LG DR-4812W dvd recorder

[tleehm]

Anyone tried or reviewed this unit?

It's new to the market, supports + & - R/RW recording. The only bad point (just looked at the unit in Hardly Normal unconnected) is the missing S-Video in at the back (only available from the front).

Thomas.

[pallamallawa]

I got one of these.

My Thomson stb wont work with it, though to get it region free you just need to open the tray then press 0(zero). 7 times then it asks if you would like it to be region free.

I tired another stb and it records beauitul in widescreen. I recorded it in standard mode. around 7 hrs of recording.

i paid $719 @ myer.

[snapper]

Also consider the pioneer and panasonic offerings both are now on sale for around $900 and both come with alternatives with built in HDDs so you dont need to record to disc all the time. Could come in handy when you go on holidays.

Do LG produce one with a HDD?

[pallamallawa]

The panasonic and pioneer are around $1200 -$1499. with the HDD.

LG do one and it costs $1200 i think. DVD-r discs are so cheap now. Princos for $55 for 50. When you think how much a blank video costs.

Well worth it for $720 the LG dvd recorder is.

[linton]

The panasonic and pioneer are around $1200 -$1499. with the HDD.

LG do one and it costs $1200 i think. DVD-r discs are so cheap now. Princos for $55 for 50. When you think how much a blank video costs.

Well worth it for $720 the LG dvd recorder is.

I'd personally go for a recorder with either a hard drive or a least use dvd-rw discs. I have too many cdr's lying about as it is just from the PC, I'd hate to think how many extra discs I'd have about if I started to record my tv shows onto use once discs as well. :) :)

[pallamallawa]

It does dvd-rw, dvd+rw, dvd-r & dvd+r.

I went and got some rewritables this afternoon and a teac stb for $230 which works fine.

Records great.

[snapper]

true blanks are cheap enough but what if you go on holidays and you want to record all your shows whilst your gone?
Cant really fit on one disc. You may need people to come around every so often and insert a new disc.
Having a HDD would be very handy as you could just record to that and burn to disc what you want to keep. It could also be used whilst you are away on hols to record all your shows.

[pallamallawa]

I saw on another site that recording to hard drive is like 1.5 mins = 150mb is that correct ???

[linton]

I saw on another site that recording to hard drive is like 1.5 mins = 150mb is that correct ???

depends on the quality. 150mb sounds a little big though, maybe thats recording HD tv with 5.1??

[pallamallawa]

Im going to take the LG back. Doesnt record past 1 hr. 2nd hr freezes and then the disc doesnt read.


Makes sense doesnt it :(

[Wingspan]

Hi All,

I recently purchased an LG 4812W and are generally happy with it (the -RW discs written in Video mode and finalised work in every player I've tested beautifully). At first I was using DVD-RW discs and after learning of the advanced editing features of +RW discs I bought a pack (of TDK's from JB) to play around with.

The features are great, however these discs cannot be read in any other player, including my dell laptop or my xbox?!? Others seem to report good compatibility with +RW discs, so is it 1) the player or 2) the brand of discs which is at fault here?

[lucasb]

I've had a DR4812W for a few weeks now. DVD-RW in VR mode gives you most versatility in editing, however, in VR mode, they seem to have limited (if any) compatibility with DVD players, PC's, XBox. The editing on +RW is almost as good, except to delete part of a title, you use "Title - Divide" and then delete the relevant part, rather than the much quicker "Delete Part" used in DVD-RW VR mode. However, the technology of -RW means that the stability of -RW is not as good as +RW editing (I have had ghosts of a deleted recording appear on a DVD-RW VR recording a couple of times). I've had zero problems with DVD+RW, or +R or -R. The great things about +RW are that you don't have to finalise a disc to read it on another machine, unlike +R, -R or -RW and that you have the thumbnails showing each chapter. (To me, one of the big attractions of a DVD Recorder is thumbnails to find stuff easier, so -R not having that is hopeless). Xbox's only seem to read finalised discs recorded in video mode, be they -R or -RW.The PC's and a DVD player I've tried so far read +RW's and finalised -R's and +R's. I just bought a 10 spindle of Laser +RW's for $12.95, so I think I'll stick with +RW's. You can record on them, play them on another machine (without finalising), then edit/overwrite the recording on your DVD recorder. None of the other 3 formats that the DR4812W will record have those capabilities. And for editing, the phase change technology of +RW is more stable than the slightly better, but more "cloak and mirrors" technology of -RW in VR mode.

