reccommend a stadalone recorder

[Hacker_Girl]

I had the Philips 880 last christmas and had many problems with it, i have just got a refund on it due to it being faulty......can anyone reccommend any good recorders, are there any that have dual format recording? I have been put off buying Philips although i know there is a newer model.....any help will be greatly recieved.......thanks! oh and i'd also like mp3 playback as my dvd player doesnt support this

[houtx67]

The Panasonic DMR-E50 and up would be recommended. They play MP3 and the extras vary depending if you want a hardrive and/or flash memory reading. I have DMR-E30 that has worked great and I just got the E-100H the other day (I am loving the 120 GB harddrive, but I haven't played around with the MPEG4 burning or the flash memory options yet).

[Hacker_Girl]

thanks........i dont really understand how it can have gb tho, are you talking about a desktop dvd recorder? and dont they just record in one format(.IFO)?
I just had a quick look on this site and saw that the Sony DVD Recorders have dual format.......they're also quite pricey tho....my philips one was £450 so i'm not looking to spend any more than that. Are there others available that arnt listed on the site here?

[houtx67]

The Panasonic HS2 (older model), EMR-E80, and E-100H all have harddrives of 40, 80, and 120GB respectively. They are desktop recorders, but they can use the harddrive to store programs (like a Tivo or Replay w/o the subscription). They also allow you to edit out commercials before burning to DVD-R (re-encodes to the disk unless you use DVD-RAM and burn on your computer - discussed elsewhere on this forum).

I've heard that they will play DVD+R (can't confirm that), but they definitely record only DVD-R and DVD-RAM. I don't know what they go for in the UK, but I would assume that you would be able to find a DMR-E50 or E60 (no harddrive) or possibly even a DMR-E80 in your price range. You can still find DMR-E30s for a little less than the E50, but people say they're given to the chroma bug. I personally haven't noticed any significant effect on the hundreds of recordings I've made on mine, but the majority of those were black and white (thanks TCM). Mine has been a workhorse, and I continue to use it as a backup recorder. But I would suggest you probably go with a newer version if given the choice (and looking for a Panasonic).

I can't personally vouch for the other lines, other than I heard the Polaroid DVD+R was crap.

Try the below link for other comments people have had for other recorders.

https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=170772

[FulciLives]

Forget anything other than PANASONIC or PIONEER when it comes to stand alone DVD recorders.

There are too many problems with the PHILIPS and the SONY is a first gen unit with it's own problems.

I would either get the PANASONIC DMR-E50 or if you want a HDD then consider the DMR-E80 also by PANASONIC

Also the PIONEER units are very good ... perhaps even better than the PANASONIC units ... but they cost and arm and a leg and unless the new models comming out are something OUT-OF-THIS-WORLD the price difference just cannot be justified in my opinion. Also if you want a model with a built-in HDD then PIONEER has no such model although the new line up (comming soon) does include one.

So, in short, go with PANASONIC unless you want to wait and see what the new PIONEER models will be like.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[Hacker_Girl]

still searching for dvd standalone recorder noticed there are a few others now on the market, anyone know of any that have these specs

HD DVD-RAM
Dual Format
ReWritable
MP3 Playback

Thanks!

[handyguy]

Main page, left column:
https://www.videohelp.com/dvdplayers

btw, yes they have dvd recorders listed too

houtx67, you might search for that e30 there cause they have some new info on it.

[Hacker_Girl]

yeah ive been checking there but its not been updated in a while and was just wondering if anyone knew of any others that have recently come on the market

[zanos]

Get a panasonic. You can't go wrong. The TBC on it is also alot better than Sonys' plus you get a hard drive. The only drawback is Panasonic is COMPLETELY out of touch with their consumers by using a dead format like dvd-ram.

[Hacker_Girl]

oh god....im gonna be thick now, is dvd-ram hard drive space?
do the panasonic's use dvd-r or dvd+r, or is it just dvd-ram, is that a special type of disc?
oh im sooo confused

[thoots]

Hacker_Girl,

Well, you just need to do a lot of research. All of these companies have web sites with loads of information -- it would be best to spend some quality time browsing through them. They even have lots of information about the DVD recording process in general, the different formats, and so on.

For a quick "Reader's Digest version," let me offer this:

There are two formats for "write-once" discs: DVD-R and DVD+R. Once you record on one of these discs, you cannot "erase" them and write over them again. You have to "finalize" these in the DVD recorder, and then you can play them in virtually any DVD player you might find. "Most" DVD players can read either format without any problems.

It really isn't necessary at all to have a "dual-format" machine -- as I just mentioned, either DVD-R or DVD+R will work in most any DVD player you'll run across. Again, there are some DVD players that won't read these discs, but those are getting more rare by the day. And, I'm not aware of many that will play one format, but not the other -- "generally," they'll play either format, or they just won't read these kinds of discs at all. So, there's really no "need" to have a "dual format" recorder.

Most (probably all) DVD recorders have some kind of "rewritable" format in addition to the write-once DVD-R or DVD+R format that they have. DVD+R machines usually have DVD+RW capability, and DVD-R machines usually have either DVD-RW or DVD-RAM capability. Again, these are discs that you can record over and over and over again. However, these "rewritable" discs are not very compatible with most of the DVD players that you might run across -- maybe somewhere around "half" of the DVD players can read a DVD-RW or DVD+RW disc. And, even fewer DVD players (mostly Panasonic) can read DVD-RAM discs.

To complicate this further, some DVD recorders also have hard drives, which you can record video onto and either just watch, or record onto whatever kind of discs the machine can record. If you record the video onto a hard drive first, then you can "edit" it -- like cutting out commercials -- and then you can make a DVD-R or whatever without commercials and such.

So, the real-world use of all of this stuff goes like this:

DVD-R - use it to record discs you want to play in other players, or to give to friends and relatives.

DVD+R - same as DVD-R, above.

DVD-RW - use it to record stuff over and over on your own machine (think of a "blank VHS tape" you'd use over and over again), as these may not play back in any other DVD player you or your friends or your family might have.

DVD+RW - same as DVD-RW, above.

DVD-RAM - same as DVD-RW, above.

Hard disk drive - think of it as a great big "rewritable" disc you can record dozens of programs on. If you wanted to just "replace your VCR," you could use this and never lay hands on a videotape or even a recordable DVD again. Or, you can take that a step further, and record "write-once" or "rewritable" DVD discs, as mentioned above. The Hard Disk Drive also gives you the ability to edit your programs, and then "dub" them to a recordable DVD, which gives you some extra flexibility and creativity to build your own DVD with a nice, "finished" touch.

All that said, I heartily recommend the Panasonic units. They do a wonderful job. Yes, they use DVD-RAM as the "rewritable" format, but DVD-RAM is actually technically superior to DVD-RW or DVD+RW, if you really want to get down to details. Anybody who would really care lots about what kind of "rewritable" format a unit has either plans to take "rewritable" discs and transfer the video to a computer, or they simply don't comprehend that they can't pass those things out and expect that any of their friends or family members could actually play them on their home DVD players.

Panasonic uses DVD-R as the "write once" format, and the results are excellent. They also have two "hard drive" models, which I would recommend above all others. Once you spend a little time with a DVD recorder that lacks a hard drive, and then start considering what that hard drive can do, you'll start wanting a hard drive recorder really badly!

Here is how I would recommend the Panasonic DVD recorders:

DMR-E50: Does not have a hard drive, but it will get "DVD recording" done very well. Use it to copy VHS tapes onto DVD-R, use it to record TV programs onto DVD-R, or use it to record TV programs onto DVD-RAM if you just want to want to use the same disc over and over again, just to watch TV shows.

DMR-E60: Same as the DMR-E50, above, except this has a "firewire" input which works with digital camcorders. It also has slots to accomodate "memory cards" if you want to show still pictures on your TV.

DMR-E80H: This is the first model with a hard drive. You can record from 18 hours of video at the best video quality, to virtually hundreds of hours at lower video qualities. Otherwise, this is the same as the DMR-E50, above.

DMR-E100H: This is the "big dog" of the line, with a bigger hard drive. A wonderful machine if you can drop that kind of dough. Otherwise, it's more like the DMR-E60, above, as it has those slots for memory cards and such. It also lets you make menus for the DVD's you will record that actually show "thumbnail pictures" of the video for each program recorded on the DVD, and it has a faster "burner" built into it, so if you would "dub" from the hard drive to a DVD-R or DVD-RAM, it could do that dubbing faster.

So, there's a quick look at things that I hope will help you put these things into perspective. Good luck!

thoots

[Hacker_Girl]

oh thank you so much for taking the time to write out all that info for me, that has definatly cleared things up, so i think Panasonic is definatly the way then
thanks!!

[deepdown]

Like DVD-RAM is like a harddrive.
When you select something and erase it - it will be erased.

DVD-RW - when you delete something, its not deleted, but just not read.
(the commercal you deleted is still on the -rw disk, occupying disk space)

I'm i wrong ?