 |  Average Rating: 4 out of 5 No. of Reviews: 1 RRP: £349.99 Year: 2004 Description: 80GB HDD, DVD-R and DVD-RW recording, PVR functions, Playback of DVD Video, DVD-R/RW, CD Audio, CD-R/RW, MP3, WMA, JPEG, Inputs: 1 SCART, RGB Input via Euro-SCART, 1 RCA (Audio/Video), 1 S-Video (front: 1), Outputs: 1 SCART, RGB Output via Euro-SCART, 1 RCA (Audio/Video), 1 S-Video, Optical Digital Audio, Dimensions (WxHxD): 420x59x339mm, Weight: 4.7kg
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|  | | Posted: 23/11/04 | | 'EXCELLENT PRODUCT, GOOD BUILD QUALITY, GOOD VALUE' | | Strengths:
HDD to DVD-R/RW editing and authoring
DVD-R/RW backup to HDD
SCART RGB input and output with loop thru'
Optical digital audio & analogue audio out
PVR functions including chase playback & pause live TV
Recording control from set-top box timer via SCART
Build quality and picture quality on playback
Ease of use and well structured manual
Price | | Weaknesses:
No component video I/O (but note price)
No coax digital audio out (but note price)
No integrated DTT tuner (but note price and SCART control feature)
Slightly awkward implementation of pause live TV function.
80GB HDD not that large (but adequate given ease of authoring DVDs, and note price)
No manual gain/level control of audio inputs for recording
| | Overall:
This is a superb product. The price given is actually, at time of writing, for the DVR-420HS which is the same as the 520HS but without firewire I/O. £400 is more realistic for the 520HS. Both are competitive and excellent value.
The ability to automatically start and stop recordings by detection of a signal on the RGB SCART input (also accepts S-Video and composite, menu-selectable) is most useful. It means that the HDD recorder can be controlled by the timer of a set-top box (satellite, cable or DTT). When combined with this recorder's PVR facilities to "pause" live TV (virtual pause and resume)and "chase playback" (watch from the start of the programme you are recording, or from any earlier point in time while you are still recording it) the result is a superbly integrated PVR (personal video recorder). In fact "chase payback" is just one mode of the simultaneous record and playback offered, so that any programme on the hard disk (or a DVD) can be played back and watched while a recording is in progress, including the one being recorded itself.
Editing facilities via a simple to set-up "Copy List", when applied to HDD recorded "titles" (programmes) are comprehensive and easy to use. Titles can be divided or combined, sections can be easily removed with frame-accurate start and end points (great for removing ads from off-air TV recordings). Chapter points (also frame accurate) can be set within a title along with simple graphical DVD menus, and there are many other edit functions too numerous to list. This leads to great flexibility in authoring a DVD from your recorded material. It is not quite as flexible as PC-based authoring but it's not far off and much easier to use!
Once a copy-list is set up, copying from HDD to DVD-R/RW is a breeze and can be performed as a high-speed copy as long as the required record mode for the DVD is the same as the record mode of the material on the HDD. You can choose a different DVD record mode at this point if you wish, but then the copy will be done in real time.
All of this editing and authoring capability, again when combined with the PVR and external STB control features, makes this product a most attractive choice when used with a simple STB, with numerous advantages in comparison with an integrated tuner/PVR which is most unlikely to have any editing or DVD authoring capability at all!
The I/O is a little sparse, in spite of the excellent provision of SCART input (with the auto-start control) and output with siganl loop-through. There is only one input and one output SCART, plus a set of front-mounted input sockets under a flap comprising S-Video, Composite Video (RCA) and Stereo Analog Audio (2 x RCA). So it's possible to connect a second input device such as a VCR (if you want to archive those old VHS recordings to nice shiny new DVDs that won't look any better but at least you'll be able to play them when VHS has died!). But this second device is limited to S-Video or composite and has to be plugged in the front.
Audio input is analog stereo via the SCART (Line 1) or the front RCA sockets (Line 2). Stereo audio output is from 2 rear-mounted RCA sockets and there is an optical digital audio output socket for routing DVD audio to a suitable amp. Or indeed digital audio from a recording on the HDD if you have a non-copy-protected surround sound source to record from. The recorder handles Digital Audio using PCM in "Fine" recording mode and Dolby Digital in the other three record modes. PCM is habdled up to 96KHz, but you can choose this capability or not on the menus, as it obviously depends on the capability of your amp!
There are 4 "record modes" - Fine, SP, LP and EP (in descending order of quality and space consumption). Fine was indistinguishable from the original picture to my eyes, viewing recorded broadcast DTT (various channels and material) on a 60 inch screen using front projection from a Panasonic PT-AE700. The 80GB HDD hold 17 hours of material recorded in "Fine" (just i hour on a 4.7GB DVD-R/RW). Again subjectively, SP was virtually instinguishable from "Fine" to me on the broadcast sources, and usefully takes half the space of "Fine", so 34 hours of SP on the HDD (or 2 hours per DVD-R/RW). LP is just a bit better than VHS, and EP a bit worse or about the same as VHS depending on the material. The HDD will hold 102 hours of EP stuff and you'd get 6 hours on a DVD-R/RW!
