This is why you always hang on to the receipt.

[mandolin]

Stayed home again today. Cough is breaking up, have finished last dose of antibiotics. Unless I have a relapse I'll be going to work tomorrow. I am eternally grateful for Monday's snowfall, which shut UMBC down at noon and effectively saved me from the dilemma of having to decide whether or not to go to class. (I probably would not have gone anyway, and after listening to me cough on the phone Dr. Z would have told me to stay home, but I won't have to worry about playing catch-up.)

So now that I can breathe, I turn my concerns back to stupid and petty things: namely, the Philips DVD recorder (Philips DVDR615) I bought Saturday night. I was assured by the guys at Best Buy that if the manual did not offer the features I was looking for (they couldn't open the box, and it didn't say) I could bring the sucker back and return it. In Best-Buy speak, this probably means exchange it.

Now on the one hand, the picture quality is good, and it MOSTLY does what it advertises. Except for the self-chaptering, which is only apparent when you play the finalized DVDs in the DVD recorder. Everywhere else, the original chaptering sticks. Nothing in the manual says it may not work elsewhere.

And the original chaptering done by the recorder is schizophrenic and inconsistent. I get a 22-minute episode of JLU with 18 chapters, ranging from 90 seconds long to two minutes 15 seconds. The only time the "standard 5 minute" chaptering ever kicked in was when I recorded the Oscars and let it run for 3 straight hours. There's nothing in the manual that accounts for the inconsistent chaptering.

That wouldn't bug me so much if the sucker hadn't locked up completely mid-recording yesterday. I had to unplug the recorder to get a response - couldn't stop, shut it down, nothing - and of course, the DVD+R in there was ruined.

This bothers me, especially now that I've looked the model up online and see a lot of reviews complaining that it overheated and died out a few months into the purchase. Not a good sign. Of course, every model that's supposed to be reliable has its detractors too. Still... I don't want to be saddled with something that's going to die on me. I've still got the receipt, and it's still returnable - I just don't know if I want to play Russian roulette with DVD recorders. If I exchange it for something else, how do I know that won't tank completely?

But while I'm still thinking - does anyone on my friends list have a clue about a decent, reliable DVD recorder? Hell, I don't need to chapter it myself, I'd just settle for something that takes either DVD+R or DVD-R and at least plugs in CONSISTENT standard chapters. Who the hell wants a 90 second chapter, anyway? And preferably one that's not going to crash and burn a day into using it. I admit it got a lot of use since I was home sick, but a freeze-up the day after I bought it is not promising.

Most communities I looked at were geared towards major video editing and all that. I don't want that, I'd just like to put my VHS collection on DVD to preserve most of my home videos and tapes of shows that will never ever be released on DVD. *cough*Now and Again*cough* Anyone? Bueller?

(And no, I'm not springing for TiVo.) :)

Comments

[neonhummingbird.livejournal.com]

i ran into a lot of these same issues when I was shopping, which is why I wound up going for the Toshiba DVD-R with the hard drive. It's a good bit more expensive, but by recording everything to hard drive, you don't risk losing a show to a bad DVD or a lock-up, and you can chapterize everything manually before you burn it. Having played with it for a good long while now (hardware issue, now resolved, notwithstanding) I'm more convinced than ever that this is the only way to go.

[marielogan.livejournal.com]

I am not qualified to comment, but I wish to add the support from a fellow co-worker who swears by the Toshiba, as you do.

[kevenn.livejournal.com]

Well, I haven't had experience with DVD-R, but when it comes to electronics, I usually buy SONY because they've always been good to me. But I certainly won't buy electronics from a brand that doesn't have a Japanese name. :)