need new forum for DVD recorders! DVDR1000 review inside.

[ROne]

Today got my philips DVDR 1000, got mixed feelings about but I was probably expecting to much really, and wanted to use in a professional environment.

Its a heavy unit, weighs a ton! But is made from metal and actually feels expensive. Out of the box it didn't work at all, got alsorts of errors, I unplugged it, reset the player using a hack, tried everything. Gradually things started to work (not what you expect from 21st century hardware), we gatherd it was because of the temeperature, must have been stored cold. As it warmed up it worked better and better.

First of all, anybody expecting DVD film quality or transparent recordings need not apply, sorry. But even using the high quality 9.72 mbps 1hours variable data rate, compression can still bee seen on fast moving objects. I would say that on football its as bad as a Sky broadcast.

However on less detailed, faces, scenary with little movement and no camera whip pans, the quality is excellent and it is difficult to seem the compression.

4 quality settings HQ 1 hour, SP 2 hours, LP 3 hour, EP 4hours.

Don't bother with the EP, its terrible but the SP is okay for most recordings. At the end of the day a consumer DVD recorder is never going to compete with a professional authoring system, accept this and you won't be dissapointed. I would say VHS lies somewhere subjectively between LP and SP, and certainly the definition (when it isn't covered in artifacts) is much better then all but pro formats such as BETACAM. Jitter and stabilty are top notch, and there is no colour bleed into boundaries.

We used S-INPUTS but the quality could be improved by going in RGB, shame but the Americans have component in/out and progressive scan, which we miss out on.

Sound is two channel digitial. Inputs are RGB, Y/C, CV, and firewire ( will have mess around with the firewire soon).

Compatibililty, touted as the deck that is backwardsly compatible, cough ... cough err. Well tried a recorded +RW disc on my wharfdale, proline (which don't play discs anyway) and on an LG3350 and .... nothing. Didn't work, which I'm not suprised at. Will try it on my tosh SD200 tonight, there is a list of players at http://www.dvdplusrw.org but none of my machines are on it.

Got it for £1048 which is £250 less than ddddddixons. Oh and didn't try pirating anything on it, whats the point at £ 15 a blank, just in case you were wondering.

[pointon]

Exactly what I expect from 21st Century hardware... but then I am really cynical.

Certainly won't be buying one myself until I see a little more industry stability on the recordable front and a bit of competition to bring down prices.

I'm still jealous though.

[encaser]

Not surprised at what Rone has said about it. I read a German review (they're usually the best as they actually detail and compare qulity, oh and aren't afraid to say summits ****e) and said quality lvels akin to vcd +- . It's a ruddy cruel joke to have to say oh it's great quality as long as the camera don't pan! No wonder 'people' dl divx rips of dvds for free instead of bothering with vidz, some dvds or now buying a dvdr. The price is a joke for blanks. If I was gonna buy one (which I aint, no surprise!) the Pana is better insofar as you can use dvdr discs which can be habd for 3.99 upwards.
BTW no dis to the above buyer at all.

Yeah, this really is some kind of cruel joke. Rightly or wrongly potential customers for a dvd recorder will equate the quality of recording with that of a commercially released dvd. 25 years on from the VHS explosion we are still striving for broadcast quality recordings, is it really too much to expect in this day and age?

ANY recording format that cannot faithfully reproduce a smooth pan without artefacts is a premature technology and AIN'T READY YET. Jesus, even VHS didn't have this problem.

Looks like analogue tech is still kicking the @rse of digital. Wake me up when the technology is good and ready.

Perfectly happy with mine.
No operating problems (so far) and I can't say that I've had any
artefacting in my usage.
Granted, the EP (4 hour) mode is shocking and I wont be recording anything in it.
I got it as I like to compile music footage compilations. Also to save comedy series and documentaries.
Most of this is timeshifted from Sky digital on S-VHS then copied over. The music I record in SP (2hour) mode and there really is no noticeable difference. It looks as good as the original broadcast
and that's what mates have said, not just my hopefully unbiased
opinion.
With TV shows and documentaries I like to get a bit more out of the blank so use LP (3 hour) mode which I'd say is slightly better
than a decent VHS recording. Edges are less sharp.
Out of curiousity I did try to copy a DVD (played on a Macro free
machine) and it did work.
No compatibility problems with recorded discs in other machines
either. They play fine in both my Pioneer 717 and Arcam DV88.
Also my mates Panasonic RV20.
Prices for blanks will drop, as does the price of all new techie
toys. I did expect to be paying £20 a blank but I get them for £12.
At the end of the day it's "horses for courses" and it does a good
enough job for me for what I bought it for.

[ROne]

Tried a disc in my toshiba sd200 and it worked okay (after applying a special hack from philips.)

keoma, if your machine has no artifacts or shows no signs of compression I'll buy your unit off you! Plus if you'rre taping from sky digital fair dues, sky is full of artifacts in the first place of the same sort. I'm being a bit naughty as I'm recording from a broadcst betacam piece to see if the image was transparent, and its defintaley not.

I'll be keeping the machine because its quite useful anyway, its okay for stabilising crappy vhs into the computer.

