DVD Recorder

[SwordFish]

For my birthday, my wife bought me a dvd recorder from Costco. She spent right around $100 for it, which after some research, I found is a good price all in all.

Now I can record the various shows i've been worryingthat will stop being aired. The Military Channel shows both the Wings of the Luftwaffe and WWII Battlefront series, which are both from the very early 90's. I'm afraid that sooner or later, they'll stop airing these. So, it's my goal to record each chapter of the each series on DVD.

For those of you out there still using a VCR, it's well worth upgrading to a DVD recorder. Much higher quality, longer record time (depending on the setting), and discs don't degrarde like VHS (or beta for that matter). It takes some playing with to get the settings down, but in the long run, well worth it.

[bigschuss]

Swordfish,

I was wondering if you have tried recoording a movie yet from a channel like TCM or ACM? I, too, have a new DVD recorder but get a Copyright warning when I try to record a movie from one of these channels? My machine won't allow me to record. Have you had luck?

Also, I read somewhere that it isn't true that DVD's won't degrade over time. From what I read, DVD's do degrade just like VHS, or old super 8 films.

My machine also has a built in VHS, so I am able to transfer my old 1980's home videos direct to DVD in one easy step. That's a nice option.

Best,
Blair

[SwordFish]

Hi Blair. I havn't tried to record from those channels. I will however and let you know if i'm able to. I know certain DVDs like the films you rent from Blockbuster, often have built in encryption software to prevent unauthorized copying. There are way around this but it'd require you to copy this disc on your home PC, with a DVD R drive and some anti-encrytpion software you can download for free.

In terms of degredation, I believe you are correct. That being said, I highly doubt they degrade quite at the same rate of VHS or any type of tape. I also suspect that if recorded at higher quality, the potential of degredation is mitigated to one degree or another. I guess only time and experimentation would tell.

I'll send you a PM with the results of my attempt at recording from those channels. It wouldn't surprise me if somehow they had encrpyted thier feed to prevent copy. I also need to try and record from HBO or another premium channel.

T

[james m]

I owned and operated a video production company until I sold it and retired a few years ago. Commercially produced DVDs will have a long life but this is NOT true of the home made ones you create on a consumer quality DVD recorder. The image on the commercial ones is etched and the image on a consumer quality is produced by a laser.
Analog TV programs which we have all watched for years are formatted in 480I which is 480 lines of interlaced signal. High Definition is either 780
P or 1080P(progressive scan) and provides a far better picture. If you take a 480I analog image and copy it to DVD it will still be a 480I image.
Current DVDs are also 480 images and while the will play along with analog VHS tape on a HDTV they won't look any better then on a anolog TV. A much better picture is available with either the BlueRay or HD DVD formats.
I have simplified this explaination in the interest of brevity and would recommend anyone with more interest go to one of the many online sites about this subject.
Jim

[SwordFish]

Jim,
Good information. It's alot to swallow for those of us with limited video production expereince. Definitely worth some more research.

Jim, perhaps you can to a few specific points. What can one expect for playback life when recorded via laser DVD recorder? I would guess, that the more often discs are played back, the greater potential for degredation. Also, in your expereince, have you noted a longer disc life wth the quality of the disc itself and the recroding setting itself? I also would imagine that expsosure to elements like UV light, sun, etc., would further cause the information on the disc to degrade.

I would speculate that the future of recroding is digital media, similiar to that of falsh drives we use for our PCs. With the proliferation of affordable data storage devices, and the increasing technological advances, we're going to see both audio media and visual media going that direction. USB slots on our car stereous, TVs, etc.
T

[bigschuss]

Thanks T. Yes, I'd be interested to hear if you are able to record from those channels. Thanks.

And I agree, that DVD lifespan is probably much better than video or film. I just pulled a cardboard box of old home videos from the late 80's from my attic (not the best place for storage). I fully expected the tapes to fall apart when I tried to play them. But they didn't, and to my surpsrise, the quality is surprisingly good. But, I do feel better about getting them transfered to DVD.

Blair

[SwordFish]

Blair,
I havn't tried to transfer the videos to dvd yet, but i don't see why it shouldnt work. Just plug the dvd input from the vcr and it should record. I'm also planning to try it next. On a side note, i was able to record from HBO without a problem.

T

[Darrell]

Blair,
I havn't tried to transfer the videos to dvd yet, but i don't see why it shouldnt work. Just plug the dvd input from the vcr and it should record. T

I did this a while back. Converted some home movies in VHS format to DVD. The old tapes always scared me. VCRs have that nasty habit of causing the tapes to be eaten or destroyed. Plus they take up about 1/10th the space as those VHS monsters

[entasis]

I copy shows from TV occassionally (eg, those Wings of the Luftwaffe episodes) but not wanting to spend the money on a recorder I first copy from TV to DV camera and DV to my PC. From there I encode and copy to DVD. So far so good. I have quite a few 3R movies and shows. Regrettably, the History Channel's 3 episode documentary on the SS still eludes me.

[SwordFish]

With the downard price of the dvr's, it's only pocket change. The discs themselves are relatively inexpensive as well. Depending on the recording quality, one can fit up to 8 hours of recording, although I stick to 4 hour max formatting.

[Darrell]

With the downard price of the dvr's, it's only pocket change. The discs themselves are relatively inexpensive as well. Depending on the recording quality, one can fit up to 8 hours of recording, although I stick to 4 hour max formatting.

The newer formats (supported by the newer DVD REcorders) are the DVD DL (Dual Layer). These offer 2 hours of recording on the highest resolution.

That's what I use for most of my documentries

[Strider]

There are a couple of issues with DVDs degrading. The dyes fading and the shiny metal surface oxidising. The latter has been a big problem for me with DVDs less than five years old becoming unreadable. However, it is mainly the cheap, unbranded media that is oxidising. But some of the more expensive discs are starting to show signs of oxidisation as well.
So you might need to re-copy your digital archives every three or four years.

If you're serious about archival DVDs then you need to use gold recordable discs that are supposed to last over 100 years but are still expensive.

A DVD recorder is going to record at NTSC or PAL resolutions but will still be better quality than VHS which was always a substandard format.

Re: copy protection, I believe this depends on your cable provider and the channel you want to record. Some have Macrovision copy protection, others don't.

Also it is possible to download recordings from your DVR to your PC digitally using a USB connection. But many of the channels, especially on Comcast, have built in digital copy protection which cannot be circumvented at present.