Good buy? Shoild I keep it?

[betamaxman]

Found this reduced to $195 cdn, with full manufacturers warranty, bought it up. It was pre owned repaired under warranty but the owner returned it. because of it's history I bought a four year extended warranty for $50. I don't know it is last years model but seems to do everything the newer one does and with ext. wp is still half the price. Still I have 30 days to decide if it is a good decesion or not to replace my 80 gb pioneer dvr. I am more a computer guy so any advice is welcome.
http://ca.lge.com/en/prodmodeldetail.do?actType=search&page=1&modelCategoryId=0304&cat...Select+a+model

[NiteLite]

Finding anything with a hard disc drive is getting almost impossible to find here in the USA.
For a 250gb HD and all the features listed - and - the $50.00 4-year extended warranty all for less than $200 looks pretty good from here.
Regards,
Nl

[BCdave]

I have the LG LRH-780, which has a smaller 80GB hard drive, and which doesn't upconvert, as your LRH-790 does. It's worked flawlessly for about a year, and I love it.

It unfortunately doesn't have Flex recording, which your Pioneer did, but that's about its only shortcoming. Thanks to its LSI encoding chip, and other DVFX technology, the recording quality is actually better than the source. Here's an LSI press release: http://www.lsi.com/news/product_news/2006_07_25a.html

It records on +/-R, +/-RW, and handles +RDL with ease. Until the new models (LRH-880 & -890) came out a couple of weeks ago, your LRH-790 was selling for $400 - $500 Can., so you got an excellent deal IMO.

[Jeremiah58]

You've got yourself a bargain.
And four year extended warranty for $50 - sounds too good.

[betamaxman]

Thanks for the replies. Yes I think I will be keeping it. The only rub so far is it seems more susceptible to copy protected movies from my satellite provider (star choice) than my pioneer. I was going to mod the pioneer (that is what led me to these forums) but a 250 gb hard drive is the better part of $100 by the time you get it to your door, and then there is the repair remote to acquire. Now someone I know may get a good buy on my pioneer or perhaps it will make to my bedroom instead if the wife permits.

Any way a fav feature I discovered with this unit is that I can copy my 40 gbs of mp3s to it as well and it can serve as a media server for me, currently my ipod on a dlo delux dock fills that bill. I copied the contents of a backup dual layer dvd with mp3s but it takes forever, I have my music folder containing mp3s on a firewire external hard drive. It has the full firewire port. Anyone know if I can use a cam corder cable with the smaller 4 pin on one end and plug it in to the LG and the larger end into the ext drive then copy the folders from there?
The LG has a few scratches on the top but I am going to keep it. Thanks again for the replies.

I hop the trend of HD/DVD units becoming rare changes would seem a shame to me as they seem so useful.

[Jeremiah58]

I have my music folder containing mp3s on a firewire external hard drive. It has the full firewire port. Anyone know if I can use a cam corder cable with the smaller 4 pin on one end and plug it in to the LG and the larger end into the ext drive then copy the folders from there?

Hm, that would be something, but I don't believe that it is possible. But it would not hurt to try.
There is a topic here:
https://forum.videohelp.com/topic324960.html
on how to connect a PC to a DVDR via firewire and use it to transfer DV to a DVDR for MPEG2 encoding in a real time.

[BCdave]

There was some talk on the forums that LG recorders were particularly sensitive to DRM protection, which seems to vary by service provider. For awhile I was unable to copy Encore Avenue 2 (an analog movie channel included in a bundle from Shaw Cable in Nanaimo), but that changed a few months ago, so I assume that Shaw removed the DRM from that channel.

Is there any chance that you could run the Star Choice through the Pioneer and then to the LRH-790, to remove the DRM ??

[betamaxman]

I have my music folder containing mp3s on a firewire external hard drive. It has the full firewire port. Anyone know if I can use a cam corder cable with the smaller 4 pin on one end and plug it in to the LG and the larger end into the ext drive then copy the folders from there?

Hm, that would be something, but I don't believe that it is possible. But it would not hurt to try.
There is a topic here:
https://forum.videohelp.com/topic324960.html
on how to connect a PC to a DVDR via firewire and use it to transfer DV to a DVDR for MPEG2 encoding in a real time.

Interesting, might give it a try, I think the newer models have usb inputs so I guess that is one new feature I am missing. Thanks for the reply.

[betamaxman]

There was some talk on the forums that LG recorders were particularly sensitive to DRM protection, which seems to vary by service provider. For awhile I was unable to copy Encore Avenue 2 (an analog movie channel included in a bundle from Shaw Cable in Nanaimo), but that changed a few months ago, so I assume that Shaw removed the DRM from that channel.

Is there any chance that you could run the Star Choice through the Pioneer and then to the LRH-790, to remove the DRM ??

Yes I still have the pioneer and may keep it regardless so I might give that a try, thanks.