Know anything about DVD-R recorders or recording to a Hard Drive?
 

I have two GL2's outputting through S-Video to a mixer board - from there it outputs from S Video to a VHS recorder. I want to record on to DVD from now on , however I'm wondering if a DVD recorder is the best thing to go with? I know some of them have HD's built in which seems like a safer alternative to me in case the DVD-r fails to write. Also I saw one the other day that had a DV -1394 link on it. Would I be able to hook it up to a computer and download the files from it in real time? or at least would that give me access to the HD if it had one? -- any other suggestions would also be helpful. THanks

I bought one of the earlier Sony DVD recorders without a hard drive (man, they were expensive a few years ago!). I can only think of one time that I had a bad disk, but you do raise a good point there.

All of the better ones have firewire. I really haven't looked at DVD recorders recently, but in the past most of them only had firewire IN. So you could record directly from your camera or computer via firewire, but you couldn't capture from the recorder via firewire. Only the most expensive pro models had firewire OUT, but that may be different today. Caveat Emptor; read the unit's specs very carefully before buying.

Of course you also need to realize that everything recorded to the DVD or internal hard drive will be MPEG compressed and not DV. However, when using highest quality (1 hour per disk) it looks very good on my Sony. An internal HD might also be handy if you want to record more than 1 hour at a time. Most DVD recorders also have s-video input, so you could continue to use that if you choose.

I use a Sony DVD recorder that has a firewire input (IN only) for just that. Direct recording to DVD without any time lost

Works well but dfont forget it takes time to prepare and close disks

I generally dont use it while at a shoot. At the shoot i use a FireStore to record to hard disc. then you can copy directly from the firestore to DVD or i also use a JVC MiniDVD/VHS VCR with firewire IN/OUT to copy to VHS if nessecary

Mark

You might want to look in the “ Direct-to-Disk (Tape less) Recording Solutions “ form. I personally use a Firestore-4 (basic version) with a 40G drive. Has both Fire wire input and output as well as multiple file formats, RAW DV, AVI Type 1, AVI Type 2 and Canopus AVI. Yes they are a little pricey but much time is make up in just hooking up to your computer and transferring the files just like any other hard drive.
There are also other options mentioned in the form.

I use a Sony DVD/HDD recorder with firewire input. Recording first in HQ+ (15Mb/sec) allows me to make a VBR DVD copy which looks better to me on busy scenes (motion combined with details) than a direct DVD copy.

I have a Sony with a 160 gb hard drive which records both +R & -R. It has firewire in only which is fine for me. After your project is on the hard drive I put in a blank dvd and select dubbing. After the project is written on the dvd, it only takes about 4mins. to finalize disc. I am very happy with it.

Bob J. Trimmer