Panasonic DVD/RAM Recorder/digibox - Currys -£155 inc Del

L.S.D.

One point that may have been missed about this machine is the 4 hour record. It is the highest quality available on any machine. Most people don't know it is recorded on the 4 hour quality untill they are told. I would archive certain programmes on the 4 hour mode, but mainly it would be the 1 or 2 hour mode. However for all record & wipe it is better than any other recorders 4 hour mode, & that is using DVD-RAM, DVD-R/W, or the DVD-R +R modes.

NX3

FYI Pioneer, HP, LG, Lite-On, Hitachi signed an agreement recently and adding DVD-RAM support to products. True its not been a popular format but it is growing slowly rather than dying. It has two advantages, time slip and the discs are designed to rewrite far more than any other format. My + verus your - format arguement is all a bit silly, just use whatever you want to suit your purposes. However I did like this quote from CES 2006 "A preferred format for professionals and tech-savvy users, DVD-RAM is known for its reliability and ease of use, but read and write speeds have lagged behind many of the other formats – until now. " ;-)

Pioneer DVR-110 can read DVD-RAM to answer someones question. Not all models, the DVR-110BK can. You can get info from pioneer.co.uk on which models can read dvd-ram and the drives cost about £30 if you shop around online.

You can convert DVD-RAM recordings several ways to other formats on PC. I copy the VRO file to my HD, demux using TMPEG tools and then author a DVD using TMPG Author. http://www.pegasys-inc.com/en/product/tda.html

I've used Sonic DVD-It Pro and some other apps but they inist on re-encoding the mpeg2 video stream. It takes a while and you loose a bit of quality re-encoding again. TMPG Author produces disks that work on other DVD machines but doesn not re-encode to it very quick. Its also simple to use and I would recommend it.

Per the unit itself its pretty nice to use. Firmware update 1.11 has just been broadcast but did not add anything of note. The only downside is you have no control over the digitial tuner. On analogue you can manually tune, delete channels, rename channels, move channels. On digital you can do a automatic tune and nothing else. However this is a minor niggle, its a nice machine, works well and recording from digital is excellent. The flexible recording mode is very good as well, it can squeeze the best quality recording onto whatever space is left. Per the timer issue, you don't have to put into timer mode as it will give you a onscreen nag

Oh and using DVD-RAM with this record it will auto capture the widescreen flag, other formats don't officially permit this. Some machines e.g Toshiba do it on DVDRW but its not part of the official standard. Anyway...good machine if your interested.

L.S.D.

"True its not been a popular format but it is growing slowly rather than dying. It has two advantages, time slip and the discs are designed to rewrite far more than any other format. My + verus your - format arguement is all a bit silly, just use whatever you want to suit your purposes."

NX3. Interesting. A couple of things. The Panasonic with DVD-RAM is the biggest selling DVD recorder in the world. Add to that support from JVC,Toshiba,Samsung & others & it makes DVD-RAM the biggest format. Lets face it the + format is only used in the Unreliable philips & cheap Chinese machines, hardly a reason to buy one.
I agree with the 'Use what you prefer' I do. As well as the DVD-RAM I use -/+Rs & R/Ws it's just a shame the R/Ws are not more reliable.
Another thing DVD-RAM has over R/Ws is the ability to combine all leftover space as one, so if you rub off a one hour segment it joins any other empty section to make the full space available, unlike R/W which for instance if you have 3 1 hour programmes & erase the middle one you have to fit your recording into the space that was left, hardly as conveniant as DVD-RAM.

Micky

gizmoleeds wrote:

Skipping adverts simply requires fast-forward, so yes. And yes it can timeslip, if you use a DVD-RAM disk .

Thanks Gizmo, is it possible to set the machine to skip the adverts automatically?

dc

NX3 wrote:

Pioneer DVR-110 can read DVD-RAM to answer someones question. Not all models, the DVR-110BK can. You can get info from pioneer.co.uk on which models can read dvd-ram and the drives cost about £30 if you shop around online.

The Pioneer 110 can also record dvd-ram, the 110D can only read dvd- ram , not write to it. As some of us have found out to our loss with the £30 delivered, wrongly advertised Play.com fiasco, also on the grabbit board. .

NX3

LSD, interesting. Still playing with the recorder and only using DVD-RAM. The 1.3 playback is very neat.

DC, yes be careful which models do what with DVD-RAM. As I suggest its best to check on Pioneer.co.uk before purchasing. Most models can be purchased OEM for about £30. I don't know how much retail packs are but why pay extra for a pretty box

Woby_Tide

I think talkshop needs to issue a press release



"I would like to apologise for errors of judgement in personal behaviour and for the embarrassment caused, firstly to my family but also to my friends, my constituents and my party. "I will not be commenting further at this time and would now ask for some space and personal privacy for me and my family."

Zeitgeist

EmpireDirect also has this model for this price - £155 - although you have to pay an extra £4.99 for delivery, so it's still cheaper at Curry's:

http://www.empiredirect.co.uk/content/products/details/index.asp?modelcode=PAN-DMRES20D

Ebuyer is still selling this model for £184.99 + P&P !!!

kaan_is

hello everyone
just slightly off topic...need your views on this RD-XS24 - DVD Recorder with 160gig HD....retail price £279 approx ...will cost me £160.Having read the recent threads..iam not sure whether to wait for a better model as this does not have a DVI imput...any help would be welcome...thanks.

errolevans

kaan_is wrote:

hello everyone
just slightly off topic...need your views on this RD-XS24 - DVD Recorder with 160gig HD....retail price £279 approx ...will cost me £160.Having read the recent threads..iam not sure whether to wait for a better model as this does not have a DVI imput...any help would be welcome...thanks.

Sounds like a bargain to me!!! Where can you get them at this price???