Hi. I recently purchased a GX315 DVD recorder. I hooked it up to my DirecTV HD DVR. I found the unit at BHPHOTO with a great price...$200. I thought this was really great because there was a $50 rebate on top of that. Turns out when it arrived, it had a big orange circular sticker that said DEMO on it. Rebate didn't apply.
I went ahead and hooked it up. It works great. Some observations so far...
I am recording on Verbatum DVD+R DL disks at HQ speed.
1) Do not exceed the recording time limit, (HQ = 1:50). There is no warning, it continues to record. When you attempt to finalize, you get a disk error and it is unusable.
2) It takes about 7 min to finalize.
3) I have trouble loading the disk into another DVD player. Another newer model Sony takes quite a while to load. It displays the foreword symbol, (">") for about a min and then the disk menu appears. After ejecting, it sometimes won't load again. It displays the ">" for 5 min and then says the disk is dirty and needs cleaning. Open the tray and push it back in and it loads OK.
3) My Samsung DVD HD841 player takes about the same time to load, but when it gets to the end of the 1st layer, it freezes the last frame on the screen and hangs.
Are thes problems normal for this model or are they because it is a DEMO model.
Appreciate any information...
Also, The picture is fantastic. The HD recording is in wide screen. So even though you have to record in 480i via the SVideo cable, it plays back with progressive scan so well, I can't tell it isn't HD. It records the Dolby 5.1 surround sound perfectly.
It's probably because you're using dual layer discs, most players won't even play them. I don't know how long it takes to finalize DL discs, I don't use them.
No. ALL dvd players play DL disks. Every movie DVD is DL. They wouldn't be able to get a 2 hour movie on a 4.7gb disk. The dual layers give 8.7 gb density.
That's the reason I wanted the Sony. It is the only one that has DL capability for home use.
They play just fine. They just take a long time to load. Once loaded, they look fantastic...except on my Samsung DVD player. It locks at the end of the 1st layer.
...and, of course, there is no problem loading them and playing them in the GX315.
The whole reason I need DL, is my project is transferring my 20 Super Bowls to DVD. Each game is 6 hours of TV broadcast. Without DL, it would take 6 disks. With DL I only need 3...
OK. I consider myself lucky. Actually, I really love what I'm doing.
What I really don't appreciate is people like you. What I was hoping to find, by posting this thread, was people with Sony GX315 experience. Instead, I get this anti-Sony bigott, who hasn't a clue as to what I'm trying to do, you don't even have a good handle on the technology you are whining about... 'nor do you care.
I would really appreciate it if you would simply...bug off...