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Taiwanese Makers Will Squeeze DVD Recorder Prices
GeXX points out this PC World article predicting vastly lower prices on DVD recorders, in large part because cheap, high-volume Taiwanese manufacturers will have a greater percentage of the market, currently dominated by Japanese makers.
DVD players have never been cheaper, i can get a player with a fantastic range of features (DVD,DivX,XVid,MP3,WMA,S/K/VCD) for 50 smackers!, think of the huge energy resources that went into creating it all for a throw away price
Err, I think they mean consumer DVD recorders that take the place of your VHS recorder (since they mention MPEG2 chips). These are still not $110 (65) a piece, so hold your horses.
You can already get an 8x dual-format DVD burner for $70, which (IMO) is very cheap as it is for a DVD burner. If you don't mind going slower, you can get a 4x for around $50, or slower ones for even cheaper. And if you go refurbished...
What I'd like to see is concentration on faster drives and, more importantly, faster and cheaper MEDIA! We already have 12x drives and dual-layer drives, but that doesn't help us if nobody can find and/or afford the fast/high-capacity media to burn in those drives!
These days, it's actually not uncommon to be looked at strangely if you pull a 3.5" disc out of your briefcase. In a few years, a 3.5" disc will be as much of an exotic, strange relict as 5.25" discs are today. Many people these days, have never even seen or used a ZIP drive or a magnetic tape.
As DVD records become cheaper (I rememeber when they were around $1500 not too long ago and people would ask why anyone would want a DVD burner) and, perhaps more importantly, DVD media reaches price levels currently associated with CD-R media more and more low-budget computers will come equipped with DVD-burners and not CD-RW drives.
That's, at least in my humble opinion, one of the main reason CD-RW never really took off. There was just no reason to use rewriteable CDs. With relatively high-capacitiy recordable DVDs becoming widely available, CD-Rs just became so cheap there was no reason to reuse a CD-R.
In a couple of years, CD-R will only be used to burn audio CDs. Most computers can already read DVDs so there's no reason for DVD-R/DVD+R not to be used even more widely.
And the next DVD standard is already in the pipelines. Early adopters, new developments, consumer demand and, probably, the industry's demand for IP protection will eventually push the prices down enough for the new standards to replace the current DVD standard. The only thing that I think could interfere with this cycle is distributed computing along with truely distributed storage.
That's a good point why is it that a DVD burner costs (in Australia) $150-$200 while a DVD recorder costs ~$1200? Like when you consider say a TV tuner card for $100 (which I believe is quite expensive, I haven't looked at them for a long time) you can record TV with your computer for $300 tops. Now does it really cost $900 for the dedicated ADC chip to encode the AV signal?
Outside hardware manufacturers are less likely to be controlled by hollywood so hopefully we can get cheap hardware that also ignores drm right? - broadcast flags, fast-forward flags etc. If the market can be flooded with these things then people will be less likely to take the MPAAs bullshit on broadcast flags. Technically they wouldnt be able to use the DVD logo but its not like the music industry cares about messing with formats (RIAA and MPAA are pretty much the same thing).
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When VCR's were as cheap as $100 and came with all the bells and whistles, I bought a Sony that cost $500. On the surface, that didn't make any sense to most anyone at the time. However, 10 years later I still have that VCR and it functions as well as the day I bought it. The only problem I've had with it is the occasional head demag and I've had to replace grease that had crystalized and wasn't allowing the tape-grab assembly from keeping tension on the tape as it inserted/ejected the tape.
So, I can get a DVD Recorder cheap but can I buy only one and enjoy its use till the media format nears obsolescence?
Mod me troll, if you must, I can't help it.
I have a Philips DVDR-70 which records from an integral analogue TV receiver, external satellite receiver or auxiliary device connected to a set of audio and video sockets on the front, and uses "plus" media (DV+R, DVD+R/W). There is an RF passthrough but no remodulator, so you need a telly with at least one SCART. Initial set-up is mostly automatic and all menu-driven. If you have an ultra-modern telly with EasyLink, set-up is even easier as it will use the SCART cable to transfer your settings from the TV to the recorder.
The unit has RGB outputs on the "TV" SCART (with a full picture signal on the timing/picture pin) and RGB inputs on the "AUX" SCART, so you can get a high quality picture if your kit is RGB-capable (most TVs and Sat RXs are).
There are six recording modes: M1 (better than TV broadcast -- intended for digital and high-bandwidth analogue camcorders) gives one hour on a 4.7GB disc. M2 (pre-recorded DVD quality) gives two hours, M2X gives 150 minutes, M3 gives three hours, M4 (VHS short-play quality) gives four hours, and M6 (still better than VHS long-play quality) gives six hours. I mostly use M4 for stuff I want to save, since the media are so expensive right now, but when the price of media comes down I will be using M2 for everything.
As you record, chapter marks are automatically inserted every five minutes; but you can add and delete chapter marks at will after the recording is done. You can even mark chapters as 'not to be shown' -- no need to faff around with the pause key in the advert breaks during the recording phase. Everything between pressing "record" and pressing "stop" is considered a single title, but you can (irreversibly) split a title later. You can also add a name to each title.
The DVDs you make can be watched on a PC (yes, even with Linux, which I use exclusively) and on some TV-based DVD players -- more modern ones, at any rate. My old one couldn't handle them. There is a procedure mentioned in the manual which is reckoned to make the discs playable on other equipment, but I had already sold the old machine before I got to try it.
The only complaint I have about the unit is that the screen freezes or cuts to a menu whenever the unit is busy. This can be disconcerting at first, but the picture quality makes up for it. Also, it would have been nice if the machine could grab the subtitles on page 888 and record them as DVD subtitles -- but that's a nitpick of the highest order. By the way, some Betamax recorders used to be able to record enough of the teletext signal, transmitted in the frame retrace period, for you to read the teletext, but I'm sure this was a happy accident rather than a design feature.
When the CD recorders first appeared cheaply (less than $200 US) about six years ago, I bought one from Mitsumi and it lasted eight months with light use. They wouldn't honor the warranty; they wouldn't pick up the telephone for the customer-support line or answer e-mails.
A second CDRW, a BTC, lasted eleven months before dying and I was able to get a warranty replacement that still works five years later. A third, a brand and model recommended as a best-buy by PC World magazine lasted six months. Again a worthless warranty due to the companie's refusal to answer e-mail or phone calls.
My current CD-RW, an Artec WRA, has lasted two years with no problems with moderate use.
So with time, devices like CD/DVD writers get better in quality even as the price drops.
I considered buying a 8x DVD writer for $99 at the local discount electronics store. But, reviewing my notes at the difficulties with the quality of early CD recorders made me postpone buying one. I'll wait several more years, or until I have a pressing need to put 4.7Gig on a single disk.
I've found that using the 'DVDdecoder' program I can copy movies from DVDs to my hard drive in VOB files that are 700 megabytes in size each. In this manner a movie can be backed up from DVD to CD-R using about six or seven CDs per film. It's inconvenient, yes, but it does work until the DVD recorders become more reliable.
Thank you,
A Hauppague PVR-250 and 350 cost something like $150 and $250, respectively, and both have on-board MPEG and some other goodies, although I think they only record 480x480 when the standard for NTSC DVD is 720x480.
I do agree some tuners on the cheap cards are somewhat nasty, and the chip capturing that tuned signal sometimes isn't so hot either. Unless you reneed Linux support, I suggest using Philip's SAA series chips over BookTree's (now Connexant) 8x8 series. Connexant does make a better video capture chip, 238xx series, I think, which happens to be somewhat compatible with the old Bt8x8 series.