I'm tired of trying to get various analog capture cards to work. As an
alternative I've been thinking about getting a DVD recorder such as a
Pioneer DVR-520H, Toshiba RS-TX60, Sony RDR-HX900 or Panasonic DMR-E85H,
capturing to hard drive on the DVD recorder, doing a small amount of editing
on the unit, then dubbing to DVD and bringing this in to Premier. I'm
looking for good quality video capture and even though I have access to
Premier I would like a reasonable set of editing features on the DVD
recorder. Any comments or suggestions?

paul

On Sun, 10 Oct 2004 18:06:43 -0700, "Paul J"
<nospamtodayplease@nowhere.com> wrote:

Did you try the cheapest ones? They are the best.

Then you are looking for the JVC DRMH30.

I like my Panasonic DMR-E100. It has a 120GB HDD and does a good job
of cutting out the bad stuff and leaving a nice clean CUT edit. In
most cases you will not even know something was cut out. It writes
to DVD-R and DVD-RAM. The last version of Premiere I had (6.01 LE)
did not edit Mpeg2 files so unless yours does, I don't think that
would be an option?

The only editing feature you are going to find on a DVD recorder is
the CUT or delete feature. There are no fancy transitions and no
superimposed titles. There is a menu with thumbnail picture buttons.
You can add chapter points to the HDD recording that will transfer
to the burned DVD-R. My E100 has a 4X burner which means I can burn 4
DVD-R copies in one hour. I can burn them faster than I can label
the disc and make the jewel case insert. What more does one need?
I think the E85H is almost identical to my E100H?

Dave


"Paul J" <nospamtodayplease@nowhere.com> wrote in message news:<B0lad.22638$cJ3.660@fed1read06>...

Paul,

I pursued the same route -- attempted to find an inexpensive stand-alone DVD
recorder that met my needs. I was getting frustrated with the long encoding
time, AV sync issues, etc. using an AVI capture card (Brooktree-based).

While there are some good DVD recorders out there, I found that many on the
low end don't have a stereo tuner, which presents a problem for TV recording
(a part of the reason I wanted this capability, in addition to Hi8 and VHS
transfers).

My solution? Ended up getting a Hauppauge WinTV-PVR-USB2 box -- found the
hardware MPEG2 quality is essentially the same as that I achieved from a
standalone recorder. Furthermore, it's a piece of cake to edit the MPEG2
footage and then burn to a DVD, with the right tools (VideoReDo for basic
cuts/edits appears to be the best one going right now for me, and
MovieFactory 3.0 which comes with the encoder box...)

Something to consider, at any rate. Hope this helps.

Kevin


"Paul J" <nospamtodayplease@nowhere.com> wrote in message
news:B0lad.22638$cJ3.660@fed1read06...

Here is a solution that I have even been using in a professional
environement. We used to have to spend thousands of dollars for this
but Ads Pyro makes an analog converter for around $200 or so. You can
probabley pick one up at your local CompUSA. It has all the ins and
outs you will need and then you can take your footage right into
Premiere via the firewire port. If your computer does not have a
firewire card you can pick that up at CompUSA, probably well under $50
bucks. This keeps the footage in DV format which Premiere handles
well. I have also seen the footage that the DVD Recorders make and I
have not been very impressed, the MPEG2 stream seams very basic and
does not allow for GOP structure changes and other settings that can
improve the picture quality. I recommend the ADS PYRO A/V Link.

Alex
Blue House Media/AB Productions