i am looking to replace my cheapo dvd recorder i am looking at a unit between £300-£400 sony,panasonic,this is only for recording as i have an arcam for playback
I have a Panasonic DMR-EH60 DVD/HDD freeview recorder and it is really cool to use and the quality of the recordings, especially off freeview, is amazing. Highly recommended.
I'm now on my 3rd Philips machine, 4th if you include a repair (Thanks to a certain shops cheap 3 year waranty).
In each case the recorder has worked fine but playing dual layer DVDs it starts to get problems reading the 2nd layer I believe that the laser alignment drifts.
Given up, will now use my PC to create DVDs and using a www.toppy.org to reccord TV I can grab the progs via USB. For transfering video to DVD will just plug the VCR into the PC.
BTW if archiving old videos to DVD I'd advise if it's something you treasure to make 2 copies as recorded DVDs are fragile. And always go for a known brand.
Posts: 570 | Location: London | Registered: Mon 27 August 2001
I was sort of looking for a dvd recorder, but decided not getting one in the end because they could not record HD TV. I'm now starting to look at hard disc recorders and in particular one of them offered by my cable operator has something like tivo (no monthly fee though). In general the hard disc based recorders I've seen can record around 120 hours of standard tv or 40 hours of HD TV.
I don't know if you tend to keep your videos (I don't) so that will impact if you would consider a hard disc recorder, plus are you going to get HD TV in the near future and want to be future proofed?
Posts: 381 | Location: Toronto, ON, Canada | Registered: Mon 12 May 2003
I have an HD TV,i have heard that arcam are working on an hd recorder,as hd is a few years away(sky will be first but they are haveing problems)i am looing for something to tide me over
Originally posted by Two-Sheds: I was sort of looking for a dvd recorder, but decided not getting one in the end because they could not record HD TV. I'm now starting to look at hard disc recorders and in particular one of them offered by my cable operator has something like tivo (no monthly fee though). In general the hard disc based recorders I've seen can record around 120 hours of standard tv or 40 hours of HD TV.
I don't know if you tend to keep your videos (I don't) so that will impact if you would consider a hard disc recorder, plus are you going to get HD TV in the near future and want to be future proofed?
The HDD recorders are great. 250 hours of recording means that you can burn movies to dvd at your leisure (needed if you're editing out ads etc). I didn't go the PC way as the HDD was cheaper and sound is generally better thru even a Sony dvd - besided I don't own a working PC anyway...
Posts: 578 | Location: Christchurch - New Zealand | Registered: Sun 08 June 2003
Hmm, also been thinking about buying a dvd recorder / HDD. Was thinking of the Topfield. only problem is if I want to burn to DVD would need to either upgrade my PC or buy a new one. How easy is the Panasonic to use? Is 80GB enough space? Is the picture quality good?
I have a Sony RDR-GX7 and have been very pleased with its performance. Great video and sound from DVDs, good enough recording quality from cable or satellite.
I think Sony has a newer model than this now, as mine is about two years old. But, it was highly rated by What Hi-Fi some time ago, and it's never given me any trouble.
I am a big fan of Sony TV products, so it fit nicely with my TV - one remote, easy to set up and use.
Posts: 138 | Location: Madison USAmerica | Registered: Sat 14 December 2002
What about SONY RDR-HXD910, it even has the HDMI output and 250GB hard disk. I am thinking about to get this. The reviews seemed very promising. On the magazine said it is £500, but it turns out to be £600?
It is well worth to investigate further.
cheers Martin
Posts: 266 | Location: London | Registered: Sun 20 May 2001
Rock, The Panasonics are an absolute doddle to use & as for the size of the HDD.. just how much do you want to store? There is plenty of space for us on there. You can end up storing so much that you forget what you actually want to watch. You can record from the HDD to either DVD-r (permanent) or re-recordable -ram discs (the -ram is an I think as we have not tried this one). Picture q? I doubt you can tell the difference between source & recorded if recorded in one of the higher quality modes, ie, not 'long play'.
