JohnRoss Posted October 14, 2009 Share Posted October 14, 2009 We are looking to saving some of our old VHS recordings onto DVD. Would also like to transfer some recordings on the Humax Foxsat HDR PVR hard drive onto DVD to free up hard drive space. The video recorder is getting on a bit and won't last forever and is not likely to be replaced when it does expire. Been looking at something like DAZZLE DVC101 DVD Recorder which together with full DVD recorders seems to be available from Priceminister.fr. So the question is which, a box to plug into the Humax or Video recorder and via an extension lead, USB?, link to the computer to burn a DVD or a separate DVD recorder at a significantly higher price in which case the question would be which one? Soon we hope to replace the old TV with a HDTV so whatever we go for to record DVDs should be compatible. Any advice, experiences, preferences you could share folks?.............................JR Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Coeur de Lion Posted October 14, 2009 Share Posted October 14, 2009 I did a similar thing with old family videos but only went as far as copying them to an old 30GB internal hard drive I had laying around, which I then bought an external skin for so I could plug into the usb on the computer. I don't bother with DVD's or videos at all now as they take up so much room. All my music and video collections are all stored electronically on hard drives. Is ultimately cheaper and saves a lot of space and time burning the things. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonyv Posted October 14, 2009 Share Posted October 14, 2009 What do you do when the HDD fails, as they inevitably do after 5 years or so? You might find DVD a lot more durable... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Coeur de Lion Posted October 14, 2009 Share Posted October 14, 2009 I have all my stuff on a back up drive. 1TB. Only cost €99. Much cheaper than buying DVD's all the time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cooperlola Posted October 15, 2009 Share Posted October 15, 2009 Richard, how easy is it to play the contents of an external hard drive on a conventional TV (as opposed to via your computer)? Do you have one connected to the other or do you watch all the stuff via pc monitor? This has been my reason for putting TV programmes and movies on DVD - you just bung them in the player and away you go.However, more importantly, does anybody really know which medium is the more reliable - DVD or hard drive? As 100 blank DVDs cost less than £10 these days (the price of one 3-hour VHS tape when they first went on the market), they're not exactly expensive either, so longevity is much more important to me than price. Have we had either thing long enough to know how our precious stuff will survive? I have photos of my family which are 100 years old. Will my digital pics last so long? Will DVD deteriorate like the movies I bought 20 years ago on VHS have done? Will my CDs have the same shelf live as all my vinyl? I guess as long as these things last as long as I do, that's all that matters though! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anton Redman Posted October 15, 2009 Share Posted October 15, 2009 Subject to never being played I believe vinyl will have a longer life than CDs but unlike VHS tape or colour cine film I beleieve DVDs and CDs have a sufficiently long life for it to be accademic.http://www.km-dc.com/dload/cd-rw_lifetime.pdf Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob T Posted October 15, 2009 Share Posted October 15, 2009 With the Humax you can fit a 1Tb drive (€85) very easily. You then put the old 320 Gb drive into a USB caddy and plug that into the Humax giving you access to what you have recorded. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Coeur de Lion Posted October 15, 2009 Share Posted October 15, 2009 [quote user="cooperlola"]Richard, how easy is it to play the contents of an external hard drive on a conventional TV (as opposed to via your computer)? Do you have one connected to the other or do you watch all the stuff via pc monitor? This has been my reason for putting TV programmes and movies on DVD - you just bung them in the player and away you go.However, more importantly, does anybody really know which medium is the more reliable - DVD or hard drive? As 100 blank DVDs cost less than £10 these days (the price of one 3-hour VHS tape when they first went on the market), they're not exactly expensive either, so longevity is much more important to me than price. Have we had either thing long enough to know how our precious stuff will survive? I have photos of my family which are 100 years old. Will my digital pics last so long? Will DVD deteriorate like the movies I bought 20 years ago on VHS have done? Will my CDs have the same shelf live as all my vinyl? I guess as long as these things last as long as I do, that's all that matters though![/quote]I have my desktop computer connected to my 42" plasma via a normal svga cable, and I use it just as storage for all my movies, tv programmes and music. I used to use a program called Meedio to easily navigate through my collection and remote control the lot. Since I had to reinstall xp a while back I haven't gotten round to reinstalling meedio, so I just access the media via windows explorer.I've never had much success burining stuff to dvd, plus when I do, I always lose the pen, so all my dvds used to get mixed up as nothing was labelled and so on. For me, storage on disk drives is much easier. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin963 Posted October 16, 2009 Share Posted October 16, 2009 Commercially pressed CD's and DVD's are likely to last a good many years if stored sympathetically. However the dye based ones that one uses on domestic "burners" are likely to be somewhat less stable. I've had a batch of blank CD's that were capable of storing data/music for less than an hour... (they went back to the supplier).The advantage over VHS tape of course is that the material is digital, so provided you clone the DVD/CD before the dye fails you have a perfect copy that will last another x years. Problem is to know when it's going to fail, and one could argue that VHS etc has the advantage there as provided the tape doesn't actually break you are likely to recover *something*, albeit with snow or tearing top lines on the picture.....Certainly I've got CD's burnt at home of radio programmes that are fine after 14 years, using TDK (bit of (disinterested) product placement). However, I've also had a batch of TDK DVD-minus which are already very unwilling to play smoothly, and won't clone on the computer, so in the end I'll probably have to copy them in real time to another DVD recorder.Personally (although I don't actually have any hard disk recording facility for TV etc at the moment) I think the mixed approach is best, ie some stuff on hard disk, some on DVD. But my personal experiences with several failed hard disks on computers confirm what others have said over the years here, ie a hard disk will ALWAYS fail in the end. So back up everything important on DVD etc.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnRoss Posted October 16, 2009 Author Share Posted October 16, 2009 "So back up everything important on DVD etc" So with that in mind any recommendations from experience for a good DVD recorder to buy or indeed not to buy?...............................................JR Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cooperlola Posted October 16, 2009 Share Posted October 16, 2009 I've had most luck with Panasonic. A Sony and a Pioneer have both failed whilst a Panasonic carries on past the lives of both the others and beyond (so far!). In case you're wondering, I have two DVD hard drive recorders in use all the time, one for the French satelite, and one for the British one. Always finalise discs with stuff on you value too, as discs made on one recorder won't play on another unless you have done so and you can end up with stuff which will only play on your poor dead machine! The life of the hard drive is irrelevant - except to your pocket - if stuff is backed up elsewhere. I agree with the above, if you value stuff, back it up across a spectrum of media. It's more costly but less upsetting if things go wrong.I use Access to catalogue and cross reference the contents of my DVDs and carefully number each one (over 2000 from TV recordings alone, which shows how sad I am!), or they can certainly get very mixed up so you can never find what you want. EDIT : Whilst on the subject of recommendations, I've found that Maxell blank DVDs have been very good (so far - in 10 years time, who knows?) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin963 Posted October 16, 2009 Share Posted October 16, 2009 Generally I rate Panasonic too, although on two of my DVD recorders from them a) the power supply has failed (fairly easily repaired by replacing a component) and b) on the other it's getting a bit "funny" about recording on certain types of discs, particularly on DVD-RAMs.Like a lot of things, it strikes me that reliability and build-quality peaked in the early 1990's, and a lot of stuff now is too miniaturised, too over-specified in terms of add-ons, and often just badly made. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnRoss Posted October 16, 2009 Author Share Posted October 16, 2009 Yes I have three very old TVs by Panasonic still going strong after, in one case, 15 years of daily use. So anyone suggest a model for my needs? Got to connect to record from both the Humax PVR and the Video recorder...............................................JR Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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