DVD HDD Recorder?

[Tiakim]

Hi

I hope this is the right forum to post this query.

Please could someone (with DVD recorder experience) be kind enough to take a quick look at the following spec for a stand alone DVD recorder? I have never owned one before so don't really trust my own judgement.

The model I'm looking at seems to have a good spec for the price ie timeslip and RAM disc recording, but I'm really not sure if I'm backing a winner if I buy this model?

http://www.laskys.com/dvd_products/dvd_hard_drive_recorders/lg_rh188s.html#specification

Thank you

[Figaro14]

I have a new DVD recorder with HDD and love it

I found that there can be several advantages to having a DVD recorder with a built in hard drive. If you like copying and editing tv and cable, its fantastic. It's far easier to edit on the dvd recorder's hard drive and then burn your finished version on to a disk than to do this using computer and software. I love the built in TV Guide function -- which is like having a free Tivo included. My Panasonic is very user friendly and I also find it much easier to use than my computer's burner when it comes to doing compilations. I have to show a lot of short clips to classes and editing them on the recorder is a snap. However you need to realize that a DVD recorder does not make a clone of another DVD. It works essentially the same way that a VCR does. You feed it a video signal and it records it. This can be a real disadvantage if you want the menus, subtitles, alt audio tracks, etc. It only records what it "sees" and "hears" at that moment. Pretty much all DVD recorders also have copy protection circuits that will interrupt the copying function if you try to copy an encoded DVD. (There are lots of easy ways around this, which I won't get into here.) But in summary I do love having a DVD recorder with a hard drive. I looked at both the Sony and the Panasonic before making my purchase. I liked the overall picture quality of the Panasonic better.

[ed klein]

Its way TOO EARLY to purchase a HD/Blu-Ray DVD Recorder.

But a standalone DVD Recorder is a must with at least an 80gb hard drive.
Even if it cost much more, well worth the effort for a built-in hard drive.

Being able to play, record, edit, and burn all on the same unit makes life much eaiser on you. Then you take the finished DVD where ever you want to.

There are websites with software programs that will let you hack you DVD Recorder with a hard drive to remove the macrovision protection and region free DVD disk.

You can edit out the commercials while you are watching the program or edit out the commercials at a later date if you are not watching the program and put on the hard drive and burn.

[Figaro14]

Since the previous poster brought up the issue of hacking the recorder to remove the macro, I personally would be cautious about doing this. You could do permanant damage to the recorder -- and these recorders are not cheap. Mine was about $500 US. An easier and less dangerous solution is to get a DVD slave player with no macro on it. I got one for about $30 that was macro and region free. They are always for sale on Ebay. Use the slave player with the S-Video to connect to the recorder.

[Tiakim]

Thank you for your replies

I went ahead and ordered the DVD recorder. Due to the recent UK storms, I haven't been able to tune it in and use it yet as my aerial needs fixing.

I want to use it for recording TV programs and hopefully transferring home movies taken a long long time ago on an analog video camera on to DVDs.

However, I overlooked the small? matter of region encoding, this recorder is region 2 and I ordered a G3 live in Tokyo DVD for my son's birthday from CD-Wow. I know sometimes their DVDs tend to be region 1 (

[Figaro14]

A region free-macro free slave solves all issues

While I don't know this model, my model is set for region 1 only. But again an easy fix is to get an inexpensive slave player that is macro and region free. Then you can copy/back up disks from the slave onto your new DVD recorder. I have a Cyberhome that allows me to set the region to 0 and to turn off the macro.

[Tiakim]

Thank you Figaro14

Luckily I have a region free DVD player with an S-video socket, I didn't know to connect it this way, durrrr!

There appear to be all sorts of weird and wonderful ways of removing region coding, eg keying in 0 7 times etc, tbh I don't fancy messing around with a brand new piece of kit, especially as I am a bit on the thick side when it comes to this kinda stuff.

Good news regarding the G3 DVD, it turned out to be Worldwide, region 0 and not region 1.

Thank you again for the sound advice