At first glance a DVD recorder resembles a DVD burner – they have a similar loading tray.
Both are concerned with the creation of DVDs through the means of a laser. They fill a blank DVD with data that is permanent.
That’s where the similarity ends.
A DVD burner or DVD writer would need a software program like Nero to record data on to a blank DVD.
The DVD recorder, on the other hand, would not need a software, but an input AV (audio/video) signal.
In short, the DVD recorder works much like a VCR (video cassette recorder). It would record from any audio/video source. All you have to do is plug in your AV source from a video camera, television or another DVD player.
AV signal is transferred to the DVD recorder through the use of RCA cables (yellow for video, red and white for audio, S-video cable or firewire cable).
A DVD burner can’t record from a direct AV source. A DVD burner will only record what a computer program instructs it to do.
A DVD burner can create a data DVD disc, a video disc or audio disc.
A DVD recorder can’t create a DVD data disk. It can’t also read a data disc.
It looks like there’s no compatibility between a computer and a DVD recorder.
This is not really so.
A DVD recorder could still be connected to the computer via a firewire cable (iLink or IEEE 1394) and record AV signal stored in the hard disk.
You computer must be equipped with a firewire port, however.
How do you transfer AV signal through a firewire cable to your DVD recorder?
It could be done through the use of a video editing software. Some video editing programs allow you to export your edited video through firewire to your digital camera or any other device with firewire input.
You would have to check the help section of your program or the program manual for more information on this.
