DVD Recorders Ratings – Consumer Reports Magazine

zorankarapancev · Member Joined: 30 Sep 2003

The December issue of the Consumer Reports Magazine brought out these DVD Recorders ratings:

DVD-only Recorders:

1. Panasonic DMR-E55
2. LG LGDVDR313
3. JVC DR-M10SUS
4. Aspire Digital AD-8091
5. Toshiba D-R2
6. Philips DVDR615
7. RCA DRC8005N

DVD/Hard-Drive Recorders:

1. Panasonic DMR-E85H
2. Sharp DV-HR300U
3. Toshiba RD-XS32
4. Pioneer DVR-810H

DVD Recorders with built-in VCR:

1. Panasonic DMR-E75V
2. JVC DR-MV1S
3. Go-Video VR4940
4. RCA DRC8300N

handyguy · Member Joined: 25 Mar 2003

Great, I always knew the Pannys were the best.

mike1061 · Member Joined: 01 Dec 2003 Location: United States

Thanks for posting this. I don't know how I missed it either.
Mike

lordsmurf · Posted: Dec 16, 2004 23:28

Ratings are worthless when you are not informed of the criteria. I've seen magazines take off points because a unit was "unattractive" or "did not have a hard drive".

I have NEVER seen a review that SINGLES OUT video quality alone, INCLUDING beyond 1-hour or 2-hour mode. No other retarded criteria (like how well the remote is laid out).

When recorders like Panasonic, units WELL KNOWN for their troubles with macroblocks in most recording modes (especially ANYTHING beyond 2 hours), you have to wonder about things.

My thoughts.
_________________
digitalFAQ.com -- Help with VHS to DVD, DVD recorders, other video/photo issues.
NoMoreCoasters.com -- How to avoid bad burns, how to find the best blank DVDs.

zorankarapancev · Member Joined: 30 Sep 2003

The results of the tests are:

DVD-Only Recorders:

1. Panasonic DMR-E55 - Prerecorded DVD’s: Excellent; Fine Recording:
Excellent; Extended Recording: Good
2. LG LGDVDR313 - Prerecorded DVD’s: Excellent; Fine Recording:
Excellent; Extended Recording: Good
3. JVC DR-M10SUS - Prerecorded DVD’s: Excellent; Fine Recording:
Excellent; Extended Recording: Fair
4. Aspire Digital AD-8091- Prerecorded DVD’s: Excellent; Fine Recording:
Excellent; Extended Recording: Good
5. Toshiba D-R2 - Prerecorded DVD’s: Excellent; Fine Recording:
Excellent; Extended Recording: Fair
6. Philips DVDR615 - Prerecorded DVD’s: Excellent; Fine Recording:
Very Good; Extended Recording: Fair
7. RCA DRC8005N - Prerecorded DVD’s: Excellent; Fine Recording:
Very Good; Extended Recording: Fair

DVD/Hard Drive Recorders:

1. Panasonic DMR-E85H - Prerecorded DVD’s: Excellent; Fine Recording:
Excellent; Extended Recording: Good
2. Sharp DV-HR300U - Prerecorded DVD’s: Excellent; Fine Recording:
Excellent; Extended Recording: Good
3. Toshiba RD-XS32 - Prerecorded DVD’s: Excellent; Fine Recording:
Excellent; Extended Recording: Fair
4. Pioneer DVR-810H - Prerecorded DVD’s: Excellent; Fine Recording:
Very Good; Extended Recording: Fair

DVD Recorders With Built-In VCR:

1. Panasonic DMR-E75V - Prerecorded DVD’s: Excellent; Fine Recording:
Excellent; Extended Recording: Good
2. JVC DR-MV1S - Prerecorded DVD’s: Excellent; Fine Recording:
Excellent; Extended Recording: Fair
3. Go-Video VR4940 - Prerecorded DVD’s: Excellent; Fine Recording:
Excellent; Extended Recording: NA
4.RCA DRC8300N - Prerecorded DVD’s: Excellent; Fine Recording:
Excellent; Extended Recording: Fair

These results are identical with my own experiences with some of the recorders above, as well as all other tests that I had chance to see from the specialized magazines and test labs.

