DVD recorder for Home

[chewingyu 0]

I am thinking of getting a DVD recorder for my home. Basically it is to replace my VCR which I use to record TV programmes when I am not home.

 

I am just wondering what is a good buy? Now I know this is a very general question and there would be a thousand questions asked before I can settle with a certain type.

 

Well, I am basically torn between these two factors:

 

- With harddisk or without

- Get the -RW or the +RW type

 

Anyone who can offer me their wisdom or two?

[Jasper 0]

If you want to record movies to DVD and have the most compatible format to play them back in most DVD players than you want a DVD writer that can write DVD-R. They also can be written to the fastest.

 

Some of the DVD writers will write all the DVD formats depending on the model. I am not familiar with your market so I can not recommend one off hand. If you were in the states I would say check out the local Costco. Or order one on-line.

 

As far as the hard drive. It depends on how big it is and if you can use it as a DVR to record your shows or whatever you are recording. Then you can write the data out to the DVD at your leisure.

 

DVD-RW and DVD+RW have increased their writing speeds recently on computer DVD drives. 8x for DVD+RW and 6x for DVD-RW last time I checked. You have to get the DVD’s that support these speeds though as they are new media.

 

Dual layer capability would probably be good as well so you can write up to 8.5GB per disc instead of 4.7GB.

 

Some brands to check out are Liteone, Pioneer, Sony, Hitachi, Toshiba and several others.

 

Hope this helps.

[VST_Man 1]

I've got the R6750 GO Video.

http://www.govideo.com/Index.asp?GV=R6750

 

I also have the TiVo (DTV) connected to it and I record movies directly onto the GoVideo with no problems. DVD's have played back on everything so far, good quality. Recently started to convert VHS to DVD for my Honey and it has been easy.

[JWH 0]

I have to agree with the above statements.

Get the hard drive to edit out the commercials and other crap that you wind up recording. it shortens up the used space and then burn to disk. I know the panasonic and the sony use propriatary software formats that may cause problems later. I have a phillips that uses the TV guide listings instead of Tivo but it does not put the listings in order for you so it takes a while to setup, not intuitive at all. They were going to work on it in newer models. The local cable company throws of the listing guide every time it updates itself so I wind up resetting the channel order after the update. It can record in dvd-rw or dvd+rw format however, with all the bells and whistle and inputs and outputs galore. Burns disks in minutes and you can set the record rate and quality. Hope this helps.

 

JWH

[chewingyu 0]

Well, I am not really into recording movies only. Just that I am home late most evenings and when at home I need to get the kids to sleep. So, by the time I am done I would miss movies or prime time shows. So, I would record them and then watch them really late at nights.

 

So, I would not take the trouble to edit out the commercials when burning DVDs.

 

I am in Singapore and we get branded ones like Philip, Pioneer, etc as well as those cheap ones like Enzer, Shinco and Akira. Anyone heard of these brands?

[JWH 0]

If you are only going to record and play back only, then you only need to get the hdd model without the burn capability. However, most hdd version are able to burn disks. Have not heard of the other brands you mentioned, All dvd recorders and players are regional in their settings so you won't be able to use it outside the region. US is a different region from China and far east and Europe is another region and so on. The size of the hard drive will determine how many programs you can retain before deleting and some can be set to record a season of one program at a time. Others will record every listing for that program so you will want to check.

JWH

[Jasper 0]

Never seen any of those other brands you mentioned.

 

The best hard drive/DVD recorder tested by Computer Shopper so far is the new Pioneer DVR-533H-S.

 

It is the fist to market with the ability to write to dual layer DVD’s. It has the 30 second commercial skip feature as well.

 

List price is $399 USD.