In article , Signal
wrote:
Returned home this evening to find my 'trusty' DVDR75 displaying the
word "BLOCKED" on the display. No obvious cause for this. Tried various
methods of resetting the unit but alas.. it's bolloxed. Pah!!


:-

The DVDR7x series does seem to suffer from really weird and annoying
'crashes' at times. In general, I've found that "Pull out the mains plug,
wait a min, and plug it in again" works, but may have to be repeated.

I can't recall if I've had "BLOCKED" on my 70, I'm afraid. I did once get
repeated refusals to work, but IIRC this was cleared by a power down and
then plugging into the mains again whilst holding down the "standby/on"
button. This rebooted the recorded back into the 'from factory' state and
gave the initial "is tv on?" display so I could do a re-install proceedure.

In general, I like the results with items like the DVD recorder, and with
my Nokia 221T DTTV box. However it does seem ludicrous to me that they sell
these with such serious 'bugs' in the firmware.

To err is human. But to really screw things up, employ a computer...

Slainte,

Jim

--
Electronics http://www.st-and.ac.uk/~www_pa/Scot...o/electron.htm
Audio Misc http://www.st-and.demon.co.uk/AudioMisc/index.html
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Barbirolli Soc. http://www.st-and.demon.co.uk/JBSoc/JBSoc.html

In article , Signal
wrote:
"Jim Lesurf" emitted :



I did once get repeated refusals to work, but IIRC this was cleared by
a power down and then plugging into the mains again whilst holding down
the "standby/on" button. This rebooted the recorded back into the 'from
factory' state and gave the initial "is tv on?" display so I could do a
re-install proceedure.

I tried that. It went through the installation procedure.. looking good
then... "BLOCKED"... Bah!!

:-

I am trying to remember what "BLOCKED" is supposed to mean. Not sure but I
think it means that the recorder thinks the tray/drive mechanics are fouled
on some way, so the disc can't be rotated or the tray ejected. I have a
feeling I read this somewhere, but couldn't find it in my handbook
yesterday, so may be imagining it.



BTW I caught your post in the other group. I was going to tell you the
software you need to rip your Philips DVDR/W recordings, edit to frame
accuracy, create your own DVD with menus etc and burn - the beauty of
the combination being that it doesn't modify the raw material *at all*.
It's all PC based s/w unfortunately, but give me a shout should the info
be of any use to you.

It may well be at some point, so thanks for the offer. However I am
currently keeping my fingers crossed that the required software will be
pursadable out of the person who is producing DVD burning software for my
'OS/machine of choice'. I may find that I do come back to you at some
point, though... :-)

Slainte,

Jim

--
Electronics http://www.st-and.ac.uk/~www_pa/Scot...o/electron.htm
Audio Misc http://www.st-and.demon.co.uk/AudioMisc/index.html
Armstrong Audio http://www.st-and.demon.co.uk/Audio/armstrong.html
Barbirolli Soc. http://www.st-and.demon.co.uk/JBSoc/JBSoc.html

On Tue, 07 Jun 2005 17:51:29 +0100, Signal wrote:


I found my Supercare warranty (hurrah!) and the nice people at Richer
Sounds allowed me to get a full refund on the Philips to put towards
another machine. Extraordinarily generous IMO, and presumably an
exception to the rule - considering the Philips almost halved in value
since I bought it. I picked a mint condition "open box" Panasonic
DMR85E for £30 extra as a replacement, and I think that's money well
spent.

Richer Sounds have the best extended warranty in the business. Take it
out for three years, and if you don't use it, you get a full refund.
That said, I still never take the extended warranty.

d

Pearce Consulting
http://www.pearce.uk.com

In article , Signal
wrote:


I found my Supercare warranty (hurrah!) and the nice people at Richer
Sounds allowed me to get a full refund on the Philips to put towards
another machine. Extraordinarily generous IMO, and presumably an
exception to the rule - considering the Philips almost halved in value
since I bought it. I picked a mint condition "open box" Panasonic DMR85E
for £30 extra as a replacement, and I think that's money well spent.

Does the Panasonic play the DVD+R/W's recorded on the Philips OK?

In due course I am planning to replace the DVDR70 I have with a new
recorder that has an inbuilt DTTV tuner. However for obvious reasons one
concern is that it should play my existing recordings even if it makes new
ones on a different format.

FWIW I was interested in the Sony (forgotten the model number) but was put
off as I could not find out all the details, and someone reported that it
fails to recognise 4:3/16:9 switching info on discs recorded on a Philips
recorder.

