon as I plugged it in it made a horrible groaning motor sound. I fiddled with it and that eventually stopped, but it recurs almost every time I start up. They will swap it for me today.

Even with that transient defect, before I brought it back, I was able to dub VHS to DVD easily, and edited, adding a title and chapters, which worked flawlessly on playback. I only have the HDMI cable connected to the TV, coax from the wall (analog at the moment, will upgrade shortly). So far, I like the functionality. I don't see great picture, but, again, I am still using an analog cable connection. DVD's look good, claim they're '480i', but look higher.

Apparently, from what I see on this thread, LG has significant quality control issues, but, if you get a good unit, you should be happy with it

I purchased my LG RC199H in Aug and it works perfectly..... as a matter of fact as far as the VHS playback its the best I've ever owned. I was really excited to find out that the machine upconverts the VHS on both the component and HDMI. I don't want to sound excited about VHS playback but, I own a few tapes that haven't had their time in the sun on DVD just yet so, I have no choice but to watch these and to my surprise upconverting them or should I say viewing them through the Component connection (using my Oppo in the HDMI port) they look asme (at least as awesome as VHS can look).

I just bought this machine and, after reading some of these messages, I decided to do some tests. I found that the audio drop outs in 720p do occur when using the optical output with PCM audio. But with PCM you do not get DD 5.1 audio. If you're using the optical or coaxial connections to send to your surround sound receiver then you want to set the LG audio output to 'Bitstream' in the audio menu. Then, not only do the dropouts go bye-bye you get full Dolby Digital audio!

I bought this unit because the Panasonic DMR-ES45VS I bought two weeks ago has some quirks I don't like either, like limiting chapter editing to DVD-RAM discs only. So far these two machines are disappointing me in different ways when it comes to features. But then I have high expectations when it comes to features. Performance otherwise on both of them is pretty good. VHS dubbing is so-so. I'm going to have to ultimately take one of them back but for the moment I can't decide which one I'll keep. It's too bad we can't get enough good information on these things before we make a purchase. None of the stores I went to even had these machines connected to anything so I could see how they worked.

The one other thing I don't like about the LG is that in upconversion to 720p or 1080i it stretches the picture! That's a no-no in my book. I should have the option to do that, it should not be forced upon me. This is what I like about the Panasonic, it does not stretch the picture in upconvert. Ah! Decisions, decisions...

Okay, I just purchased my first HD LCD and connected this machine up through the HDMI and boy am I disappointed. First of all I should mention that the picture quality on the 720P and 1080I is fantastic (even rivals my Oppo) when the picture is actually there because, not only do I get the audio drop outs through all digital outputs in the 720P but, when I go up to 1080I "yes" the audio drop outs go away but, now I keep loosing the picture. What is strange is that it only seems to happen when DVD's are played and not tapes. The video loss actually goes to on screen snow then to green (I notice the green when you are changing to a different resolution but, the picture does come back). None of these issues are evident through the component hook-up. I've weeded out the TV as the problem seeing that the Oppo works just fine.

On a side note I did buy another one to see if it did the same thing and it was worse. Hopefully LG has some sort of Firmware upgrade to clear this problem up because, there is a lot to like about this VCR / DVD combo player.

I want to burn my camera images to a DVD using this LG recorder. I got it since it features the Compact Flash card reader slot.

Does anyone know how to copy jpg files from a compact flash memory card, to a DVD on this LG recorder?

Thanks for the help!

Yup! Mine does this too. Did you notice that if you disable the DTS bitstream (which forces it to resort to crappy PCM) it no longer does it?

I exchanged the LG at BB, and it does it too.
I also exchanged the Onkyo thinking it was the problem. Nope. Still doing it.

I think we've found a problem here!


My receiver is the Onkyo S790. What's yours?

My experience has been the EXACT OPPOSITE of what you described. PCM audio does not drop out. DTS set to Bitstream at either 48 or 96 KHz has cut-out issues.

Just wanted to update my units performance.

It was great until....lol

I returned it to Best Buy --glad I bought the extended warranty so no hassles even though it is within the manufacturers one year warranty. And kept reciepts. Along with all boxing/packaging.

The problem was no sound through the TV when playing a DVD.

No problems recording. or transferring stored tv programs off Dish Network. ( Mainly English Premier League matches of my fav team).

No problems with the sound from the VCR portion through to the tv when I played a VHS. And the record feature works fine.

No problems playing a DVD in my other player ( JVC) through the LG unit and got sound that way with the TV.

So it was not my Monster Cable HDMI connector as I was getting sound through the VHS and alternate connection..

But when I played a DVD in the LG and just wanted to listen to it on the TV, it was a no go.

The sound through my stereo via optical link worked fine when playing a DVD in the LG. But if all features don't work..then it's not right.

Should get my unit back sometime around Dec 12th. Returned it the day after Thanksgiving.



PS. I did have a lock up --freeze situation once. Easy to resolve. Unplug the unit and replug it back in. Never had the problem again.

I have no experience with upconverting DVD players and HDMI, but I did have a similar problem with a high definition TiVo unit (HR10-250 from DirecTV) where audio from HDTV channels could not be heard on the TV but played fine through the optical connection to the separate sound system.

In my case, the problem was only with Dolby Digital 5.1 and 2.0 audio. The HDMI connection sends essentially the same digital audio signal as the optical output does to the sound system. My HDTV has no means of decoding Dolby Digital audio, and therefore was silent when seeing DD audio from the HD TiVo. When I set the TiVo to send only stereo (PCM digital) audio, the HDTV sound was fine.

It sounds like you might have the same issue. If you play a DVD with DD 5.1 audio, your TV is silent, but your audio system sounds fine. When you play any source without DD audio (e.g., VHS tape or internal tuner in the DVDR/VCR unit) the audio is fine on the TV.

There may be nothing wrong with your LG unit.

I'm thinking of getting this as a present for my parents who are sometimes technology challenged. They don't have an HDTV but probably will when they replace their current set. They just have regulat cable, not digital.

How easy is it to transfer pictures from a memory card to a DVD and how is the quality? Is the DVD/VHS recorder easy to setup and operate?

Thanks

Just to add to the growing list, I connected a new RC199H today via component video to the TV and optical audio to the receiver. Popped in CARS for my daughter and got audio dropouts immediately. Checked menu for Bitstream and tried both frequency settings....no difference at all. Still dropping out. Machine will probably go back to BB next week. No excuse for this.

Dave

I've read posts by people with this same problem, trying all settings as you did, and some have "solved" it by NOT using 720p. One other user said he had no problems using Component connections, but that's what you're using.

Maybe try 480p or 1080i and see if audio dropouts go away...and you don't then get video problems at 1080i? May be acceptable if your TV has a good scaler/upconverter.

The audio dropout problem has gone away. Have no idea why. I watched several movies after Cars and all played fine. Put in Cars again and it played OK. Can only think that turning unit off/on again over the past couple of days reset something, or it was an alignment problem, if such a thing can happen. Anyway, unit is playing with no problems now.

Dave

Hi, all. Just bought the LG RC199H and have only had time to try the player (through the Directv receiver) which seemed to work fine. Untechnical female here, and I'm hoping one of you technical guys can help me with a cable question. I have a new hard disk camcorder that I'm dying to play on the LG and record my holiday video. Tried to set that up tonight but realized my camcorder came with a firewire to USB cable but the LG needs firewire on its end, so I borrowed one I use in my computer, but only one end of the cable connection fits each unit! Does that mean I have male/female connections and I have to buy a male/male or female/female firewire cable? 4 pin to 4 pin? (And I thought my holiday shopping was over!). Thanks!

Just got the RC199H today at BB----never buy the day after Christmas!
Anyway, the sound is great, the video superb but the manual sucks and I'm not too happy with the remote but so what?
I can't burn from TV because obviously, I have digital cable and it tells be it's copyrighted. There's got to be a way around this.
However, after 5 hours of playing around, I like this. I especially like the fact that I can use my SD card to view my photos.