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Pioneer Introduces 1st DVD Recorder (In Japan)
sanemind noted that Pioneer has announced the world's first consumer level
DVD Recorder. Although they are only available in Japan, and the blanks will cost 30-plus bucks, it's still pretty sweet.
It seems like these are all, generally speaking, the same formats -- in that it's a spinning aluminum disc that's ready by a laser -- and it seems to me that it should be possible to merge together these different uses of the media in the software of one device. I haven't bought a DVD thus far becuase I don't want it to be part of a collection of drives (alng with cd burner etc) that do almost the same thing. That would be such a waste, and I don't have that many free sockets on my computer.
Does anyone know anything about any attempts to merge these technologies together? I'm a broke college student, but I'd be willing to invest in a device that could do all of that for me...
DO NOT LEAVE IT IS NOT REAL
If a tree falls in the forest, and kills a mime, does anyone care?
Exactly. Once all of the factories that are currently churning out CD recorders and CDR blanks retool and start churning out DVD recorders and DVD blanks, the price of both will fall through the floor. The current high prices are irrelevant.
Interesting to see this recorder released right in the middle of the CSS controversy.
One of the points in the press release was that the recorder was designed to not copy CSS material. This doesn't make sense technically, because the recorder has no digital input, so how would the recorder identify CSS content through the analog inputs?
However, one of the main legal tactics in the fight over CSS is the argument that DeCSS cannot be used for piracy, because there are no consumer DVD recorders on the market. Perhaps the strategy here is to get a DVD recorder on the market, so that they can legitimately argue that DeCSS can be used to copy DVDs, and must therefore be suppressed.
Anyway, who wants to take bets on how long it takes before the first person successfully removes the copy controls on a consumer DVD recorder. I give them one year before it all comes apart.
I've been seeing 40+ GB hard drives lately for in the vicinity of $200. How much storage is a DVD writable disk capable of? Unless the storage media is significantly less expensive, why not use one of the readily available TV-In cards and record to hard drive? It's not all that hard to swap hard drives out, either.
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
For $30 a disc, there's no point for most consumers to buy, since most people would just want to copy their friend's collection of Kubrick films. It would just be cheaper to buy them, and you'd get the cool case.
If you are doing DV editing or other personal stuff and need storage(4.7 gigs) for your movies , this is good news. Although, this is not a PC ROM, so I guess you couldnt burn from your PC.
Can anyone else enlighten us?
Though is is quite good news I must say u probably should visit the link before posting. If you did you would see:
Tokyo, Japan, November 25, 1999
I'm waiting for the scsi version.
...and a published spec on how to interface to it.
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"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
My largest concerns with DVD-Recorders are:
(1) will they ever make it to the US within a reasonable amount of time (1 year), or will they be held up forever by industry copyright concerns?
(2) Will these things really produce reasonable quality output? $30/disc will be a lot of money if you have to record in the 2hr mode to get something reasonable... I had a TiVo for a week and took it back because it just didn't produce a high enough quality picture in any mode that could record more than a days worth of programs.
I don't see why the Recording Industry A$$holes Association would object to this device. It states in the specs that it is designed to not copy content from CSS'ed source discs. Isn't this more of a "put your home movies on disc" type of thing? You could transfer every baby's-first-steps tape you own to one disc and mail it to the relatives! (or save it to drag out when "baby" grows up and starts bringing dates home...)
Freedom: "I won't!"
The dvd machine(hollywood, not the player) has already fscked this up for us. if you note, in the print," supports all copy protection " this means that unless the hardware eng. who designed it with a backdoor you could drive a truck thru, you can't copy dvd's. However, a dvd played through a macrovision stripper, into the inputs would probably record ok though...
Truth isn't Truth - Guliani
$30/disc doesn't bother me quite as much as about $2500 for the recorder itself.
-- Dr. Eldarion --
It's not what it is, it's something else.
I don't mean to be a karma whore, but I happened to be looking into this very issue last night, and I found a whole lot of information in the DVD FAQ. In particular, this section gives details on all the various writeable DVD formats.
Personally, I'm trying to decide whether to archive all my videotapes on VideoCD now, or wait for some kind of recordable DVD format. (Quality isn't an issue for these tapes; if it was, I'd just buy them on DVD.) My main problem with VideoCD is the 74 minute capacity, which is just enough to almost, but not quite, fit an entire movie...
MSK
First of all, this is really old news, according to the press release linked in the article, the recorder should be out for some months now (December 1999).
More interesting info about recordable DVDs at DVD-FAQ http://www.dvddemystified.com/dvdfaq.html#4.3
It looks like disks recorded on this will not be playable on legacy DVD players. The article says:
It also mentions that the Video Recording Format could be made compliant with DVD video but hasn't, you can probably guess the reason why.
As for copy protection macrovision is added on output and is not encoded onto the disk. Thus using the analogue input (scrubbed of macrovision) it should be possible to copy disks. As far as I know no one has incorporated an analogue Copy Generation Management System into DVD. I assume that the digital system will let you make one digital copy of a disk then stop any further copies. The disks that have CSS would probably have the appropriate flags to stop digital output working on a player with this facility (non exist yet).
The article goes further:
I assume that this means that each DVD-RW contains a ID so that only their disks can be used. However I don't see how this could be used to prevent unorthorized copies (you just need to use their recorders and media).It is not at all clear if you could record digital TV (cable or satallite) in a digital manor onto these devices. Would the cable company for you to pay for the privilege of recording their programs or would they prevent it and force you to buy a device such as a ReplayTV ?
In short this is a technology that has been hamstrung by the movie studios.
-dp
Introduction of Copy Protection Technology
The DVR-1000 complies with all available copy protection technologies {e.g. response to CGMS (Copy Generation Management System) signal and detection of Macrovision signal}, to protect copyrighted visual content from unauthorized copying which contradicts the intention of copyright owners. Furthermore, the DVR-1000 implements secure media ID detection functions, which form a key element in disabling playback of discs containing unauthorized copies. DVD-RW blank discs also contain the technology to prevent successful copying of discs protected by CSS* (Contents Scramble System).
*CSS is the encryption technology used for DVD-Video discs.
I wonder how well the encryption is on this.
Oh no, they'll probably prosecute me under the DMCA for talking about their propietary CSS standard. No, that doesn't make much sense, but the MPAA doesn't make much sense either...
There's a special chip inside each of these devices that sends a special signal to Lars via mental telepathy.
Not only will he come and get you (and hold you upside down and shake you until your wallet falls out) but each signal that he recieves makes him even MORE annoying.
BEWARE!
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Pioneer to sell first recordable DVD decks