Which is the best DVD recorder?

I'm looking for a Panasonic DVD recorder to replace my VHS recorder, which model is best?

• I really like the look of the Panasonic ones, and my VHS recorder was a Panasonic (it's lasted nearly ten years, amazing considering it has been used almost daily!) so I want to stick to the brand. I will be looking at ex-display or 2nd hand items because I can't afford new, I just want something that will replace my video recorder effectively and efficiently. I find it really difficult finding what I want on review sites, they always seem interested in the latest and most expensive models and probably judge them on much higher standards than are necessary for my needs, I'm just Joe Average and not a home cinema perfectionist freak. Suggestions on what to look for, in-depth knowledge, or personal experience is most welcome! PS Component AV I/O (phono) is a must.

• Answer:

  I bought a Panasonic DVD-recorder about 6 months ago after some decently extensive research. I am also a fan of Panasonic for the quality of their products. I bought the DMR-EH50. Many DVD recorders out there, especially the less expensive ones, do NOT contain a Hard drive allowing you to record first to the hard drive and then to a DVD disc. I HIGHLY recommend getting a model with a hard drive (like this one). It doesn't have to be huge, just something. This allows you to record many hours of programming which is really helpful. Not only can you record many hours, but you can do it in high quality. Just like your VCR has quality settings for SP, LP, SLP, the DVD recorder has somethingn similar. The DMR-EH50 has 4 settings, SLP, LP, SP, and XP. XP being the best, you will hardly notice a difference between the recording and original tv. The lower settings give you much longer recording time, but the quality will go down. I try to use XP as much as possible. If you use a recorder without a hard drive, you will need to worry about putting discs into it. What happens if you want to record 4 shows while you're at work? You either have to use 1 disc, and a very Low recording setting (LP = about 4 hours), yeilding fairly poor quality. OR, you can get all 4 shows onto the hard drive in the best Quality XP setting and not worry about discs. Then later on, you can record each show onto its own disc. (you can still decide to put all 4 shows on 1 disc if you wanted when you dub from hard drive to disc). This model also allows for some nice and easy editing of shows. I personally hate having commercials on my recordings, so I like to go in and edit out the commercials first and then transfer to disc. I record Saturday Night Live a lot (a 1.5 hour program), and I like to go in a remove the commericals and also the music groups on that show if I don't like them. It's easy in this way to cut the show time down to under an hour. Therefore, if I did NOT edit the show (1.5hours), I would be forced to reduce the quality setting to SP (2hours per disc) in order to fit it onto a blank DVD. After editing, I can keep the better XP setting and fit it all on 1 blank DVD. This was my first DVD-recorder so I can't compare quality to other recorders. However, I read reviews from many people who did own recorders previously and then had bought this one. And they all seemed to say that this one had better recording quality in General, especially at the lower quality settings such as LP. You should know that this recorder records on standard blank 1-sided DVD discs. Some newer models these days are able to use Dual-layer discs, which hold twice as much information on 1 physical disc. This wasn't a problem for me. The 1-sided discs are much cheaper anyway. You'll want to use DVD-R for permanent recordings and either DVD-RW or DVD-RAM for multiple, temporary recordings. Don't bother trying to Copy actual Movie DVD's that are bought or borrowed from Blockbuster or Netflix. This DVD recorder and just about every other DVD recorder that I know of CANNOT copy those discs. You CAN copy your own recordings if you want. And you should be able to record (from your VCR) some of your VHS tapes, especially if you have an older VCR which doesn't contain the copy-protection circuitry. There is one quirk with this player/recorder though. It uses a small transmitter connected by a wire that you place in front of your Cable box or TV sensor. This allows the machine to change the channel all by itself so that it can record whatever show, on whatever channel you tell it to. (it's like it's own little remote control). The weird thing is that when the machine is in OFF/standby mode, it changes the channel randomly for some unknown reason. To combat this little quirk, I simply move the transmitter over so that it can't send the signal to the cable box anymore. This doesn't happen if you keep the recorder on. The recorded discs play perfectly on most DVD-players, including my very old Panasonic DVD-player. Super Cheap/budget players may have trouble with the discs a little bit. I notice a little bit of Jitter when I play my recordings on an APEX dvd-player. (Apex is absolute junk anyway) It has Component output, Optical output, and S-video output. The inputs are mainly coaxial cable and standard RCA jacks. It works great, it's easy to use. You can definetely find out more specs on it on the internet as well as reviews. I encourage you to read user reviews. try: www.cnet.com, www.bestbuy.com, www.circuitcity.com, www.amazon.com. Good luck! And let me know if you have any more questions about this particular machine. DMR - EH50