New DVD Recorder/Player with hdd - reccs please
 

I am actually getting tired of looking so someone with a good view on one would be helpful. Ta!

PPP

Depends on what you seek, Pop - I had an 'analogue' JVC HDD DVD rec go the way of all JVC HDD DVD etcs recently and purchased a Panasonic EX-83 for £210 delivered. Not real 'state of the art' (not blu-ray, single tuner etc) but quite satisfactory, with 'HD upscaling' (none available in darkest Sussex yet).

If one criticism, no mute button on hand controller, which otherwise will control the (Sony) TV. Sight loss of 'clever' linkage between Sony TV and Pan DVD but not an issue.

Sony no longer make what you seek, and Panasonic have the best range IMO.

Samsung DVD SH897M, Samsung DVD SH897M, Panasonic DMR-XW380EB-K, LG RHT498H I'm sure there are more but these should keep you going.

I bought the LG one,didn't get the version with a hard disk,I dont record much so I just record to a DVD,then just format and use it again,great record and playback quality,very simple to use.
:ok:

Pop - you are absolutely right to stick with the HDD 'requirement'. It is a huge leap forward in flexibility, especially with viewing while you record and pause live viewing/time shift etc.

Thanks ORAC, a bit otside my price range.

Thank you also to the suggestions. There is one, a Toshiba, that I might go for but it doesn't record to DVD discs. Its a nightmare looking and but I found one, Pioneer, but it was just short of £700!

BOAC, yeah I do want the HDD but I also want to disc from it - this is turning out to be a prob. There MUST be a few!! :{

Some time ago I bought a Panasonic DMR EX 95 V. Has basic disc player with upscaling, a big HDD, freeview and VCR.

One box as I got fed up with the proliferation of boxes and controllers.
Can record from any one to another, and is friendly with my Sony camcorder.
This model is not sold now, but I'm told that newer models are fine.
All works fine. One reported problem with that model is a capacitor that can impact the freeview. I would not know what a capacitor was if it hit me over the head. A man in a shed nearby does, tho'.

My SONY with HDD was the best bit of kit that I have owned. Didnt cost a lot and saved me hours of anguish that the DVD recorder gave me.

PrunePop,

A lot depends upon your urgency and needs.

I believe that at the moment we are at the tail end of recorders with DVD burners and at the beginning of those with Blu-ray burners.

If you want to burn and keep disks with High Definition material, wait a while for the price of Blu-Ray kit to moderate.

If you are happy with burning DVD none HD disks, look for a bargain from the 'run-out' models.

I have an old LG-7624W that has given me many years of satisfactory service, but now I have an HD Satellite Rx/Decoder, similar to the UK Sky Plus box, I'm waiting for the price of Blu-Ray burners to drop before I invest my pension.

I bought a Topfield 5800, which wasn't expensive, and downloaded some extra firmware for it. Topfield have the big advantage that you can upload stuff into them - and it's easy. There's a brilliant freeware package called MyStuff which is the bees whiskers.

It has two tuners, so can record up to three things at once (but on no more than two multiplexes) and has a hard drive so space isn't an issue.

It doesn't have a DVD writer in it, but we tend not to want to keep stuff. Some recordings have been on there for a year or more, but most get wiped after a week or so.

I did once plug my laptop into it to burn a DVD of something my daughter wanted, and that worked.

Thanks guys.

Ian.

I have ordered a Panasonic DMR-EZ49vEBK which is bells and whistles, which is already on its way. Sadly, I missed the fact that it doesn't have DivX but as I have bought it from Amazon they are happy to take something back if you are not happy with it. Otherwise it's a good one - that will give two Pan recorders. But you make a good point about the coming of BluRay BUT is it going to last? The gutter is littered with a few 'great' ideas from Sony, JVC, Pioneer etc.,

Keefy,

I have around 80/90 VHS tapes of aviation going back a long ways. I'll be able to whizz those onto DVD's pretty quickly - and chuck them away. I must have known I would want(them)'cos I have stacks of 4.7gb discs. I have some double layer discs as well but I noticed that there are not many devices that do have facility. What this machine will do is fill a DVD until it is finalized - saves heaps of time and discs.

Thanks.

PPP

HDD??
 

Hi Pop - I thought you wanted an HDD? I bought a Panasonic Panasonic DMR-EZ49VEBK for a 'technologically challenged' friend to replace her non-DVB DVD/VHS machine specifically because it didn't have an HDD as I knew she would never use it and preferred something as close to her previous machine as possible.

It is an excellent piece of kit and dead easy to use.

A similar machine which does have an HDD is the Panasonic DMR-EX99VEBK DVD/VHS Recorder which has a 250GB HDD. About £150 more from Amazon.

As for HD and BluRay, yes they do give very impressive pictures. But you'd need a TV screen larger than about 32" to appreciate the difference, or so I'm told.

I'm still happy with my long-serving Panasonic system:


As I use Sky as my primary digital platform, there's no real rush to change to Freeview just yet - although I do have a cheap and excellent secondary Toshiba TV in the kitchen which is Analogue / Digital - so I can watch Freeview on digital or VHS / DVD / Sky piped through on analogue RF (but in mono). At least my old Panasonic DVR has an RF modulator, unlike Panasonic's current systems and getting it tweaked to multi-region was no problem. The Toshiba doubles as a 19" widescreen monitor for my back-up laptop too!

Ah, Beags, the Panasonic Superdrive - used them at work in the 90's when they were v. expensive - and I've still got one in the studio for dubs. Must must have done the equivalent of 200,000 mles with just head cleans, great piece of kit.
HDD DVD recorder? I've a couple of Pioneers (not popular I know) which have been fine...
Thread drift, but I also have one of these..