The Burning Mysteries of DVD Recorders (page 2)

Some burners also have an internal hard drive available and work just like a digital video recorder, such as a TiVo or RePlay TV. These are amazingly convenient devices that, paired with the included DVD burner, are the ultimate television watching tool. For example, you could record a show in high-quality mode on the hard disk and then burn it to the DVD in a lower quality mode to get more shows onto a single disc. You can sometimes edit out commercials before burning to disc. DVD burners with hard drives are more rare and are considerably more expensive than a burner only.

Like your VCR, most DVD recorders also have an internal television tuner. Of course you can also run your television’s output into the DVD recorder, which allows you to watch a television program on one channel (watching your television’s output, for example) while simultaneously recording a program on a different channel (using the DVD recorder’s internal tuner).

Like any home theater-component, DVD recorders have a variety of inputs and outputs. Most DVD recorders have traditional composite (c) and S-video (s) inputs and outputs. Component (y) video outputs that separate the color channels are common, but component inputs are not widely available. For videographers, the first feature we’d look for is a FireWire jack. This is by far the easiest way to turn your home movies into DVDs using your mini DV camcorder. Many recorders also have RF (r) outputs for use with older televisions.

On the audio end, standard RCA connections are universal, sometimes in a 5.1 analog output format. Digital audio out is also common, but check to make sure the coaxial or optical outputs match your receiver (converters are available from manufacturers such as M-Audio – www.m-audio.com).

Digital encoding of the audio you record is an important part of the multimedia equation. PCM is short for Pulse Code Modulation, which is the digital audio format used for CD-Audio and is one of the required audio formats for DVD video players. Some recorders will encode the audio in Dolby Digital (d). This is a really great feature, not because the quality is better (it isn’t), but because the Dolby Digitally encoded audio takes up less room on the disc. No DVD burners will record in 5.1 Dolby Digital surround sound at this date. Some burners also record audio as MPEG-1, Layer 3, otherwise known as MP3 (m). This format is more compressed than PCM (p) and allows for a longer recording duration, but is not as compatible with other DVD players as PCM or Dolby Digital.

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