13 NEW DVD RECORDERS - TEST

19th Feb 2004 18:17 #1

Member

13 NEW DVD RECORDERS - TEST

The January issue of the British magazine “What Hi-Fi” brought out a wonderful megatest of 7 DVD recorders and 6 DVD/HD recorders.
The first group of recorders was JVC DR-M1SLB, Panasonic DMR-E50, Panasonic DMR-E60, Philips DVDR80, Sony RDR-GX3, Thomson DTH800 and Mico Espejo R311.
The test results of this group of DVD recorders are identical to the results of my test revealed on this Forum (see “New DVD Recorders – TEST” posted some time ago: https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=181157):

1. Sony RDR-GX3 – ( 5 stars ) “…and performance is excellent: recordings are crystal clear and packed with plenty of fine detail; colors are vivid without being overblown and difficult test such as skin tones are passed with easy…with its excellent replay/recording, would have stormed this test if it were a little cheaper.”
2. Panasonic DMR-E50 – ( 5 stars ) “…allow you to store two hours of video on single 4.7GB disc, but the picture quality is virtually indistinguishable from the source material.”
3. PanasonicDMR-E60 – ( 5 stars ) “…this machine is effectively our Award winner with a greater range of features…”
4. Philips DVDR80 – ( 3 stars ) “…but despite being a perfectly decent performer – the DVDR80 doesn’t put clear air between itself and its cheaper rivals in its group.”
5. Mico Espejo R311 – ( 3 stars ) “…use the highest quality mode and the Mico produces good results. Be critical and you will see there isn’t quite the pin-sharp
clarity or smoothness of movement of the best players in this group.”
6. Thomson DTH8000 – (3 stars ) “…the recording is good without pointing class leaders such as Panasonic’s DMR-E50… However, recordings don’t set new standards and the sonics are disappointing.
7. JVC DR-M1SLB – ( 2 stars ) “…simply refuses to shine: colours are acceptable and detail resolution fair, but there’s nothing here to rival the pristine clarity of Sony’s RDR-GX3 or the Panasonic DMR-E50’s naturalness of colour.”

The second group was DVD/HD recorders JVC XV-DDV1SL, Panasonic DMR-HS2, Panasonic DMR-E100, Pioneer DVR-5100H, Toshiba RD-XS30 and Thomson DTH7500.

Results:

1. Toshiba RD-XS30 – ( 5 stars ) “…it’s performance/price ratio is still sky-high among the DVD recorder/HDD decks here.”
2. Panasonic DMR-HS2 – ( 4 stars ) “…picture quality on recording and playback is as good as the Award-winning DMR-E50…replay performance could have been even better had Panasonic not omitted a component output.”
3. Panasonic DMR-E100 – ( 4 stars ) “…movie sound quality falls below the high standards set by Panasonic’s other machines and lacks some dynamics and low-end weight in comparison.”
4. Pioneer DVR-5100H – ( 4 stars ) “…however, the DVR-5100H promises much, but ultimately fails to deliver. Don’t get us wrong: this DVD recorder/HDD unit isn’t significantly flowed, yet it doesn’t set massively high standards either, despite a price tag that place it at the top end of our group…recording for both disc and hard drive are good, though this was the only machine in this test to display a difference between the two.”
5. Thomson DTH 7500 – (3 stars ) “…Sadly, recordings made on the 80GB hard drive, whatever the quality setting, suffer from grain and lack of clarity of the class leaders. Detail resolution is relatively poor…”
6. JVC XV-DDV1SL – ( 2 stars ) “ …the results can hardly be called bad, but such is the competition that even slightly below-par performances are enough to knock a product well down the rankings…ultimately, this JVC fails due to its limited functionality.”

WINNER DVD RECORDER:
Panasonic DMR-E50

WINNER DVD/HD RECORDER:
Toshiba RD-XS30

I hope that these test results, as well as the one that I had posted before, will help you make an informed decision when buying a new DVD recorder.