The first DVD recorder we ever reviewed, back in December 2000, was a Pioneer, and the company has followed that by a series of ever more versatile and easy-to-use models. The current top of the line, the DVR-633H-S, contains most everything you’d want in a flagship DVD recorder, including a standard-definition hard-disk recorder (usually called a DVR) with a substantial 160 gigabytes (GB) of storage capacity, an onscreen program guide, extensive dubbing and editing features (including high-speed dubbing), and the ability to control a cable box via an infrared (IR) “blaster.” The DVR-633 even adds something new: dual-layer DVD-R recording.
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What We Think
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| A great combination of recording versatility, editing precision, and ease of use make this Pioneer a winner. |
RECORDING & EDITING While recording functions remain pretty much the same with every DVD recorder (only the timer-programming method varies), every time I review a new Pioneer DVD recorder the editing system has changed — for the better. The DVR-633 offers the best combination of editing accuracy and ease of use I’ve encountered in a DVD recorder. Removing commercials from hard-drive recordings before dubbing them to “keeper” discs — probably the most common editing task — is even easier on the DVR-633 than on a computer-based editing system. That’s something I never thought I’d say about a standalone DVD recorder.
The big improvement here is that the deck asks you right off whether you want “frame-accurate” edits or “video-mode” edits when you go to edit a hard-drive recording. This is an important distinction. When you’re trying to make a keeper DVD-R in video mode (the most universally playable format), so-called “frame-accurate” edits may slightly shift position on the DVD. This has long been a characteristic of DVD dubbing and can result in discs that retain snippets of commercials or that lop off short parts of the program.
Video-mode edits, on the other hand, don’t move when you copy them to DVD, even using the Pioneer’s high-speed dubbing function (which can fill a DVD in only 8 minutes). Any chapter markers you place stay exactly where you put them, but — here’s the rub — the markers can be set to within only .5 second of where you want them.
Although .5-second precision will seem incredibly sloppy to anybody used to computer-based video editing, it removes the frustration of unpredictable starts and stops to your chapters and won’t keep you from cleanly removing commercials. Even when advancing in half-second increments, you can still usually manage to place a chapter marker in the short fade-to-black interval between a program and a commercial segment. Once the chapter markers are set, Pioneer’s system makes it easy to delete each chapter containing commercials.
While editing, all the deck’s cueing features are available to help you quickly find editing points. That includes reverse playback at various speeds, the always-handy commercial-skip button, and bidirectional frame-stepping. When you’re making video-mode edits, the frame-stepping control switches from single-frame stepping (used in frame-accurate editing) to the necessary half-second intervals. For once, what you edit is what you get.
If you want to make a copy of an edited program that’s been recorded to DVD after the original program has been deleted from the hard drive, the recorder’s backup function can be used. This directly copies the data from a finalized video-mode DVD to the hard drive with the chapter markers and menus intact, allowing you to clone the production to another DVD. Backup does not work with prerecorded discs, like movies, even if they aren’t copy protected. (Hey, at least I tried.)
SETUP Hookup of the DVR-633 was pretty simple and well covered by diagrams in the manual. I connected it through its S-video input to a Scientific-Atlanta high-def cable box using the supplied IR blaster to let the Pioneer switch the cable channel for programmed recordings. This also let me compare the onscreen program guide provided by our local cable system (Time Warner) with TV Guide On Screen, the free guide built into the Pioneer. While TV Guide is far more convenient than VCR Plus+ programming — the usual low-tech alternative offered in recorders — it has drawbacks. It’s a pain to set up — channels must be reordered manually to match your cable system, and it’s been known to load program data improperly in some locales. Still, an onscreen guide is essential for any hard-drive recorder, so better to have it than not.
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The Short Form
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| pioneerelectronics.com / 800-421-1404 / $599 / 16.5 x 2.375 x 10.75 IN |
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Plus
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| •High-capacity hard-disk. •Very easy-to-use editing system. •High-speed dubbing from hard disk. •Dual-layer DVD-R recording. |
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Minus
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| •Slightly compromised recorded resolution. •TV Guide On Screen program guide.  |
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Key Features
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| •160-GB DVR •Records and plays DVD-R/RW and DVD-R DL (double layer) •Plays DVD-Video, CD, CD-R/RW, JPEG, WMA, and MP3 •front-panel inputs DV (i.Link) and composite/S-video with stereo audio •back-panel I/O antenna input; composite/S-video and analog audio ins and outs; component-video and optical digital audio out; RF and IR blaster out |
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Test Bench
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| Onscreen record-playback resolution in the XP and SP modes was approximately 440 lines, a result confirmed by a measured steep falloff of luminance frequency response at 5.5 MHz (interlaced outputs). Horizontal resolution dropped to 250 lines in the LP mode, a typical result, and vertical resolution was halved in the EP and longer-playback modes (SLP and SEP). MPEG-encoding artifacts were surprisingly well controlled in the longer modes, though they are still only suitable for programs containing little motion, like talk shows. DVD-movie playback did not show any rolloff in resolution. Progressive-scan playback from the component-video outputs was typical: good with movies but showing “jaggies” on diagonals on programs originating on video. Full lab results |
My own high-definition DV footage of the New York City skyline, shot from a ferry going up the East River, looked great in the XP and SP modes (the signal was converted to standard-definition in the camcorder before feeding the Pioneer). This footage features grids of skyscraper windows and diagonally running suspension-bridge cables that practically make it a live-action test pattern. It even looked good, if softer, in the Pioneer’s 4-hour LP mode. The ultra-high-capacity EP, SLP, and SEP modes (6-, 8-, and 10- hour capacities on a single-layer DVD) looked freer than usual from such encoding artifacts as “mosquito noise” and “blocking,” even if they had the usual very soft picture and jerky motion. On the whole, the Pioneer’s recording quality in all modes was at or slightly above par compared with other recorders.
