Technically disappointing in certain ways
Written: Apr 10 '04
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Pros: Firewire input about 20% better than SVHS
Cons: random data transfer rate which drives me nuts
The Bottom Line: I don't recommend it for people who need control over quality levels. The inaccurate data rate aspect is too random for control Good quality for average person, disappointing for me
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| peterphoto's Full Review: Pioneer DVR-310S DVD Recorder |
I bought one of these units to dub wedding videos from miniDV through a firewire cable into the Pioneer recorder.
The problem is, while it claims that you have up to 32 levels of recording, it would never be as indicated.
Generally, the faster the recording speed, the better the quality. When you have it on the manual record mode, you can pre-set the quality level very finely-32 increments.
The highest is 10 megabytes per second, (mbps) SP is 5 mbps
etc. In theory, if you have a program that is say 70 minutes long, you could set it to match the available time, right?
WRONG!
Sometimes I would get the 70 minutes, sometimes 90 minutes. It seems random. Likewise, when I tried it at the the preset SP setting, it gave me 2hrs 18 miutes, and once 3hrs 20 minutes, not 2hrs.
When I tried it on "Fine", instead of giving 1 hr, it gave 1hr 10 minutes (or more)
Naturally, I was concerned. I wanted to transfer footage at the highest quality.
So, I took it back to the repair depot. You guessed it, after a month they said is was working perfectly. They also gave me a xerox(from the manual)saying that times are only approximent, the actual values may be slightly higher or lower. 1.5hrs out of whack is more than "slight" if you ask me. The techies also suggested that I may have had it on a program mode that conserves disk space (I checked and they were wrong)
So, I went to the store I bought it from graciously traded it for another.
The second unit does exactly the same thing (incorrect data rate, randomness, etc.)
Perhaps I got two defective units in a row...what can I say?
Just be careful.
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): about $380
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Epinions.com ID:
peterphoto
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Reviews written: 3
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