Topic: stand alone dvd recorder advice needed...

[ellaguru]

hey friends...
i've been helping a long time video taper back up his massive archive to dvd...most tapes are dv's but some pre-'97 or so are hi-8, svhs, vhs,.
we've been using the sony rdrgx7 as the recording deck with nice results. until it stopped recording properly and is dropping / freezing frames like a mad man.  swapped out cables, dvd media, playback decks, etc...its the recorder finally giving up after years of work.
i was told that the main reason that this deck was chosen is the fact that it recorded in 'native' widescreen (16:9) for the master dvs that are recorded in 16:9.  im not even sure what that means!
there doesnt seem to be too many quality models to choose from.  some of the panasonics look nice, but im a bit lost in the woods with this one..
can anyone advise a solid machine to help me on this project?
firewire in is a must, along with svhs....

thanks
chris

[willndmb]

i don't know much about stand alones but if you have 16:9 video you want to try and fine one that will record in 16:9
otherwise you will have video that is "converted" to 4:3 and it will looks smooshed

[ellaguru]

i don't know much about stand alones but if you have 16:9 video you want to try and fine one that will record in 16:9
otherwise you will have video that is "converted" to 4:3 and it will looks smooshed

thats *exactly* my prob in finding the right machine

[guitard]

Yes - the 16:9 vids recorded onto a 4:3 stand alone recorder will come out looking smooshed.  But the video itself is still 16:9 and a quick IFO edit (google for it) will correct the picture aspect ratio and doesn't require any re-encoding.

Have you considered just capturing the video onto a harddrive and doing a quick encode - and then burn them to DVD?  You almost certainly will get better picture quality.  And since you have to capture in real time with the stand alone recorder, it won't take you that much more time.

Other advantages - you can choose your audio quality (.ac3 from 192 up to 448 - or LPCM if it will fit).  And even if you don't have any experience with an NLE, you can easily learn to do minor edits like making sure the intro and outros are smooth, etc.