DVD recorder Totally Explained

Everything about Dvd Recorder totally explained

ť "DVDR" redirects here. This article is about DVD disc recorders in general. For other uses of "DVDR", including the Philips DVDR ('N1500') video format, see DVDR (disambiguation).

A DVD recorder (or DVDR, more commonly known in the UK and Ireland as the DVD recorder), is an optical disc recorder that records video onto blank writeable DVD media. Such devices are available as either installable drives for computers or as standalone components for use in studios or home theatre systems.
As of March 1, 2007 all new tuner-equipped television devices manufactured or imported in the United States must include digital tuners. The US Federal Communications Commission has interpreted this rule broadly so as to include apparatus such as computer video capture cards, videotape recorders and standalone DVD recorders. NTSC DVD recorders are therefore undergoing a transformation, either adding a digital ATSC tuner or removing over-the-air television tuner capability entirely.

Technical information

Originally, DVD recorders supported one of three standards: DVD-RAM, DVD-RW, and DVD+RW, none of which are directly compatible. As a general rule, however, most current drives support both the + and - standards, while few support the DVD-RAM standard, which isn't directly compatible with standard DVD readers.
Recording speed is generally denoted in values of X (similar to CD-ROM usage), where 1X in DVD usage is equal to 1.321 MB/s, roughly equivalent to a 9X CD-ROM. In practice, this is largely an issue confined to computer-based DVD recorders, since standalone units generally record in real time, that is, 1X speed.
DVD recorders use a laser (usually 650 nm red) to read and write DVDs. The reading laser is usually not stronger than 5 mW, while the writing laser is considerably more powerful. The faster the writing speed is rated, the stronger the laser is. DVD burner lasers often peak at about 100-400 mW in continuous wave (some are pulsed). Some laser hobbyists have discovered ways to extract the laser diode from DVD burners. (External Link

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Computer-based DVD drives

DVD recorder drives have become standard equipment in many, though not all, computer systems currently on the market, after being initially popularized by the Pioneer/Apple SuperDrive; aftermarket drives as of early 2007 can cost as little as $23 (External Link

). DVD recorder drives can be used in conjunction with DVD authoring software to create DVDs near or equal to commercial quality, and are also widely used for data backup and exchange. As a general rule, computer-based DVD recorders can also handle CD-R and CD-RW media; in fact, a number of standalone DVD recorders actually use drives designed for computers.
   Most internal drives are designed with parallel ATA interfaces, with serial ATA becoming more readily available. External drives almost always use USB 2.0 or IEEE 1394.
   DVD recorder drives are required to respect DVD region codes when reading a disc, but don't impose a region code on written discs unless the code has specifically been written into the disc's content.
   DVD duplication systems are generally built out of stacks of these drives, connected through a computer-based backplane.

Standalone DVD recorders

When the standalone DVD recorder first appeared on the Japanese consumer market in 1999, these early units were very expensive, costing between $2500 and $4000 USD. However, as of early 2007, DVD recorders from notable brands are selling for US$200 or €150 and less, with even lower "street prices". Early units supported only DVD-RAM and DVD-R discs, but the more recent units can record to all major formats DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R, DVD+RW, and DVD+R DL. Some models now include hard disk-based digital video recorders (DVRs) to improve ease of use. Standalone DVD recorders generally have basic DVD authoring software built in; however, the appearance of the finished DVD is very basic and usually completely under the control of the unit.
Some believed that DVD recorders would supersede the VCR as the standard television-recording device; however, with the rise of DVR's and competing media formats like Blu-ray, the DVD recorder's future seems limited.
DVD recorders have several technical advantages over VCRs, including:

Superior video and audio quality
Easy-to-handle smaller form-factor disc media, and more durable than magnetic tape.
Random access to video chapters without rewinding or fast-forwarding
Onscreen multilingual subtitles and labeling not available on VCRs
Reduced playback wear and tear
High-quality digital copying, with little or no generation loss
Improved editing, at least on rewritable media
Playlisting
No risk of accidentally recording over existing content or unexpectedly running out of space during recording
Easy to find recordings due to chapter menus However, an inconvenience exists in which DVDs recorded with DVD recorders must be finalized to view in other DVD players. (This disadvantage doesn't apply to DVD-RAM or DVD+RW discs, which require no finalization due to their 'random access' nature.) Also, the implementation of MPEG-2 compression used on most standalone DVD recorders is required to compress the picture data in real time, producing results that may not be up to the standard of professionally rendered DVD video, which can take days to compress.

A number of manufacturers have combined DVD recorders with hard disk-based digital video recorders, allowing for simple recording to large fixed disks, and the ability to spool these recordings off the DVD at a later date.

ATSC standalone DVD recorders

As a result of the North American DTV transition, tuner-equipped devices manufactured or imported into the United States are now required by the US Federal Communications Commission to include digital tuners.
This has caused most new VHS recorders to be implemented as DVD/VCR combo units, or to be manufactured without tuners. The US requirement of ATSC compatibility forces inclusion of MPEG-2 decoding hardware, which is already part of all DVD players but which otherwise wouldn't have been needed in an analogue-only VCR.
An ATSC-capable DVD unit can also serve as a more-powerful alternative to ATSC converter boxes, which convert existing NTSC analog television receivers to digital operation. The DVD recorders offer additional capabilities, such as automated timeshifting of programming and a variety of output formats, that are deliberately not included in the most common mass-market US ATSC converters.

MiniDVD recorders

8cm miniDVDs are widely used on some digital camcorders, primarily those meant for a consumer market ("point and shoot"); such discs are usually playable on a full-sized DVD player, but may not record on a full-sized DVD recorder system. Though popular for their convenience (in the manner of VHS-C), DVD camcorders are not considered suitable for more than casual use due to the much higher level of compression used compared to MiniDV and the difficulty of editing MPEG-2 video.

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