Any opinions on the Sharp DV-HR300?

talulah Youre right....very unlikely..
Sharp will move foward and so will the technology. I know that this lil gem will need to be replaced with an upgraded version someday soon, but hey it will still serve as a DV recorder for tv programs.
cheers, Manny

 

Hi talulah

Your making a very common error with disk speed , the drive does not support 48x speed disks but can copy at 48 times the video speed.
If , for example, you can put one hour of video on a dvd with a normal compression. If you compress, lower the quality, 8 times more on your HD you can copy 8 hours of video in 1 hour at normal DVDrecorder speed or 16 hours of video at double DVDrecorder speed.
So in that case you can copy at 16x
With a 3x speed DVD recorder and a compression of 16 times you can copy at 48x speed

 

Dillenger, that's a good point, but the menu system in the '400H when you dub asks you whether you want to use 48x (but admits there may be some problems) 12x, or rate conversion (1x) after you have selected the compression ratio. The '300H doesn't ask that because it can't support the faster discs. My 8x disks work fine in the '400H, but I used 2x when I had the '300H.

 

Hi Dillenger,
I've seen you know many thing about this recorder. I just have one very comon question : i try to find an update for my 400f unit, mainly for clock/timer correction. Is there any sw available on the net (I have seen an update for S version, may not be suitable...).
Thanks in advance.
Dal

 

The newer DV-HR400 does also have the timer/clock bug ??? This is indecrible if they haven't fixed it since the 300 models !

 

Erikk, I'm not sure whether the '400 has the timer bug - I don't use the timer since I've got Sky+, but if you *really* want to know I can test it and tell you.

 

Hi daleroux

As far as i know there is no timer bug on the 400 , there is an update for the S version but that does only correct some language errors.
Most timerproblems are made by the user himself , incorrect use of pdc/vps and forgetting that takes time for the recorder to start up.
But the 400 is not sold in my region so i don't really know much about it.

For the people who still don't know about the -RW support of the 300/350.
It does only support 1 and 2 speed DVD-RW and those disk must have version number 1.1 , higer speed DVD-RW's does not have version number 1.1
But it does support DVD-R with a higer speed (4x, 8x) but it will use them at 2x speed maximum.
There will alway's be brands of DVD disks that are not compatible,
same as on your PC, but most brands are fully compatible

--

 

Two questions to this community:

Can I remotely control the 350 for recording from a settop box or a DVB-T receiver, and if so, how can this be done? There was an article in July stating that this is possible but I could not set it up.

I have burned my first DVD-R and DVD-RW (VR) and used "fit to DVD" mode. Unfortunately, neither of them could be played in any of my three other DVD player. What do I have to consider to have "compatible" DVDs ?

Thanks for any help.
Dirk

 

Hi Dillenger
You are perfetly right, my recorder is a 300f... The question remains however, can do an update by myself (as for S version).
Thanks to all.
Dal.

 

DirkBe
Maybe it's a stupid question, but did you make sure you "finalized" the DVD-R /DVD-RW discs before you tried them in your other three DVD players? Un- finalized discs recorded on the Sharp will play back on the Sharp but won't be playable on other DVD players until they are finalized.
Cheers Silver

 

Hi Silver ole buddy nice to hear from you. Hope everything is well.
In regards to the "No playback on the other 3 machines" I too was going to ask the member about finalizing..Since the unfinalized disc will playback on the Sharp it sometimes fools the user in removing it without finalizing. An easy mistake to make. Other than that I haven't heard of any discs burned with the Sharp not playing in another machine..except of course for the extremely cheap brands which I myself came across when wanting to put one in my young niece's room.
As fars as the method of burning, that should not have any bearing on its playback in other machines.
In any case hope you figure it out. cheers,
Manny

 

hi everyone
I have a problem with my HR300H.
Sometimes when I set the timer then put the unit into standby the timer turns off. This is a problem when I set more than one prog to record. On occasions it will only record some of the prog before turning the timer off.
I think this was touched on briefly in an earlier post. Wondered if more people had experienced this problem and maybe overcome it.
Thanks
Andy

 

Hi Andypanny,

The problem you are mentionning looks very similar to the timer bug I had before a firmware upgrade, although I had the HR300F version.

Very often some of the programs did not record, and after lots of observations and experimenting, I found out that when the Sharp shuts down automatically because it's been idleing for 3 hours, sometimes it turns off the timer also (timer light goes off).
There is an option in the Sharp to specify that you don't want it to turn off automatically. I used that option, but it seems like it applies only when the Sharp is not in timer mode. When in timer mode, it seems like the Sharp will always shutdown after 3 hours of inactivity.
The workaround I was using was to never have 3 hours or more between 2 consecutive programs. So if you have a program that ends 5 hours for example before the next one starts, then just program another dummy program for example in betwen. The idea is to prevent the Sharp from automatically turns off.

I don't have this problem anymore after the shop where I bought the machine upgraded the firmware.

 

Thanks Erikk

tried sharp website (uk)
but we don't appear to have any firmware updates.
Us brits always seem to lose out!!!!
Well I will just have to put up with the niggling problem.
Thanks again.

Andy

 

Andypanny,

I'm not surprised they don't put the firmware on their website. On the French site, they don't either and they don't mention it exists either. And their hotline is not aware of it. At that time, I called their repair center in France, and there they told me there exists many firmwares, but that you cannot perform the update yourself, the unit must be sent back to them instead. Well I did not believe them and waited, and one day the shop where I bougt the unit sent me a letter telling me to bring it back and a guy in the shop did the update with a Sharp CD in front of me. And of course it's something you can do yourself.

So maybe you could send them an email or write a letter to them demanding that they send you a CD, insisting they have to.

 

A new firmware version for the 300/350 seems to be available
on the german sharp site. (sharp.de)
It's version 0123

I have no idea what the changes are.
only for the "S" version !!

 

Hi Dillenger,

As far as my limited knowledge of German can tell, the site briefly mentions timer problems:

"Geben Sie Ihr Gerät mit der Angabe auf fehlerhaftes Verhalten bei Timer-Steuerung an Ihren Vertragspartner (Handelshaus, bei dem Sie das Gerät erworben haben) zurück."

So it looks like the new version mainly solves timer-problems. Which ones exactly is not explained...

D0rian

 

I Don't know D0rian
my german is not that bad and it only say's :
"Dieses Update dient der Verbesserung einiger Funktionalitäten"
or ..
"This update will improve some functions"

The tuner software, where also the timer is located, will be updated to version 1.94 (or 2.20, see a previous message on this treath),and that's the same as the old update.
Only the digital part will be updated to version 123, the previous update was version 120.

 

Hi Dillinger,
you are no doubt very knowledgeable about our Sharps. Could you possibly explain the features of the "Direct REC TV" button hidden under the cover of the remote ? According to the User Manual (as I understand it) the activation of this push button wil start recording of the program you're actually watching. My 300S unit does not respond to this button (apart from this I love my Sharp).

Cheers Stovdal

 

Dillenger,

To know how to update the firmware on your sharp please read my post on page 17 I think on this thread. You will find step by step instructions on how to do it. I already updated my Sharp but I cannot see any difference from before.
By the way the Direct rec buton does not function on my Sharp with scart cable plugged in.

Hope that this helps.