recommend recorder - zone free

[leonk]

all,

I mostly use DVD recorder to record from Rogers PVR (like Tivo)
sometimes to record from camcorder.

I am looking for a recorder that will play any zone disks and preferably Divx as well.
It'd be nice to keep the next device for years, I am not sure what features I should be looking for in terms of HDTV (HDMI outputs) etc
I still use Pioneer player that I bought in 2000 for ridicilous amount of $450 CAD.
Just love it, such well designed device...
I used various recorders in the past, most of them were returned due to bad picture
quality, all of them w/o HD. I used 2 LiteOns for some months, had some reliability issues with them.

[redwudz]

Here are two sites that sell region free recorders: http://www.world-import.com/dvd.htm http://www.220-electronics.com/

I'll let others make specific brand recommendations.

And welcome to our forums.

[handyguy]

https://www.videohelp.com/dvdrecorders

[bobkart]

Another approach would be to get a recorder that may not be zone-free on playback, then get a player that is. This would give you more options for recorders, of course at the expense of buying two units instead of one. But having the two units has other advantages, such as being able to watch a DVD while one is being recorded, and reducing the hours on the laser in the recorder (since recorders are more expensive to replace, you'd rather put the hours on the less expensive player, all other things being equal). And dedicated players tend to have more playback features and perhaps even better picture quality than recorders.

Just a thought.

[next]

This is actually a good strategy zone free or not.

[lordsmurf]

LiteOn DVD recorders are some of the best DVD players, when it comes to playing PAL content in an NTSC country, or being hacked region-free (depends on model). You may want to region-free your discs by copying them.

And as a recorder, LiteOn is decent, comes with an LSI chipset. The better ones have 3-hour mode. You'll have to decide which mode you like better recording off tv, anything from 1 to 4 hours (no more), as it uses CVBR encoding, which is not the cleanest, but still quite nice.

I quit using my LiteOn for recording, but since I own many PAL DVDs, it makes for a great player. And then it's a backup recorder, should one of my others fail.