Re: DVD Recorder


N Cook ha escrito:
lsmartino <luismartino76@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:1169390003.386507.285150@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx


Yep! You can buy a DVD recorder and use DVD-RW or DVD-RAM media with
it, and record over and over the same disc, just like a VCR tape. Also,
you can use DVD-R media, but that is a write once media.

All in all, a DVD recorder is better than a VCR.


What would you say the number of write /read/erase cycles could you go
through before excessive dropout or whatever finally stops the repeated use
of one disc. ? How many cycles before the play quality is noticeably
downgraded but still playable . ?



That´s an interesting question. I have a Panasonic DVD recorder
(DMR-ES10) since mid-2006, and i have tried it with DVD-R, DVD-RW and
DVD-RAM. This is what I have found so far:

a) DVD-R: you can write to it once, or several times in an accumulative
fashion. I mean, let´s suppose that you want to store 4 hours of video
in a disc, but you want to record half hour now, 1 hour tomorrow and so
on. You can do that until the disc is full, but you can´t erase
anything from it. I have made several recordings like that, and they
are still playable. I think it´s matter of buying good quality media.

b) DVD-RW: you can write and erase it as many times you want
theoretically, but in practice they don´t endure very well that kind
of use. Some discs had been able to sustain 100 record/play/erase
cycles. Others have failed after less than that, like 10 cycles. It
depends on the brand too. I have several Imation DVD-RW´s at hand who
have survived a lot of abuse, and I have had Maxell DVD-RW´s which
didn´t give me more than 10 record/play/erase cycles. Even I had one
who failed just after formatting it, and it became unusable, even the
computer refused to take it. I guess I had bad luck with that one and
it came defective. In any case, this is all dependant on the recorder
and the media brand used. I would expect different results with another
machine, or with different combinations of media brands and DVD
recording machines. Also I have found something interesting: there is
no gradual loss of quality after a lot of use like it happens with a
VHS tape. Instead of that the disc tend to fail completely, I mean, the
recorder can refuse to take it, or it will only reproduce it but not
record anymore, so it´s more like an all or nothing situation with
DVD-RW media. It works or it doesn´t. No middle points. I guess this
happens because it´s a digital medium.

c) DVD-RAM: the most durable of all. I bought 20 of them as soon as I
got the DVD recorder, and so far I have used just one of the discs for
time shifting. The entire disc gets formatted as much as once or twice
per week, and it´s still going strong. The plus side of using a
DVD-RAM is that you can record something, and edit it using the DVD
recorder, that´s one thing that can´t be done using a DVD-RW. The
DVD-RW only allows you to erase a full segment, ot to keep it, but you
can´t edit the segment. Also, after editing the DVD-RAM, you can
reclaim the free space left by the editing and use it to record more.
That´s something that can´t be done with a single VHS tape unless you
make a copy of the edited version. Why is this useful? If you are doing
a timer recording of a TV show, want to keep it, but also do you want
to erase the commercials. You can erase the commercial after the
recording, and also get some free space in the process. The only
disadvantage of DVD-RAM discs is that they are not playable in most DVD
players (unless they are designed to do that), while a DVD-RW can be
playable by most DVD players after finalizing the disc.

d) DVD recordable media costs at least 6 times less than comparable VHS
tapes, at least in my country, and it´s becoming more easy to obtain
than VHS tapes.

e) Overall video quality is better than the one you get of a VHS vcr
(excepting S-VHS ones), and also the sound quality is better.

Of course, a lot of the final result will depend on proper handling of
the discs. The same know handling rules for CD media applies to DVD
recordable media.

Summarizing: if you want maximum interchangeability, but don´t care
about having less read/writing cycles, use DVD-RW media. That way you
will have a disc which can be playable by almost all DVD players. If
interchangeability is not that important, then use DVD-RAM media. It
cost´s more, but is the most durable.

More info can be found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVD_recordable

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