ok this post is for my dad....and if ur thinking why the hack does he want a dvd recorder when they already have a tivo...don't ask my dad is kinda weird he still "tapes" shows on VHS tapes using vcr, and tapes radio shows on cassettes....then again he also still pyas his bills with a pen, a check and the us postal service.....
anyway, I didn't know much about the world of dvd recorders before a couple days ago, so I have a few questions before and if I actually decide to get him one.
Question 1: we currently have an HD TV with an HD tivo connected and a multistream verizon fios cablecard. My question is regarding copyright limitations....what prevents you from just recording any tv program onto dvd, as you still can onto a VHS? and what percentage of the channels/shows have this protection? like would he only be able to record from the original 12 or so broadcast channels? this is my main concern....he watched a lot of the sports channels like espn espn2 golf channel nbatv etc....
Question 2: also, when doing my research I thought of another benefit a dvd recorder may have. I have been putting all the family home videos which are on vhs onto dvd, but it's a bit of a process. I use an external usb capture device made by Hauppage hooked up to the VCR then the computer captures it realtime and generates an mpeg video file on my hard drive, THEN I have to spend the 1 or 2 hours it takes to convert to DVD format and burn with Nero so it can be played on a regular DVD player......so....question being....
can a standalone DVD recorder hook up to a VCR to transfer video direct to a DVD, or do you have to buy a DVD recorder with a built in VHS deck?
Question 3: oh and someone once told me that you can only play the recorded DVD's on the recorder, and not other regular DVD players...I couldn't believe this was actually true...but was he right?
TIA!
Answers:
Question 1: if the DVD recorder is connected to the TIVO there shouldn't be anything prohibiting him from recording. The signal sent out from the TIVO is an unencrypted feed that can be processed by anything (TV, VCR, DVD recorder, ETC). As long as theres no restrictions within the DVD recorder itself, you should be fine to record anything. This also means you have to record realtime (press play on TIVO and record on the DVD recorder and wait the amount of time for the event to end before pressing stop)
Question 2: You would need to talk to the tech support for your DVD recorder. Its going to depend on what types of video streams and formats it will accept as a source
Question 3:Once again this is a question for the DVD recorder tech support, not Verizon. It depends on the file format that the recorder saevs the file as. Not only that, but different players also can read different formats. So you have to take a look at the recorder and the dvd play back device
1). It may surprise to learn that there are some things that you can't make a satisfactory recording of with a VHS recorder. This involves Macrovision copy protection, but I don't think I have seen it used in over the air programming. I think you will have little trouble if you want to make SD recordings via analog audio/video. Digital HD recordings are another matter entirely. They often have various forms of copy protection embedded in the data stream.
2). There certainly are DVD recorders that can make SD recordings directly from VHS players. However image quality may be less than what you hope for. The advantage of video capture and subsequent recording in DVD format is the ability to apply image processing software to improve the quality of VHS image. Think of it as the difference between your digital camera images with and without the benefit of photo editing software that can sharpen the images, increase the saturation, and correct colors...
The typical VHS resolution is about 240 lines, S-VHS can get as good as 400 lines, particulary in S-VHS recorders with substantial on board image handling (the High end JVC recorders digitize the Tape image to on board memory to do this). This is of limited advantage because over the air analog SD TV is actually limited to about 350 lines resolutions, and that requires a high end comb filter in the receiver.
3). The anwer is maybe. There are really two issues:. Not all DVD devices support all of the media possibilities...+/- R, +/-RW and Dual Layer. So if you want to record on one DVD unit and play back on another, just make sure that the other DVD unit supports the type of media you are using. There are also a number of possible DVD formats such as MPEG-2 and MPEG-4
Start a new topic or ask questions in the open forum.
