detail information

Time shifting is a feature that is common with most hard drive based video recorders, which basically allows one to control live TV as if it was a recording.  The differences are that one cannot rewind before the point where they activated time shifting or fast forward beyond what is currently broadcasting and that content stored while time shifting is lost once the user deactivates the time shifting feature or changes channel.

To use time shifting, the user must watch the channel through the Lite-On Recorder.  Then press 'Time Shift' on the remote to activate time shifting.  Once Time shifting has been activated, the picture remains in a paused state until the user presses 'Play' again.  The Time Shifting feature requires at least 10 seconds of recording before the picture can be unpaused; otherwise a 'Not Allowed' symbol will appear. 

While Time Shifting is taking place, the total length of the time shift recording is shown on-screen (to the right) along with current position (to the left).  This  info can be toggled on or off by pressing 'Display':

While the time shifting feature is active, the user can fast forward as far as 10 seconds before what is live, rewind to as far as the time when they activated time shifting or pause the picture.  For example, if the telephone rings during a programme, the user can pause the picture for the duration of the call and then later on use fast forward to skip commercials or at least skip scenes until 10 seconds before what is live.

Time shifting does have a few drawbacks in that it is not possible to start a recording while time shifting is active and it is not possible to do any other operation such as change channels, watch another recording or a DVD (with this Recorder) or set up timers unless the time shifting feature is first turned off.  The Time shifting feature can be turned off by pressing the 'Time Shift' button again.  This purges all the stored content during the time shifting.  Unfortunately, it is no possible to save any content buffered-up during time shifting.

VHS Video Recorders have a few drawbacks in that it is incredibly simple to accidentally overwrite a recording by inserting a wrong tape (without write protection) or run into the issue where there is a programme ready to start and there is no blank tape handy.  Well, with a HDD based Video Recorder, those days are gone as whenever the user starts a recording, the Recorder automatically starts recording using the free space available on the HDD.  Should the HDD get full, the Recorder will not overwrite anything by simply refusing to record until the user removes some existing recordings.

To prepare to begin a recording, ensure the Recorder is set to 'HDD' mode.  The recording quality will depend on which recording mode the user has this set to (see 'Setting the recording options" in page 3).  There are several methods to start a recording, such as through the 'Easy Guider', setting up a scheduled recording to simply pressing the 'Record' button.  Recording using the 'Easy Guider' and through a timer will be discussed in the later sections.

Unfortunately, unlike some other HDD based Video Recorders, it is not possible watch another recording, play a DVD (in this Recorder) or adjust any other settings while a recording is taking place.

Direct Recording

To do a direct recording, simply ensure the correct channel is showing and press 'Record'.  During the recording, it shows how much is recorded along with an estimate of how recording time remains on the HDD:

While recording, a chapter mark can be inserted at the present spot by pressing 'Edit'.  The duration that the recording goes on for can be set by press the 'Record' button a 2^nd time to set the recording duration to 30 minutes and then repetitively to increase the recording duration in steps of 30 minutes (up to 6 hours).

Unlike most other DVD recorders, this Recorder has a very nice feature in that it can record video to recordable CDs also.  This can be useful such as for recording an episode of a show, transferring content from an 8mm camcorder or otherwise making a short recording where having DVD quality is not important.  For transferring 30 minute Hi-8 camcorder recording, the Super Video CD feature would be ideal in this case, especially if the user wants to use a separate disc for each tape and prefers a higher quality recording than with Video CD.

Preparing a CD for recording

Recording video to a blank CD-R or CD-RW is fairly similar to recording to HDD.  The Recorder will only record content to a disc that is either blank or has not been finalised.  To begin, insert a suitable disc to use.  If a blank disc is inserted, the following screen will appear:

When recording to CD, there is a choice of two quality modes.  These are Video CD and Super Video CD.  Once the desired mode is selected, this cannot be changed later on.

Recording to CD

Like recording to HDD, recording to Video CD can be performed either by a schedule, through the Easy Guider or by simply ensuring the Recorder is in 'DVD' mode on the correct channel and then simply pressing 'Record'.  While recording, the recording process and estimated available recording time information can be toggled on or off by pressing 'Display':

Unlike recording to HDD or DVD, it is not possible to insert a chapter mark while recording.  However, a new track is created for each new recording. 

Finalising a CD

While recorded content on Video CD can be played back in the Lite-On Recorder, it cannot be played back anywhere else without first finalising the disc.  For example, if we try popping this disc into our standalone DVD player, we get the following result:

The 'C:13:00" error basically means that the player is unable to read the disc. 

Finalising the disc closes off the session as well as writes the lead-in and lead-out to allow the disc to be played back in a Video CD or DVD player (that supports Video CD-R/RW's).  To perform the finalising process, press the 'Tools' button:

Select 'Finalize (Make Compatible)' and press 'Enter':

Ensure 'Go !' is highlighted and press 'Enter'.  The finalising process takes a moment to complete and the progress is shown.  In our case, it took just over a minute to finalise a 4x CD-RW disc.  Once complete, the following screen shows:

Once the disc has been finalised, it will play in pretty much any player that supports Video CD on CD-R and CD-RW.  The following screen appears once the disc is placed in a suitable player.  In this case, our Sony standalone player:

Erasing a CD-RW

Unfortunately, unlike a video cassette, it is not possible to delete an individual recording, overwrite existing content or edit content on a CD-RW.  Also, once a CD-RW has been finalised, it is not possible to even add content to the CD-RW.  The only way to reuse a CD-RW is to erase it. 

To erase a CD-RW, first press the 'Tools' button:

Ensure 'Erase' is highlighted and press 'Enter':

Ensure 'DVD' is selected.  It would not be very wise to accidentally erase its HDD!  Then press 'Enter':

Finally ensure 'Go !' is highlighted and press 'Enter'.  The erasing process takes up to a minute to complete depending on the speed of the rewritable disc.  For a 4X media we have at hand, it takes roughly 1 minute to erase the disc.  There is no option to perform a full erase, but then again unless one is planning on erasing a confidential recording to prevent it being recovered by any means, the lack of this feature will not be an issue for most users.  Once complete, the following screen will appear:

This is the first standalone Recorder that we have come across that can record an Audio CD without requiring special 'Audio' CD-R or CD-RW media.  The advantage here is that the user can use the cheaper standard CD-R or CD-RW media with this Recorder. 

There are a few cases in which using the Recorder has an advantage over using a PC.  For example, if the user's PC has a basic on-board soundcard, the Recorder would likely give much superior recording quality than recording on the PC.  There is no risk in an application hogging the resources such as with a PC.  Finally, the Recorder is more portable than an average PC, so it can easily be set up near a record player or other Hi-Fi equipment to record from.  Even without a TV handy, the display and font controls on the Recorder are enough to work front to making recordings to CD as shown below in this section.

Preparing a CD for recording

Recording an Audio CD works in pretty much the same way as recording a Video CD with the exception no video is recorded to the disc.  To prepare a blank CD-R or CD-RW for recording, simply load it in the Recorder and the following screen will appear:

Ensure 'Audio Recording' is highlighted and press 'Enter'.  The disc is ready for recording within a few seconds, even in the case for a 4x CD-RW.  If a TV is not handy, such as if the Recorder is setup near some audio playback or Hi-Fi equipment as the source, simply wait until 'CD' and '-RW' shows on the Recorder's display and press 'Enter'.  'CDDA' will show on the display once the disc is ready to use.  Audio can be recorded from any of the Recorder's input sources, but for this example, we'll use the Front AV.  Repetitively press the 'Source' button until 'Front AV' appears or in the case without a TV, until 'A-1 in' appears on the Recorder's display as shown below:

As with recording to Video CD, DVD or even HDD, it is possible to schedule a timer to record to an Audio CD, use the Easy Guider or simply by pressing record.  In this case, we have hooked up the front AV's L + R phono ports up to the line-out of our CD player for this example. 

Recording to CD

To begin a direct recording, simply press the 'Record' button.  Recording takes place the moment the 'Record' button is pressed, so press record as soon as the playback starts on the Cassette, Record, MiniDisc or other connected player.  The recording process is shown both on screen and on the Recorder's display as shown below:

To start a new track, simply press the 'EDIT' button and the Recorder will start a new track with a 2 second pause.  The Recorder also starts a new track for each new recording. 

Unfortunately, like with recording Video CD, there is no way to edit, delete or overwrite existing content on an Audio CD.  If a mistake is made during a recording, the user has no choice but to get a new CD-R or erase the disc in the case with CD-RW and start over. 

