8 days until I can't return my Pioneer 220, should I?

[cwerdna]

Ok, long ago, I was looking for a cheap DVD recorder to archive stuff from my DirecTivo (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=511949) so I bought a Pioneer DVR-220 but ended up returning it because I felt it was too bleeding edge (longevity and readability concerns).

Funny thing is that I ended up buying one again (very last minute) because of the desire to watch stuff from my DirecTivo while on a recent trip to Japan, this time for $179 at Walmart. It unfortunately was an open box but everything was there, the unit works fine and the burned discs seemed to turn out ok.

I have ~8 days before I can no longer return it. Should I? Is there anything decent in this price range that I should consider? Some people like the Sony GX300 but it's not that cheap and harder to find now. The GX315 sounds like a step back.

For me, I'd like
- low price (<$220)
- good picture quality
- good sound quality

Would be nice to be able to record to all DVD +/- R and RW (Pioneer only handles -R and -RW) but not a requirement. Don't care about DVD-RAM, as the blanks are too much $.

I don't care much about editing, don't need a hard drive, don't care about the internal tuner (it's useless for me), EPG or timeshifting. I'm wary about Pannys as some (all?) are somewhat crippled recording onto non-DVD-RAM discs. Some have suggested the Panasonic ES10 or 20 partly because of its LP resolution, but others such as lordsmurf here say that LP sucks on the ES10 due to high res at that bitrate making blockiness even worse.

I think I'll get over my worries about readability/longevity for important stuff by making 2 copies to different disc brands and at minimum verifying the video_ts directory can be copied w/o errors using my BenQ DW1640 in my PC, the Matsushita UJ-845C in my Mac Mini and maybe my laptop's DVD reader (Toshiba C2502 I believe). I might run some other tests and still archive to VHS.

[FulciLives]

As far as a non-HDD stand alone DVD recorder goes ... you have one of the best.

The only other model you might want to consider would be the JVC DR-M100S which is about the same price (actually just a few dollars more) than the Pioneer you have.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman