need help for video recording

[flaminski]

well.....i was gonna buy cowon a3 for video recording but i already read the overview the video recording was not that good it's do darky and there's a line top of the screen
so can anyone give me a video for the recording quality plz?

even that if cowon was not good at video recording then plz give me your opinion for any pmp that good at tv recorder like it has a good qality




BTW hi quality tv cable: is this for HD?? is it good??

[Sasami]

It records in NTSC max. That's 720by480 at 30fps, ie standard def.

[bootlegapparel]

I just did a test 720x480 3mbps, on a digital widescreen signal just normal tv, worked fine, not dark looked great and fill the screen nicely

[otterpopjunkie]

I've found the recording feature to be great. For totally plug n play internal recording it's terrific. It records in 720x480 at 3mbps max, which is higher than TV resolution. the 3mbps recording is about the same as single pass long play DVD recordings. This IS DVD resolution, but 3mbps on-the-fly is not quite as good as a store bought DVD video (4 to 7Mbps dual pass). I'm sure many people won't notice. The only qualms I have are:

-sometimes a white line is shown on bottom of the screen when video is output. This is not on the recorded video but is a matter of the video output mode on the player... maybe Cowon will fix it sometime?
-You can change the recording resolution and bitrate, but no higher than 3mbps on 720x480 or 640x480 resolution. And the next smaller rez is 320x240 i think... so I wish there was an in-between mode more fit for TV recording.
-every once in a while it glitches and has trouble starting/ending a recording. I'm sure this will get fixed in a firmware update though.

But it's easy to record, you can program to record at a set time for certain length, and quality is decent.

[FelonMarmer]

I've got the A3 to display incoming video through the Comp/SVideo lead and the record function allows you to select between Composite or Svideo, but how do you select to record from the AV in?

[nivlacbot]

Originally Posted by FelonMarmer

I've got the A3 to display incoming video through the Comp/SVideo lead and the record function allows you to select between Composite or Svideo, but how do you select to record from the AV in?

Main Menu > Record > Video.
If you have the AV Cable connected, you should see your telly and A3 in sync. Then press A to 'Start Recording' Next A press ends it.

I am pretty pleased with the recording capabilities myself.. TV Quality video recorded at 640v480 @ 3Mbps was good enough to view on the telly again via AV Out from the A3 post recording. Only downer was the asf format and the size (80Megs for 3Mins).. I didnt try with lower settings though...
2 min sample rec of Liv v Everton at 720v480 @ 1Mbps was blotchy when played back on the telly. For viewing on the A3 both samples were pretty good!

[FelonMarmer]

There is no setting you need to make to record AV, it just needs to be plugged into the AV in socket?

When I plug in an SVideo source, I have to select SVideo to see it.

I can't tell wether I'm using it incorrectly, the cable doesn't work or the A3 isn't seeing the AV source.

[nivlacbot]

Originally Posted by FelonMarmer

There is no setting you need to make to record AV, it just needs to be plugged into the AV in socket?

When I plug in an SVideo source, I have to select SVideo to see it.

I can't tell wether I'm using it incorrectly, the cable doesn't work or the A3 isn't seeing the AV source.

Well if you got everything setup correctly you should the same thing on the TV and the A3 displays.

Composite worked pretty fine for me. You

• find the 3 color coded pins marked AV out from your TV
• plug the Composite cable that came with the A3 (the same one that you use for AV out)
• The other end goes to your AV In port on the A3 on the left.

I didn't try S-Video yet, however the only place where you may want to change is

1. Main Menu > Setup > Display : Set AV In property to 'S-Video' (the default is composite)
2. Hook up the cable as shown in /PHOTO/QUICK_GUIDE/04_s-video.jpg (these images are really handy. A for Cowon

Hope that helps...

[JRWaite]

Can the A3 be setup to record say a one hour program and then stop, or do you have to stop the recording manually?

[usul]

You can indeed program the time of recording just like a VCR.

I use the recording a lot : plug the A3 on the DVD player and get the film without any long converting process oon the computer....and good quality, really.

But since the 1.20 firmware I get the picture moved downard when played on the A3 after the recording (ie : black line on the top and just the top of the letters of the subtitles...)

Does anyone have that problem too ?

(i post to explain that in details)

[nivlacbot]

^OP Try replugging the AV cable... I sometimes have trouble getting the TV output on the A3 LCD. Once the A3 LCD and TV are synched - showing identical images, start recording.

Yesterday I found something neat on the A3..
I set up a timed recording for midnight so that I dont forget (Champ's league ManU v Barca.. On to moscow ), shut down and bagged the A3 and reached home a bit later than midnight, when I took the A3 out of my bag, it was turned on.
I tried it again.. I left my A3 off and charging from the power outlet with the AV cables, it will wake up on time and start recording as instructed.... Sweeeeet!!

[quatermass]

Originally Posted by otterpopjunkie

I've found the recording feature to be great. For totally plug n play internal recording it's terrific. It records in 720x480 at 3mbps max, which is higher than TV resolution. the 3mbps recording is about the same as single pass long play DVD recordings. This IS DVD resolution, but 3mbps on-the-fly is not quite as good as a store bought DVD video (4 to 7Mbps dual pass). I'm sure many people won't notice. The only qualms I have are:

The A3 records in MPEG4 not MPEG2 so you can't compare bit rates like that.
3Mbps MPEG4 is about the same as 6 Mbps of MPEG2.

Originally Posted by otterpopjunkie

-sometimes a white line is shown on bottom of the screen when video is output. This is not on the recorded video but is a matter of the video output mode on the player... maybe Cowon will fix it sometime?

Sound like you're talking about the video-drum heads crossover point you're seeing.

Your TV over scans the movie from the video tape onto the TV tube so this line is there, just not visible as it's off the bottom edge of your TV.

The A3 records all the TV picture (if you look closely at the left and right edges you'll see more of the picture in the A3 video than you do on a TV.) so you see this line.

Cowon could add an 'VHS' option to remove a small portion of the vertical resolution so the line is cut off I suppose. But I'd rather do this myself in VirtualDub and crop the video on a PC.