detail information

Recording to DVD: 

From our first experience with this DVD recorder, it appears that anyone who is fit to operate a VCR will have no problem recording a DVD on this recorder.  Just pop in a blank disc, allow it to initialise, set the channel and press record!  In fact, apart from the lack of rewind and fast-forward (except during playback), the controls are identical to a typical VCR.  Of course, there are a few advantages with the DVD in that when one presses record, the DVD recorder will always start recording within the free space, unlike a VHS tape where the user has to make sure they fast-forward to the blank section first.  However if someone did want to overwrite a recording, it is possible to set the marker on which recording to begin overwriting from, just as one can rewind a VHS tape to start overwriting from a certain place.

Preparing to record on DVD

While a blank VHS tape does not need any initialisation to begin recording to, unfortunately recordable DVDs all need to be initialised first regardless of the DVD recorder.  This DVD recorder has a nice feature in that it automatically initialises blank DVD+R, DVD+RW and DVD-R media the moment the disc is loaded, so the consumer does not have to worry about this process, although it does take up to a minute for the process complete. 

When a DVD-RW disc is loaded, the DVD recorder gives the option of whether to perform quick or full initialisation as shown in the following screenshot:

Regardless of which initialisation method is chosen, the recorder offers the same recording features such as recording, playback, overwriting, protecting, etc.  However, it does affect what happens if the user wants to play their disc back in a DVD player.  With quick initialisation, the disc must be finalised when the user needs to be able to playback the disc elsewhere, however with full preparation, the disc works in the same way as with a DVD+RW where the disc is always ready for playback in other equipment.  The drawback with full preparation is that it will take about 30 minutes with a 2x DVD-RW disc.  However, once the disc has been prepared, it does not need to be prepared again unless the user erases the disc in another DVD recorder or a PC.  Quick initialisation also has a drawback in that once the disc is finalised, it must be erased before it can be reused and there is no way to bring up the initialisation method screen unless the disc is erased in a PC DVD-Writer. 

When the recorder prepares the disc, it shows the preparation process on-screen.  As we mentioned earlier, this process takes place automatically when a DVD-R, DVD+R or DVD+RW disc is loaded or after the preparation method is selected with a DVD-RW disc:

Recording to DVD

After the initialisation completes, it is possible to begin a recording like with a VCR.  By default, the DVD recorder is set to record in Standard Play with an automatic chapter mark every five minutes; however this can be easily changed in the setup menu by selecting the 'Recording' icon in the setup menu (discussed in the previous page of this review):

To summarise, the play modes HQ, SP, LP, EP and SLP fit up to 1, 2, 3, 4 and 6 hours of recording on a DVD respectively. 

To begin immediate recording, simply select the channel or input source (AV, DV, etc.) and press record.  For scheduled recordings, the user can set up a timer, which works in the same way as a VCR timer.  We will cover timers later in the review.  The following info is shown on screen during a recording:

When a recording is taking place, the left timer shows the recording time taken place for this recording and the right timer shows the maximum length for this recording.  The maximum time either depends on how much free space is left or how much space is left before the next protected recording when overwriting existing content.  This info remains on the screen during the recording, however it can be toggled on and off by pressing the 'Display' button on the remote.  A recording duration can be set up in 30 minute intervals up to the disc's capacity by repetitively pressing the Record button.

It is possible to pause a recording or insert a chapter during a recording.  A chapter can be inserted at this current point by pressing the 'Edit' button on the remote.  When the recording process is stopped, the recorder will take about 20 seconds to finish off the current recording. 

DVD Title Menu

During the initialisation stage, the DVD recorder automatically sets up a title menu, which can contain up to 6 recordings.  Once a page is filled, the recorder will automatically add another page.  The very last title shown (on the last page) shows the remaining free space on the disc with the current play mode:

The pen symbol indicates which part of the disc the DVD recorder will begin writing to during the next recording.  If this pen symbol is shown below an existing recording's thumbnail, this recording and potentially subsequent recordings (if not protected) will be overwritten during the next recording.  A title can be played by simply highlighting it and pressing 'Enter'.  If the stop button is pressed or 'Exit' is selected on the title screen, the recorder will return back to the broadcast mode, just like a VCR when playback has been stopped. 

Finalising a DVD and playback in other DVD players

DVD-RW discs formatted with full preparation and DVD+RW discs can both be played in another DVD player immediately after a recording has taken place.  However unlike VHS tapes, DVD-R, DVD+R and quick-prepared DVD-RW discs all must be finalised first before they can be played elsewhere.  When we try to play a non-finalised disc in either of our standalone DVD players, the NeoDigits player will either keep on trying to read the disc or shows 'Disc Error' and ejects the disc and the Sony DVD player displays 'No Disc', after about 20 to 30 seconds of trying. 

Finalising a disc is fairly straight forward.  The finalising tool can be found on the tools menu as shown below:

Select 'Finalize' and press enter to bring up the finalisation screen:

Once the finalisation process takes place on a DVD-R or DVD+R, it is no longer possible to make any further recordings to the disc regardless of what free space it may have left.  Finalised DVD-RW discs need to be erased before they can be used for recording again.  The finalisation stage takes around 40 to 80 seconds to complete depending on the speed of the disc.  Once we start the finalisation process, the recorder shows the finalisation taking place until it is complete.  With DVD-RW discs, the percentage counter clocks up as the finalisation takes place, however unfortunately when we finalise DVD+R or DVD-R media, it jumps straight to 92% and shows this figure until the finalisation process has completed.  The following screenshot is taken during the finalisation of a DVD-RW disc:

Once the disc is finalised, the following screen will show.  At this point, it is possible to remove the disc and play it another DVD player:

The following screen shows the title screen we get when we play the disc in any of our DVD players:

If we select a title, the title begins playing back.  Once a consumer experiences what it is like to playback any title without the tedious fast forwarding or rewinding to find the start of a recording, this is where DVD recorder really shows its advantage over VHS.  Nothing happens when we select the 'EMPTY' title and if we select 'Exit', the DVD stops as if we pressed the stop button.

If we attempt to record to a finalised disc (in this case a finalised DVD-RW), the recording process will simply fail as shown below:

As DVD+RW and fully prepared DVD-RW discs can be played straight away in another DVD player without finalising, it is not possible to finalise these discs.  In fact, if we attempt to finalise either disc or a disc that is already finalised, we are presented with the following screen:

Erasing a DVD-RW or DVD+RW

The quickest way to erase all titles off a rewritable DVD is to erase the disc.  This tool can be accessed in the 'Disc Tools' menu and is as straight forward to use as with finalising a disc:

Like with finalising a DVD+R or DVD-R, this DVD recorder will show '92%' through the duration of erasing the disc, even from the moment we press the 'Enter' button!

During the erasing process, the disc is automatically initialised, which means that once the user selects 'Exit' the disc is immediately reading for recording again.  The erasing process takes roughly around a minute depending on the speed of the disc.  Unfortunately, when we erase a DVD-RW disc, it keeps the original preparation mode.  For example, if we erase a quick prepared DVD-RW, it will still remain quick prepared after the erasing process has completed.  The only way to get back to the screen where it gives the choice of quick or full preparation is to erase the DVD-RW in a PC (a quick-erase is sufficient).

DVD+RW and DVD-RW discs that already have data need to be erased before they can be written to.  Interestingly DVD+RW discs must still be erased even if they have already been erased in a PC.  However in either case, like erasing a disc previously recorded to by this DVD recorder, the disc is automatically initialised.  Even after we performed a full erase on a DVD+RW on our PC, the DVD still recorder would not recognise the disc as a blank (until we used the DVD recorder's erase tool):