Hi, New to DVD recorders, I question is concerning DVD recoders that do not have a hard drive. I wanted to know if I record a show onto a DVD, can I watch that show and then record another show on the same DVD (I guess if this is possible it will only be on the RW series). Basically I want to be able to record ie Prison Break, watch it later on and then use the same DVD again to record another episode. Much like a VCR is capable of............
The short answer is Yes. I have a VCR/DVD combo player. Put in a new disk and record an hour program. There is more room on the disk, ie. 2 hour recording mode selected. Watch program. Come back later and add more to disk. Once the disk has been FINALIZED nothing more can be added later. +/- R disks can be used once. +/- RW disks can be used over again. I can watch the disk whether it has been finalized or not in my combo player. The disk must be finalized to watch in another player. Once finalized a +/- R disk can not be recorded on again. RW disks can be unfinalized, erased, and reused. How many times will depend upon the quality of the disk. This should be pretty much standard practice to most recorders and will be covered (in boring detail) in your owner's manual.
Thanks for the reply. One more quick question though. How many hours can you record on a standard DVD disk at slowest recording speed.
Depends on your machine. Mine will record 1, 2, or 4 hours on one 4.7 gig DVD. I found that the 4 hour speed looked real bad. Blurry and/or pixelated. The 1 or 2 hour speed looks great. Try an RW disk to experiment on at first. Mistakes won't cost you a disk that way until you are sure of what you want. Your machine might even work ok at the 4 hour speed. I use mine as another VCR so I can disk on one machine and tape on another at the same time. Never anything worth watching on TV unless there are two shows on at the same time.
