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Cheep DVD+RW for 299 at Tigers (modified 0 times) Miyu2002 Profile Just got a email from our nice friends at Tiger. They are selling a HP DVD+RW drive with software for 299. And cut there price on media. There is only two problem. (1) The rumor that ther will be a patch to add DVD+R is wrong. Only 2nd gen DVD+RW get that. (2) Its not as compatable as the DVD-R/RW drives in DVD Video Players. But to store a ton of info { 4.7 gb } on a single disk its a good deal. :) 03-23-2002 07:51:25

RE:Cheep DVD+RW for 299 at Tigers (modified 0 times) AudreyLover Profile | Email My my my! And I always like to be the one to make noise about our stuff! Thanks for the intro. Listen - I already (of course) brought this drive home and installed it. 4/4 DVD players that I put DVDs in that I burned worked in it - a much better rate than VCDs I created in the past. It's got some great software, Nero likes the drive, and I've already copied a couple DVDs without a problem (after going through a few extra steps). Plus - the media is only $6.99/disc - which is at least $3 cheaper than anywhere else I've seen. It's a great deal! As to the +R compatibility - I really don't care. The media will probably be cheaper, but HP promised me on the phone a firmware upgrade for it sometime this year. For now, if I mess up a disc - I can reburn it and not have yet ANOTHER coaster in my house. If I only had 25¢ for every messed-up CD I have had, I could buy a lot more media! It's on the homepage if anyone is looking for it - it's a GRRRRRRRRRREEAT deal! TgerDirect.com - Your source for stuff that all us tech geeks love! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Always available by email: me@lonnypaul.com 03-23-2002 17:37:19

RE:Cheep DVD+RW for 299 at Tigers (modified 0 times) Miyu2002 Profile For storage its an outstanding deal! Heck Burnners were about that price not long ago. And with the ability to store up to 4.7gb not bad! The whole thing is even with the "-" drives you still need a later model DVD player. So for the price not bad. :) Heck some of the 2nd & 3nd generation player have problems with standard stamped disk! Tnks for a cool deal! :) Now a package deal with a economy ( IE cheep ) capture card.... Well one can hint. ;) 03-23-2002 20:00:30

RE:Cheep DVD+RW for 299 at Tigers (modified 0 times) AudreyLover Profile | Email Well, you should look before you hint. There is one on clearance at http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?sku=D450-1010 Only $24. :) LP 03-24-2002 15:29:04

RE:Cheep DVD+RW for 299 at Tigers (modified 0 times) zyxw Profile | Email Hmm, Recently (like a few days ago) I got a Panasonic 2X DVD RAM drive... while it's popular to blast DVD RAM these days, it does RW 100,000 times, also a case is optional (the drive came with a loose DVD RAM diskette, which I think does adversely impact performance). What was interesting however (and I think this is subtle) is Panasonic complements this drive with their video DMR offerings (the DMR 10 and 20). If you record on the DVD recorders (similar to VCR's) the files are exportable without any grief to hard drives as MP3 using software provided by Panasonic with their PC DVD drives. As an example, I'm able to rip an episode of Enterprise, modify the bandwitdh and write it to a VCD or can keep higher bandwidth and write it to DVD. The Panasonic DVD format permits about 6 hours to be stored in extended play mode per side on a DVD RAM drive. The drive can be formatted in FAT, FAT-32, or several UDF flavors (UDF 2 being more favored). It's easy to discount DVD RAM as being ozzy... heck it is... but it's got 100,000 rewritable media, error checking, and Panasonic appears to be establishing export/import software between recording appliances and PC's... all in MP3... while this could be done with other technology... I have to wonder if it isn't won't help push Panasonic's vision... especially as rumors are DVD-RW and DVD-RAM may eventually co-exist on the same writer... I'm personally doubtful about HP's ability to bring DVD+RW very far forward... however if you look at +RW and RAM, I think RAM has more going for it than RW (especially as DVD-R is also supported for playing on older hardware). Anyway, just my thoughts 03-24-2002 20:22:11

RE:Cheep DVD+RW for 299 at Tigers (modified 0 times) Miyu2002 Profile The problem with that capture unit is its limited to around 160 x 120 I think. Nice price. Basicaly designed for small web videos. For dvd for full screen is around approx 704 x 480. Can get away with 352x240 but better with 704x480. The thing that is supprise is how fast the price is dropping on these drives. Basicaly almost the same speed as CDR. Still remember the first CDR drive I uses was the size of a stereo, had two Adaptic 1542B cards, around 8k and 50 dollars a disk. ;) There is the $800 Panasonic Disk recorder that uses the DVD-RAM drive. 03-24-2002 22:36:05

