Low-priced DVD recorders from BenQ and Lite-On

[dinobike]

As low as US$99 dollars WOW!


http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20050607A6035.html

[RabidDog]

thats ODM tho not retail

[lordsmurf]

But a lot of Walmarts have been seen with Sanyo, ILO and others for as low as $75 recently, some on clearance, some manager's specials. The regular price is even just $119 for a new ILO, which is a LiteOn clone sold only by Walmart.

[trossin]

I almost got sucked into this as Target had a Cyberhome DVD recorder for $109. Then I thought about it. It would not change my life the way an iPod did. No more CDs laying around. They are all in the basement and the ipod connects up to the stereo or goes for a ride in the Element.

In my opinion a DVD recorder without a hard disk is just a VCR (except if it can do time slip). I have a VCR and a DVD player. I can record a TV show while watching a DVD. If I buy a DVD recorder I can not do that unless I keep my current DVD player connected up. But I have no room for two DVD unints plus a VCR so I'll have to loose the VCR and start converting old tapes to DVD. This is someting I have started doing but it is a pain in the ass.

I figure I can wait and use the $100 toward a DVD recorder with a hard disk that will get rid of the clutter of tapes/DVDs. I'm guessing that a DVD recorder will be harder to use than a VCR as people seem to have no clue how to do proper user interface design. The only thing it seems you get with a $100 DVD recorder is a stack of DVDs laying around instead of a stack of video tapes. Video tapes remember where you left off watching them. DVDs do not (although some players remember the last 5 disks).

I already have a capture card for my computer so the video to DVD feature is not a big deal.

I think I need to become Amish.

[jolo]

I almost got sucked into this as Target had a Cyberhome DVD recorder for $109. Then I thought about it. It would not change my life the way an iPod did. No more CDs laying around. They are all in the basement and the ipod connects up to the stereo or goes for a ride in the Element.

In my opinion a DVD recorder without a hard disk is just a VCR (except if it can do time slip). I have a VCR and a DVD player. I can record a TV show while watching a DVD. If I buy a DVD recorder I can not do that unless I keep my current DVD player connected up. But I have no room for two DVD unints plus a VCR so I'll have to loose the VCR and start converting old tapes to DVD. This is someting I have started doing but it is a pain in the ass.

I figure I can wait and use the $100 toward a DVD recorder with a hard disk that will get rid of the clutter of tapes/DVDs. I'm guessing that a DVD recorder will be harder to use than a VCR as people seem to have no clue how to do proper user interface design. The only thing it seems you get with a $100 DVD recorder is a stack of DVDs laying around instead of a stack of video tapes. Video tapes remember where you left off watching them. DVDs do not (although some players remember the last 5 disks).

I already have a capture card for my computer so the video to DVD feature is not a big deal.

I think I need to become Amish.

trossin,

You make a lot of sense.

When I want to record a TV show, I can do it on my PC and have a ATI AIW 9600XT card. I have loads od choices as well as far as applications which do capturing. If I do that, I wind up using on of my stable of RW CDs or DVDs to play on my standalone DVD player.

Also, I almost never watch network TV and with cable and HBO, most of the shows are repeated anyway. I have never had the need to record an HBO show anyway. Sometimes I like to record BBC news for later watching.

More valuable to me if something like the latest liteon DVD/CD reader recorder for less than $50 at newegg for faster burning and reading as well as double sided recording if I choose.

I also have gotten into the habit of backing up data with Image files on my HDD, then copying them to a RW CD or DVD if I want to see them on my standalone.

$100 can purchase a lot of disk space as well.

I am getting to HATE media being all over the place.

Jon

[budz]

It would be interesting to see if BENQ will actually be selling the cheapo recorder under their name or use some REBADGED name. After all PLEXTOR's latest model 740 dvd burner for computers is a REBADGED BENQ 1640 drive.