Read A Lot; Still Confused; What To Buy DVD Recorder!

[inova1]

Hope this is right forum to post to. I've just begun reading about DVD Recorders; considering buying one for these reasons: 1) copy my videos (tapes of TV shows) to condense collection; 2) switch to DVD recording of TV shows; and 3) save my Olympus Camedia photos to disc; of couse buy DVD movies to play. I'm not as concerned with the price of the product. More concerned with buying too many unneeded bells and whistles. GoVideo seemed to be a good bet because of all the DVD/CD formats, but since I own a video recorder, why pay for another one. I definately don't want something with a hard drive--read that you must erase it each time you want to rerecord on it. The double-sided recordable DVD discs would be a plus. I don't own HDTV, but thinking of getting one once my tv dies which is connected to TimeWarner cable box. I'm also located in USA. Could someone help me in narrowing down my choices? Thanks in advance.

[FulciLives]

You might want to check out the AVS FORUM website.

The have a forum dedicated to stand alone DVD recorders. There is a lot of activity there too.

Right now if I were to buy one WITHOUT a HDD I would go with the Pioneer DVR-310 or you can get the DVR-510 which adds a built-in 80GB HDD

If you will be using it to replace a VCR and record from TV such as cable then it makes A LOT of sense to get the HDD model since you can record A LOT of content to it before you have to burn it ... also gives you the ability to record something ... watch it ... then delete it ... without having to use a DVD disc of any sort.

Also great for sporting events which tend to be over 2 hours long.

In my opinion you can't go much over 2 hours on a DVD without too much of a loss in quality.

So at least with sports you can record to the HDD at a high bitrate for watching it then delete it when you are done.

Things to think about

- John "FulciLives" Coleman