Posts: 839 | Location: West Mids | Registered: Thu 12 February 2004
If I record from SKY via RGB scart the playback excellent and unless you really looked hard you wouldn’t know the difference. It also has a freeview and analogue tuner, the picture via freeview is much much better than SKY and freeview uses higher bandwidth. If you record from the inbuilt freeview tuner I think it may skip a digital to analogue convertion stage or two and the playback is indistinguishable from live. You also have the very handy EPG (Electronic Program Guide) so that you can pick what you want to record from a guide like SKY+ which makes it a doddle to program.
The panasonic is a doddle to use it has enough of a hard drive and i noticed that dixons are selling it for £249 richersounds £279 for multi region version
Originally posted by PJT: The HDD recorders are great. 250 hours of recording means that you can burn movies to dvd at your leisure (needed if you're editing out ads etc). I didn't go the PC way as the HDD was cheaper and sound is generally better thru even a Sony dvd - besided I don't own a working PC anyway...
The b*rds - there is now a 400GB HDD recorder WITH HDMI...
Posts: 578 | Location: Christchurch - New Zealand | Registered: Sun 08 June 2003
I have an older panasonic dvd recorder without a hard drive. Problem is that it don't record hi-def. Anyone know if the latest ones support this (panasonic or other)?
ta very much
Posts: 133 | Location: Canadaaa's capital | Registered: Fri 14 February 2003
As I understand it, nobody yet broadcasts in High Definition and you cant record in high definition to hard drive or dvd yet. Although the quality of demo sets is outstanding it seems a bit pointless at the moment, and worth waiting a year or two for the technology to sort its self out.
Originally posted by artist: The panasonic is a doddle to use it has enough of a hard drive and i noticed that dixons are selling it for £249 richersounds £279 for multi region version
I was looking for a DVDR with Freeview in November. Richer had the non-HD unit for £220 (multi-region) or £450 for the DVD+HD version.
We ended up with the £220 DMRES20 to complement our Pace PVR.
cheers, Martin
Posts: 4700 | Location: England | Registered: Mon 31 July 2000
I have a Sony RDRHX710 recorder which has a 160gb hard disc and also a freeview tuner.
It produces exceptionally good recordings but doesn't have HDMI although it does have component prog scan etc. £380 from PRC. I'm very pleased with it.
We have a Panasonic DMR-E55. The recording mechanism has just packed up for the second time, although playback is fine. It's now going on 2 years old and we're going to skip it. It's our considered opinion that further investment in Panasonic DVD recorders would be money down the toilet. Is this view too narrow? Are their more recent efforts of higher quality?
We have a Humax HDD Freeview box that has proved so reliable and efficient that it's pretty much taken for granted. But we need a good DVD recorder for archiving what we want to keep. Any suggestions from happy users? Might go Sony - havn't heard many bad things from that direction. Excellent playback of pre recorded DVDs is a top priority - he sais, stating the bleedin' obvious! In this the pespect the Panasonic has been very good, to give credit where credit is due.
Thanks
Harry
Posts: 2560 | Location: Somerset, SW England | Registered: Wed 08 May 2002
Originally posted by HTK: We have a Panasonic DMR-E55. The recording mechanism has just packed up for the second time, although playback is fine. It's now going on 2 years old and we're going to skip it. It's our considered opinion that further investment in Panasonic DVD recorders would be money down the toilet. Is this view too narrow? Are their more recent efforts of higher quality?
We have a Humax HDD Freeview box that has proved so reliable and efficient that it's pretty much taken for granted. But we need a good DVD recorder for archiving what we want to keep. Any suggestions from happy users? Might go Sony - havn't heard many bad things from that direction. Excellent playback of pre recorded DVDs is a top priority - he sais, stating the bleedin' obvious! In this the pespect the Panasonic has been very good, to give credit where credit is due.
Thanks
Harry
We had a similar issue with the panasonic e85, just on or over 2 years old and its gone boobies up, hence the move to the sony 710. Will obviously have to see how the sony goes, but at the moment panasonic have lost me for custom.
Posts: 276 | Location: cheshire england | Registered: Sun 18 December 2005
I have the Sony 710, any idea what happens if I record a freeview radio programme to hard disc and then burn to DVD? i.e what format does it produce the audio in on the disc, it would be good to record live concerts etc and burn eventually via a computer to CD.
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