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Gear / Technical Help => Playback Forum => Home Theatre & HDTV => Topic started by: Jamos on October 03, 2007, 10:40:42 PM
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Hey all,
anyone done research on what are currently good options for DVD recorders?
I'd like one machine that can be a good player as well as be a reliable recorder, mostly for capturing TV shows when I'm not home for viewing later.
The only thing I definitely want would be HDMI out to feed to my 720p LCD...no need for 1080p upscaling or anything. I don't think I really need a tuner, but if I want to schedule recordings do I guess I may need one?
I know that new devices are coming out all the time...anyone?
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I bought the toshiba kr10ku so I could record games. It has several levels of quality. The highest runs 2hrs, the next 4 hours, and I don't use the others. For SD recording, the 4hr mode is very respectable. It's not fancy but does a great job so far. The usampling is good to my eyes but I'm not very experienced. I was shocked how good the upsampled Matrix looked on my 720p display. The only downside is that I have to program each recording and put in a fresh disc or I miss the game. If you think you'll miss recurring programs, get one of the units with harddrive editing.
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Still looking for one of these...
Thanks for your comments lil kim, +t.
Seems like home DVD recorders in general are sort of at a weird point in development. There are options, but most get really crappy reviews, either they stop working or stop reading discs eventually.
I don't really need a tuner since I'll be coming out of a cable box, but if I want to use it like a VCR with timed recordings, a tuner will pretty much be necessary...otherwise you'll need to make sure the cable box is set to the correct channel every time. Of course, most of the built-in tuners are analog tuners that'll stop working eventually...
:P
lots of little things to consider. Maybe it's just better to get a HD-based set up.
Although they are only going to get cheaper, and hopefully bugs will get worked out with future models.
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I record to my PC and then edit/burn to DVD. My burner only cost like $40. Usually I transfer from my Tivo using the free Tivo2Go software and a little program that strips the .tivo files to standard MPEG.
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So I finally found a recorder that seemed like what I was looking for, and it's working out really well so far.
It is the Panasonic DMR-EZ27K.
http://www2.panasonic.com/consumer-electronics/shop/Video/DVD-Recorders-Players/DVD-Recorders/model.DMR-EZ27K_11002_7000000000000005702
It's got a digital tuner which is perfect for setting up a scheduler and timed recordings...essentially we like to record a few television shows that are on in prime-time when we're not home. It's been really great for that...mostly due to the DVD-RAM compatibility. I bought one DVD-RAM disc and can record up to 6 hours of content, and then can just erase and re-use it. Pretty sweet!
It also has 1080p upconversion for playback of DVD's, which makes for good playback as well.
It has a boatload of other features too, many of which I haven't really gotten into yet. It's got DIVX compatibility, as well as a SD card slot. My hope is that in the future I can dump a DIVX-encoded file onto a SD card and pop it into the Panasonic.
I've only found a couple things that I don't like about it so far.
-The tuner, while good, could provide a bit better quality picture.
-The DVD playback navigation menus are a bit funky, and just took a little getting used to.
Overall, this device has been everything I've wanted it to be...it acts just like your old VCR with recording, and does a good job with the playback.
I bought it from Circuit City a couple months ago. With some coupons, it came out to about $150. I know there are some cheaper ones out there, but the reliability w/DVD recorders in general seems really poor at this point, so I was willing to pay a bit more for what I hope will be a machine that lasts for years.