DVD Recorder £68.94 @ Asda (merged)

bwatt00

I am told from a workmate that asda had a plasma 42" for sale for around £699 and im pretty sure when i was in the store on saturday i saw on on the shelf but i did not think of it or take much notice,now that i know this i want to know more.
I thought i could go online and check it out but i see they dont do electricals online and was wondering if this info was right and if they could tell me more about the plasma and what it has and has not etc

kingell

As a qualified TV engineer I'm always amused by this RGB/composite/VHS/SVHS/Hi8/DV wrangle that raises its head. For most average viewers watching a decent TV at a reasonable size (not ginormous flat screen) there will be little to distinguish between them RGB/composite are almost the same/VHS is the worst/SVHS & Hi8 are better and DV is the best - although you still need to dfferentiate between Mpeg2 and Mpeg4 files which is where DIVx comes in. All the digital recordings are compressed to save space on a disc. DV, Mpeg2, Mpeg4, DIVx are all compressed. The older tape formats were restricted by the efficiency of the tape system and the quality of the recording heads. Basically my advice is join them together the way the manufacturer wants you to and go ahead with an average lounge TV. You won't notice the difference. It's like people who spend £30 on a scart lead or super copper loudspeaker leads because a hifi mag tells them they need it. A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. The eye is unable to perceive the differences at smaller sizes and standard domestic equipment. Stop worrying about it. If you want one buy one!!

Going_Digital

Rubbish !

The connection method makes a huge difference. Try playing a PS2 game on a TV via composite video and try reading small text on the game it is almost impossible. Now play that exact game via RGB scart connection and the difference is enormous.

Ant212

Also, They don't have VIdeo+.

Ant.

heathen

kingell wrote:

As a qualified TV engineer I'm always amused by this RGB/composite/VHS/SVHS/Hi8/DV wrangle that raises its head. For most average viewers watching a decent TV at a reasonable size (not ginormous flat screen) there will be little to distinguish between them RGB/composite are almost the same/VHS is the worst/SVHS & Hi8 are better and DV is the best - although you still need to dfferentiate between Mpeg2 and Mpeg4 files which is where DIVx comes in. All the digital recordings are compressed to save space on a disc. DV, Mpeg2, Mpeg4, DIVx are all compressed. The older tape formats were restricted by the efficiency of the tape system and the quality of the recording heads. Basically my advice is join them together the way the manufacturer wants you to and go ahead with an average lounge TV. You won't notice the difference. It's like people who spend £30 on a scart lead or super copper loudspeaker leads because a hifi mag tells them they need it. A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. The eye is unable to perceive the differences at smaller sizes and standard domestic equipment. Stop worrying about it. If you want one buy one!!

nice to hear an expert confirm what my eyes were telling me,although i only use my tv for watching tv and dvds so gaming maybe a different matter,i would have liked videoplus but cant complain realy at £60.

tonygch96

Dave_P wrote:

Cyberhome 1600 DVD Recorder is on sale at my local Asda (Great Barr, Birmingham) for £68.94.

I know it's not as cheap as the recent £59.99 offer, but it's still reduced from £89.99.

Official Note:

Asda has said there is plenty of stock available and that these are available nationwide. The price will stay at £68.94 until stocks run out

**********************************************************
In Walsall's Asda Living (non food) nearly had my fingers taken off with shoppers grabbing the DVD Recorders, none lef for me.
Will wait till afer xmas and see if the Top of the Range are cheaper in the Sale? Mind you did bag a pair of Trousers for £1.50! Sale items are now at half the ticket price.

mk-donald

Going_Digital wrote:

Rubbish !

The connection method makes a huge difference. Try playing a PS2 game on a TV via composite video and try reading small text on the game it is almost impossible. Now play that exact game via RGB scart connection and the difference is enormous.

Absolutely right - setting up kit to exploit RGB ability or even S-Video/SVHS ability is a no-brainer.

If you're canny enough to have paid for CAPABLE equipment and astute enough to wire it up correctly and techie enough to understand some of the manuals as to how on earth to set up the equipment to deliver the right format signal, you SHOULD notice very definite improvements.

I have a 32" Sony 100Hz TV and 1 of the SCART sockets understands RGB and the other 2 do S-Video. Wiring up the five external boxes : Freeview, Tivo, S-VHS, DVD-Recorder* and X-box to those 3 Scarts so as to optimise the experience has proved quite a challenge this last week! Switching the TV input to S-Video when watching the Pye makes a noticable improvement in the picture clarity and stability.

* = albeit the other Asda bargain - the Pye £59.94 model - rather than the alternative model this thread is focussed on.

Moral is IF you have equipment capable of doing higher than the composite standard then do cable and set-up to exploit what you've paid for. AND if you can't tell the difference when you've finished then MAYBE you've made a mistake in the setup....

FL

Hi,
I saw this thread and the price caught my eye for the DVD recorder. I think the average person like myself has very little idea of what most people are talking about. Makes me think I need to do some homework before buying anything in relation to DVD recorders. Or buy a dictionary for the terminlogy.

paul_h

kingell wrote:

RGB/composite are almost the same/VHS is the worst/SVHS & Hi8 are better and DV is the best

IMHO, the order of the signal quality for domestic analogue video connections (i.e. the actual cable connection) from best to worst is

RGB - signals are separated into the three colour signals and frame synchronisation - for minimum interference between signal components. The best analogue video signal transmission currently available to domestic users.

S-VIDEO / Y/C - video signal is separated into two signals, chrominance (colour) and luminance (brightness) - some interference between colour signals. S-VHS VCRs record this format.

CVBS/Composite - all video signals are mixed into one signal, hence the name composite video. This has most chance of interference between the signal components. VHS VCRs record this format.

These analogue signal have to be converted into DV (digital video) before they can be recorded onto DVD. mpeg1, mpeg2, mpeg4 and DivX/XVid are all compression formats for DV, DVD recorders use either the mpeg1 or mpeg2 standard.

Going_Digital wrote:

The connection method makes a huge difference. Try playing a PS2 game on a TV via composite video and try reading small text on the game it is almost impossible. Now play that exact game via RGB scart connection and the difference is enormous.

This is what really shows the inferiority of CVBS - it has difficulty coping with the hard contrasts of on-screen graphics and usually shows shadowing, lower definition and solid colours are often a little washed out. The difference is harder to see on normal broadcast television.


However, I do agree with kingell that unless you have a large screen (32"+), most people will find the CVBS recording perfectly adequate, especially as a VCR replacement.

These DVD recorders convert the analogue into mpeg1 digital video in the lower quality settings and mpeg2 in the best quality settings. Any video recorded in mpeg2 on DVD, even from a CVBS source, will be infinitely better than any VHS, or even S-VHS VCR - because the recording medium of DV on DVD will always be superior to video tape.

Sorry about the information overload! If it all means nothing to you, I'm pretty sure most people would be delighted with one of these units if you're used to a VHS VCR

Jeff121

I bought Asda's DUAL DVRW1 DVD recorder in Asda Coatbridge today, £68.94 -£10 Asda voucher I received in post for £10 off £30 spend at that store which I thought was pretty good. Don't know how the DUAL DVRW1 compares with the Cyberhome, the only reason I bought this model is that there's no connection plugs showing on the front of the machine, that's probably not a good reason to buy something but at £58.94 (inc discount) I am well chuft, even if it only lasts a year. I remember buying my 1st JVC VCR from Lasky's in Glasgow almost 24 years ago price £640 so hasn't the cost of home entertainment dropped drastically!