External DVD Recorder

[whittington]

I’m new to this forum and seeking advice regarding the above. Just a keen old amateur still using Adobe 6.5! Which has done an excellent job for so many years.

I do a lot of editing and the easy way for me making my DVDs, was by using an external Phillips DVD recorder with a fire wire input. This was simple and fast and I never had a DVD that could not be played on anything. So simple just pressed record, hit the space bar and the time line was recorded perfectly every time.

Sadly I have to report the DVD recorder has packed up so I’m looking for a replacement recorder one with fire wire input. I just got a Sony VRD- MC6. Which has a fire wire input but not able to see my PC output it will only see Sony camcorder and record from that.

I suppose if all else fails I will have to get software use the PC burner, but I see so many club members DVDs burnt this way that just don’t play reliably.

So help me please ?

[tom hardwick]

You could connect your Sony camcorder to your PC via Firewire and output the timeline as an avi file to MiniDV tape. Then play that tape with the camcorder connected to the MC6 to make DVDs that way.

[whittington]

You could connect your Sony camcorder to your PC via Firewire and output the timeline as an avi file to MiniDV tape. Then play that tape with the camcorder connected to the MC6 to make DVDs that way.

Tom,
Thank you for your reply, I did do that just once and it seems such a long winded exercise and I was looking for and hoping to find a DVD recorder that worked like the old Phillips one I have, but I simply can't find anything like it.

The Sony MC6 is a nice easy system with so many facilities, but it's a pity it wouldn’t see any thing other than a Sony camcorder, via the fire wire input socket it has.

[tom hardwick]

£22 for an external Samsung DVD writer looks like a bargain to me. I know it's USB rather than Firewire, but that's a minor irritation.
http://www.svp.co.uk/search.php?search= ... &brand=any

[Dave Watterson]

A simpler answer - though not cheap ...

There are external DVD burners with firewire connections such as the "LaCie d2 DVD±RW 22x with LightScribe" which is about £87 on amazon. (I have seen ads for it at £55 but from an online dealer I don't know and which was not given a satisfaction rating in the shopping search I did.)

Check out the detail on LaCie's own website http://www.lacie.com/uk/products/product.htm?id=10340

[whittington]

A simpler answer - though not cheap ...

There are external DVD burners with firewire connections such as the "LaCie d2 DVD±RW 22x with LightScribe" which is about £87 on amazon. (I have seen ads for it at £55 but from an online dealer I don't know and which was not given a satisfaction rating in the shopping search I did.)

Check out the detail on LaCie's own website http://www.lacie.com/uk/products/product.htm?id=10340

Very many thanks to Tom and Dave for such useful replies. I must say i have down loaded the user manual on LaCie d2. It looks like it's just what i'm looking for, something simple. As I say in my post I just want to send my edited time line out to burn a DVd, not worried about inserting chapters. I have a firewire output and as this takes fire wire input,looks just perfect.. Any one have any other views about this ?

Pete

[col lamb]

That £22 unit link is now £119

Is your Premiere 6.5 still OK at producing MPEG 2 files?

If it is then there are free DVD authoring software out there that you could use, I cannot advise on any in particular as I do not use any other than Encore.

DVD produced on PC's today are generally very reliable, but I assume that your PC is old as you are still using 6.5 then the firmware on your burner may not be up to it.

A new IDE drive will be hard to find but if you can it is only going to costs c£25, they are very easy to fit, it is just a case of swapping over like for like.

[whittington]

Col Lamb,

Very many thanks for your comprehensive reply. Yes you are right the Pc is at least 8 years old, but has 4 gig ram, 3.4 Pentium 4 processor a Matrox, dual screen card with dual monitors. I also use a Pinnacle DV 500 video editing card and Adobe 6.5 all this has done me an excellent job now for so many years.

I do have two other much more modern PCcs with Windows 7, but keep this old one simply for editing my videos. As mentioned in my first post, I simply edited my video and sent the time line out to an external Phillips DVD recorder, by pressing record on this and the pressing the time line and never had any problems with rendering and never had a DVD that wouldn’t play on anything.

So I am looking for somthing very similar and the LaCie d2 looks very interesting at this stage.

The new Adobe suites are excellent but far to expensive for my simply amateur needs.

[whittington]

No More Encore
Colin, Well I have updated a few things installed Encore, took a few days to get my head around it!! Maybe a good program for some but it takes to long to transcribe and burn a simple 10 minute DVD, then to discover after doing this I could not add another Video to the disc.

But here’s the good news a pal of mine had a DVD recorder with the fire-wire input so I was back to doing it my old way. So simple just edit your video save it. Plug in the fire-wire lead into the DVD recorder with a +RW disc .Set the hi quality 1 hour setting, press record on this recorder. Simply press the space bar in Adobe 6.5 and it records a perfect DVD in real time no time spent transcribing, no project rendering and so easy to add another short DVD on the same disc in fact I have jus put 7 short DVDs onto the same disc, Which is what I need for my projects.

So -NO MORE ENCORE for me, it’s back to the simple 10 year old technology. I simply can’t understand why today’s applications are so complicated and take so long to burn DVD’s

So thanks for all the useful feedback etc.

Pete

That £22 unit link is now £119

Is your Premiere 6.5 still OK at producing MPEG 2 files?

If it is then there are free DVD authoring software out there that you could use, I cannot advise on any in particular as I do not use any other than Encore.

DVD produced on PC's today are generally very reliable, but I assume that your PC is old as you are still using 6.5 then the firmware on your burner may not be up to it.

A new IDE drive will be hard to find but if you can it is only going to costs c£25, they are very easy to fit, it is just a case of swapping over like for like.