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Any opinions on the Sharp DV-HR300?
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mannycam
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8. December 2004 @ 02:33 |
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Hi Niki745, hope all is well....
In regards to your observation:
"when I manually record then set an end time of say 1/2 time the unit records then stays on instead of switching off"
I haven't seen that in mine. It shuts off ok. As far as the unit staying on, I wouldn't worry. It shouldn't harm it at all, unless it's in a hot environment.
Your other observation, I have had happen. Yep it's usually when I set it an hour or so before the event. It will not record it. Haven't figured that one out yet. But I did notice that it will only happen when I leave the machine on. Not when I set it and power down. I havent had it happen much, I would say just a couple times. In most cases when I set way in advance and power it down, like you, I check to see if the indicator is on.
But I havent had any problems yet, doing it that way.
I will keep an eye out for any patterns in the "no recording" issue. Keep us informed.
kind regards, from Florida manny
MannyCAM
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Silver64
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8. December 2004 @ 03:36 |
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JPJ 001
You asked earlier if the 300 could be "hacked" to make it suitable for multi-region DVD playback. As I am sure you are aware, lots of dvd players can be hacked via the remote. Still no joy as to a website for this on the Sharp, however I have seen a 300H's for sale on the internet in the UK as " Multi-region".
Maybe this was acheived by an internal modification but either way I don't think Sharp Electronics UK would honour their warranty if a mod was applied to a UK product.
Mannycam, How's it going? Hope you are enjoying the sunshine in Florida!It's cold and wet in Scotland!
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mannycam
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8. December 2004 @ 04:18 |
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Oh wow!!! that's right Silver!! Never stopped to think about that. Florida weather is perfect this time of year. Thank God the hurricane season is over as well. We had 3 come our way this time, 2 of them right over us. Mostly power outages and rain in my area.
Nice to hear from you Silver. My brother's girlfriend is from Scotland.
cheers, manny
MannyCAM
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Silver64
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8. December 2004 @ 05:37 |
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Hi Again Manny. Might be cold and wet in Scotland but thank the Lord we don't get Hurricanes! I'm trying to simulate the problem Nickie is getting with the timer on the 300. I tried setting the timer to record a TV program just a few minutes ahead. It seemed that because of the time the machine needs to set-up it wasn't possible. I then set the timer (via videoplus code) for a program 15 minutes ahead and it started recording on schedule! Normally if you do something wrong with the timer settings the rec light flashes but I always make sure if after setting the timer and then powering off that the rec lights remains solid. I think that in certain sequences I have noticed that after powering off the 300 the timer on/off button has to be pressed again! Cheers Silver
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mannycam
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8. December 2004 @ 06:03 |
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Yes exactly, I'm beginning to think that this machine requires a certain amount of protocol to work properly. I too double check that lil red light. I do agree, setting the recorder hastily leads to the error we've been seeing. The error is usually "hard disk error" I never noticed the blinking light. I will have to look closer next time. I will also keep tracking the current issue. See if the pattern stays the same or if it's just a random thing.
stay warm, manny
MannyCAM
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petomane
Suspended due to non-functional email address
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14. December 2004 @ 03:18 |
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I've found another great benefit of this lovely little machine.
Have you ever tried taping 2 different programs at the same time, by connecting the outgoing aerial to the 2nd VCR instead of the TV? It certainly works, but you wind up with heavy interference on one of the recordings. Try the same thing with this beauty, and BOTH turn out perfectly. In fact the VCR picture seems to have been enhanced by having gone through the Sharp circuitry.
Perhaps this works because the DVDR is digital and the VCR is analogue. Whatever the reason, it's well worth giving it a try.
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mannycam
Member
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14. December 2004 @ 07:35 |
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Hi petomane,
Welcome to the forum. Most interesting to say the least. I will have to give it a shot. And yes it is because the unit is digital that there is an improvement in the picture. This lil gem never ceases to amaze me...lol
Thanks for the info. kind regards, Manny
MannyCAM
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VMG
Newbie
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14. December 2004 @ 12:01 |
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Is it possible to upgrade the 300 to burn at 8x? I have 70 DVD's to burn & the extra speed sure would help. I'm currently using Verbatim 4x blanks, the 35 min program takes 13 mins. to hi-speed dub. Thanks all. Don at VMG
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Silver64
Member
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14. December 2004 @ 13:26 |
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Hi Don at VMG. WoW! 8x recording! Seems to me you are expecting just too much from the 300 which is after all just a domestic dvd recorder with a hard drive. For the £300 UK price it does everything and a whole lot more. Despite posts to this forum with folk having problems, like Mannycam and others I am well pleased with the performance of this little beauty! For commercial duplication of dvd's I would suggest you have a look at the Hardware section of www.blankdiscshop.co.uk/ and you will find a duplicator that will copy 7 discs at once.Price £229! but it won't do anything else!!
