DVD Recorder test

[mats.hogberg]

Swedich Consumer Organisation has conducted at test of DVD Recorders. As I'm not a subscriber to their service, I don't have all the results, but the tested recorders where:

• JVC DR-M100SE
  LG DR7400
  LG DR7500
  LG RH7500
  LG RH7800H
  Panasonic DMR-ES10
  Panasonic DMR-EH60
  Philips DVDR33305
  Philips DVDR3330H
  Pioneer DVR-433H-S
  Pioneer DVR-530H-S
  Samsung DVD-R121
  Samsung DVD-HR720
  Sanyo DVR-H200
  Sharp DV-HR450S
  Sony RDR-GX210
  Sony RDR-HX710
  Thomson DTH8043E
  Thomson DTH8045E

Not very surprisingly the recommendation is to get HDD recorders, where all contenders came in at a score of 4 out of 5, with the exception of Sanyo DVR-H 200 that only got a "3" due to bad audio.
# 1 was Panny DMR-EH60
Best bang for bucks was Pioneer DVR-433H-S
Three players flunked the test:
LG DR 7400, LG DR7500 and Sony RDR-GX210, the latter becuse of excessively noisy, and lousy picture.
The test was performed by ICRT, International Consumer research and Testing.

/Mats

[lordsmurf]

Some of those rankings don't even make sense. They give more points to a unit because it has a hard drive? Some people consider that a negative, not a positive. Things like "lousy picture" are useless without detailed reasons and/or examples. I bet this is one of those reviews where the button layout on the remote control, or the chassis color, can earn/reduce points given.

I still fail to see why reviewing organizations ejaculate in their pants over Panasonics, especially magazines. The picture quality is just not that good, and it's market share has been dwindling severely in the face of competition, both in price and quality. Better machines exist now, and for less cost.

It's even more screwy when certain LG models get bad image grades, but other LG's do not, and they all have the same imaging system inside. Stupid.

Seriously, WTF?

[mats.hogberg]

Like I said, I don't have the full story, but I, for one, would favor a recorder with HDD before one without, all else equal. I'd also favor a recorder that can use all kinds of DVD recordables, which seems to be one of the pro's in the test.
I don't know where you got the idea that the bad grade LG's got was because of bad picture quality - that was only mentioned for the Sony.

/Mats

[rhegedus]

# 1 was Panny DMR-EH60

Not surprised - was it also the most expensive?

Here in the UK, such magazines have a habit of picking the most expensive models (usualy Panny) as their winner.

[mats.hogberg]

No idéa, but it was >700 euro, and that's pretty expensive in my book...

/Mats