DVD Recorder VS DVD Burner

[Patth9]

Please talk simply and don't use abbreviations, I'm knew at the DVD thing, and becoming very fragmented.

I see DVD recorders for sale. The DVD recorder is suppose to be able to make a DVD by attaching a DV camcorder via firewire to the recorder and out comes a DVD. (Will also allow you to copy a TV show to DVD.)

I see DVD burners for sale. With a DVD burner one must import the DV footage to the computer via capturing software, edit etc. > export total project *> burn to DVD using DVD authoring software, ie, Toast 6. I've read that Toast 6 will compress the file to a Mpeg2 format, and presto, a DVD is born.

What is the difference in the finished product between these to processes? Does the DVD recorder do the compressing automatically? Are both devices limited to 2 hours of footage?

*In what format must the total project be exported?

Thanks for reading, and any help will be appreciated.

Patt

 

[hokiethang]

Please talk simply and don't use abbreviations, I'm knew at the DVD thing, and becoming very fragmented.

I see DVD recorders for sale. The DVD recorder is suppose to be able to make a DVD by attaching a DV camcorder via firewire to the recorder and out comes a DVD. (Will also allow you to copy a TV show to DVD.)

I see DVD burners for sale. With a DVD burner one must import the DV footage to the computer via capturing software, edit etc. > export total project *> burn to DVD using DVD authoring software, ie, Toast 6. I've read that Toast 6 will compress the file to a Mpeg2 format, and presto, a DVD is born.

What is the difference in the finished product between these to processes? Does the DVD recorder do the compressing automatically? Are both devices limited to 2 hours of footage?

*In what format must the total project be exported?

Thanks for reading, and any help will be appreciated.

Patt

The finished product between the two is more than likely going to be the same quality. With the DVD burner you can edit the video whereas with the recorder it would be a direct copy with all of the stuff you may have wanted to edit out. The process of doing it through the computer is a bit tedious and definitely takes a bit more skill, but will result in a better quality and probably more watchable DVD.

The DVD recorder does the translation and compression automatically, because when recording television it would have to take an uncompressed analog stream and make it an mpeg2 stream for the DVD.

Both devices are limited by the amount of data you want to store, not so much time. It works just like video tape (just not as much time as a VHS tape), if you do lower quality video, you can get more time out of the disc, (because the video will not take up as much space).

The format depends on the software used to create the DVD. The data that is burned to the disk is mpeg2, but the conversion is usually handled by the software used to author the DVD.