RE:Cheep DVD+RW for 299 at Tigers (modified 0 times) zyxw Profile | Email Hi, The DMR 20 using the extended play mode is providing 352x240 if that helps... I'm new to this, there's also an include/exclude "overscan" option which I really haven't yet had time to try to understand... still waiting for my 120GB hard drive for all this (if anyones interested Dell has 20% off, free shipping and no sales tax on a Dell Branded 120GB 7200RPM drive with 8MB cache for $188). Problems seem to be with MP3 data rates, there is some issue with Windows Media Player and over 8MB data rate streams... the applications provided by Panasonic do great with fast MP3's, just not Windows Media (this as I've encoded a half hour show (22 mins roughly actual time without commercials) onto a CDR and Windows Media Player (most current version for Windows ME) isn't a good vehicle to play it on). DVDiT-LE appears to be able to include a DVD viewing applet onto burned CR-R's and DVD's, however it doesn't work in Windows 2000 (at least not the 2.52 version I'm running) also it has an ad for their web site and upgrade offer when first launched... Recording video media appears more complex than I at first understood, also there are issues getting Windows XP and 2K to understand UDF 2.0 (which is what the DMR 20 uses). When it rips and works though, it's slick... also burning a half hour show to CDR at about 33 cents is sorta satisfying... the DMR 20 doesn't appear to read the identically formatted CD in CDRW sadly... now if only I could decently compress 44 minutes of Enterprise into an 80MB small form factor CDR hehe... 03-25-2002 07:03:59

RE:Cheep DVD+RW for 299 at Tigers (modified 0 times) Miyu2002 Profile A greate site for video help is http://www.vcdhelp.com. Its not just for VCD but covers all VCD formats and DVD. Have you tried the compressor TMPGenc? It good for all AVI formates and can take most Quicktime files also. Will also clean up some MPEG files also. It can be found at http://www.tmpgenc.net and the basice one is free!. Makes a solid file. Also does batch processing. You may want to decrease the stream rate a bit. Your rate is a bit high. I dont do SVCD { ~2500bps) since all of the player except for the PC around here cant play SVCD. So I mostly stick with 1150bps. I record at 320x240 at compression of around 5 to 1 MJPEG at CD spects onto a 30gb hd. Get under 9 hours of total record time. Then use TMPEG to both trim and compress by its batch file mode into VCD spect of 352x240 1150bps. The speed of the system give me a ratio of 2 minutes to compression for each minuite for record. Use Nero to both backup the MPG files and make my VCD. Std VCD format you get around 650mb->74 minutes with 700mb->80 minutes. SVCD are better but decrease the playtime. Can adjust TMPGenc for quality when it compresses. Quality is not bad. About the same as a VHS tape. Overscan usualy means will capture the bit that the tv usualy cuts off around the edge. Kind of like a mat around a picture. Basicaly 352 is a bit of overscan on most sets anayway. So they include the Panasonic enccoder wth the DVD-Ram drive? Untill I ran into TMPGenc was about ready to buy their encoder from them since it beate the others out on cost per what it does. Wonder why it cant take UDF 2.0. That is strange. You may want to check both MS and Panasonic's sites for new drivers. 03-25-2002 10:12:36

RE:Cheep DVD+RW for 299 at Tigers (modified 0 times) zyxw Profile | Email Hi, Thanks for the info... I think the bit rate is VBR but sort of high on the DMR vs say a PC capture card... on the 4.7GB drive I can hold about 6 hours more or less of high compression VBR stuff... formatted the 4.7GB DVD RAM's in FAT-32 come in about 4.25GB. The DMR 20 talks about a 22MB maximum data rate I think, but that may be as a result of duplexing (it can read while writing). When I converted 22 minutes of a cartoon recorded at highest DMR 20 compression, it required about 400MB of space on a CDR broken into 3 parts with menus and what not... I'm not certain if one of the 3 segments was duplicated or not (as I mentioned it's still a bit confusing to me, and when formatted for DVD play well it isn't DOS and I'm unsure which files are put out thus cannot easily have a looksie for a duplicate mp3). It appears the 6 hour DVD RAM format of the DMR 20 DVD recorder can be copied by Panasonic utility to a DVD R... I will try later to play a DVD R created this way on a non-Panasonic drive with their utilities... it seems that 6 hours +- of decent quality recording on a single DVD isn't all so bad... lowering the data rate to 8MB seems to take a longish time... not sure what all is involved by my 550Mhz Celeron definately was hurting to get the rate reduced... also information on demuxing and on audio sequencing and what not... really I'm unsure what all it was trying to do but chug. Thanks for your help on overscan... I'll look into the utility... I like the MP3 formatting being done by the DMR... everything comes out more or less easy to manipulate in a format which most of the applications seem to need/like. Now if only DVD camcorders drop in price:-o For $800 as a video capture-->MP3 device I don't think the Panasonic DMR 20 is all that bad... I wish this stuff was discussed a bit more on usenet it appears DVD RAM has really no respect there... and while I understand DVD-RW is likely the one... I just don't understand DVD+RW as the 2nd place to DVD-RW... I recall the beta/vhs wars, one thing I recall was the lower price of VHS and the greater availability of VHS generally than beta... it looks like DVD-RW is following the VHS model... if Panasonic has half a brain it'll try to include DVD-RAM with DVD-RW drives and make licensing easy... now a DVD-RW, DVD-R, DVD-RAM and CD-R, CD-RW drive... well hehe... I'll buy one!... or more:-o 03-25-2002 12:30:55

