Liteon LVW-5xxx DVD+HDD recorder query

Cassiel

Hi,
can anyone tell me if it is possible to:
Record onto the hard disk a televison programme AND watch a DVD whilst it is recording (using the built in DVD drive)?

I am trying to think of reasons why it wouldn't, the manual doesn't mention it either, except something about if recording a show and trying to watch TV, then you can only watch the same channel as you are recording (more or less)

Lump

Why don't you try?

John

Cassiel

If I had a machine I would
Decided to RTFM first before buying. Easier to know what it does before I buy it, probably online, where returns are more hassle than they are worth.

Lump

Oh right... Hang on, I'll ry

John

Lump

Apparently not. I have a Liteon LVW5045 Maybe there is a way to do it, but it's not obvious. IE, recording on the HD then just switching to DVD.

Doesn't work.

John

Cassiel

Thanks John for taking the time to try. So what happens when you set the timer to record to HDD, bugger off to do something useful and in the meantime someone pops in a DVD to watch? Does it record, or does the DVD playing take precedence?
I was hoping recording to HD would eliminate the the problem with a DVD recorder of someone taking out the disc to play a DVD and it doesn't then record because the DVD movie is playing or is still in the tray since Tuesday and has not gone back to Xtravision :mad:
Cassiel

Lump wrote:

Apparently not. I have a Liteon LVW5045 Maybe there is a way to do it, but it's not obvious. IE, recording on the HD then just switching to DVD.

Doesn't work.

John

Lump

It'll flash up a warning message telling you to power off the unit for a timer record. AFAIK, it'll only timer record, when the unit is off. However, I live on my own, so I don't have to worry about that, there might be a method in the manual to get around it, like parent lock or something, that would lock the unit out. Not Ideal.

John

Cassiel

Cheers John, thanks for the help.

Lump wrote:

It'll flash up a warning message telling you to power off the unit for a timer record. AFAIK, it'll only timer record, when the unit is off. However, I live on my own, so I don't have to worry about that, there might be a method in the manual to get around it, like parent lock or something, that would lock the unit out. Not Ideal.

John

rikerdonegal

If I buy this, and I record - say - twelve episodes of Lost, will I then be able to (a) edit out ads, and (b) burn these twelve episodes to a DVD+R for archiving?

Thanks.

Lump

Yes, you can edit out the adverts, but fitting 12 on one disc.... no. If you record about 3 hours to disc, you start to notice the compression. 3 hours per disc is maximum in my opinion, the most you can fit on a disc is 6 hours... but that looks for then VHS.

John

rikerdonegal

Lump wrote:

fitting 12 on one disc.... no.

So it doesn't do Divx/Xvid output then?

Thanks for the heads up.

Lump

No, can you even get a stand alone DVD recorder that will encode to Divx?

John

rikerdonegal

Lump wrote:

No, can you even get a stand alone DVD recorder that will encode to Divx?

Haven't a clue. A friend has one that creates mpeg's. If I even got one like that I could do the encoding on the PC easily.

It's finding a good one. I'm just looking around seeing the various ones that are out there.

Lump

The Liteon will burn VCD's.

John

rikerdonegal

Lump wrote:

The Liteon will burn VCD's.

Thanks for the info (again). This is a great help.

My quest continues...

rikerdonegal

Bought the 5025.

Doesn't let you watch a disc and record something.

Easy to set up.

I taped three shows today. Michael Hayes at 1pm on HQ mode. After which I edited out the commericals (easy to do) and merged. I burned this file to a RW disc and popped into my PC to convert to an Xvid file of 350mb. This finished file plays fine, and looks great, on wide-screen TV.

I recorded Michael Hayes at 6pm in SP mode. I also recorded Cuts at 10pm in LP mode. In all cases, editing out commericals was easy, and burning both files to DVDRW was fast.

I'm encoding them to Xvid now. But before seeing the finished files, I have to say the both of these (one at SP and one at LP) looked very good. In fact, I'd be happy to archive sit-coms captured in LP mode.

One problem so far...

Episodes of Alias, which I have in Xvid format but did not make, will not play without noticable red and white vertical lines. In fact, they are completely unwatchable. I haven't tried any other Xvid files, but I will...

However, since the 5025 won't record AND play at the same time, this vertiacal-lines-problem is just another reason to maybe keep my original Xvid player anyway.

Or maybe, it's a reason to return the darn thing...

Gonna play with it again tomorrow (I'm off work til Monday, so I can tinker a while) and see what's what and if it is worth keeping...

rikerdonegal

As I said, I bought the 5025 and it worked fine.

For about a week.

Then it started to freeze. Once at first, then not again for a few days. When this would happen, nothing would work and the only option was to shut her off at the mains.

Yesterday (Friday) alone it must have frozen four seperate times!!

Also, it developed a tendency to lock me out of files I had just edited. This week I lost two one-hour shows, and one half-hour show, after I had already edited out the commericals and was preparing to put them on DVDs. I was espacially annoyed about the Frasier episode. I'd recorded the first 8 eight episodes of season six and was about to put them on a DVD. Suddenly, the 5th episode was gone. So much for that little project.

It's an unreliable piece of crap and I'm taking it back on Monday after work. :mad:

Lump

Pff, you must have gotten a nackered unit, I have no problems with mine.

John

rikerdonegal

Yeah, maybe.

Maybe it was just overused, I don't know. I'd filled up the hard drive pretty quickly, so maybe it couldn't handle the workload?

JoeyJJ

I was looking at one of these on amazon today,

Have a question could the recorder be used with a digi sender device ? ie it works like a vcr where you could watch tv by changing the channels on the recorder. I'm nearly sure you can just looking for confirmation.

Also is there VideoPlus on it ?

Lump

There's video plus, don't know about the other thing.

John

rikerdonegal

JoeyJJ wrote:

could the recorder be used with a digi sender device ?

Sorry, but I'm not sure what you mean.

Can you watch channels on it? Yes. But I'm sure that's not your question.

Sorry I can't help.

JoeyJJ

What i mean is you can change the channel and watch the channels change on the TV through the scart. I use a radio device to transfer the TV into my bedroom in the flat so I can use this where I currently use my video to change then channel.


Was looking at another model on amazon, alot of negative comments about this model from users using it after 6 months. Thinking of getting the Ellion DVR-950S.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000BNVH7Q/ref=ord_cart_shr/026-5553432-2538802?%5Fencoding=UTF8&m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE