DVDR Question, both specific and non-specific: This is my second foray into DVDR recording. I had a unit from WalMart last year for about three days. (Yes, the lowest-priced unit. But when I started into stereo decades ago and into VCR-ing twenty years ago, I didn't buy the best at the start, and they did work as promised.) I got some home movie VHS stuff onto DVDs, which was highly important in light of my most recent learning experience. Then I tried going at some of my favorite VHS movies, the vast majority of which were recorded off of cable or network. About half the time, the unit would tell me that it was a copy-protected tape and couldn't be recorded. (They weren't.) The other problem was that the acceptance and formatting of a disk was hit or miss. (i.e. It would "hit" the final steps and be accepted or it would crap out and I'd "miss" the cost of the disk. I returned the unit to WalMart and gave up DVD recording for then. Last week, I got the bug again and I have the time to do the clock-watching while transferring stuff from VHS to DVD. Following a well-known pattern, I happened in WalMart and bought their $98.74 iLO DVDR05 (MU) unit (…one I have since learned is really a Cyberhome 1600). Déjà vu. I knew I wasn't getting a superb unit, but I assumed, like most other electronics that I had purchased, that I would just be missing bells and whistles, not basic functionality and blank disk money. I had a basic job to do -- convert many old VHS tapes to smaller, more functional DVD disks. Didn't care about editing or anything else. Any recorder can do that, right? So I'm naïve. The blank Maxell disks I got at WalMart with the unit did not want to format. I pulled out the remaining blank disks from last year, a CompUSA branded disk. Format. Format. Reject. Format. Reject. I was in staples and got some HP disks. Format. Format. Reject. Format. Yes, they're + disks. No, none of them were on the brand list recommended by the iLO site. Okay, I can accept that I'll have higher wastage in disks. I start trying to dub over my VHS tapes -- recorded off of broadcast. About every fourth or fifth one either messages copy protected or else gets to the end of the movie THEN says "Disk Error -- OK". (Well, no damn it, it isn't "OK". Maybe the button should say, "Sorry. We bad. Can we just move on?") Of course during this process, I suddenly learn why I should have, long ago, taped all of those old movies in HP instead SP or SLP (or whatever). I remember them saying, at the time, that the recordings will be higher quality if you do. But I don't remember them saying that if you want to see them in color or hear them or see clean shapes instead of ghostly images ten years later, then you should tape in highest quality speeds. My bad. My cheap. (That's not news!) So, now that you've seen the iceberg's top 10% of my tale of woe, here's the questions: 1. Are all DVD recorders cranky, to some degree, about blank disks? 2. Would all of my problems (except for really bad, old VHS tapes) probably be solved by paying $200 for a different unit? 3. Once a disk has been rejected as formatting error, is it trash? 4. The color is flatter when I'm seeing the DVD recording image on my TV screen than when playing the tape without the DVD in the loop. I'm using the RCA cables all the way up the chain. Is there a better way? 5. Rather than taking this unit back to WalMart too, should I keep it because it's as good as they are for a reasonable price? And it should do great work from this point forward recording things off of network/cable. And it's probably more worthwhile than the VCR going forward. I'm really not that cheap. I probably would not be looking for any fixes or advice if the advertising had just said things like: "Often formats blank disks!" "Sometimes records things as you expect!" "Occasionally copies older video that don't really have copy protection!" Thanks for your thoughts anyone. DazeYaVoo
No, ILO 05 is the worst of the worst. Take it back and get something else entirely or get your money back. I have a hacked ILO 04 and not a single problem with it, but the ILO 05 is nothing but trash.
[ DazeYaVoo ] I have an ilo RHD04 Almost a year. I thas been, with some quirks, a very good machiine. [Again some quirks] I also have a ilo 05MU About 2 months.[Note the MU, this is not a ZU] This unit has surprised me. It records and plays very well. It will play anyanything, I haven't been able to get a bagel in it yet. The edit is good. It's format on a +RW disk is reognized by some 8 players Ive tried them in It would seem to be a very good unit. Dollar for dollar it would be hard to beat. THE 05 CAN NOT BE HACKED You mention Dubing VHS to DVD. If the tapes are commercial and many off air ones will have a form of copy prtection, Macrovision, If this is so You will need a stand alone recorder that can be hacked. to defeat it. Most LiteON/ilo products can be hacked, its very easy, the ilo 04 is a liteOn unit but discontinued by WalMat in its store's. The il0 RHD04 with 80 gb HDD, is/was availible in their on line store. However the LIteOn units are very good, can be and are non compliant. If you do not have need for this. I would not hesitate to to get the 05 [THE MU MODEL] its on the label on the box 1 Can be 2 Not realy 3 Depends on what has been done. [I use +RW disks that can be reused] 4 I use RCA. Color is fine. If the recording is ok don't worry abut it 5 Not an MU [exchange it] If MU give it a try. What's cheap, If an item costs less and doed the job Why buy somthing for 3 times the ammount. Remember what I said abuut copy protection and a hack
Okay, here's more of my experience with the DVDR05-MU…. After a week, I've learned a few things that might be helpful to others or to contribute to the ad hoc experiential database. I also have another question or two, dumb or not. First the question: I seem to remember that working with CD-RW disks, that I can not finalize them to work on player-only units. But I've read on this (very helpful) board someone mentioning finalizing a DVD+RW to read on regular players. Save me blowing a disk trying and tell me, does it work with DVDs? (That would be handy because of their flexibility compared to write-once and you've done it sucker DVD+R disks. ) Another question: I noticed when dubbing a VHS set of episodes onto DVD+R (which apparently cannot access the delete A-B capability) that the pause-record-pause had anywhere from nearly instantaneous to five seconds of delay after pressing the button. Starting from scratch with a recording took about 8 seconds before it showed "recording." Is this typical? (Makes it hard to sync, fersure.) As to my experiences now, after a little over a week: No more "coasters." I have had no further problems, after the first two days, with bad formats/rejected disks. Using the same H-P and CompUSA DVD+R and Sony and Memorex DVD+RW, every one has formatted fine. Concurrent with that fact though, is that I've stopped formatting disks after six hours of recording. I only format now with a cold unit. (Based on what else I've read here, there seems to be a connection….) From my formatting experiences thus far: DVD+R Maxell, no. H-P, yes. CompUSA, yes. DVD+RW Memorex, yes Sony, yes Compatibility: I haven't tried every finalized DVD+R disk (25 and counting) in every DVD-capable player I have (Dell Dimension 3000 desktop, Dell Inspiron 1100 laptop, Norcent DVD player). But I have regularly popped them in other units to check and have not yet had a non-play. Durability: I read on another message on this board that DVDRs aren't durable for long-term heavy-duty usage. Coincidentally, I had already decided to keep my old Norcent player because the remote is soooo much easier to use than the iLO remote. So I guess this may not be a problem for me. Timer recordings: Have done it a few times so far, with no errors either in the programming or the execution of my timer instructions. Just as easy as doing the old VCR. Coasters with movies on them: My copying of VHS to DVD+R went on all last weekend, about 12 hours per day. Observations: No problems transferring video (quality aside) for the 12 hours, but as noted above, I did all formatting ahead of time on a cold unit. As for the quality, well, once again I pay for being foolish enough to put three movies on all those VHS tapes. The couple of HQ tapes I had still maintained decent (not great) quality. The others were so short of watchability quotient that I tossed about most of them instead of trying to transfer. I should note that I had already purchased most of my classic favorites on retail DVDs. What I was trying to transfer were some titles not available on DVD (yet, if ever): Julia Ormond's debut in "Young Catherine", "French Postcards", "The Fountainhead", etc. Well, they're watchable, but it's not fun. Aside from the poorer quality of the tape rate, they're 5-20 years old, and there's apparently some kind of copy protection even from TV/cable-recorded stuff that appears when an RCA-cable transfer is made. I don't know. I also noted (for future DVD recording reference) that I must have had about 100 VHS movies that I watched originally and recorded, and then subsequently have not touched in 10-15 years! The transfers did improve slightly when I discovered the contrast and saturation controls on the DVDR -- and could see onscreen, while the tape was running, but before DVDing, what the effects of those adjustments might be. My fiancée tells me that I work myself over too hard when buying something like $98 DVDR. I can afford it. I can afford more. I just don't want to pay more if I don't have to just to do what I do. Or if the greater expense doesn't give me commensurate greater reliability. I'm not cheap. I spend on vacations ( and she sees the benefits there!). So, the bottom line is that I guess I'll keep this unit -- or at least until it starts glitching (again) within