View Full Version : real time DVD recorders


Jerry Mohn
May 19th, 2005, 01:08 PM
I know that most all dvd recorders record to mpeg-2, what I would like to know is can a dvd recorder do a quick start like rolling a vhs tape to record. I am looking for a cheap dvd recorder to be used to transcribe interviews, I don't care about quality I just need the sound and video to me mpeg-1 quality. Anyone know of a pretty durable dvd recorder that you can carry in a case with your other gear.

Daniel Kohl
May 23rd, 2005, 02:50 AM
Hi Jerry,

you might want to look into this device.

http://www.ffv.com/documents/MiniDVR_001.pdf

I don't really know anything about it other than what is advertised on the above web page.

The thing looks highly mobile and compact. If is would record in DV quality, it would be exactly what I have been looking for. I think that the mjpeg compression is comparable if not better than mpg-1 though. I don't know off-hand, what mjpeg looks like when it is recomposed to mpg 2, but if that were acceptable for your purposes, then this device might be an interesting option for you. You could record to this device and then either make a DVD recording from that with a hardware DVD recorder or use a laptop to convert it to whatever.

To answer your question though, I haven't heard of a DVD recorder that records mpg-1. All of the ones I have looked at, have several bit rate options though, which amount to what SSP (super short play),SP, LP, and XLP would be on a video tape recorder. I don't know why you want to record as mpg-1, I'm guessing it's so that you can record longer sessions. XLP would achieve something like this for you on a normal DVD recorder. One thing that I have noticed though, is that I cannot make a disc image copy of a DVD recorded in XLP, whereas there is no problem doing that with the other recording "speeds".

I hope that this is a help.

Cheers