Buying advice wanted

[Tubol]

Having decided to go for a dvd recorder I was wanting some advice on which model to go for. Would have prefered a - format supported recorder but there are far few to choose from & nothing really within my budget.

What I want to do is be able to:

Transfer my vhs collection (some 300 tapes) to dvd.
Be able to do basic edting features on a rw disc without buggering it up that will prevent it playing in standalone players on my pc.
Be as compatable as possable (the discs) with dvd players & pc (not quite as above as refering to write once discs).
Be able to easily rip the discs to my pc for better editing & write to dvd-r.
Be able to do a simple copy to a dvd-r via my pc if thats possable.

Here are some models I've been looking at but not to say I want one of them:

Yamada DVR8000 (£140 richer sounds)
Philips DVDR70 (180 richer sounds)
Panasonic DMRE55 (also richer sounds but they dont have a price for it yet. Seen it elsewere from £210 upto £260)
GOODMANS DVDR300 (£180 comet cant really find any info on this model & search engines dont comeup with anything. Think it is really an alba or buch model though)
MUSTEK DR1080 (£180 currys)
GRUNDIG DVDR550 DVDR (£200 currys)

Was looking at the LiteOn model they have but near all have slated it as crap here.

Right I have a budget of about £200 (top line really) so any suggestions?.

Tubol

[Tubol]

Come by the LG DR4810 in my research. Seems ideal as it records in the dvd-r \-rw format instead of the + format. And it's within my budget, as little as £169 in one place.

Cant find anything usefull in the way of reviews or on here on the model. Anyone know of the model to rate it?.

UPDATE:

Found out that this model whilst having 2 scarts RGB, they are both output only!. What is the point in having 2 scarts if both are uutput only!!!. With no RGB input it wont benefit from the quality of digi boxes only really has s-vhs input of any real use & composite in\out of cause. It does however have stereo audio input & records in Nicam.

Tubol

[Tubol]

Right, narrowed things down a bit which was quite easy for a couple of reasons. Mainly that having read about a number of models having problems I've decided not to buy mail order, but from a local store instead as it would save on taking is back & time delays in getting it fixed. Plus the £20 odd it wouls cost each time there & back via mail order.

This basically mean buying from:
Richer Sounds
Currys\Dixons
Comet
Powerhouse
Woolworth (if they have any)
Argos
Index
dont think I missed any other local stores out? or a local computer fair in the area saturday but best not go there for one as hassle swapping as they want to send it back to manufacturer with troubles I guess.

Anyway so that really leaves the following models to choose from:

Liteon 5001
Yamada DVR8000
Philips DVDR70
Liteon 5005 possably if any local store has it, dont think currys\dixons do though

I've decided to basically go for as cheap a model (under £200) as I'm concerned about durability. Remember I've some 300 vhs tapes to concert & will be recording films from my sat on a daily basis probably. So better to bugger up a sub £200\£150 machine that a better £300 one.

So do any of those 3 models stand out as a first recoder buy for the use of transfering vhs tapes & regular recording from sat & digi box?. Also the ability for hacking\modding to allow the likes of macro removal would be nice too.

Tubol

[barneystorm]

You've probably already got this bought boy now, but just in case..

Your info about the LG DR4810 was WRONG....the two scarts are both I/O.

The Lite-Ons are popular, and I know the 5005 will write to both + and - discs (5001 is + only) as well as CD/VCD, but it lacks a Nicam tuner, so if you were looking at it as Nicam VCR replacement, it falls short.. I've heard horror stories about the Phillips, and it's a + recorder, as is the Yamada, I think.

That said, there is nothing at all wrong with the + format. At this bottom end of the price market, pound for pound, you get about the same, and I've found my +R Mico machine to be a more reliable and flexible recorder than my -R LG..Both cost exactly the same money too (£199).

I've done over 100 VHS tapes-to-disc that had music on them..where I wanted to keep the full disc, I've just gone straight to a write once disc in the recorder, but where I've wanted to do any major editing, I've always written to a re-writable, copied it onto my hard drive, edited the footage, then re-compiled the DVD. It doesn't matter whether you write from a DVD-RW or a DVD+RW to the hard drive, you can burn the finished edits on either format (i.e from the DVD recorder on a +RW, record on the PC in -RW, or vice versa)..

Just avoid the the DVD-VR mode if you get a - type machine..it's a pig for getting onto your disc in a readable format and it doesn't hold it sync very well, especially after any kind of editing using the on board editing tools. Always format your re-writables to the DVD-Video format.