The DVR-633 is the first deck I’ve tested to record on dual-layer DVD-R discs, which are so new that I had to request samples from Verbatim, the first manufacturer to offer them. As with all dual-layer decks we’ve tried, there’s an inevitable stutter in the finished recording at the point where the player hits the layer-change. The Pioneer sets this point automatically — you can’t manually place it to hit at an innocuous moment in the program. Recording Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, starring Marlon Brando as Marc Antony, from Turner Classic Movies, I got Brando saying, “Cry ‘Havoc’! . . . [layer-change stutter] . . . “and let slip the dogs of war.” The Bard would not be pleased.
I tried my dual-layer test recordings in a half dozen DVD recorders and players, and only half of them could play the second layer, which seems to be typical of dual-layer DVD+R discs too. For now, unless you absolutely require a very long recording time on a single DVD, the additional cost of a dual-layer disc is probably not justified. For long programs, the Pioneer makes it easy to dub from its hard drive to multiple single-layer discs.
BOTTOM LINE Amazingly, the editing system in Pioneer’s DVR-633 is so simple and intuitive, I’d bet even a kid could use it. Of the many DVD recorders I’ve reviewed to date, it is the best at combining recording versatility, editing precision, and ease of operation. With a $500 typical street price (list is $599), it’s not the least expensive hard drive-equipped DVD recorder you can buy. But for the recording enthusiast, it’s well worth the price.
TEST BENCH:
DVR-TO-DVD-R/RW RECORD/PLAYBACK PERFORMANCE
All results are for the progressive-scan component-video output.
Test patterns were 4:3 shape.
Video encoding is MPEG-2.
Audio encoding is Dolby Digital 2.0
| Recording mode | Recorded pixel count (horizontal x vertical) | Video bit rate with Avia resolution test pattern (megabits per second) | Onscreen resolution (horizontal x vertical lines) | Audio bit rate (kilobits per second) |
| XP (1 hour per DVD) | 720 x 480 | 7.32 Mbps | 450 x 480 | 256 kbps |
| SP (2 hours) | 720 x 480 | 5.73 Mbps | 400 x 480 | 256 kbps |
| LP (4 hours) | 352 x 480 | 2.03 Mbps | 260 x 480 | 256 kbps |
| EP (6 hours) | 352 x 240 | 1.62 Mbps | 260 x 240 | 128 kbps |
| SLP (8 hours) | 352 x 240 | 1.08 Mbps | 260 x 240 | 128 kbps |
| SEP (10 hours) | 352 x 240 | 0.88 Mbps | 260 x 240 | 128 kbps |
DVD PLAYBACK PERFORMANCE
All results are for the progressive-scan component-video output. Test patterns were 16:9 widescreen except for onscreen resolution.
Vertical luminance response (re level at 100 lines)
200/300/400 lines
±0/±0/±0 dB
Horizontal luminance response (re level at 2 MHz)
4/6/8/10 MHz
–0.18/–0.18/–0.35/–1.0 dB
12/13.5 Mhz
–2.5/–3.0 dB
Onscreen resolution 540 lines (4:3 image)
In-player letterboxing good
The most surprising results were the recorder’s very slightly limited horizontal resolution figures for recordings made in the XP and SP modes, even when using the i.Link (FireWire) digital input. The typical DVD recorder manages, though sometimes just barely, to get to full DVD resolution (540 lines). The Pioneer’s performance had little effect on the picture quality of typical off-air recordings, however. Perhaps because the recorder always uses MPEG-2 video encoding and doesn’t, like many others, switch to MPEG-1 in the extreme-capacity modes (EP, SLP, and SEP), encoding artifacts in those modes were less annoying than usual. As the table above shows, the recorder drops to half horizontal resolution starting in the LP mode and then down to half vertical resolution as well with the EP mode, which looked quite soft. Recorded sound quality was very good in the XP, SP, and LP modes and approximately equaled 128-kbps MP3 sound quality in EP, SLP, and SEP.
Playback of DVD movies showed good horizontal luminance performance all the way out to 540 lines, with no rolloff in vertical resolution from the progressive output. Progressive performance was typical, with good picture quality for programs originating on film but jaggies and other minor anomalies on video-originated programs.