Slainte,

Jim

--
Electronics http://www.st-and.ac.uk/~www_pa/Scot...o/electron.htm
Audio Misc http://www.st-and.demon.co.uk/AudioMisc/index.html
Armstrong Audio http://www.st-and.demon.co.uk/Audio/armstrong.html
Barbirolli Soc. http://www.st-and.demon.co.uk/JBSoc/JBSoc.html

In article , Signal
wrote:
"Jim Lesurf" emitted :

FWIW I was interested in the Sony (forgotten the model number) but was
put off as I could not find out all the details, and someone reported
that it fails to recognise 4:3/16:9 switching info on discs recorded on
a Philips recorder.

The Sony GXD 500 is the *only* DVD recorder with built in Freeview at
the moment. You can work around the problem using a Q-link (or similar)
capable Freeview tuner with EPG - set the program to record on the tuner
and it'll control the recorder. I'm going to buy a Sony D800 for this
purpose. If you can wait till September I'm informed Sony are releasing
a HD version of the 500 then. I wouldn't suggest a disc only machine
now, Jim. Once you've experienced HD recording.. there's no turning back.

I am wary of either units that include a HD or ones with a fan. The reason
being mechanical noises. Even with the Philips DVDR I find that at times I
can hear the disc whirring/buzzing as it rotates, and this can be a
distraction in pp sections of music. I have employed some damping to try
and reduce this, but my experience with HDs is that even 'quiet' ones are
audible, and become a distraction.

The computer I use has an allegedly quiet HD and fan, but it is clearly
audible now despite my also having R4 on to listen to.

If you have any questions about the Panny I'm pretty familiar with it
now. One thing I will say is the sound quality seems better overall, and
you can record LPCM in XP mode.

The last point is a very interesting one. One regret with the Philips is
that I'd love to be able to choose LPCM for a range of recording 'speeds'.
I would then do some re-wiring so it could record from the o/p of an FM
tuner. Be nice to get 2-3 hour concerts and operas onto one disc in LPCM. I
could use the DTTV R3 for the screen info and the FM R3 for the actual
sound. :-))

Above said, I must admit that the sound of the Philips (replayed via an
external DAC) is much better than I'd feared it might be. So it seems that
DD can do quite well if given enough bitrate.

Slainte,

Jim

--
Electronics http://www.st-and.ac.uk/~www_pa/Scot...o/electron.htm
Audio Misc http://www.st-and.demon.co.uk/AudioMisc/index.html
Armstrong Audio http://www.st-and.demon.co.uk/Audio/armstrong.html
Barbirolli Soc. http://www.st-and.demon.co.uk/JBSoc/JBSoc.html

Jim Lesurf wrote:


I am wary of either units that include a HD or ones with a fan. The reason
being mechanical noises. Even with the Philips DVDR I find that at times I
can hear the disc whirring/buzzing as it rotates, and this can be a
distraction in pp sections of music. I have employed some damping to try
and reduce this, but my experience with HDs is that even 'quiet' ones are
audible, and become a distraction.


My Panasonic HD recorder does have a fan and even when not running, the
HD is audible. But this doesn't bother me at all ...


The computer I use has an allegedly quiet HD and fan, but it is clearly
audible now despite my also having R4 on to listen to.


.... whereas the computer gets on my wick. Hence my recent Mac Mini
acquisition :-)

I'd just add that the HD facility makes a huge difference for me - I
actually record things. These are quite well reviewed:

http://www.williamsradio.co.uk/html/..._freeview.html

but no DVD recorder on board - it's all 'sucked' to computer via USB.

Rob

In article , Signal
wrote:
"Jim Lesurf" emitted :


I am wary of either units that include a HD or ones with a fan. The
reason being mechanical noises.

Jim, I'm confused. AIUI the Philips 70/75/80 models have internal fans.
[But no vents??] Mine whirred constantly from power up, and the disc
drive was considerably noisier than that in the Panasonic.

For all I know the DVDR70 does have an internal fan. However it makes no
mechanical noises except when a disc is inserted and is rotating. Given
this, I'd assumed it was the disc wizzing around that made the noise.

Most of the time the noise level is quite low, but at times it becomes more
of a 'buzz'. If listening to a film or tv program or 'pop' music this is
quiet enough not to notice. But with 'serious' music it becomes noticable
at times in pp sections.

Even with the Philips DVDR I find that at times I can hear the disc
whirring/buzzing as it rotates, and this can be a distraction in pp
sections of music. I have employed some damping to try and reduce this,
but my experience with HDs is that even 'quiet' ones are audible, and
become a distraction.

The Panny is quieter than the DVDR75 at all times IME. The HD ticks a
few times when powering up or down but I can only hear it chattering at
close range. The DVD drive is much louder than the HD, but still quieter
than the Philips, and it's not seeing any action anyway as everything is
recorded direct to HD. To put it another way, I will now set the timer
to record whilst I'm sleeping, which I wouldn't do before (DVDR is in
the bedroom). It's not completely silent, but it is unobtrusive IMO.

The DVDR70 I have is quiet enough that I would be happy to sleep whilst it
recorded something if I were in the same room.

Above said, I must admit that the sound of the Philips (replayed via an
external DAC) is much better than I'd feared it might be. So it seems
that DD can do quite well if given enough bitrate.

Agreed. They're pretty good machines, just a bit temperamental.

There seems to be a modern tendency to make any electronics 'a computer in
a different box'. Alas this seems to lead makers into thinking "Well people
put up with the blue screen of death, so it won't bother them if our kit
points its nipples skywards every now and then". :-/

Seems to be part of the general assumption that computers are unreliable
and crashs are 'inevitable', even 'routine'.

Slainte,

Jim

--
Electronics http://www.st-and.ac.uk/~www_pa/Scot...o/electron.htm
Audio Misc http://www.st-and.demon.co.uk/AudioMisc/index.html
Armstrong Audio http://www.st-and.demon.co.uk/Audio/armstrong.html
Barbirolli Soc. http://www.st-and.demon.co.uk/JBSoc/JBSoc.html

In article , Signal
wrote:
"Jim Lesurf" emitted :

For all I know the DVDR70 does have an internal fan. However it makes
no mechanical noises except when a disc is inserted and is rotating.
Given this, I'd assumed it was the disc wizzing around that made the
noise.

That's weird. Are you sure?

I am sure that it is silent unless a disc is being used. However it may be
that a fan is producing the noises I hear when a disc is present.

As I say my '75 constantly whirred from power up, on top of any disc
activity. Why doesn't yours do the same I wonder.

Pass.



The DVDR70 I have is quiet enough that I would be happy to sleep whilst
it recorded something if I were in the same room.

Maybe the noise in mine had something to do with it's failure. Or
perhaps fans not created equal and it was a duff'un.

My experience is that fans do vary. FWIW with one old computer I used to
open the box every now and then, pop out the bung in the fan, and give it a
little oil or grease to reduce the noises it made. :-)


Seems to be part of the general assumption that computers are
unreliable and crashs are 'inevitable', even 'routine'.

What I don't understand is why Philips produced a machine which cannot
cope with read/write errors without a hard reset, and no explanation of
this in the manual either. Smacks of laziness..

Laziness or contempt for the customers, or perhaps those who write the
books know zero about the product.

Mind you, my Nokia 221T also goes wrong in absurd ways, despite having no
moving parts.

Slainte,

Jim

--
Electronics http://www.st-and.ac.uk/~www_pa/Scot...o/electron.htm
Audio Misc http://www.st-and.demon.co.uk/AudioMisc/index.html
Armstrong Audio http://www.st-and.demon.co.uk/Audio/armstrong.html
Barbirolli Soc. http://www.st-and.demon.co.uk/JBSoc/JBSoc.html

"Jim Lesurf" wrote in message
...

I am wary of either units that include a HD or ones with a fan. The
reason
being mechanical noises.

I (well, my wife) have a Humax Freeview hard disk recorder and a Lite-on DVD
recorder. It surprised me to note that the Lite-on DVD writer is noisier
than the Humax.

By the way, I can heartily recommend a hard disk recorder as a gift for
one's spouse. Before she got it, my wife was always phoning from work with
instructions to record on the VCR Eastenders and Holby City, and there were
inevitable failures and disappointments. But now it's all set up to record
them every week, with no tape-shuffling needed. And because the Humax can't
receive the cable TV signals, the youngsters don't interfere with it. And
because its hers, my wife is happy to do the disk cleaning-up.

We got the DVD recorder later, so we could copy programs from the Humax to
DVD. It seems to work OK, and we've removed the VCR.

Tim

"Signal" wrote in message
...
"Keith G" emitted :

Also ditto - we got a Liteon LVW-5045 a week or so ago (160 Gb HDD) and
Swim
is recording like a mad thing

They're great aren't they? Recorded the entire Live8 today. No hunting
for discs or tapes... just hit record when it started - changed
channels when it switched - stop when it finished. Mint!


:-)


Weren't Pink Floyd the dog's danglers! Good as ever!!

(Even Paul McCartney proved that Old Farts can still rock!! :-)


- Off too beddy byes now - it's getting light outside!! ;-)