[Wingspan]

Sounds like your having a more 'consistent' experience than me :)

I read something on another website about DVD+RW discs and how they have to contain about 5mins of HQ video or 10mins of SQ video for them to be recognisable on other players. No idea what the technical explanation is for that one, but I decided to try it out.

Anyway I had been recording 1 and 2 minute snippets just to test whether DVD+RW discs work, and as soon as I recorded 10+ minutes of video the discs were playable in all of my other players!...

...Until today. After recording 2 successful DVD+RW discs over the weekend I record a 3rd one today, approx 2hrs of video. Bam! The same problem resurfaces: this disc cannot be read in other players.

This is too much. Due to the fact that I was successful with the 1st 2 discs I'm now leaning towards the possibility that these TDK discs are not up to scratch (no pun intended).

Anyone else using TDK DVD+RW discs and/or having this same problem?

[lucasb]

Don't know if it's a brand thing, but I had many problems with a TDK -RW (ghosts of a deleted title still there, failure to resume recording propoerly when using pause to cut out commercial breaks, and then a corruption of the disc after I tried deleting a chapter). I've used about 7 or 8 Verbatim +RW and +R's and it seems to have been very happy with that (all recordings have been on LQ or EQ, with one SQ on a -R, and all at least an hour long). I haven't done as much testing on other players as you have though, but the +RW's have played on 2 computers and the DVD player I've tried, but not on XBox. Have used a Princo -RW and it's been fine.

[lucasb]

Might be of interest. Covers a vast number of topics and updated monthly. http://dvddemystified.com/dvdfaq.html

[Big Guns]

The panasonic and pioneer are around $1200 -$1499. with the HDD.

LG do one and it costs $1200 i think. DVD-r discs are so cheap now. Princos for $55 for 50. When you think how much a blank video costs.

Well worth it for $720 the LG dvd recorder is.


You are paying WAY TOO MUCH for Princos. Should be able to get 50 for around $30 - $35.

[Wingspan]

Yeah lucasb, I agree with you. From my tests it seems that the TDK discs are at fault. So I don't have to ring up and blast LG after all (yet :PI )

I've been playing around with a few discs and it seems that the readability of the disc is somehow dependent on how much data is written to it, however that amount necessary for readability is different for each disc. One disc was readable in my xbox and my sony dvd player with 1.2GB of data written to it. However, writing 2.2GB to it made it unreadable in the xbox. Reducing that to 500MB also caused it to be unreadable once again.

All these discs seem to work fine in my sony dual-layer +rw dvd burner, so I'll keep them for archiving purposes, and I'll try another brand for the LG recorder. Thanks for everyone's help!

[lucasb]

Good to see we're finding the same thing, wingspan.

Can you or anyone else confirm that Xbox's will only play finalised -R's or -RW's recorded in video mode (might contact Microsoft to check).

Also, I read somewhere else that by making the DR4812W region free it removes Macrovision. That wasn't the case with mine though, but did discover Jaycar's digital signal stabiliser which does remove the macrovision .... haven't bought one as yet though, at $130.

[johnnyred]

I have owned a LGDR4812W for the past 12 months it has been a solid performer and the only real problems up to now have been a batch of Strathfield Car Radio discs which were faulty so not the recorders fault.

I use DVD+R discs (laser brand) and they work fine. I recently purchased a Philips and have found it to be confusingly difficult to operate in comparison.

Having said that I had to take the LG into the shop as it wasn't picking up any discs seems to be a laser problem. It has probably recorded 200+ discs so far....it has spent the last 6 months teamed up with a Sonken DVD player and produced nice clean back ups.

I'll let the forum know how it goes in the shop.

Is there a reliable and safe way to clean a DVD Recorder laser? They are too expensive to just chuck any old cleaning disk into. :)