the next 70 days! Greatest success this week: Transferring seven episodes, one by one, of an hour-long TV series (which shall go un-named), with live editing-out of stupid scenes, onto one 4-hour DVD+R. I just knew the recorder would be flying across the room at the end when I was finished, asked it to finalize, and it would come back with "Error - OK?" But it didn't. My hours in front of the TV for this one disk were not wasted. My thoughts and philosophy so far (take it for what you will, it's just IMHO): 1. Don't buy this unit (or maybe any) with the thought of transferring all of those old VHS, low-quality tapes onto DVD. It's not worth the trouble except maybe, maybe for a few that aren't, or never will be, available on DVD. 2. Do buy this unit, or some other unit, if you think you'll be recording stuff today and tomorrow, that you'll want to see again in 20 years. VHS tapes, even the pre-recorded ones, just won't cut it after enough time sitting around in our magnetic fluxed-up world. I'm assuming the digital versions we're making on these DVDs will be the same quality in 2025 as they are now. (Providing we have a player that will play them back!) 3. Re copy protection, I'm not concerned about recording movies off of the air/cable. The one I tried off of TCM came out fine. A few months ago, I gave up HBO/SHO in favor of BlockBuster OnLine and am fine with that. I'm less concerned about recording movies off of pay cable now because I like all the extras that come on DVD versions of movies that I want to keep in my library. On sale, you can (eventually) get anything you want for $5.50 to $13 anyhow. 4. Thanks so much for this forum and everyone providing info. I've learned a lot and gotten a lot of good thoughts (and entertaining moments) and ideas about DVD recording. Continuing to read the long DVDR05 thread has given me another idea that I've got to go try this afternoon! DazeYaVoo
Was wondering about finalizing DVD+RW's ... in last post. There is no finalize available with DVD+RW ... but apparently because there's no need. Maybe they automatically finalize at every writing, even though it can be overwritten. Made a couple of movies on them tonight, took them out and they played normally on both my DVD player and on my computer DVD drive. Neat! (Not to mention handy!) If the per-disk costs are close enough, why would anyone want to use DVD+R disks instead +RW disks, which you can re-use, do A-B erases, etc.?
AS long as it works for you that's all that counts. Just remember what I said about the 05 and copy protection and that goes for CPRM flags on any movies especially pay for view The 05 I'm using works just fine. You dont finalize +RW disks to play on other units [they play] only +R disks
Final Report on the Wal*Mart ILO DVDR05: In spite of my earlier adjustments (reported here) to this recorder, things have not worked out between the ILO and me. It was kind of like learning the quirks of a new girlfriend or wife. In this case, the relationship has failed. Overall, I was very happy with the results of using RW disks and recording things like movies and football games. Seemed to be no problems there. As for R-only disks, as long as I was there to replace "denials," all seemed to be okay. Meaning that I pre-formatted disks and they were acceptable to the unit. But if I put an acceptably-formatted, unwritten disk in the machine and set up a timed recording, 9 times out of 10, it would reject the disk at the start of the timer session. On the plus side, the machine would prompt for a replacement disk and then accept it and start the recording. But that only works fine if you've started the timer two minutes before your program begins AND you're sitting there waiting with a fresh disk in case it rejects. Okay, I was gonna live with all that, and occasionally having a brand(s) or disk(s) that it didn't want to format. However, the final straw was when she didn't want me to have a bowling night with the guys ... ahh ... I mean when it simply passed out on me. Two weeks ago -- I forgot what I was doing with it at the time; I think it had probably glitched and I was attempting to eject -- it just died. Powered off. Okay. Been there, done that. I unplugged the power and waited a while. Plugged it back in. Nothing. Tried the manual. Nada. Unplugged for a day and re-powered. Nothing. I could not get the unit to come back on. Case closed. Too quirky for me. At least I got all 25 or 30 of the VHS tapes converted that I wanted to do. I took the 45-day-old unit back, waited in a post-Christmas return line (which amazingly went quickly), barely got my explanation out before I had the credit card credit slip in my hand. But I still wanted a DVD-R in the house. I just semi-retired and needed a fresh toy. So I got a Lite-On SHW 1635SX external DVD-RW drive at Circuit City for $69.95 (after rebates). Also downloaded DVDshrink from this site. I HAVE NOT HAD A SINGLE PROBLEM with anything I've tried to do with this new unit. Data disks, DVD back-ups, whatever. I had gotten an external 80GB hard drive last year and realized after buying this DVD-RW that I might just be duplicating a lot of the functionality of that unit (giant data back-ups etc.). But I HAD to have a new toy. And I've found that there's a lot of functionality to the unit, and payback for the bucks spent, beyond what I'd expected. So, divorce papers to the ILO unit -- with NO ALIMONY! And welcome to the Lite-On external -- we're a happy couple! PostScript: Now I just need to figure out how to get VHS tape/non-digital cable broadcast into the external DVD-RW to record onto DVD. Would one of those little gadgets that look like a flattened funnel, with RCA inputs at one end do the trick? And does it come with the necessary software?
