Professional DVD - The Benefits of Professional vs Consumer DVD Recorders

The BD-X200 series has many benefits as a Professional DVD Recorder over a typical Consumer DVD Recorder:

• Customised Menu Creation
• Two Layer Menu System
• Time saving by performing tasks simultaneously
• Professional Encoding Quality
• Professional Controls
• Professional I/O
• Pre-sampling of Video Bit Rate
• Compact Design
• DVD-R and DVD-RW

Customised Menu Creation

A consumer deck has a fixed menu style so there can be no customised style or differentiation. The fact that JVC’s Easymenu works as a Wizard means that customisation of menus is extremely simple.

Two Layer Menu System

Most consumer recorders are only capable of handling Titles ie. one single chunk of video, with no sub-divisions, known as Chapters. This is inadequate in the Professional world, if the finished DVD is to be browsed in any meaningful way The JVC system allows up to 99 Titles to be written, each with 99 Chapters. Each Title and each Chapter is automatically allocated a thumbnail picture of the first frame; if the thumbnail is inappropriate, the JVC menu allows for the thumbnail to be reselected from within the Title or Chapter.

Time saving by performing tasks simultaneously

The BD-X200 records the input video direct-to-disc, in realtime. To achieve this, the JVC system performs the 3 essential tasks of encoding, authoring and DVD burning, all at the same time. A typical consumer DVD recorder encodes the video on to its Hard Disk Drive. On completion of this recording to HDD, it then must author the material and then burn it. Hence, a 60 min TV programme once encoded onto the HDD must then go through a further 60 min process of authoring, burning and finalising.

Professional Encoding Quality

The BD-X200 utilises separate A-D and encoding chips. Such professional circuitry produces a quality of video that speaks for itself and which also permits the creation of Chapter transition points of such quality that they play back seamlessly (without the momentary freeze glitch).

Professional Controls

The BD-X200 can handle the control of analogue VCRs by serial control and DV decks by IEEE1394. The selection of DV Master, DV Slave, DV Trigger or just plain manual control means that JVC’s professional deck can interface with any professional video environment.

Professional I/O

The connectivity is extensive on BD-X200. It supports analogue video, DV and, in future, SDI via plug-in card. It has audio with level control.

Pre-sampling of Video Bit Rate

Acknowledging that professionals will always want to optimise the Video Bit Rate that is selected (Disc space used vs. Video quality) JVC has provided the facility for the user to sample visually the quality of the resultant encoded video, before the user commits to burning the DVD disc.

Compact Design

The physical compact layout and design of the BD-X200 is much preferred by professional users. 210mm wide vs. 435mm wide consumer decks which take up relatively large amounts of desktop real estate.

DVD-R and DVD-RW

By selecting the most robust professional DVD format, namely DVD-R (compatible with DVD-RW) JVC uses a drive that will deliver finished DVD discs, with the best reliability and best longevity. This has been done to ensure BD-X200’s suitability to the intended professional applications of archiving and medical records inter alia.