Now we have two choices:

1.To except the obvious facts.
2.To except the possibilities that this is the biggest conspiracy in the electronic world today!

Zoran

____________________________________________________________

Truth needs no laws to support it. Throughout history only lies and liars have resorted to the courts to enforce adherence to dogma.

zleepy · Posted: Dec 17, 2004 08:56

They been so wrong so many times on camera, audio and PC etc.

AR3, Konica, IBM Peanut, etc.

The last computer was dead in 6 month and the Apple IIc they trashed
lived on for generations (years).

I mean IBM's audio cassette instead of disk storage (Apple IIc) !!!

H2OSkier · Member Joined: 13 Dec 2004 Location: Nebraska

Where's the Sony HX900 so many rave about?? Am I to believe it didn't even qualify or is it too new of a model

zorankarapancev · Member Joined: 30 Sep 2003

H2OSkier,
As a new model, Sony HX900 was not rated.

DVWannaB · Member Joined: 30 Dec 2001 Location: United States

It boils down to this. Tread carefully when reading these reviews and take them all with some grains of salt. Remember, organizations like CR have "constituents", .... you know, just like politicians do.

For anyone looking for a DVD-Rec, should only use such reports as a starting point. Do your own tests and really know wha is most important to you as far as a recorder is concerned and rank them as such.

Personally, I think the Sony(s) gave me the best darn picture qual. But they are also very inflexible for the needs that were important to me, as must have(s). Panasonic was good too in this area, but the JVC combined great reproduction as well as other features and they got the nod.

That new Sony 900 gives ONE HELL OF A GREAT PICTURE!!!! Hard to pass up.

gshelley61 · Frequent Flyer Joined: 19 May 2004 Location: USA

I wonder what types of sources they tested the recording quality with. My experience is that the JVC has pretty effective pre-encoding video noise suppression that was not a feature my Panny had. When recording a less than perfect source, the JVC cleaned up the video enough to result in a better transfer to MPEG2 (less bitrate being wasted on encoding noise). I mean, I owned both at the same time... at the XP (1 hour) setting, they both were superb, although the Panny would record the video noise while the JVC filtered it out a bit. But when the time extended into the two hour and longer range, the JVC clearly produced a less noisy recording with fewer macroblocks. FWIW

Oh, one more thing... they gave the combi JVC VHS/DVD Recorder high marks, but here on this forum it has been mentioned over and over that it is at best a compromise with a cheesy VCR. Not recommended.

handyguy · Member Joined: 25 Mar 2003

The one at walmart, dual too, under $140 wasnt rated either:
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.gsp?product_id=3429491& ... 2646179957

zorankarapancev · Member Joined: 30 Sep 2003

gshelley61,
CR did tests on the recording quality and available features on those DVD recorders. People mostly complain about poor JVC reliability that is well known issue for some time, especially between professionals. For that reason I often hesitate to recommend JVC products.

____________________________________________________________
Truth needs no laws to support it. Throughout history only lies and liars have resorted to the courts to enforce adherence to dogma.

lordsmurf · Posted: Dec 17, 2004 12:25

I've never encountered JVC unreliability.

If anything, Sony and Panasonic (ironic, seeing as how Matsushita owns both it and JVC) have given worst possible service and have flaws. And their products are also very overpriced.

"Features" is a pretty broad word. That can include anything, and I bet it does have more weight given to it than VISUAL quality.

To have a list that entirely ignores Pioneer and LiteOn is pretty much laughable. Especially when it finds RCA, Philips and GoVideo to give excellent results. Philips is very "crunchy" with quality even in M2 (2-hour, like SP).

Again, something just isn't right.
_________________
digitalFAQ.com -- Help with VHS to DVD, DVD recorders, other video/photo issues.
NoMoreCoasters.com -- How to avoid bad burns, how to find the best blank DVDs.

zorankarapancev · Member Joined: 30 Sep 2003

Reliability Report.

CR brand repair history based on nearly 81,000 DVD players purchased from 2000 to 2004:

1. Panasonic
2. Sony
3. Toshiba
4. JVC
5. Pioneer
6. Hitachi
7. Philips
8. Samsung
9. RCA
10. Apex Digital

___________________________________________________________

Truth needs no laws to support it. Throughout history only lies and liars have resorted to the courts to enforce adherence to dogma.