Have a Happy Christmas, Silver
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Erikk
Junior Member
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21. December 2004 @ 00:41 |
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Hi,
I've read in a yahoo group (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Sharp_dvd/) 2 persons reporting that the sharp couldn't write to their 8x DVDs. They say their reseller adviced them to stock up 4x DVDs to be used with the sharp as that kind of DVDs are going to disappear pretty soon.
Personnaly I use 2x DVD-RW and 4x DVD-R, and I don't have any 8x DVDs to test with. Has anyone tried with 8x DVDs ?
Thankx
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Silver64
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21. December 2004 @ 08:04 |
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Hi Erikk
I was interested in your comments on the experience of some Sharp 300 owners having problems using 8x blank media. Concerned, I immediately loaded an Infiniti (8x white top disc) and dubbed a 2hr movie I had previously recorded from TV to HDD last evening. I can report that I had NO problem! Could it be the brand of media the other owners were using? I have read of Panasonic and other DVD recorders having problems with certain brands of discs but so far I have used mainly inexpensive Datawrite, Bulkpak, Budget, and other unbranded 4x discs on the Sharp and never had a coaster. Could it have been a problem trying to Hi-Speed dub or recording directly from TV to 8x discs that caused the problem. Certainly when 8x (and soon to be produced 16x) came on the scene, these were reported to be "back-compatible" with older 4x PC dvd writers.I would assume the same would apply with DVD recorders. Anyone else on this forum had a problem? regards Silver64
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Erikk
Junior Member
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21. December 2004 @ 08:48 |
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Hi Silver64,
Thankx for testing so quickly. That's what I thought as well, that newer DVD discs are back-compatible. The 8x should be the maximum write speed, not the only one.
I think the recorder in the Sharp is pretty much the same as one you can find in a normal PC. So compatibility issues with dvd media are probably the same.
Personnally I've been using Memorex, Traxdata and Ritek upto 4x and no DVD has been wasted yet.
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EA5E
Newbie
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5. January 2005 @ 20:23 |
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Hi silver64 &JPJ 001,
Yes there is a multi region software patch, it's "official" (not a hack), and I have it :)
It is two small programs that you burn on to two DVD's or CD-R's, follow the load squence instructions and voila!
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Brunnen-G
Suspended due to non-functional email address
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5. January 2005 @ 20:41 |
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Hi EA5E,
Is this patch for writing multi-region DVDs or only for playing them?
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EA5E
Newbie
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5. January 2005 @ 20:42 |
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Dolby Digital Audio playback problems
I have a DV-HR350X. My two problems were:
1. No multi region - solved by patch (see previous message)
2. It seems that I can either play DVD's with Dolby Digital (Region 4 does not have DTS!) by setting the Digital Audio Output to Bit Stream, in which case I have proper surround sound through my amp (connected by fibre optic), BUT no sound on any hard disc recorded program, OR
Setting it to PCM allows me to have sound from hard disk content (which is recorded in PCM), AND DVD sound, but it is then vanilla 2 channel stereo, not surround.
Now, if you do have a DTS DVD, the DTS gets through regardless of whether the output is set to PCM or Bit Stream
Anybody have any ideas? Seems like a bug-feature to me. Still waiting for Sharp Tech support to give me an answer.
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EA5E
Newbie
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5. January 2005 @ 20:46 |
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Hi Brunnen G,
Works for both read and write
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peyob
Newbie
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5. January 2005 @ 21:46 |
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Hello EA5E
Where can I find multi region software patch ?
Happy new year 2005
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Silver64
Member
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6. January 2005 @ 00:14 |
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Hi EA5E. I was interested in your patch for multi-region playback. However I note you have the Sharp HRDV350x. This is the latest model and has the 120GB HDD. I am a bit concerned that the older DV-HR300H with the 80 GBHDD may not have the same internal electronics. E.G. I read on a yahoo forum that some guys were having problems with the 350 dubbing to 8x media, something I haven't experienced with the 300H.
I only say this to caution 300 owners, as once you hack it Sharp Uk won't honour the warranty! Also Brunnen-G Although my UK Sharp300H will only playback Region 2 and Region 4 dvd's I would think it burns DVD " multi-region".
I will get a dvd I've made of a movie from TV and try playback on one of the DVD writers in my PC which is set-up to play Region 1 discs and report back. Regards
Silver 64 and Happy 2005 to all!