RE:Cheep DVD+RW for 299 at Tigers (modified 0 times) PeteC Profile For video capture I am currently using a Canopus Analogue to DV box paired up with the Canopus PCI DV card. It is an excellent product. The video is captured from DBS Satellite via S-Video. Quality is great...from this make DVD, SVCD and VCD using TMPGenc / Panasonic MPEG encoder / works well. Used to use ATI ....no comparison 03-25-2002 14:25:15

RE:Cheep DVD+RW for 299 at Tigers (modified 0 times) zyxw Profile | Email Wow, we have similar setups... my capture is also via dbs into the Panasonic (which I assume uses a Panasonic encoder). Anyway... it's a blast playing with this stuff If only I had more time... dang.. kids, wife, job, eat, sleep... all the obstacles to total immersion... hehe:-o 03-25-2002 19:39:30

RE:Cheep DVD+RW for 299 at Tigers (modified 0 times) Zogg Profile So what programs do you guys use to edit the video? I have heard good things about Vegas Video. Basically, I want to edit out the commercials in the shows I capture from my Directv DBS and convert to SVCD. I am currently experimenting some with TMPGenc to decide how I want to encode the video for my SVCD's, but I need to settle on an editor. Thanks! 03-26-2002 13:02:49

RE:Cheep DVD+RW for 299 at Tigers (modified 0 times) Miyu2002 Profile I have Premiere but that pile of crashing junk is a wast of time. I uses the start/stop range tool along with the batch file feature. Take about 5 to 10 minuts since it is a click intensive process but faster than Premiere and it crashing ways. Load in the video. Click on "Setting" button. Then select "Advance" tab when the dialog box pops up. Check the entry "Source Range" and then double click on the words "Source Range". This bring up the from-to range dialog. By blank black frames and the audio going to zero usualy marks ad's. Set the start and end by the coresponding buttons. Click on ok. Then ok again. Set the output name to somthing like "ENT Whatever A.mpg". Go under the "File" menu on the main window and select "Batch" and then MPEG. Keep selecting Ok and should see it in the batch. When you repeat it will remember where you marked last time which helps to keep your place. Do this for each segment changing the letter "xxx a.mpg" to B then C. etc. :) When you get finish either burn the segment and set time gap to zero or use the merge tool located under the "File" menu item to make one big file. I do recomend the seperate segment. :) The author of TMPGenc may put in some editing but to clip ad's this is actualy the fast { and chepest }. Sorry as far as I know there are no automatic ad removal software. 03-26-2002 14:11:29

RE:Cheep DVD+RW for 299 at Tigers (modified 0 times) zyxw Profile | Email Hi, Hehe... I'm not yet really editing... other than removal of commercials from recorded programming... I'm still at the trying to decide how the heck to burn the darned thing stage... 03-27-2002 01:55:37

RE:Cheep DVD+RW for 299 at Tigers (modified 0 times) Zogg Profile Miyu2002, Thanks a lot for that tip. I'm not sure I would have ever found that feature of TMPGenc by myself. My home computer is batching it right now while I'm at work. I have one more question for you. I will be recording some hour-long shows (Farscape, Enterprise, etc.) that I want to edit out the commercials and record to an SVCD. I'm still experimenting with VBR's and haven't decided which format to use for my end (S)VCD's, but I want to start recording the shows now. My question is which format do you recommend I record the shows in now: AVI, high-bitrate MPEG2, or what? Also, I am using an ATI All-in-Wonder Radeon (yeah, I know) which seems to do a pretty good job with it's capture software, or I can use VirtualDub with a codec like HuffyUV. I want a pretty good capture to start with, so I'd like your opinion on which way to go. Thanks. 03-27-2002 10:56:03

