DVD Recorders?

[year of the roo]

Attention people who know there stuff!

What's the go with DVD recorders atm? Is it time to throw out the VCR and buy one of these? Or should one wait for the technology to improve and for them to become cheaper?

Give us a run down on 'em if you can, cheers!

 

[Piebot 3k]

I'd be inclined to hang in there for another 12 months if possible. The prices will drop and the technology will mature that little bit more.

 

[raboyle]

DVD Recorders... hmmm.

Well, my pick of the bunch would probably be the LG model DR4812W. It records to both DVD - and + R/RW discs. A good recorder for $799. I have always stood by LG stuff.

Tip... never go for one that has a name you have never heard of. Right now, a DVD recorder under $500 is not going to be a good one.

The other thing is this thing going around called blu-ray DVD. Anyone else know about this?

 

[Moti]

The LG is actually a fairly average unit.

The Pioneer is probably one of the best as it covers quite a few of the formats, unlike the Philips which seems to be going off on a bit of a tangent.

The Panasonics are also good quality and good value.

Getting the lower priced Pioneer is the best bet at the moment while the formats have fun sorting themselves out.

Blue Ray tech is coming and will quickly replace the current red laser tech as they hold 7 times as much info. ATM they are about $2500 US but have finally gained the following of the major HiFi companies.

However, expect Hard Drive systems to be the norm within the next 5 years with the first multi room / multi output system being displayed at this years CES, and on sale now. Tivo will also replace exsiting digital boxes as it records TV programs for you.

 

[scottywiper]

I've just bought a Pioneer recorder with 80 gig hard drive for $1500.
Haven't used it yet, but seems a great unit.
Hard drive is the key, IMO.
I could have waited, but the rate technology changes these days you could spend your whole lifetime waiting.
Blu ray will be interesting, I note that they will soon have dual layer capable DVR+ burners too, enabling twice as much on one blank DVD and making for easier back-ups of movies.

 

[Pessimistic]

I'm looking into this and there seems to be a great deal of convergence.
Do you buy a PC wih a TV tuner card or a dvd recorder with a hard disk ?

 

[GFC MAD!]

VCR's are still a cheap and easy way to record your favourite television programs on. No reason to upgrade that yet.

The main benefit of DVD's are the pristine quality - which is mainly only achieved on bought DVD movies.

Just buy a DVD player [for under $100 now] and rent/buy DVD's to watch and get the awesome quality that DVD brings. As for recording your favourite programs, just stick to VHS tapes for now is what I say. No need to change yet.

 

[Port1978]

Picked up a DVD recorder for $400 on special around Xmas time & it seems to work well. Picture quality on recorded DVD's is so much better than on video tapes, even using the extended long play recording option.

 

[raboyle]

Problem with Panasonic DVD recorders is that the one format they use--DVD-RAM--is not used by any other recorder.

Compatibility of the RAM disc is limited at the moment to Panasonic DVD players and DVD-ROM drives.

Pioneer and Sony recorders are at the top of the list of course, but LG has an advantage of being able to record to both - & + R/RW discs which most DVD recorders are lacking as well as a cheaper price and LG has not failed miserably as far as I know in quality.

Also if anyone here owns a HD-ready TV with a matching HD-receiver, a Progressive Scan capable recorder I believe can record the content but probably only at 576p picture resolution.

 

[M29]

This months APC magazine has a round up of 8x DVD burners.

Different from what you probably want, but still it's good to read up on as they have a short Speil on the next thing in Blue Ray disks.

You may want to look at:

www.dvdforum.org
www.dvdrw.com
www.digitaldigest.com

For more reading on it.

 

[year of the roo]

Originally posted by raboyle
Problem with Panasonic DVD recorders is that the one format they use--DVD-RAM--is not used by any other recorder.

Compatibility of the RAM disc is limited at the moment to Panasonic DVD players and DVD-ROM drives.

Yeah the Panasonic model doesn't interest me much for that reason and more.

Originally posted by raboyle
Pioneer and Sony recorders are at the top of the list of course, but LG has an advantage of being able to record to both - & + R/RW discs which most DVD recorders are lacking as well as a cheaper price and LG has not failed miserably as far as I know in quality.

The Sony players are both DVD+/- R/RW and are sensational players but hard to find them under a grand. The Pioneer is only DVD+R/RW (might be - though). Apparently the LG one is really good except it's audio quality isn't great and the picture quality is only good if you record at the 1 hour setting.

Will probably wait for the blu-ray technology to be introduced and the dual layer recording players to become available.

 

[Moti]

Because I am in the industry, I have got my hands on a hard drive unit that records in full HD and has Digital capabilites as well as ethernet output for multi room systems.

It is still a prototype and it doesn't have the Dolby or DTS chips yet (no use for them until the final prototype) and is in a big ugly box but it is going to be really fun. Only problem is recording in HD requires pure digital output such as DVi and HDMI and there aren't really any boxes out there that have that feature.

 

[raboyle]

Originally posted by Moti
Because I am in the industry, I have got my hands on a hard drive unit that records in full HD and has Digital capabilites as well as ethernet output for multi room systems.

I did work in the industry... but the b***ards fired my arse.

Where do you work?