Good, but be careful
Written: Jun 03 '04
|
Product Rating:
|
|
| Sound: |
 |
|
| Ease of Use: |
 |
|
| Picture Quality: |
|
|
| Durability: |
|
|
|
Pros: Easy to use, good quality
Cons: Can't edit after recording.
The Bottom Line: All in all, the product is good for casual use. But if you intend to do anything remotely fancy with the DVD-R, the pioneer isn't for you.
|
|
|
| jeanlaroche's Full Review: Pioneer DVR-310S DVD Recorder |
I just got my Pioneer DVR-310S recorder, so I haven't had time to experiment with it that much. However, I've already found a few "problems" that have prompted me to return it.
1) like (probably) all other DVD recorders, it won't let you record copyrighted material (coming from other DVD players, or even VHS tapes). It will refuse to record material which is protected with macrovision, or CGMS, and that's actually mentioned in the user manual. This is something you need to know if your intent is to make backups of old VHS tapes.
2) Another very annoying thing is that you cannot insert markers as you record, unless you're recording to a DVD-RW. In fact, if you're recording to a DVD-R, you can only do very very minimal editing. You can't cut the recording into titles or chapters after the fact. That's a major problem. If you make a continuous backup of one of your tapes on a DVD-R, what you'll end up with is 1 title, and a chapter every 10 or 15 minutes. The only thing you can do after the fact is erase chapters. That's it. I'm not sure if other units have this drawback (Panasonic? Philips? Sony?).
3) The discs you create don't necessarily play very well on other DVD players (but that's the case of all DVD recorders I think). My other settop DVD player could play the discs but fast forwarding wasn't working at all (froze the machine). This isn't a problem with the DVD player as I've created other DVD-R (on my PC) and they play just find on that player. It's a problem with the manner in which the program is recorded on the DVD-R by the Pioneer recorder.
4) If you plan on importing your videos on your PC (by ripping a DVD-R that you created with the pioneer), beware. I found that the VOB files (on the DVD-R) are fragmented in small 30s chunks, which means that if you import your video in Nero for example, it will appear as a multitude of small 30s files. This is an annoyance.
All in all, the product is good, it's great to be able to record with the push of a button (try that on a PC!), but if you intend to do anything remotely fancy with the DVD-R, the pioneer isn't for you.
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 320
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
jeanlaroche
|
|
Reviews written: 7
Trusted by: 0 members
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.