Cyberhome DVD/RW nightmare

Times are changing. I could never see Best Buy staying in business long with their horrible return policies, but they are popping up all over the place.

I downloaded the 1530 manual. The manual for the 1530 says that it will scan in speeds of 2,4,8,16,30 and 60 times with repeat presses of the fast forward button. Could someone check and report back?

Jeremy

 

After more than a month of trying to build a video workstation to transfer and edit VHS tapes to DVD, I am thinking of trying to use one of these recorders. I have 30 VHS tapes that have classes on them, these classes have been published as a book. The author wants to put them on DVD as either a replacement for the book or a supplement to it. Although I was discouraged with the quality and the out of sync audio I was basically able to do what I needed to do. That is edit the captures, make chapters and menus. This is important because the classes are independent standalone and the book will basically be available in video format. The book is a cook book, I want to have the recipes indexed, it takes two maybe 3 screens to display a recipe, it would be a next on screen one, next/previous if there is a middle page and a previous and back to home menu on the last screen.

Ok, now my question. I am thinking that if I capture what I need to a DVD, I can then edit them and make the final product from the computer. Basically using the recorder as a capture device. Has anyone done this, is it possible without loosing sync with the audio, which is the biggest problem with this kind of thing. Alternatively can you edit on the machine some how before you commit it to DVD, I suspect this would be difficult to do, but maybe with using a TV as a monitor it could be possible.

 

I edit on the computer all the time with the output from my Cyberhome 1500. The results are terrific. I trade a lot with others, and I get compliments on how my dvds with menus look. I generally use DVD Author, with other programs at times. It sounds like you have some very specific editing in mind. I have found that with a good quality video to start with, everything stays in synch and comes out well. For example, I have very few problems when I record from my digital cable. However, I trade a lot, and often receive VHS tapes that have been redubbed a few times. These are difficult to edit well, I've found. It has something to do with the fact that the synching signal on the VHS tape is not high enough quality to retain when recorded, or when recoded in DVDAuthor--again, this is usually on something that has gone through several generations. That is when the synching problems occur. There is no problem with first-generation video. By now, I can usually tell by sight if the video is sufficient quality to stay in synch after editing/recoding. On the poorer quality videos, I usually just copy the video to the hard drive and burn it directly from there with no further editing--it stays in synch that way. (That is, if I was able to get a good enough copy from the Cyberhome to start with.) I have the Cyberhome set to put automatic chapter stops on the video every 5 minutes when recording, so I retain these to be able to move around on the final disk. Again, the 1st generation videos come out perfectly. I've had to modify my original plan to "put everything on dvd"--some VHS just is not high enough quality to transfer effectively and error-free. At least, this is what I've found.

Jeremy

 

Slightly off subject,

I believe Pinnacle & some other software have filters to clean up the quality of analog video.

I'm curious if anyone uses any of these & what their experiences are.

 

Thanks Jeremy for the thoughful reply. I was hoping that would be the case, that really could get me almost all the way, the editing with Pinnacle is pretty straight forward.

Let me ask you couple additional questions. How much video you you try to put on the edit disc (that is the one you output on the 1500). If it is 2 hours on a DVD-R that would be about 50% compression, if that is the case is that what you put on the final DVD? The whole size thing is confusing, 100% DV will fill a 4.5GB disc with only 20 minutes of real time video. Meaning that to get 60 minutes on a video it is already compressed and 2 hours is compressed twice as much. It is all very confusing. With the output from my ATI card, if I tried to use the 120 mode, the output was horrible.

Can you stop the recording for sections you don't want to record? Can you stop the recording and change tape?

Thanks again for your help. I can't get out today to pick it up, but will tomorrow and probably work on it all day Sunday, I will post the results.

Thanks
Barry

 

Wow, I just noticed when use a link they use a redirector that lets them put in an ad, that is very icky.

Jeremy, what kind of trading. I use to do a lot of ROIO trading but not much any more. I would be interested in some older TV shows like Mash, Odd couple almost any good syndicated comedy show that is hard for someone without cable to get. Email me if you like barrym@tdstelme.net.

Thanks
Barry

 

Jeremy,

I am off to pick up the machine. I wonder if you could give me some tips on how to do this.

When I capture video, I am able to watch it and put breaks in as I go along, this allows me to edit them easily. Of course you can also put them in after. I am planning on recording at a very fast speed, which will yield about 1 hour of A/V for a 4.5GB disc. Then edit it and probably combine with other clips to make the final production product. I already know that I will have to break up the content because a topic is started and then finish later. How would you handle that, would you just stop the record and then continue and handle it in the edit? Any hints would be greats.

Thanks
Barry

 

I'll try to answer some. The standard recording mode for DVD is 2 hours, so if you are only getting 60 minutes, you are perhaps in some high quality mode. The recording speed doesn't matter on the Cyberhome as far as their ability to be edited on the computer (with the exception that I have not yet had good results transferring the HQ mode to the computer). I use DVDSHRINK only when the recording goes over 2 hours and I don't want to reduce the quality to the 3-hour mode. (The 3-hour mode really isn't bad, and I find myself using this more and more.) However, shrinking this way produces dvds that are near-standard quality.

I try to put each uninterrupted session on a separate dvd when recording. I only put one recording on a DVD-RW because this makes editing on the computer much easier. Multiple recordings on a single dvd just don't transfer well into DVDShrink or DVDAuthor--I think that's because they are expecting dvd-r's, not dvd+rw's--the formatting is different.

I hope this answers a few of your questions.

Jeremy

 

Hello Jermemy,

The concept is the same I bought a Panasonic, basically because I have other Panasonic equipment that I have had great luck with and it has the ability to record both DVD-RAM and DVD-R(which seems to be more common). The results are terrific, so much better than the 3 capture devices I have tried. I am able to bring those on to the computer in very high quality with a couple of programs like DVD Authoring and Mpeg Wizard but I can't get them to import into Pinnacle Studio 8, that I really like for editing. I do more powere than the other programs offer. I am almost finished downloading Ulead, that may do it. I hope so because it is a 102mB download and with my dial up it has taken most of the day to download, almost finished. I am almost all the way to where I need to get, I should know in the next couple of hours.

Thanks Again for your help,
Barry

 

Thanks for the link to return this POS...I don't recall ever owning anything as flakey as this POS. I am gonna return it, get the new one, put it up on ebay, and get whatever I can from it and buy from a REAL manufaturer. I can honestly say that I had no part in the purchase of this POS, my wife bought it and I almost warmed up to the thing until we actually started using....No..No...TRIED using the thing for Recording to disks other than cyberhome CDRW's that came with it....Then all the other problems arrose...Now the POS won't even power on...I am so disgusted with this thing...And the support does not exactly sugarcoat things does it?? I can't believe people are actually still buying these worthless things.

Let me tell ya...If you just did a GOOGLE Search "AS I DID" and came accross this post within this thread and you are contemplating buying a CYBERHOME POS DVD-Recorder SHOP ELSEWHERE...DO NOT BUY THIS POS unless you are in need of mysery, and you like sending and recieving shit in the mail...Cuz this thing is gonna be in the mail system longer than it will ever stay in your entertainment rack...HAHAHA...


BRAD

 

I too qualify for a replacement or repair. I would like to know if anyone chose the 1530 model. Looking at the comparisons it lacks allot of the editing features the 1500 has. You can only delete the last title etc..But I'm afraid I'll continue to run into problems with the 1500 even after it's repaired. It had a lot of quarks i.e. locks up when doing a channel scan. Again I would really miss the extra recording features of the 1500 but is the 1530 a superior product being so new and all? Please Advise Thanks

 

I haven't heard of anyone else being as foolish as me - paying to have the 2500 unit repaired just before the offer of free repair. I have had no luck in getting Cyberhome to re-imburse the 89.95 that I paid. They just keep offering repair or replace and even mailed me a shipping label in response to my question of reimbursement. I guess it is easy to repair a unit that has just been repaired! Anyone else in this situation?

 

beggnstp,
I received the 1530 model several weeks ago. I do miss some of the features but it has worked OK so far. My biggest problem with my old model was that any disks created with it would not play in my computer drive (I tried 4 different drive manufacturers). I just locked up the computer. Secondly, disks created on my computer would not play in the Cyberhome if any of the titles exceeded 18 minutes. The company blamed it on my authoring software...I tried both Roxio and Showbiz. Both of these problems are resolved with the new model.

Bottom line...make the exchange. The old model just had too many inherent problems and I don't think a repair will help. One other positive with the new model--changing title names is much faster using a new onscreen "keyboard" vs. the old way of scrolling through every letter and number to finally find the one you wanted.

 

I shipped my POS back too. Just wondering, how long did it take for your new unit to arrive? I shipped mine off about a week ago. Also, did you get any notification that your old unit had been received by Cyberhome, or is it a wait and see game?

 

I've had a Cyberhome CH-DVR 1500 since last Christmas, and had to return the first one within a few weeks, but the second one has worked fairly well, but when I get a power outage, it's difficult to get it to work. Lots of unplugging, switching on and off, etc.

I went to the Cyberhome website to download the firmware upgrades, but they are apparently not available any longer since they are doing a free upgrade/repair. Anyone out there have those zip files? Thanks!

 

khanawalt,
Sorry to say I don't have the files, but I'd suggest calling CyberHome and maybe they can email it to you. Don't know if you've already tried that or not!

 

The downloads are still on the Cyberhome site:

http://www.cyberhome.com/downloads.asp?Product=1500

Kurt, very happy user of Cyberhome 1500.

 

I've been trying to download them from that site all afternoon, and it comes up with a non-existent webpage message.

 

I just downloaded them with no problem.
I could e-mail them to you if you want.
But there should be no problem for anyone to just download them.
Kurt

 

I like this machine... it works poerfectly. I can use everykidn of disk except for khpermedia disks. You seem to opnly poraise sexpensive pice of crap dvd recorders from the name brands, rthATS DUMB. Another dvd recorder that works with khypermedia disks is coby r1100 dvd recorder, an excellent recorder almost better than this one. Consider buyibng only dvd+rws for cheap because of the reusablility. Amazon has them for sale @$14.99 for a 25 pack of memorex's or $9.99 for a 25 pack of dvd+rw's . I won't buy from this site because of their fraudulent prqctices of raising the price outrageouly on the radius technology 25 pack dvd+rws from $12.99 per 25 pack to $59.99 per 25 pack this afternoon, to $89.99 per 25 pack this night, Wonder if it will be sold out or go $299 for a 25 pack tomorrow...