Category Archives: Recorders

DVD recordable prices continue to fall

The other day someone in the hi fi industry was telling me about concerns regarding the longevity of recordable DVDs. Some cheap brands, he said, are not properly UV finished so they can go off in a relatively short time … Continue reading

Posted in DVD, Equipment, Recorders | Leave a comment

The problem with DVD+R

Whenever I’m writing a short piece on consumer DVD recorders, I have to pick and choose what I will actually talk about. That means leaving out some of the things I consider are probably of less importance to the target … Continue reading

Posted in DVD, Equipment, Rant, Recorders | Leave a comment

Weird Panasonic DVD recorder resolution

I’ve been doing a bunch of DVD recorder reviews lately and, just now, have noticed something decidedly odd about Panasonic DVD recorders. First you should understand that the native resolution for DVD Video is 720 pixels wide by 576 pixels … Continue reading

Posted in DVD, Equipment, Recorders | Leave a comment

Dual Layer DVD recording about to arrive

I had a long lunch yesterday with Gordon Kerr, Sony Australia‘s Group Sales and Marketing Manager for Recording Media, Energy and Optical. The main focus was on the new dual layer DVD recording format, but our discussions turned out to … Continue reading

Posted in Computer, DVD, Equipment, Recorders | Leave a comment

DVD Recording goes Double Layer

Some months ago Philips announced that it had developed a double layer DVD recording enhancement for the ‘+’ variety of recording technology. This bumps up the capacity from around 4.7GB to 8.5GB. (Actually, since recordable DVDs reserve some of their … Continue reading

Posted in DVD, Recorders | Leave a comment

DVD Recording convergence, or LG goes quad

For the last couple of years I’ve been arguing that the multitude of recordable DVD formats (DVD+R, DVD-R, DVD+RW, DVD-RW, DVD-RAM) do not threaten a repeat of the Beta/VHS wars of two decades ago. To put it simply, unlike the … Continue reading

Posted in Equipment, Recorders | Leave a comment

Philips backs recordable DVDs in a big way

The Australian arm of electronics giant Philips says that it won’t be selling VCRs any more. Philips seems to be the first of what will eventually be many makers pulling out of the field, although I expect that it won’t … Continue reading

Posted in DVD, Equipment, Recorders, Video tape | Leave a comment

DVD+R/+RW vs DVD-R/-RW compatibility

In a discussion of DVD-RAM, it says that it ‘is a standard for recording information through a RAM drive in a personal computer rather than a video recorder.’ This is not correct. Of the three major DVD Recorder manufacturers, Panasonic‘s lineup … Continue reading

Posted in DVD, Recorders | Leave a comment

Strange happenings with DVD+R and Philips DVDR890

I’ve noticed something strange about the way Philips’ DVDR890 DVD recorder burns DVD+Rs. Here’s the first couple of lines of a DOS DIR /S command, when a duly finalised Verbatim DVD+R is in my computer’s DVD-ROM drive: Volume in drive F … Continue reading

Posted in DVD, Recorders | Leave a comment