Any opinions on the Sharp DV-HR300?

I agree. The unit should work the same across the board. I may want another unit, or recommend it to my friends and I would want every function to work consistantly if not perfectly. The truth is though that there is no way to really tell how pervasive the timer issue is, since I'm guessing that it is a very small section of users that will ever use the internal tuner. The vast majority will be using a satellite, or digital cable box, or simply dubbing tapes.
If Sharp doesn't correct any timer issues there may be, it would likely be because they will not get enough reports to make a difference.

 

Good point, BayuTiger. But I can see many wanting to record several TV shows that are naturally airing on different channels, then this feature would be highly desired. Although most cable boxes will also allow multiple channels to be programmed for recording as well. Here my technique of leaving it on 4 works very well. But as we said, many consumers will want the product to be perfect in every way.
Since this is a very new technology made now for home use, there will undoubtedly be many shortcummings in many if not all of the recorders out there. The same happened many years ago when VCRS first hit the market. As with any new technology... things can go wrong and will. But if the whole thing stops working as with my one year $1.000.00 old Philips then something is terribly wrong.

 

Hi all,new to this forum,and joining this thread kind of late,hopfully someone can help. I am considering the Sharp DV HR300.I want to use and control it with a Hughes Direct tv receiver. I saw in the specs that the Sharp has a feature called "Auto AV record" . Would this by chance be a mode that allows the Sharp to be turned on in record mode when its video input goes hot when the Direct TV receiver turns on via its own timer? That is how I am currently controlling my VHS which is a JVC that has a mode called "record link" that allows it to do that, eliminating having to set any timer in the recorder. I only need to set timer in the receiver,which when it turns on,then turns on the recorder,which only needs to be set to local video input. Can the Sharp work this way? Or is there any other way to control record mode from Sat receiver.? Anyone here have a manual and can check if that is what the "Auto AV Record" feature is?? Thanks

 

MarkGil,
That's exactly what AV Autorec does. I tested it on my unit and it seems to work fine. You just connect the satellite receiver (in my case an older Sony SAT-B5 cheapie) to Input 1 and set the Sharp to In1 and set your speed, and power off. While powered off, hit AV Auto Rec on the remote for 2 seconds and whenever it receives a video signal from the Sat on In1 it powers up and recored. It does take it about a minute to spin up and record so you may want to set up your timer accordingly. It stops recording when it loses signal and will start again when the sat powers up again.

 

Bayutiger..THANKS! Thats exactly the feature I need,glad to hear it has it. Was originally looking at the Panasonic E55 RAM unit,without an HDD,great unit,RAM makes it flexible,really wanted one,but best I can tell has no such auto record feature,so cant use it. But since I discovered the Sharp with an HDD for only a bit more money,no need for RAM. Can always bump my sat start times up a minute to compensate for the boot time of the Sharp. Thanks again for info!! * Mark

 

Just thought of another question regarding the "auto AV record" function: When it is recording in this mode onto HDD,are time slip and chase play still fully functional?? *Mark

 

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Sorry, been away a bit. I really don't use the time shift or AV auto, but I did a test with both and found that the Chase play works fine in AV Auto. Timeshift doesn't work in AV Auto mode, but it works fine in just viewing. Here's the rundown on how both work:
Time Shift: When watching live TV. Hit Time Shift and the recorder immediately starts recording and pauses the live display. You can then pick up and play whenever. When you hit Time Shift or Stop the recording is deleted.
Chase: Just hit play during a recording and you will play from the start. Recording continues as expected. There is a separate Stop/Live button and Rec Stop button so recording stops only when stopped with Rec Stop button. You can play anything on the HD or a DVD while recording, however when your video on Input 1 stops the unit will shut down(if using AV Auto Record).

To me it just works as expected. It is pretty well outlined in the manual. Alot of people have said that the manual is bad on this unit, but I find that it has everything and is pretty easy to find what you need.

 

I would still have to say that TIVO is much preferable for recording if you have DirecTV. Then use the Sharp as a VCR to record off the TIVO. I love my Sharp DVR, but I would never want to give up the integration of DirecTV and TIVO. Only downside to the TIVO is that I have no idea of anything new on TV, since my season passes and wishlists take up more time that I have (and it's not football season yet)

 

Thanks for great info on the Sharp,looks like the one I will probably pull the trigger on. Considered TIVO but just didnt want to take on another subscription fee,and decided a DVD recorder would be the best way for me . I mostly record the same channel/time slots every week,and occasional NHRA Drag Racing. Want to start recording live concerts and edit out commercials and tunes I dont like,then burn to DVD. Hope to get a good DVD collection of live music going. Thanks again!

