Looking for a dvd recorder w/HDD

[Denvers Dawgs]

I just looked at the new lite-on DVR-L71, and was wondering on what others have to say about other recorders....I mainly will to use it to record tv shows, but would like the option to burn it to dvd (looking for high quality 4 hour recording)

[shutterbug]

I can't speak of other recorders from experience, but I'm still raving about my Panasonic E80. I just started using LP mode for recording baseball games and the quality is suprisingly good. Probably better than VHS quality, but with a little bit of compression artifacts on certain scenes. The tuner on the panasonic really brings in a fantastic picture when hooked directly to cable.

[spiderman2k1]

The LP in the Panansonic is not bad. I record in SP most of the time and LP when I need more time on the hard drive. Lurdsmurf say's the LP mode in the APEX is very very good as good as the sony model that goes for alot more. Having a DVD recorder with a hard drive is nice for editting.

[FulciLives]

There are currently only so many stand alone DVD recorders with built-in hard drives. This is a list of the models I can think up from the top of my head (in no particular order):

1.) Panny DMR-E80 with 80GB HDD
2.) Panny DMR-E85 with 120GB HDD (replaces the E80)
2.) Panny DMR-E100 with 120GB HDD (new model replacement due soon)
3.) Pioneer DVR-510 with 80GB HDD
4.) Pioneer DVR-810 with 80GB HDD and TIVO
5.) Sharp DV-HR300 with 80GB HDD
6.) LITE-ON DVR-L71

SONY also has one in the works that can record at a super duper high bitrate to the HDD (15000kbps video) and then do a 2-pass VBR encode to a DVD disc. This probably won't be out til the end of the year I think.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

P.S.
If it were up to me it would be between the Panny E-85 and the Pioneer 510

[Synergy]

Let's not forget the Toshiba RD-XS32 with an 80GB HDD which is available at Best Buy, and there is a long discussion of this model from the following link:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=58bfa2af30eea86dcd532e886bbe988a&threa...0&pagenumber=1

One point worth noting is that so far all HDD models except the Lite-On use the DVD-VR mode, and I'm very curious how the Lite-On model performs without taking advantage of the more robust recording format on their HDD.

[FulciLives]

I downloaded the manual for the Pioneer DVR-510 and there was something in there about a special "mode" of recording to the HDD that would faciliate more precise editing (on the HDD) before doing the transfer to a DVD disc.

Sounds very interesting ... I'd like to hear more about that ... perhaps from people that actually have this model.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[K_cin_az]

these discussions have been going on for a while on which is the best one to get, so far nothing has been determined that I have been able to figure out. I am either going to go with the panny or the pioneer. The panny has the biggest hold on the market and everyone loves the quality, but it is short on features. The pioneer has great features, slighty more expensive, but not as popular.

[Meritocracy]

Not really true with the advent of the new Panny models. The E-85 (upgrade to the E-80) and the Pioneer are very near in feature sets. The biggest improvement of the E-85 is the ability to now transfer finalized DVD-R's back onto the HD which was the main feature lacking from the E-80 which the Pioneer possessed. As for the Toshiba model, from several reports by owners it seems the black level bug which was present on their earlier models is still there, so if quality if high on your list of wants, I'd avoid that particular model for the moment.

[mike1061]

Yea
I can't decide what to get either. I'm also cosidering getting a stand alone, then editing, menuing, and burning on the computer. I really want something simple that won't take the rest of my life.
Mike.

[FulciLives]

I have a Panasonic DMR-E20 that was giving me some trouble in regards to the TBC "acting" up with some sources.

I was getting a blueish/purpleish "haze" of distortion across the very top of the image.

I hooked it up again to play around with it (it's been a paperweight for a long while) and it stopped doing it!

Same cables. Same location. Yadda Yadda Yadda.

Even used some of the same "problem" videos (SLP speed with a lot of full screen RED colors) and it just wasn't doing it.

So I thought OK this is great I can use it now and yes I know it has the black level bug but I got this sucker for free so let me try it out on something.

So I hooked up my LaserDisc player and did the Criterion LaserDisc of BLADERUNNER which is almost 2 hours long and widescreen 2.35:1

So I used the 2 hour SP mode.

I was expecting it to look pretty darn good.

UGH is the word for what I got.

I can do a bazillion times better with my capture card to AVI then MPEG-2 with CCE

The amount of compression artifacts and noise was disgusting.

I captured a short bit (first 13 mintues or so) to my computer and encoded to MPEG-2 DVD and it was a bit dark but looked SO much better.

Then I did another capture with increased brightness/contrast and it looked MUCH MUCH better although I got carried away a bit with the contrast. The one thing I hate about my capture card is tweaking the brightness/contrast is hard and the default values are overly dark so unfortunately you have to **** with it.

Anyways I was thinking of getting the Pioneer DVR-510 for TV recording (much faster than AVI capture and software MPEG-2 encoding) but shit man the quality was just SOOOOOOOOOOO unacceptable with my BLADERUNNER test on the Panny DMR-E20 ... ain't no way I'm gonna buy a stand alone DVD recorder now!

Maybe when they start making dual layer stand alone DVD recorders I might get one because then you can pretty much get 2 hours using the MAX bitrate that MPEG-2 DVD spec can handle.

Anyone else with a Panasonic stand alone unhappy with the quality? I'm wondering if this movie was more hard hit because it's kinda dark a lot of the times and many scenes are smoky as well (the scene with Leon being trested at the start is very smoking in a room lit mostly with blues and it looked like total hell).

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[Meritocracy]

John,

I'm not sure about your particular issues as I haven't experienced anything nearly as horrible as you, but the unit you possessed did contained the Black Level Bug. This should have been very apparent if you played the disc back on another standalone, but not if you were playing back on the same unit which created it. I did have an experience with my E-50 in regard to fleshtone coloring when I first hooked it up, but after moving it away from the other components the problem has no longer presented itself so I've written it off to interference. I also have an E-80 and have had no complaints with it in regard to either coloring or quality after over 250 burns. As usual, YMMV, but you might want to give one of the newer Panny's or the Pioneer 510 a test run and see if the problem is still present with your current setup. If you pick one up at either Circut City or Best Buy they have a rather liberal 30 day return policy so you could always send it back if you find the results as poor as you previously did.