Finalising the Audio CD

In order to play the disc in CD player, the disc must be finalised first.  For, example, if we try to play a non-finalised disc in our portable CD player, it shows 'Disc Error'.  Note that once the finalisation process has taken place, it is not possible to add more content to the disc.

To finalise the disc, the same steps are followed as with finalising a Video CD.  However, to do this without a TV connected, press buttons in the following order:  Tools, Down-arrow, Enter and Enter.  The finalisation progress is shown both on screen and on the Recorder's display (percentage shown in red):

Once the finalisation is complete, the Recorder's display returns to what it previously showed and 'Completed' will be shown on screen.  Simply press 'Enter' to exit out of this. 

Just to show that the Recorder can record a regular audio CD player, we popped it in our portable CD player with the following result:

Finally, another test in our standalone Sony DVD player:

From what we can see, Lite-On has made recording to DVD as fool proof as possible.  It is as simple as popping in a blank DVD, selecting the channel, set to DVD mode and press record.

Recording to DVD works in pretty much the same way as recording to its internal HDD, with the exception that certain editing features are limited on DVD-R/RW and DVD+R.  DVD+RW (and DVD-RW prepared using full preparation) supports pretty much all the video editing options that are available with content on HDD apart from joining video recordings.  A recording on a DVD can only be merged with the previous or next recording of matching quality, where as a recording on HDD can be merged any other recording of matching quality.

Preparing to record on DVD

One nice feature with this Lite-On Recorder is that it automatically initialises a blank disc upon loading it, apart from DVD-RW.  However, the user will need to set the recording quality based on whether they want a high quality recording or to fit more content on a DVD, just like selecting between the different play modes on VHS.

When a blank DVD-RW disc is loaded, the following screen will appear:

DVD+RW has the advantage that the disc can be played back in any DVD player without having to finalise it.  Up until recently, the same also applied with DVD-RW, however in order to allow DVD-RW to be played in another player with finalisation, it needs a full preparation, unlike DVD+RW.  The DVD-RW full preparation process takes about 15 minutes for 4x media or about 30 minutes for 2x media. Preparation with other DVD media and quick preparation with DVD-RW media generally takes between a few seconds to less than a minute.

The recording settings are available by going into Setup and navigating down to the 'Record' thumbnail, as with for recording to HDD:

Like with recording to HDD, the recording quality and maximum recording time will depend on which recording mode the user has this set to (see 'Setting the recording options" in page 3).  To summarise, the modes HQ, SP, LP, EP and SLP offer recording times of up to 1, 2, 3, 4 and 6 hours respectively. 

The Chapter Mark interval inserts a chapter mark every set amount of minutes of recording.  Like with playing back content from HDD, chapter marks allow the user to quickly skip ahead or back without being restricted to the maximum fast forward or rewind speed of 16x.

Recording to DVD

Recording to DVD works similar to recording to VHS and can be performed either by a schedule, through the easy guider or by simply pressing record with the correct channel on and Recorder set to 'DVD' mode.  While recording, the remaining time is shown on screen and this can be toggled on or off by pressing 'Display':

While recording, it is possible to insert a chapter by pressing 'EDIT' and like with a VCR it is also possible to pause the recording. 

Finalising a DVD

Unfortunately, unlike a VCR, it is not possible to playback recorded content on a DVD+R, DVD-R or DVD-RW (initialised with 'Quick Preparation') on another DVD player without first finalising the disc.  The finalisation process is identical to the procedure for Video CDs (see the above section for finalising a Video CD).  Just be warned that DVD-RW's prepared with quick initialisation can take up to 15 minutes or 30 minutes to finalise with 4x or 2x media respectively, especially if the disc has very little recorded content.

DVD-RW initialised with a full preparation and DVD+RW are an exception, which cannot be finalised.  Like a VHS tape, it is possible to play these in any other player immediately after recording as well as pop them back in the Recorder to make further recordings or changes on them.  However, it does have a drawback in that it takes up to half a minute to stop a recording since it must update the disc's table of contents.  With other media, once the disc has been finalised, the content on the disc is locked.

The following snapshot shows the DVD+RW's menu after making several recordings to it, played back in our Sony standalone DVD player:

Video CD Recording Quality

In our opinion, the recording quality using the standard Video CD mode is pretty much on par with the average VCR, however with the advantage of not having colour washing, lines, shaky picture and all the other issues associated with an aging video tape or dirty VCR heads.  Further quality tests will be performed later on in the review.

The following image shows what the above scene looks like recorded on Video CD: