Any recommendations for a DVD recorder (for TV)?

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#1

I know nothing about them at all, but I’m about to leave the VHS behind for archiving purposes and take the step to DVD. I expect I’ll have it hooked to my primary TV/satellite system. And its primary function will be loading up stuff to DVD when the DVR gets full.

I guess I’m looking for flexibity and/or simplicity. It’d be nice to be able to archive, say, an hour-long TV show, and lose the commercials, and be able to stop-start multiple sessions, all in a format that’s easy to watch later.

Anyone have a strong opinion on blank DVD brands?

Thanx

#2

Here is one example of a DVD recorder. Depending upon what sort of DVR you have, you might just invest in a Mac Mini and Popcorn. That combo might be the most flexible solution provided you have a spare mouse, keyboard, and monitor.

#3

The dvd recorders are nice but I would recommend a TIVO first. I’m setup with both here. But I mostly record my things on the tivo then if I really liked it I will record it on a DVD. The tivo is more like an hard drive so you can record and remove tv shows and movies with more ease than a video or a dvd recorder. You can buy DVD re-recordable but you often have a couple of operation and I’m not sure if you can only reformat one part or have to do it all.

With a dvd recorder when I fast-forward too fast it sometime skips and goes back to the start. You can make menus but the scene skipping is not that great. Maybe its just my recorder thats not that good but it happens.

It’s better quality but if you’re not too tech savvy it can be annoying at times.

For recording the commercials, there is no real way to skip those except watching the shows while they record and pause/restart when they occur. Don’t get tricked by the “skip commercial option” that some recorders may advertise. Its often just a button that fastfoward 30-60-90 seconds during playback and it doesn’t stop when the commercials stops but when its time is up. So you have to rewind back a bit. I would be surprise if the networks would let some machine that can skip be sold since its their main source of money. I’ve notice some of them even make their show last 1-2 min after the said time of recording so you’re always missing the end.

I love my DVD recorder for archiving stuff that I really want to keep witch is not that much. But mostly I use my TIVO for every recording.

I hope it helps

edit : for DVD brands I didn’t find any distinction between the generic dvds at like 20$ for 50 or the ones at 10 for 25$ I’d say its pretty much the same. Except maybe you will have one fail at format but at those price you throw it and take another. Some of the generics ones I had for a few years without any casing and they are still working fine.

Edit 2 : I don’t have a TIVO but a tivo-esque thing doing the same thing. Recording shows from the tv schedule on it and it records the show on a hardrive.

#4

Thanks. Good feeback. What brand DVD recorder do you have?

#5

I use a TV tuner on my computer. My cable is hooked directly into it, and it records to my hard drive. This was the simplest and most cost-effective solution I found. It records into an mpeg format, which is easily edited, converted, and burned to dvd. It has a point & click interface with an online tv guide type site and sets up just like a dvr.

Just wanted to throw out another option for ya.

#6

Thanks… I know it sounds lke a cop-out, but I do all my work at a computer, so I hate doing anything else at a computer. Listening to music, downloading, extra web surfing, even catching up on episodes of Lost that the DVR ate – being in front of a machine just feels like work.

#7

It’s a panasonic but it’s 3 years old. You probably can buy a better one now.

But don’t buy the 2 in 1 combo. Like video + CD recorder or TV+video. Most of the time there is something defective in one or both of the mechanism. It seems they have a lot of trouble merging 2 things together. I heard ton of bad feedback about those and my parents bought one and we had to return it 1 week later. Bought one to my aunt, same thing happened.

#8

Givin’ the thread a bump. DVR capacity is reaching critical mass, and I need to get something soon. Anyone have any recommendations on makes/models to get… or avoid?

I’m looking for something simple to archive stuff. Something intuitive, reliable. Not a stickler for video/audio, don’t need hi-def or nuthin’ like that.

#9

Depending upon your DVR model, it may be appropriate to pick up a Drobo to use for archiving if you can access the data files and they’re easily usable without much transmogrification. FreeNAS can also be used to build your own storage dump if so desired.