Buh, Bye VHS!

jimmacjimmac
Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014
Well I just purchased a Panasonic DVD recorder DMR-E30 ( a deck like a VCR not a computer component ) at Circuit City for $499.99! The price had finally come down to a reasonable level. I've used tape for years and I'm sick of it. I have a Hitachi HD TV and tapes look awful on it. The picture is much better than even super VHS. I did a comparison by recording the same show at the same time with both and no contest. The tape looked like everyone had too much tanning lotion on, grainy, and dark. With the DVD-R the picture was smooth, brite, and the colors were right on. This unit also records DVD RAM. On one of those you can record on it 100,000 times! So it's perfect for time shifting.



Ok Now we get to the only negative part. I've tried the DVD-R discs recorded on this unit ( I understand about the DVD RAM not playing in other players ) in many players ( including my friends PC ) and they work flawlessly. The only player it didn't work in was the DVD player on my G4! I'm wondering if any of you know if this is a support issue? If so I wish Apple would get on the stick. Panasonic seems to be the major player in replacing the VCR with a DVD recording. My VCR is going to become like my cassette deck. The VCR's days are numbered.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 6
    sledgehammersledgehammer Posts: 505member
    Yesterday, I tried playing a DVD-R on my computer that a friend gave me. It was short film he had made. I got some weird error when I tried to use DVD Player to play it, something about configuration or something. I tried using VLC, that kind of worked, but there were terrible aduio problems. The thing about it is, the DVD had been made using iDVD! It had been made on a Mac, yet wouldn't play in my PB (G4 500).
  • Reply 2 of 6
    jimmacjimmac Posts: 11,898member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by SledgeHammer

    Yesterday, I tried playing a DVD-R on my computer that a friend gave me. It was short film he had made. I got some weird error when I tried to use DVD Player to play it, something about configuration or something. I tried using VLC, that kind of worked, but there were terrible aduio problems. The thing about it is, the DVD had been made using iDVD! It had been made on a Mac, yet wouldn't play in my PB (G4 500).



    Very wierd! I find it funny that my DVD-R's work in my friends PC ( and every other player I've tried ) but not my G4. I'm not trolling but, I thought Apple was supposed to be a forward thinking company. When I load a DVD-R sometimes it will show up on the desktop, sometimes not. Even if it does if you open it in a window it shows no files so VLC doesn't work. Yet if you pop it into my friends PC no problem! Come on Apple!
  • Reply 3 of 6
    ast3r3xast3r3x Posts: 5,012member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by jimmac

    Very wierd! I find it funny that my DVD-R's work in my friends PC ( and every other player I've tried ) but not my G4. I'm not trolling but, I thought Apple was supposed to be a forward thinking company. When I load a DVD-R sometimes it will show up on the desktop, sometimes not. Even if it does if you open it in a window it shows no files so VLC doesn't work. Yet if you pop it into my friends PC no problem! Come on Apple!



    perhaps a format issue?
  • Reply 4 of 6
    curiousuburbcuriousuburb Posts: 3,325member
    perhaps a firmware issue with your drives... check the apple site

    superdrive info here
  • Reply 5 of 6
    jimmacjimmac Posts: 11,898member
    Thanks guys. However I have an old G4 450 that I've beefed up but has a CD/DVD play only drive no burner. I have an external CD burner for that. Still in the DVD play only drive it should work. It did in my friend's PC.
  • Reply 6 of 6
    jimmacjimmac Posts: 11,898member
    My guess is it's a support problem for OS X. It's really a small matter to me if these don't play on a Mac. Like I said I mainly bought this to play on my 53" HD TV. It's just that it bothers me that clearly this is the way things are going to go in recording TV and Apple's going to miss out on the begining. Given the way this is used it's not competition for their DVD efforts. My guess is this time next year these decks will go for $250.00 or so and VCR's will be worth nothing. The average VCR nowadays is about fifty bucks. That's 4 head hifi and so on. Super VHS ( which I paid $200.00 for a year and a half ago ) is now $99.00 .
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