Not quite a PVR, but maybe better?

[Danks]

Pioneer has released a progressive scan DVD player/Video recorder, the DVR7000. It records on blank DVD-R/RW media rather than a hard drive. Cost is 1450 USD. Link a < http://www.dvdcity.com/dvdplayer/dvr7000.html >

[NovaMan]

It all sounds good to me except the cost. /forums/images/icons/laugh.gif

[Satellite_Expert]

<font color=red> Coming Soon to SC subs everywhere; the Expressvu (Echostar) 5100!</font color=red>
<font color=orange> The beta testing on E* &amp; Expressvu subs is completed</font color=orange>

[mikealex]

I expect to see these becoming more and more common, once they get the price down. They have a lot of advantages over a PVR, such as recording from camcorders.

The advantage that PVR's such as the 5100 still have over this thing though, is that a 5100 records the digital stream so their is no loss in PQ. This new device records the analog signal, so there will be a degradation in the PQ, although not as bad as with a regular VCR. This could be fixed by combining them with a sat rcvr, but then I expect Hollywood to raise a stink because you now have a removable media storage device that can record at archival quality, and that can be duplicated without loss of PQ.

[PlusONE]

Interesting. But the cost is high.

[Danks]

Of course, I agree the cost is outt'a line for most of us. Keep in mind though, it IS a progressive scan
DVD player AS WELL AS a video recorder!. Didn't pick up on it recording in analogue though. Thanks for pointing that out, Mike.

[**DONOTDELETE**]

What we really need is a PVR with a DVD burner and audio/video inputs for recording from camcorders, etc. You wouldn't put a CD or DVD burner in a PC without being able to store and edit things on your hard drive first.

[**DONOTDELETE**]

And to add to this, recording from satellite or digital cable from a device like this may be even worse, if this tries to re-encode MPEG2 from an analog source that was decoded from MPEG2 it may give much worse picture quality. Try opening a JPEG and recompressing it a new JPEG, the quality gets MUCH worse because the compression artifacts from the first compression don't compress very well.

A device like a PVR which has direct access to the digital bitstream from the satellite or digital cable will provide 1st gen picture quality.

[**DONOTDELETE**]

I do in fact recompress MPEG2 when backing up stuff from the 5100, and the results are surprisingly good.

While obviously it's not equivalent to an original analogue signal, it's visibly superior to VHS or SVHS by a wide margin.

As with the JPEG, the better the original source, the better the compressed version will be. In fact, I can show you what a 61kb 720 x 540 jpg taken from that recompressed 5100 MPEG2 looks like. There are certainly some artifacts noticeable on a PC monitor, as indeed there are on DVDs and even HDTV. It's rare that they'd be noticeable on an analogue TV though.

[**DONOTDELETE**]

&gt; This new device records the analog signal, so there will be a degradation in the PQ,
&gt; although not as bad as with a regular VCR.

Well, D-VHS vcr's are the only thing that can record HDTV signals.
The 2002 Mitsubishi HS-HD2000U VCR now sells for US$400, according to alt.video.vcr
http://www.mitsubishi-tv.com/
It can record high-definition, regular digital, and analog signal, all in their original signal.
Quality VCR's (at pro shops or high-end A/V shops in USA not Canada) record/playback PQ
the equal to DVD, and even better PQ in the case of D-VHS.