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Brunnen-G
Suspended due to non-functional email address
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6. January 2005 @ 01:36 |
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Hi Silver64,
My (Australian) HR300 seems to be the opposite to this. The manual says it records region 4 discs and the disks seem to be region 4 when recorded (as best as I can determine) however the unit plays regions 1, 2 and 4. I haven't tried playing any other regions but this seems to indicate that it is a multi-region player.
Also, I noted an oddity when I was checking disks created with the HR300. When I put a disk in my laptop it showed up in Explorer as "$ DV-HR350 Basis Volume $". It's interesting that it seems to identify itself as a HR350. The main difference between these units may just be the different HDD size with some minor firmware mods to use the extra disk space.
Regards.
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Erikk
Junior Member
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6. January 2005 @ 01:45 |
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Hi,
I have a DV-HR300F (french version). It cannot do multi-region playback, and it does also put "$ DV-HR350 Basis Volume $" as label on written DVDs.
I think (of course I cannot be sure) that the 300 and 350 are exactly the same except for the hard-disk. I read that people have successfully replaced themself the 80 HDD in the HR300 with a bigger 120 HDD.
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Brunnen-G
Suspended due to non-functional email address
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6. January 2005 @ 01:45 |
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A further update. I should have checked DVD Decrypter. It reports disks made in the HR300 as being all regions (1 - 8). I don't know why the manual specifies the unit as recording for region 4 only. It may be intended as a smokescreen.
Regards.
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EA5E
Newbie
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6. January 2005 @ 02:37 |
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Hi Silver 64,
I think that the only difference between the 350 and 300 is the hard disk capacity, as the manual is for both, but one would of course take a risk loading it in an older software version player. That being said, I would think version unlocking software is pretty standard stuff. The update itself, as it is described, comes from a dealer after I complained about it, and he got it from Sharp.
On the subject of 8x, I have had no trouble whatsoever with the Sharp, using TDK media. I have had trouble with the same media in the LiteOn burner in my PC, which won't read sometimes in another PC. Burning at 4x goes some way towards fixing it. Dodgy burning is a problem with DVD writers and media in general, whether in players or PCs. The burn is "spotting" a dye layer on the disc, and the quality of the spot depends on a number of things, frequency, intensity, spindle speed control and so on. It's really analog at the heart of it, critically dependent on timing, so putting a burnt disk in a different player usually highlights these little inconsistencies. I understand that dye quality and consistency is also critical, so cheap media could be a major factor.
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EA5E
Newbie
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6. January 2005 @ 03:10 |
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More info on media:
1. http://www.dvddemystified.com/dvdfaq.html#1.24 has more information on media, formats and rates than you can poke a stick at, FAQ 4.3.1 onwards.
2. TDK's media quality comments:
"TDK recommends that specific media be used with the indiDVD1280B drive. Not all media is created equally within the market place today and manufacturing quality can vary from company to company. Sometimes with generic or non-recommended media the dyes and media quality may be poor resulting in reading or writing errors with the burner. TDK has tested many types of media with the indiDVD1280B in our test labratories and has chosen the following media: TDK, Fuji, Sony, Ricoh, Ritek, Imation, Maxell, Verbatim, and Kodak as our recommended media."
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mannycam
Member
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6. January 2005 @ 03:32 |
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Hi Ease,
Manny here, been reading this post of yours. Awesome job, thanks for sharing it. I've been using the verbatim myself and haven't made any coasters yet. But it is good to know the brands recommended by TDK.
As far as some operating on this lil gem themselves to upgrade the HD to the larger capacity...ooo makes me nervous just listening to that. To each their own, but to me it's a bit risky tampering with equipment that's put together to perform a certain way. I can't imagine needing any more space anyway. Simply burn what you want to keep, delete the program and rock-on. Why would you want to store the programs on the HD. But hey, if it works for you, by all means do it.
"Keep the printed side up and the shiney side down"
Kind regards, Manny
MannyCAM
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Silver64
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6. January 2005 @ 06:13 |
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Hi Manny
Good to see you on again. I'm a bit like you insofar as I am reluctant to mess about hacking the 300 to read all regions. As I have said on this forum previously, if I purchase a region 1 or region 3 DVD movie I simly make a back-up copy via my PC and using DVD Decrypter means the copied disc becomes Multi-region and therefore no problems with playback on the 300! I also see that many of the posts on this Forum advocate the use of "expensive" TDK, Verbatim etc blank media. Being a retired guy and watching the pennys I almost always use "cheap" media.eg Datawrite, Bulkpaq, Infinity etc. Touch wood the 300 has never made a coaster (as yet). Also I was wondering about some folk who had mentioned problems burning to certain brands of 8x media. Could it be because they were using Hi-Speed dubbing mode. Personally I never use Hi-Speed dub but then again, being retired I've got lots of time on my hands! regards Silver64.
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