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Could CDRW Disks Replace Videotapes?
NewtonsLaw asks: "I'm in the process of building a TiVo-like PC that uses off-the-shelf technology to implement video timeshift, MPEG recording, MP3 recording, etc along with Net-radio functionality. Over the past two months I've effectively replaced VHS video tapes with CDRW disks. Once a program has been captured on the PC in (S)VCD MPEG format, I can either watch it by playing back the recorded file or dump it onto a CDRW and watch it on my DVD player, before blanking the disk and returning it to the 'empty' pile. What I've noticed is that most of the CDRWs I've tried only last about 30-40 rewrites before they start showing significant data dropouts (almost always at the start of a recording). Since disks in (S)VCD format don't carry the same level of error-checking/correction as disks written in regular data format, such dropouts are more noticeable than they would otherwise be (of course the up-side is that you get to store 805MB on a 700MB CDR/RW without overburn).
What I want to know is -- how many rewrites do most people expect from their CDRW media? I seem to recall seeing a figure of a thousand rewrite cycles being touted by some manufacturers. Is this realistic? Thirty rewrites makes a $2.50 RW disk an economic medium for this purpose but it seems a hell of a long way short of 1,000."
"I've tried CDRW disks from several manufacturers and they're being used in a new Sony CDRW drive which seems to function just fine. I've also encountered a slightly shorter lifetime for CDRW media when used for (S)VCD disks and written by a slightly older HP CDR/RW drive.
And before anyone asks 'Why don't you just play directly from the HD?', I should point out that I have to share the TV gear in this house with the rest of the family so it's just easier to burn their stuff to disk and let them use the DVD player than to fight over access to the TiVo-clone."
One of the small-town grocery stores nearby actually sells CD-Rs and CD-RWs at pretty decent prices, and place them next to the blank VHS tapes in the store. Seeing as to how they're becoming more ubiquitous, and devices like the Terapin VCD Recorder (at http://www.thinkgeek.com/electronics/video/57a6/) are starting to appear, perhaps CD-RWs could give VHS a run for its money, with comparable video and audio quality, as well as interoperability with a computer. For instance, you just missed Everybody Loves Raymond, so you hit KaZaA and somebody uploaded a VCD for you. So yeah, they've got their merits.
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And the Angel said unto me, "These are the cries of the carrots! The cries of the carrots!"
how many rewrites do most people expect from their CDRW media
Zero. Actually, I find that CDRW are actually CDW. I can write to them, but I never expect to be able to read back from them. I've tried on dozens of CDRW drives, and I've never had luck archiving for a month or more on CDRW. Sure, "most" of the time it works - but it falls far short of my expected success ratios.
I've learned not to trust CDRW. I always use CDR instead.
Education is the silver bullet.
Wow... amazing how people don't get it.
If it's on a CD in SVCD format then you can take it to nearly any DVD player, stick it in, and watch. That's it.
If you're limited to a computer then you're paying 4-10x the money for the playback device and you can't transport it. Want to record something for someone else, or to take to a friend's house and watch? Too bad. Want to send a recording of an important TV show to family or friends? Nope. Can't do.
Not to mention that labeling a CD as "Junkyard Wars, Season 5, Episode 3" makes it a whole lot easier for a non-techie to deal with than some obscure location on a poorly integrated HTPC.
I'm the guy who posted the story and I'm documenting my experiences and the project at aardvark.co.nz/pvr/.
:-)
What you say has some merit -- SVCD is certainly streets ahead of VCD in terms of image quality.
However, DivX is not quite the ogre you make it out to be.
For a start, it takes no more CPU to encode DivX format as it does to do a *good* job of multi-pass MPEG encoding.
On a 1.8GHz P4, TMPGenc takes around 6-8 hours to encode a 100 minute movie into an MPEG2 file to SVCD standards using multipass variable-bit-rate encoding.
You can get faster multi-pass MPEG2 encoders but they are *expensive* -- TMPGEnc is free for MPEG1 encoding and costs (from memory) just $49 for the version with MPEG2 capabilities.
By comparison, the same machine usually does a multi-pass DivX encoding in just a fraction that time.
In respect to playback, the DivX codec is quite nice insomuch as it allows some optimizations and post-processing to be performed as the video is played. This means you can create a video file that is able to be played back on a variety of different machines with different CPU-powers -- such that the faster machine will produce a better result but the slower machine will still play without pauses or stuttering.
In the past couple of months I've downloaded and evaluated hundreds of MB of applications, drivers, documentation, etc for all manner of commercial and freeware PVR solutions. These will all be compared on my site shortly.
I'm also about to publish my findings on the Haupaugge PVR card which does hardware-based MPEG1 and MPEG2 encoding -- thus freeing up the PC's CPU and allowing more "headroom". This is important when you're trying to do things such as timeshift or concurrent record/playback.
Linux-based software solutions are also being evaluated but unfortunately (damn it!) there are only two or three that appear to have much merit.
Given Microsoft's agenda to hog-tie all video and audio with DRM I'd really like to come up with a Linux based (and preferably OSS) option that is reliable, functional and ergonomic.
The truth will (eventually) be revealed