Pioneer DVR-530H at Costco

[sapiendut]

I saw the Pioneer DVR-530H at Costco Canada for $500 (Cdn). Does it have DV input? Also, is there any difference between the DVR530H and the DVR533H? They look identical but for the life of me I can't find the info of those items on Pioneer website, both US and Canada.

[falberni]

The following is what cNet has to say about DVR-533H. I think maybe 533 uses TV Guide and the 530H uses TiVo's guide.



The product: Pioneer has been at the combination hard disk/DVD recorder game for a while, and its excellent DVR-810H uses TiVo's program guide and user interface to make recordings easy. The 160GB DVR-633H is one of two new models in the company's 2005 lineup (the other is the 80GB DVR-533H) that replaces TiVo's system with the free TV Guide electronic programming guide (EPG). Our experiences with TV Guide in the past haven't been good, but at least it's free. Pioneer also added a new help menu to make recording easier.


Combination HDD/DVD-R
Records to DVD-R and DVD-RW

[sapiendut]

For sure they both uses TV Guide, at least for the version sold in Canada because we don't have Tivo in Canada.

One other thing. Does this unit do 16:9 flagging? (a'la Toshiba standalone recorders)

[Synergy]

I saw the Pioneer DVR-530H at Costco Canada for $500 (Cdn). Does it have DV input? Also, is there any difference between the DVR530H and the DVR533H? They look identical but for the life of me I can't find the info of those items on Pioneer website, both US and Canada.

You may want to check out the manual of the DVR-633H posted on the Pioneer's website:

http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/pna/product/manual/0,,2076_4279,00.html

The manual is actually for the DVR-531H/532H/533H/633H, and only the 533H and 633H have DV input.

[sapiendut]

The manual is actually for the DVR-531H/532H/533H/633H, and only the 533H and 633H have DV input.

That's one of the reasons that confuse me. The 530 is supposed to be the European model of 533, but the ones they sell at Costco Canada are in NTSC, Region 1 and has DV input. I can't find any documentation of the North American version of 530.

[Frobozz]

That is confusing. Does the 530 have the CD Jukebox feature? The European 530 has it and the 533 does not. Also, the 530 has a larger hard drive than the 533. If the Costco 530 doesn't have these then it isn't really a 530 but is a slightly modified 533.

[sapiendut]

The 530 at Costco doesn't have Jukebox feature and have only an 80 Gb HDD just like the 533. Other advertised feature sets seems to be identical to the 533.

[maldb]

Found these specs for the 530H at a UK site:

DVR-530H-S
160 GB Hard Disk Drive (up to 455 hrs)
Dual Layer Disc Recording (up to 24 hrs)
High-Speed Copy from HDD to DVD
Electronic Programme Guide (EPG (GUIDE Plus+â„¢)
Digital Jukebox
Digital video camcorder input

Here's the link: http://www.weymouthhifi.co.uk/website/pioneer/pioneer-dvr530hs.htm

[sapiendut]

Yup, it's definitely not the same as the European version.

No 160 Gb HDD and no DL capability for sure on the Canadian version of the 530.