Page 1 of DVD Recorder Quality. In what way do poor machines fail to work well?

When buying a cheap DVD recorder, what do you lose compared to a better model. Is it simply that it sometimes fails to record properly, or might the quality also be inferior? What about playback quality?

I like the look and price of the Cyberhome DVR 1600, especially as it`s nice and compact.


Technology is great - if mankind survives.

media-mania :)

The capacity of a single layered DVD-R etc is 4.7 Gig and whatever setting you record at , say 2 hour setting on an LVW 5005B and a Panasonic you would be recording at the same bitrate . The amount of data recorded would be the same so in all probability the quality of the recording would be exactly the same.
That said, feel free to join in Nostalgia :) , there are many recorders that have an HDD which would allow the user to edit recordings far more efficiently and more professionally than say my 5005B.

Choagy FFCUK The SPL :)

Some cheaper DVD recorders (like my Mico R311) don`t have RGB input. If recording from a digibox such as Sky, the quality won`t be as good as one which does have RGB input. Having said that, on my bog-standard TV the difference is not enough to worry me.

A cheap and cheerful player will usually have an inferior build quality to start with,but mostly it will simply be less fancy features,usually in the editing department.
Most cheapies use the DVD+ system which is easy to use but basic.
The dearer machines will use -RW and RAM,to offer very sophisticated editing.Personally,if you would want to use those features you are better off buying a recorder with added HDD to maximise recording capacity.
But it depends if your budget wants to stretch to £250-£300.
Argos have a recorder now for £79.99.Its probably crap,but I don`t doubt its excellent value

I`ve heard the Cyberhome 1600 can read DIVX discs, which adds some attraction to the machine. If you`re not interested in bells and whistles, the budget recorders are bargains. I have the older and clunkier Cyberhome 750 from ASDA and I`m happy with it even if I have to take some overheating precautions (specific to that model). I haven`t heard anything negative about the 1600 that I haven`t heard about models costing five times that.

However, if you want to be able to mess around with recordings after the event you might want to consider a top-of-the-range machine with a HDD. Personally I burn recordings to DVD+R (no farting around with +RW), then import them into MovieFactory 4 on my PC if I want to tart them up. I burn to a fresh DVD+R and hang on to the original recording as a backup.

J Mark Oates

I have a Cyberhome 1600 which is an interesting machine. Though billed as a DVD+r recorder it is in fact dual format and will quite hapilly use DVD-r discs as well. The record quality settings are slightly unusual at 60 mins in highest quality mode, 114mins in standard quality and 172 mins in long play (there is a longer mode but I haven`t used it. The remote is a bit small and the user interface a bit clunky but they do work.

The only downside with this machine, and this is common to many budget recorders (Goodmans, Alba etc) is that the power supply produces a lot of heat and there is no fan to dissapate it. As a recording proceeds therefore the heat can induce errors into the disc such as picture breakup and freezing. The floor of this machine is a heat sink and its essential that air can circulate freely through it. Don`t put it in an enclosed space and don`t set it on top of another machine if this runs warm. Personally I have put a small fan behind mine and this keeps it cool. The recording are then perfect.

PS. Its also very easy to hack for multi-region playback

This item was edited on Monday, 24th October 2005, 11:46

Though billed as a DVD+r recorder it is in fact dual format and will quite hapilly use DVD-r discs as well.

you mean it can record to -r as well ? if so thats an odd thing for them to omitt in the wright up :/ as it would be a good selling point.

Quote:
The capacity of a single layered DVD-R etc is 4.7 Gig and whatever setting you record at , say 2 hour setting on an LVW 5005B and a Panasonic you would be recording at the same bitrate . The amount of data recorded would be the same so in all probability the quality of the recording would be exactly the same.Sorry choagy but I don`t agree...
The newer Panasonics for example, record at twice the resolution of many recorders in LP mode.
Maybe an analogy could be digital cameras? Take two 4 mega pixel cameras for example.
Both take pictures that are 4MB in size but the difference in quality between budget models and higher end models can vary dramatically. With the amount of digital processing etc. that can happen now, the recorded DVD picture could vary in a similar way....

Also, it`s all well and good using DVD`s and then transferring to PC etc. for editing. Once you have a recorder with a HDD, to be honest, you`ll rarely use discs again...
You`ll do most of the editing on the HDD and just dub to disc..

Ste

This item was edited on Monday, 24th October 2005, 20:30

Yes it will write to both +r/rw and -r/rw. If it wasn`t for the heat problem it would be unbeatable for £85.

cool, can you confirm it can read divx ? if it can then it`s gotta be the bargain of the year :D

thanks in advance.