 

hi guys, may i know if DV-HR300 allows Mp3 and Jpg Files to be stored in the hdd, and if they can be sent by firewire from the laptop? and also can we copy a vcd file into the HDD. this is a great machine. thanks...... =p

 

Hi all, recorded over 125 dvd's and still loving this machine. Works like a champ. Question... Anyone have any problems with the thumbnails not showing up on a recorded dvd? This is a minor ?, but was just wondering if anyone has experienced this. Also FYI, it seems that with the dubbing feature you can only dub a max of 5 programs at a time? So I dubbed 5, then another 5 before finalizing. Works great. Don

 

Yes, me too, I thought I read on an earlier post that only if it was in the High Speed Mode will it record the assigned thumbnails. As it is, it will record the very first frame in each clip..if it starts with one that is. Don2Blues, Im like you, Ive burned over 200 titles and still counting, not so much as a hickup from this sweet lil gem. Yeah the thumbnail thing would have been nice but hey its the burning and playback capabilities that we really need. And so far no problems. I love this baby.

 

As far as the earlier question about jpegs and mp3s, no I'm afraid not. It doesnt like jpegs or mp3s Maybe available in a later model.

 

does this recorder allow duplication of original DVDs that are copyright protected? thanks.....

 

That would depend on the DVD. If it has a copy-protection it will not be able to copy. I've tested a few and found surprizingly a few that don't have this security. One such DVD is Black Scorpion the series. It shouldn't really surprize us though since its a Roger Corman production The test I did however was with a second player and not using the DVD portion of this unit. I will have to give it a shot.

 

Hello all, I have two questions. First I'm approaching 200 discs burned and loving this machine. First Question, anyone notice on a burned disc what I call the "Godzilla Affect", meaning the voice not quite matching the mouth movements. Second question, is there any loss in quality when burning to the hard drive at a manual recording speed (i.e. MN-14) then hi-speed burning to dvd versus burning to the hard drive at SP mode then burning to disc at the same MN-14 speed for example. What I'm getting at is if a program is 3 hours in length, do you get any benefit burning to the hard drive in the SP mode then at the manual mode to disc versus if you know the length of the program in question and burning at that manual recording speed to hard drive to begin with to take advantage of the hi-speed recording feature. Thanks, Don

 

Hey Don2Blues, nice to hear from you again. First off, I record all my video footage in SP mode and don't recompress to a lower resolution hardly ever. So I haven't seen the "Godzilla effect" in my reproductions. I'm thinking that if you recompress from higher resolutions to lower resolutions that this might happen. As I said though, I haven't seen any time-base issues in my recordings, the voice has been right on. It really depends on the footage as well. If youre dubbing from, lets say something recorded in LP "VHS" and then dub it to a higher compression such as digital "SP" this might also cause time-base issues and voices not matching up. It's a good idea to record everything of personal value, such as home movies and one time events in the best and highest format setting you can go. Not quite sure if this is what's happening in your case but it is good stuff to know just the same.
In regards to your second question, I would say that if you know youre going to record something in the lower or "manual setting" because length, do it right from the start. Anytime you recompress from one setting to another, youre bound to lose something in quality.
On the other, once recorded you can't make your master recording any better. If it was me, I would record even the longer shows in the best possible quality right from the start"SP". That way I can decide later whether to use a manual setting when dubbing it to disc. You can always go down in quality but never back up if your master recording was made in the lower settings. This I got from being a TV cameraman for 5 years. The key in video is "quality in = quality out" The ideal setting for this machine is SP, everything seems to function better in that setting. Not to say that the other settings are not adequate, I'm just saying that less video and audio issues may arise when recording in the optimum setting.
Just my 2 cents... MannyCAM

 

"does this recorder allow duplication of original DVDs that are copyright protected? thanks....."

Just what I thought 99Rocky99, no, you can't record from a finalized disc period. You would need to reord from a separate dvd deck. But ...you would of course go down in video quality when dubbing to hard disc from the DVD deck because of the use of analog video cables. If you had a deck with a firewire output....