Frobozz · Member Joined: 23 Dec 2003 Location: Eugene, Oregon

lordsmurf, thanks for the cheery Merry Smurfmas greeting.

I, too, am disappointed with the absence of Pioneer's standard line-up. The DVR-810 is Tivo-equipped so not really comparable to the other hard drive recorders.

Over the years I've found Consumer Reports to be rather odd about what it doesn't like in products and which models it chooses to rate. Certainly it is helpful when it finds serious flaws but otherwise the general advice is more helpful than the product ratings.

My favorite stretch by Consumer Reports was when it compared a 1970 Toyota Corona Mk II with the U.S.-made garbage cars such as the Ford Maverick. Import cars were naturally questionable for quality, safety and repair back then. There was a close-up picture of someone awkwardly trying to flip the Toyota's turn-signal lever by reaching from under the steering column. The caption complained of the hard-to-reach turn signal lever. It actually could be reached easily from the side without letting go of the steering column just like on any other car. I think Consumer Reports has a significant defect with operator error when it tests equipment. Oh, by the way, my Toyota was unreliable and required a lot of repair, so they guessed that part right.

mike1061 · Member Joined: 01 Dec 2003 Location: United States

DVWannaB
I beg to differ with you on the point of Consumers Reports magazine haveing "constituents". They have a long history of being independant of any business at all. They will not take any money from business, so they will not be compromised in there independancy.

IMO, they are a great source of information. I belive in there tests and results. I am also willing to state both, that they are not perfact, and people here are tons more knowageable on the subject of video and video related. Using there magazine is a good way to buy somethings. Man I don't have time to research every perchase I make, so I look at them for there ratings, AND comments. The comments part is just as important to me.
Thanks Mike

lenti_75 · Member Joined: 18 Feb 2004 Location: USA

DVWannaB · Member Joined: 30 Dec 2001 Location: United States

kisrum · reported Joined: 24 Sep 2003 Location: US

I can remember when CR thought Tandy personal computers were the cat's pajamas.

Capmaster · Posted: Dec 17, 2004 14:55

OldFeller · Member Joined: 02 Jul 2004

I think CR can be very useful in learning about products' features. I also trust their integrity. On the other hand, I have bought things they recommended only to be disappointed and bought things I was happy with that they didn't like. Their "reliability" scores generally matich my experience, but not always.

Nevertheless, I have subscribed for almost fifty years and will no doubt renew. CR has been worth the money to me.

Captain Satellite · Posted: Dec 17, 2004 16:13

'nuff said!

KavMan · Member Joined: 24 Nov 2004

panny's are up there with the best

i bought the sony hx900 waiting to be blown away by the visuals but could not tell that much of a differance if any between that and the e100

looked at it on slow mo, ff/rw and also on the monitor at 1600x1200 and any other possible ways
i just couldn't freakin tell them apart, that's why it went back to onecall

imho any of the top quality recorders on the top 2 recording speeds will have very very close visuals

don't believe the hype that some people are spouting saying one blows the other away etc....

if i have time after new years, one of my friends also bought the hx900, hell, i'll go to best buy or walmart and also borrow a jvc for a day or two hehe and i'll also use my e100

record some high quality dvd stuff on all three, up the mpegs, let you guys burn it to dvd and see if you can see this blow out vid quality one has over the other bs hype that alot of you are spouting

macleod · Member Joined: 29 May 2002

I want to see this in "fight Back". Anyone remeber that show. What was the hosts, name, Dave something or other.

They should have a show like that come back on the air and do these kinds of tests...

Captain Satellite · Posted: Dec 17, 2004 18:33

David Horowitz - "Don't let ANYBODY rip you off".

tommyoz · Member Joined: 19 Jan 2003

Just my thoughts,

This review means nothing to me. Just because someone writes it, doesn't mean it's right. The same goes for the all the post, just because you say it doesn't make it right.

Hence, the reason why I own 4 different models for a non professional.
Also, I have tried at least 8 different models. Bring it home and test it with the equipment that you have and your eyes to see. I'm sure we're always going to disagree about something.