On the point of copy protection the recorder implements the DRM and copy-once facilities on commercial material in the usual way.
There is a useful DVD clone function for backing up your own recorded discs via the HDD and then to a copy DVD-R/RW. DVD-R discs must be finalized, of course, before they will play in other players. DVD-RW discs may be recorded in VR or Video mode. Once finalized in Video mode they show good compatibility with other players and there is still an Unfinalize facility in that case (restoring the ability to edit and rewrite the disc). VR mode recording on DVD-RW has poor player compatibility. But with the editing facilities on the HDD, I found little need to use DVD-RW media or VR mode, authoring all my recordings in Video mode on cheap DVD-Rs. I tested these on a wide range of players across the price range (using Verbatim media) and had no failures-to-play at all. I did not test play-compatibility with other recorders though.
Surely there must be downsides to this product, I thought. Well, I can find precious few that matter a jot to me! I've mentioned the sparse I/O and the need to plug in any second input device at the front - more rear sockets would have been really nice, and surely not expensive! And there are a few more niggles. The nice auto-start feature that provides such good close integration with STBs and virtually avoids any need for a HDD in the STB totaly disables simultaneous playback while the auto-started recording is in progress! So if you want PVR or other simultaneous programme play capability you must either start the recording yourself or use the recorders own timer (which is excellent by the way, using a very intuitive timeline-style presentation to forward set or modify up to 32 events). The disabling of simultaneous play/record with auto-start timing is a nuisance, but not a big one, since it's unlikely you'll want to do this in circumstances where you have set up multiple events on the STB timer. In those circumstances you're less likely to be in a position to watch anything - you'll probably be away!
Another niggle - the pause live TV function of a PVR is not implemented directly in this product. If you press PAUSE it just pauses the recording. The only way of invoking "chase playback" on a recording in progress is to press PLAY and this starts playback from the beginning of the recording. However, this also puts the control functions in "chase playback" mode which means that all the player controls are now available to you (pause, forward scan, reverse scan - forward and reverse scan are the equivalents of forward wind and rewind on a VCR). There are four scan speeds and the fastest is mighty fast. So to "pause" a live TV recording (and presumably resume it later - so useful when you get that call of nature or vital phone call at the most suspenseful moment of a drama or football game), you just press PLAY then forward scan at maximum speed until the darn thing (playing back) "catches up" with the live recording.It even tells you it has caught up with a little plaintive screen message. Now you're still in "chase playback" mode as far as control is concerned, but watching the recording at the same point as the incoming signal (so watching live TV). All the play-related controls are available to you, so press PAUSE and you do indeed "pause" the live programme. Press PAUSE again (when you're ready) and the programme resumes from the same point. You can do your own action replays with reverse scan too of course!
The product is pretty good in terms of ease of set-up and ease-of-use. The OSD menus are intuitive and well-designed, both in their display and their structure. This user-interface quality extends to the more complex editing functions such as setting up copy lists and editing (fully available on original HDD material and in a "virtual" sense on the copy-list, and they are also provided in a separate editing function as well as when "authoring" a DVD). Effective use is made of a dual-window structure with moving and copying of visual thumbnails. It's as easy as "drag and drop" in a PC.
Product set-up is also intuitive and well-designed though inevitably quite complex. I wouldn't ask my granny to set this up nor even use it, but that can be said of all products of this type. The scope of their functionality brings inevitable complexity. I think that Pioneer have done a remarkable job on this score.
Most defaults on the many settings are well-chosen though many people will want to change the SCART settings for Video from the default of composite (ugh!) to RGB. Likewise the default of "frame accuracy" from OFF to ON (there are few drawbacks to ON, maybe slight sacrifices in HDD to DVD copy speed). And "smooth playback" from OFF to ON.
The manual is not quite as good as the actual ease-of-use of the product. If anything (like many manuals) it makes things seem more complex than they are. It's acceptably clear, and pretty unambiguous, but unfortunately it has a strong focus, in both the set-up sections and the recording sections, on the use of the integrated analog tuner. This makes the book confusing for anyone who wishes to limit the TV input to a digital signal from an STB through the SCART (more and more of us). Indeed, someone in a Sky household, say, who may not actually have a conventional antenna, might even come to the (false) conclusion that they couldn't set the box up at all, because the auto-tune wouldn't work (in fact they'd be fine though they would have to set the clock manually). I suspect that this problem may apply to similar competitive products, all of which include analog tuners in the box. Amazing that suppliers of such innovative HDD and DVD based products still create manuals that suggest they are back in the VCR age when it comes to TV sources and tuners! The worst manifestation of this in the Pioneer manual is in the connection diagrams which I found positively misleading. My connection set-up - the obvious one in fact - isn't shown at all!
Overall though this is a fine product. Combined with a good, separate twin DTT tuner, cable or satellite receiver it provides comprehensive recording, playback, deferred viewing and PVR capability with easy-to-use editing, composition and authoring of DVDs that will be highly compatible with other players. Build quality seems fine and the product worked out of the box. All functions worked perfectly with no glitches.
And at a highly competitive price. Fantastic! Mightily impressed. |
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| | | | Performance | | 100% | | Build | | 80% | | Value | | 80% |
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