RE:Cheep DVD+RW for 299 at Tigers (modified 0 times) Miyu2002 Profile Its kind of hiddend. Actualy learned it on VCDHelp.com. Hi zyxw! :) What do you use for burner software or did I miss it in one of your post? The best overall is Nero since it can do SVCD and VCD. Menus are a bit strange in it and are plan jane. There are others including free ones. I wish there was a way to say clip this and that and that at one time but it usuable with the clip and batch trick. Hi Zogg! :) I cant say on values since I have not done anything with SVCD. VCD has fix rates etc. If you have the room then use HuffyUV. If strap for storage then go with MPEG2. The key is to keep the compression down to a minum. There are a lot of ATI guys on VCDhelp that can answer your question a whole lot better than I. Check their forum under capture. Also there are FAQ & howto guides found along the left side of the web page. 03-27-2002 17:09:30

RE:Cheep DVD+RW for 299 at Tigers (modified 0 times) Zogg Profile Thanks for the tips, Miyu. I have been doing a lot of reading at vcdhelp.com but always like to get a lot of opinions to choose from. 03-27-2002 20:41:29

RE:Cheep DVD+RW for 299 at Tigers (modified 0 times) zyxw Profile | Email Hi Miyu2002, Bundled with the Panasonic D321 is a DVDiT LE application which appears to happily burn DVD's or VCD's, also Panasonic's own dvd format for it's dvd ram players (the DMR 10 and 20) there is an application which permits formatting into UDF 2.0 or 2.1 and exporting video to the Panasonic DMR in it's native format, only problem is while I can burn onto a CDR it doesn't appear to like CDRW's. I've also tried Nero, but it doesn't appear to like DVD RAM, at least it doesn't properly recognize my drive (yup I downloaded the latest update). 03-28-2002 08:10:40

RE:Cheep DVD+RW for 299 at Tigers (modified 0 times) Miyu2002 Profile Hi zyxw! Hum. Not sure why UDF is driving you crazy. Have you tried the Knowledge base at Microsoft.com? Just goto the main page select Knowledge base and plug in your product and queston. Wish they had the older verison since it work better! Here may be a reason for your problem: http://support.microsoft.com/search/preview.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q295579 Used Window 98 for the product and UDF for the problem. I know Nero has some problems with DVD Burnner drives. Hi Zogg! Wish I had the info but since nothing can take SVCD except for the systems and planing on DVD in the future kind of holding off of SVCD for right now. 03-29-2002 00:47:47

RE:Cheep DVD+RW for 299 at Tigers (modified 0 times) Zogg Profile Miyu, One last question. I made a few test captures using Vdub and the HuffyUV codec. They seem okay and will play with Windows Media Player, and are a bit jerky like I have read they would be since HuffyUV wasn't intended for playback. But when I try to load the AVI into TMPGenc, it says unsupported file type. I have been doing a lot of reading and searching (about 4 hours), and I see references to having to load DivX plugins to solve this problem, but the reference is in regard to DivX encoded files. Several guides at vcdhelp.com act like you should be able to load a HuffyUV-encoded file straight into TMPGenc without having to frameserve, but I can't make it work at all. If I use no compression in Vdub then the file loads in TMPGenc no problem. One person who uses AVI-IO instead of VirtualDub does frameserve the file into TMPGenc. So, do you know if you have to frameserve the file, or is there a plugin that will make TMPGenc load a HuffyUV-encoded file, or what? Thanks for any tips you can offer. Zogg 03-29-2002 09:14:47

RE:Cheep DVD+RW for 299 at Tigers (modified 0 times) Miyu2002 Profile There is a part found on the TMPGen site that is a plugin called VFAPI. Link is here... http://www.tmpgenc.net/files/TMPGEnc-2.53.35.130-vfp.zip You may need to download one that is ccorrect for your version of Tmpge. I think that may help you. Here is another VirualDub fram serving into Tmpge FAQ. It sounds like you have already look at it. http://www.vcdhelp.com/virtualdubframeserve.htm Usualy frame serving basicaly consist of feeding a "fake" avi to Tmpge which when it open gets it data from not the file but forms a pip to a host program like VirtualDub. I dont do that much serving into Tmpge but I think you do need vfp in the main Tmpeg directory and run the batchfile that comes with it to get windows to notice it. All it is is a pipe. If I get a chance shortly will try some stuff on this. 03-29-2002 11:48:13

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