I agree with the other comments about todays technology at the consumer end, it's pants. But this is down to the law of economics, cheap hardware = lower quality. Only its not really that cheap, but we're stuck with it.

[chicken balti]

Hey Keoma,

You say you copied a dvd OK, but what was the quality of the copy like? Given such a good source to begin with I would be interested to know how the copy holds up against the original.

Just to explain where I'm coming from here. I have a large widescreen LCD RPTV. DVD's look ace but it is very unforgiving with low quality (tape sourced) programming. Broadcasted movies lie somewhere in between. I'm just thinking, is it possible that a similar thing happens on 'lower grade' sources when recording onto dvd, but copying from an excellent source (dvd itself) shows the format in a better light. Let me know.

Cheers

Hello Chicken Balti,
It'll depend on what mode the DVD recorder is set on. I had it on
SP (2 hour) mode and the recording was excellent. Colours still
vibrant and picture generally still as sharp as the original. The
only noticeable difference was slightly less sharp edges. I didn't try it in HQ (1 hour) but dare I suggest that it would be practically identical to the original source ?. One hours worth of recording is
pretty useless on £12 discs though.
The DVD+RW isn't in the same room as the Macro free Pioneer 717 anymore so I can't do any in depth checks.
I've no idea what the results will be on large projection, LCD or
plasma screens as I have a 32" Loewe. It would be interesting to know though.

[9004]

All I can say on this is that anybody wanting a DVD recorder (or any AV kit for that matter) should go to a PROPER shop that has the item on dem, and is willing to do a thorough demonstration on it. You may pay slightly more than mail-order prices, but you will get the back-up you need, and the chance to make sure you like it. My local Sevenoaks store has supplied me with the information to change the disc settings for maximum compatibility, and contacted me today to offer me a multi-region playback upgrade on mine. I think it's excellent, and while not up to Pre-recorded standards, far better than anything else I've seen. As for record once discs, why bother? The price will soon drop on +RW discs, and as most players are compatible I think R will be redundant.

[encaser]

Curious position 9004. I think many ppl on here ask buyers experience and demo stuff in shops to get a rounder picture. Then often buy from the net at well reported and trusted ishops cause they are reliable and 10's if not a couple of hundred less than most HS shops.
As for the r with regard to dvdr becoming an extinct proposition this is somewhat unlikely considering many ppl record singularly on tape for films/series etc. Plus pc users will be after them for there dvdr roms and several of the big names are producing and/or going to. PC market is perhaps a best indicator considering the use of cdr and cdrw, the latter always being several times more costly. At present you can get dvdr for £3.99 +-. Also they are the one disc that is most universal with dvdr/players/roms cross brands as of yet, and as a point of note Philips are reported as to be adding dvdr to their next gen' - the current model may be future modable. Not really surprising considering Philips disc producing partners are going with r production.
I think it was a VC from Memorex who at a dvd convention stated that hdd's were going to be a definite addition to dvd recorders next gen or so. Panasonic already have a touted US model with a 20gb hdd where dvdr would fit perfectly.

[malcom]

9004

You are lucky. I have found it immpossible to get a demonstration of the Philips DVD recorder. My local Seven Oaks store was not in the least bit interested in demonstrating the unit. They even informed me that £1300 was to much to pay for recording from TV.
So. No demo. No sale.

My local Dixons store has it. Guess what! It's not set up for demo.

[9004]

Encaser

Thanks for your comments. One thing that has become apparant to me since coming onto the forum, is that there are a hell of a lot of people out there who have bought kit they have problems/queries with, and don't appear to be getting the help they deserve from their retailers. I have found a good retailer who I'm going to stick with, I certainly won't use them to dem something to buy it cheaper mail-order. If we all did that we wouldn't have retailers to dem at, they'd all be closed!

Regarding DVD R, maybe I'm wrong, but I'd still rather use rewritables, even for archiving, so that I can make full use of my DVDR1000's edit facilities. On my CD writer I use mainly CD-R discs, but only because most players won't playback RW. I've written quite a few off as well making mistakes, so the price goes up. I have heard that Philips do plan a DVD R upgrade for the current machine.

[9004]

Malcom

I guess I have been lucky, as my local sevenoaks was only to happy to dem it, they obviously thought that somebody willing to buy one was worth looking after (I've spent quite a lot with them since on other bits, including my Loewe Aconda, so it paid off for them). As for Dixons, on the day I bought my DVD-R, I called in and they invited me to leave a £20 deposit, sight unseen, so that I could be one of the first to have one (they didn't have any in, not even on show). When I said I wanted to see it working first, they said they wouldn't have it on dem, because of copyright reasons. Note To Dixons staff - You sell digital camcorders, recordings are fantastic from one of these into the firewire input, and no copyright problems! or is it you can't be bothered.

I got mine from the local Sevenoaks and was hooked on it after
the demonstration.
They were even prepared to let me take it home for a weekend
but there was no need. Having spent about £6000 in there over the last 12 months (prior to the DVD+RW) goes some way to
building a good dealer/customer relatioship (especially when they know I aint no mega bucks exec., just an ordinary Joe like them). I don't like to buy anything more expensive than a £150 VCR over the internet.
They had my recorder in and ready to collect the day after my
demo.