CH-DVR 1500 DVD Recorder

[halekon]

any thoughts on this new dvd recorder
http://www.cyberhome.com/products.asp?Product=1500
i mostly want to use it to copy vhs tapes to dvd
and to record from from my dish pvr
thanks in advance
(i am also considering the panasonic E50)

[FulciLives]

any thoughts on this new dvd recorder
http://www.cyberhome.com/products.asp?Product=1500
i mostly want to use it to copy vhs tapes to dvd
and to record from from my dish pvr
thanks in advance
(i am also considering the panasonic E50)

I'm a HUGE fan of the Cyberhome CH-DVD 500 which is their stand alone DVD player (player only) that does EXCELLENT conversion of PAL DVD discs to NTSC format.

However I am worried about this new DVD recorder because it uses the DVD+R/+RW format and I really think that the PANSONIC models (which use DVD-R and DVD-RAM) are the way to go with such a device.

The only thing that MIGHT temp me is if the Cyberhome is capable of recording both NTSC and PAL but just looking at the website you can't tell if the PAL/NTSC is just for PLAYBACK and/or RECORDING. So until I hear otherwise I'm not interested because my guess is the USA model might support both for PLAYBACK but not for RECORDING.

I would instead consider either the PANASONIC DMR-E50 which records to DVD-R as well as DVD-RAM or the PANASONIC DMR-E80 which is basically the same but adds an internal 80GB HDD so you can record to the HDD first ... do simple editing if you like ... then record to DVD-R or DVD-RAM

The Cyberhome unit is SO new that I've heard very little about it other than the other day when I was channel surfing cable TV and actually caught them selling it on one of those shopping channels. One neat thing it can do is create a thumnail menu ... admittingly the PANASONIC menu is not the greatest ... but quality recording over menu design should be the thing to look for correct?

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[handyguy]

Yeah, its new. But you can get a panasonic with 80gig HD for $502 with 6 cents for shipping, so I don't want to get cheap with this stuff, cheap is as cheap does, ya know?

[FulciLives]

Yeah, its new. But you can get a panasonic with 80gig HD for $502 with 6 cents for shipping, so I don't want to get cheap with this stuff, cheap is as cheap does, ya know?

The last time I checked on-line prices the DMR-E80 was around $600 as the cheapest price point.

So if you can get a DMR-E80 for around $500 then I'd say DO IT

The HDD is great to have especially if you do a lot of time shifting. My girlfriend works nights and often has me record prime time shows ... I do it to the HDD ... she watches it from the HDD ... then I delete them.

Plus with the HDD you are not limited in recording time. Once the SCI-FI channel had a marathon of UFO shows that was like 12 hours long (actually I think it was the HISTORY channel). No problem recording all that to the HDD but if I had a model WITHOUT the HDD then I would have had to change DVD-R discs every 2 hours!

- John "FulciLives" Coleman