[DrewMazurek]

I need to replace my DVD player (that I've had for years) and now see all these DVD recorders available and I'm wondering if I should get one. I've also just added a DVR STB to my system and have been loving it. So, I need a DVD player and thought maybe I'd get a recorder so when I have stuff on the DVR that I want to keep long term I can dump it out to it. Seems logical. So I don't need a tuner (seems they all have them anyway) and I won't even be programing it, doing all my dumps manually. Hopefully at night while I sleep. Is that possible? Hit record and go to bed? My TV is a Panasonic so I'm thinking of sticking with that for remotes, and aesthetics. Any advice would be appreciated.


Great Forum!!!

 

[DaveC E100]

Sounds reasonable to me but I have never seen or used a DVR STB. I am not so sure you would be happy with the results of doing your dump manually while you sleep. How would you avoid recording to your DVD the junk following the program you wanted to dump? Timers probably aren't that accurate. Maybe your DVD STB has a way to edit the recordings it holds? I like DVD recorders that have built in hard drives because they allow you to edit what is on the hard drive before dumping it to a DVD. It is fast. A 2 hour SP recording can be dumped to DVD in 8 minutes. Additional copies can be made every 8 minutes. I think your system would only work in real time but if you can do it in your sleep I guess it might work for you. Good Luck!


Dave

 

[slprp1]



Quote:
Originally Posted by DrewMazurek /forum/post/0


I need to replace my DVD player (that I've had for years) and now see all these DVD recorders available and I'm wondering if I should get one. I've also just added a DVR STB to my system and have been loving it. So, I need a DVD player and thought maybe I'd get a recorder so when I have stuff on the DVR that I want to keep long term I can dump it out to it. Seems logical. So I don't need a tuner (seems they all have them anyway) and I won't even be programing it, doing all my dumps manually. Hopefully at night while I sleep. Is that possible? Hit record and go to bed? My TV is a Panasonic so I'm thinking of sticking with that for remotes, and aesthetics. Any advice would be appreciated.


Great Forum!!!

Welcome to the club!......


While I wholeheartedly agree that dvd recorders with hard drives are ideal (and probably the best thing since sliced bread!):

1) They are almost impossible to find and if you do find one, you will pay a premium price.

2) Some people will not be willing to spend alot and don't neccesarily need the utmost in terms of features.


You may want to consider a Panasonic dvd recorder without a hard drive and should you decide to do unattended recording (at night or by timer control), you could simply use RAM discs exclusively. They are more expensive than standard (write once type) discs but will give you benefits similar to a hard drive. You can edit right on the disc by simply shortening the recording or you could create playlists and still maintain the original recording as well as the edited version. Obviously, there is a learning curve but you would be doing similar tasks with a hard drive based unit.

If it's affordable, go with a hard drive based recorder by all means but you can't rule out editing (as the previous post might suggest) with a non HDD model.


There is alot to cover on this topic and it would be very redundant here. If you want further suggestions, send me a private message.

GOOD LUCK!

 

[ncaahoops]



Quote:
Originally Posted by DrewMazurek /forum/post/0


I need to replace my DVD player (that I've had for years) and now see all these DVD recorders available and I'm wondering if I should get one. I've also just added a DVR STB to my system and have been loving it. So, I need a DVD player and thought maybe I'd get a recorder so when I have stuff on the DVR that I want to keep long term I can dump it out to it. Seems logical. So I don't need a tuner (seems they all have them anyway) and I won't even be programing it, doing all my dumps manually. Hopefully at night while I sleep. Is that possible? Hit record and go to bed? My TV is a Panasonic so I'm thinking of sticking with that for remotes, and aesthetics. Any advice would be appreciated.


Great Forum!!!

Welcome to the Great Forum That's what I do too with a DVR STB from the cable company and a stand-alone dvd recorder without a hard disk.


You can indeed record stuff overnight, either manually or by using the timer... You can either hit the OTR (one touch recording button) if the program is a multiple of 30/60minutes, or you can set a timer event on your dvd recorder and just start playback on your DVR...


One question that can affect what is the best solution for you is whether you want to edit the stuff you record on DVD (either before or after)...


One pitfall to be aware if you are using a cable-company DVR is that sometimes they do "required weekly emergency testing" and they bounce the playback of the recording, but that can happen at most once a week...

 

[DrewMazurek]

Thanks for the replies.


It looks like the EZ17S is the one I'll get. Shame about the lack of Component In but for the little use it'll get I should be fine.


Why doesn't Motorola/Comcast just allow us to hang Firewire hard drives off the back of this thing??? It would be soo much easier.