WEll I've asked my fair share of questions round here. Always gotten answers. Here's my turn to give back. I wrote this for another forum so at one point it may sound a little wired, but it is a ll prevelant to this here forum. Please, enjoy. "Here we can discuss almost anything that deals with recording from an analogue source. Capture cards, PMP's, and everything in between is acceptable. I'll give a review on how I do it. It is better than a PMP or something of the like, but I don't believe it to be quite capture card quality. For the price, it really shouldn't. I recently purchased a Sony VRD-VC20. My DVD Rom bit the dust and was in need of something to rip and burn DVD's with. Well this caught my eye because it also have a nice little feature of being able to burn a DVD directly from an analogue source. It took me 3 DVD's to figure it out (it's not really that hard I was just tired) and I finally have my first TV recording. The Sony runs for about $200 I believe. No bad at all considering it's an external CD/DVD reader/burner, along with recording capabilities. The only thing this can't do is "LightScribe" which isn't a big issue for me. I buy all my DVD blanks from Costco cause they are cheap there and they don't sell LightScribe DVD's. I know this isn't a DVD Rom forum but this will give you a good idea of an alternative to recording video for those of you in need of a recording option. Be it the PMP you're thinking about buying doesn't have the function or doesn't do it well, this will give you a good idea of an excellent alternative. Build Quality: Built pretty well. It's Sony and they don't have a name for no reason. It feels solid. Nice rubber nodules on the bottom to keep it from sliding, nice scratch resistant plastic tray for your DVD's, can be used standing up or laying down. My only qualm is the tray itself feels a little flimsy. It feels like you could break it off quite easily and when ejected you can wobble it on its track. I don't think I'll be having too many problems from this, but the sake of the review... Ripping: I used to rip DVD's on my brothers laptop. It would take anywhere near to 30 minutes just to rip the DVD using Decrypter. Now it takes 20-25. Not a HUGE improvement and this may be partially due to the CPU used and amount of RAM (the PC has 512mb and the laptop has 1gig so I don't see how that would help but...) the unit has, but it won't hinder the ripping speed at all. It is a little louder than I thought it would be. This could be the effect of it's "super fast" ripping speeds, but you can periodically hear it spin up really fast and the fan start going into hyper drive. It won't wake you up but when listening to music (which probably shouldn't be done while ripping a DVD but I do it anyway) it can get a little annoying. Burning: Again. Faster than my bro's laptop. Nothing to complain. The DVD's get a little warmer than expected so I suggest not labeling the DVD's (with those paper DVD labels that are glued on) because the glue may heat up and send the paper label to fly off and do some major damage. If you use just a Sharpe or something, go right ahead. I've burned a couple DVD's with it and they have performed flawlessly. Works like a charm. (Exactly how it should) Recording: Here's where it gets fun. It can record from regular RCA, RCA+S-Video, and even from a DV (i.Link) cable. This would def. come in handy when using a Digital Video Camera or something that you want to just burn straight to a DVD. Recording in and of itself it pretty easy. It comes with a guide that is by no means wordy, but it tells you what you need to know and some. Pop in the DVD, select your mode, play the video, hit record. That's about it. It'll record while telling you how much time is left on the DVD. A nice feature because this tells you where stand in how much longer the DVD will last and if you'll get the full movie on it, or if you can record another episode. You hit stop recording, it does a little jig and then allows you to eject it. You're not done however. You can take it out, and save for later recording if you didn't use the whole disc, however, it cannot be played on a DVD player or be recognized my your computer. You can now pop it back in, record another episode, another chapter of a film, anything, and then you have to "Finalize" the disc. This is where the guide messes up. It says word for word, "Press 'F' until 'Finalize?' > 'S' to select [Yes] > 'F' > 'S' to select [Yes] > 'F' " Ummm.... I was a little lost too. The "F" stands for a button labeled "Function" and the "S" stands for a button labeled "Select." After you know that you just follow the guide and it'll finalize the disc for you. After that is done (take about 3-4 minutes...this was on a 45 minute TV show. This may take longer for a full film) you can play it in a DVD player, rip the files with your PC, do whatever you want. Except burn more onto it. Once you finalized, it's final. (Kinda self-explanatory but you never know who's reading this...) Recording Quality: Well I was surprised. I didn't think it would be that good at all, but it wasn't too far from the original aired version. The colors (especially red) were a bit washed out and the if something gets really close to the camera and has a gradient shading to it, it looks a little "blocky" but I thought it looked fantastic. You won't want to do this for all your DVD's because it is by no means DVD quality, but it looked just fine on our 32" CRT TV. If you choose to size this down for your PMP, I'm almost positive you won't be able to tell the difference. I recorded a TV show and after 45 minutes, it said it had a little less than 1:30-2:00 hours left on it. I ripped the files straight to VOB and it came out to be 1.57 gigs for the 45 minutes. Not bad. Right now I can tell you this is a great alternative to a PMP. Room for Improvement: Better record quality. Ability to record video through the Firewire cable provided. Easier navigation. (i.e. to finalize a disk...) Make the tray and it's gears out of metal to give a sturdier feel to it. But an electronic level on it so the LCD reading turns for reading purposes. I keep it on it's side, and the LCD is made for the unit to be stood up. This means I have to turn my head sideways to read the LCD or button readouts. Power button on front. I don't want to leave it on all the time and having to reach back behind it is a little bit of a hassle. Overall: It isn't really portable, although you could throw this in a backpack and take it along to a friend's house, but it'll be great for in home use. If this interests you, I recommend this product and think it is a great "bang for the buck." I give it an 86/100." Hope you liked and certainyl hoped this helped. I kinda want to give a little back to the forum that helped me so much.
Well after maybe another week of use, I've come to tell you guys you cannot Record DVD's with protection (Obviously) and not even videos shown on HBO. I tried to record two videos played on HBO and they wouldn't work. It will record for not even a second and then stop itself. Also, there are three recording options I didn't look at before. I recorded the TV show on medium quality which was basically a waste of a DVD. My TV show was 45 minutes long, and you get 1 hour for High quality, 2 hours for medium, and 6 hours for low. I could have easily fit a high quality recording on the one DVD. I'll try the high and low quality settings and get back to you all. I'll also try to record a film played on another station (Other than HBO) and see if I can get it to work.
I am a first time user of this forum. I would be very pleased to know if the Sony VRD-VC20 DVD Recorder can do the following: Is it possible to simultaniously record to a Sony Digitoal Handycam Model DCR-TRV17 and burn a DVD using the Sony VRD-VC20. --- Please confirm if the Sony VRD-VC20 has the firmware to compress the "realtime feed" from the camera into MPEG2, add preset chapters and do whatever else is necessary to complete an unedited DVD. The purpose is to have a completed one hour DVD a the end of a video session. I would be willing to purchase other equipment if there is a better way to accomplish the above. Thank you in advance. Sincerely, Sandside
Not sure if it's Mpeg2, but I'm posistive it can burn whatever your camera has got. All it needs is a TV output (either S-Video, Regaular RCA, or a DV link). On the three quality settings, you get a little over 1 hour on high quality, about 2 hours on medium quality, and a little over 6 hours on low quality. I personally had no problem watching the recording I did which was on medium. It looked fine to me. I can only imagine what high is like, and I'm almost positive it will be satisfactory to your needs. Also, you can stop recording at a certain point, take the DVD out, record more footage with your camera, and then start it back up whenever you like. (As long as you don't finalize the disc. I was unable to watch or rip from an unfinalized DVD+R, so it is pretty useless until you're finished with the final product. About compressing it, all you need to do is record it in whatever quality you want, finalize the disc, and then rip it using DVDDecrypter. You can then compress the clip using DVD Shrink to almost any size you want. If you wish to convert the file to like Xvid or Divx, you can use a handy little program called AutoGK. (All of which I believe can be downloaded from here in the downloads page.) Hope this helped.
To: Kingsora Thank you so much for your prompt reply. I want to confirm that S-video, regular RCA or DV Link provide digital outputs at the same time that I am simultaneously recording on my video camera and that the VRD-VC20 is capable of making a DVD at the same time. After I finish the video recording the finished DVD will be completed except for what? the "finalize" command?---- So all I have to do is enter the "finalize" commands and the DVD will be complete?? So, please confirm, there are two ways to create the DVD on the Sony VRD-VC20: 1. The typical way to make the DVD is to playback the recorded material and create the DVD on the VRD-VC20. 2. The less typical way, because you must have to provide 120VAC with a DC converter to power the VRD-VC20 at the same time you are doing the video shoot, is making a DVD at the same time as you are shooting the video. ---- Did you actually make a DVD at the simultaneous time that you were shooting one of videos? As you know, I could use a DVD comera and get the "instant" DVD, however, the mini DVD media is way too expensive plus you can only record 30 minutes in high quality mode. --- Do you have an opinion on the advantage of recording on DVD-R compared to DVD+R. I have heard that DVD-R has better compatibility with DVD players? --- What I would really like is a DVD video camera that would handle full size DVD media. I do not believe such a video camera is available. Thank you again. Sandside
I have never recorded a DVD while recording straight from a camera. However, as long as you are able to record footage, AND view that footage on a TV by means of S-Video/DV Cable/ or RCA output, then yes, it is completely possible. You say you will need to supply power to the unit. Well, are you talking about taking this with you as a portable unit to use in conjunction with the camera? The burner is of fairly big size so to be carrying this around may be a bit of a hassle. If this is what you wish to do, then you'll have to carry some sort of battery pack that outputs (I believe, 120 Volts AC. American Standard). As far as DVD- and DVD+, you'll have better luck asking around in an actual thread in AfterDawn specifically for the discussion of the topic at hand. I don't have too much experience, however, I use exclusively DVD+'s. The Sony DVD player that I use can't handle DVD-, and the Xbox that I watch DVD's on can handle the +'s as well. (I'm not sure if Xbox can handle DVD-'s or what...) For some reason I thought I read or heard somewhere that DVD+ was more widely used in the electronics industry. Where did you get your information from? You may be correct, again, I don't know exactly.
Back again, well I've tried to record a video from a station other than HBO. It works just fine. Quality:exactly how I suspected it at medium. I still have yet to burn a high/low quality recording (and I mean to do so). I'll try to find some freeware that I can take some screenshots of the video with so I can show you what to expect. Does anyone know of a good free capture software?
Yes, I want to take the recorder with me. I want to video sports lessons and give a DVD copy of the completed DVD to the student. Therefore the portability issue is not a bit issue. 120VAC will usually be available. As an option I think I could use a properly sized uninteruptable power supply for a no noise source of power. ---That would certainly add to the weight but for this appliucation we can use a small cart to get things about! The reason I need to go to DVD directly is the time issue. I can afford 3-4 minutes to finalize the DVD, but could not afford to take 30 or more minutes to copy the video to DVD. You asked about DVD+R and DVD-R. The little I know is it seems that -R is supported by most DVD players made in the last 5 years. Regarding DVD-R and DVD+R. For example approximate 93% DVD player compatibility for -R compared to 89% for +R. Maybe most newer DVD players support both -R and +R. ----- I do not fully understand the compatibility issue and the format compromize. -- If you rent or buy a DVD you can expect it to play on 100% of the DVD players and any PC computer. --- I do not know if MPEG-2 encoding used in commercial movies is part of the 100% playback ability of commercial DVD. Please see: http://www.videohelp.com/dvd From the above site: There are three competing DVD Recording standards, DVD-R/DVD-RW and DVD+R/DVD+RW have pretty similiar features and are compatible with many standalone DVD Players and most DVD-ROMs while DVD-RAM has less DVD Player and DVD-ROM compatibility but better recording features. DVD-R and DVD-RW DVD-R was the first DVD recording format released that was compatible with standalone DVD Players. DVD-R is a non-rewriteable format and it is compatible with about 93% of all DVD Players and most DVD-ROMs. DVD-RW is a rewriteable format and it is compatible with about 80% of all DVD Players and most DVD-ROMs. DVD-R and DVD-RW supports single side 4.37 computer GB* DVDs(called DVD-5) and double sided 8.75 computer GB* DVDs(called DVD-10). These formats are supported by DVDForum. DVD+R and DVD+RW DVD+R is a non-rewritable format and it is compatible with about 89% of all DVD Players and most DVD-ROMs. DVD+RW is a rewritable format and is compatible with about 79% of all DVD Players and most DVD-ROMs. DVD+R and DVD+RW supports single side 4.37 computer GB* DVDs(called DVD-5) and double side 8.75 computer GB* DVDs(called DVD-10). These formats are supported by the DVD+RW Alliance. ___________________________________________________ For more information of possible interest please visit: http://www.customflix.com/ ____________________________________________________ Thank you very much for your help.
I can afford 3-4 minutes to finalize the DVD, but could not afford to take 30 or more minutes to copy the video to DVD. It will definitely not take more than 5 minutes for the hour you'll be recording. Thanx for the help on DVD +-. For some reason, my DVD player can't play - but can play +. Weird. It is def. made in the past 5 years too... As far as you know, does your video camera record in a wierd format? Can you directly take files off the mini DVD it burns to? I'm just wondering if it somehow encodes the singal much like encoded DVD's or HBO broadcasts. That would really be tough luck... Anyway, good luck on whatever it is you're doing. Hope it all works out bump free.
I purchased the Sony VRD-VC 20 a couple of weeks ago to use as a stand alone to copy VHS tapes. I have had nothing but headaches with the audio. It continually comes out garbled. The concept is great and it is easy to use but I can't get the audio to work properly? Used Verbatim DVD+r 8x which is supposed to be acceptable according to the Sony site.
Hrm. Well since I've never had this problem, the only thing I could suggest is that something throughout the setup is wrong. Couple of questions: Audio is fine on source VHS's? What kind of auxiliary cords are you using? (i.e. gold plated?) Does the video look like it should, only audio portion is giving trouble? Have you tried to record from the TV or other sources? (is it local to VHS/certain signals or across the board?) I'm not exactly sure what could be causing the problems, but maybe some answers to these questions could help me figure it out.
