Help with Pioneer DVR-560HX, with user manual
 

But I have just borrowed a friends Pioneer DVD recorder and what do you know, it works [8~2]

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Yes, those Pioneer DVD recorder chipsets were pretty decent, on some models.
Which one do you have, specifically?

I may have some further usage advice on good/bad recording modes, etc. (Unless you think you already have it tackled.)

I have the Pioneer DVR-560HX, I would really appreciate some advice on the best possible setup :) Thank you.

Hmm.... I just don't remember that model off-hand.

What you mostly want to watch out for is the stupid change made during a generation switch around 2006. For whatever dumb reason, Pioneer decided to switch to 720x480 for all resolutions, which is really quite nasty beyond two hours. Run a recorded test discs into GSpot, and verify the resolution. The earlier "classic" models from 2004-2005 properly jumped down to Half D1 352x480 when bitrate became a bit sparse (3+ hours recording modes). Some of them had custom recording modes ("MN" mode), too.

Gspot download: http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/vide...-analysis.html

Pioneer almost exclusively used a unique Renesas video chipset -- something not used by any other DVD recorder manufacturer -- and resulted in a pretty decent MPEG encode. It did not remove any chroma noise, like the LSI chipsets did, but it would retain color and detail fairly well. In that arena, of the non-NR chipsets, it was only beat out by Zoran chipsets.


Are you in UK? See full spec sheet here: http://www.pioneer.eu/uk/products/ar...X-K/index.html
Manuals here: http://www.pioneer.eu/eur/support/ma...X-S/index.html

I've also attached the English manual here: