Liteon DVD recorder- £79.99 - superb

marccarter1

froogal wrote:

I thinkthe main issue when deciding on a digital recorder is if it has more than one tuner. In the days of VHS you could watch one channel while recording the other but with digital you have to have the set tuned to the channel you are recording. (unless you have more than one tuner).

How many does this model have?

I have just set up a DVD recorder for my inlaws, who are happy to state they are complete technophiles! I had the tv signal coming into their original video recorder via coax, connected the video to one of the tvs scarts, ran the coax out of the video to the DVD recorder, then connected the DVD recorder via the other scart in the rear of the tv and the coax cable (standard tv ariel cable).

To our complete amazement, we recorded BBC1 on the video, BBC2 on the DVD and watched ITV on the tv. It wasn't the same model but the principal should be the same.

Marc.

RogerPJ

outbidder wrote:

Hacks can usually be found using Google but please, I would avoid dvdremotehack.com like the plague...

The story below is based solely on my experience. Legally I couldn't possibly imply that this was a scam, a rip-off, a conspiracy or some other ruthless ploy to get your money for providing nothing of any value at all.

---

I got ripped off by the site mentioned above (as have others as you will see if you know your way around a search engine). A website that seems to have the ability of a basic computer:

- Input (you give your PayPal details)
- Process (they transfer money into their account)
- Output (you get a code that anyone could make up that doesn't work on your player)
- Corruption

You are unable to get a refund from PayPal. As soon as I tried to file with them, they pretty much said that they can only give refunds on tangible items (even when I entered into quite extensive emails with them), so...

Why not set up a site that claims to generate the winning lottery numbers each week by studying previous form. You could have false claims and testimonies from former "customers" and say you can supply it for only, let's say, $6.

You could even claim it runs under Windows, Linux and DOS and with the right installation instructions, will run on a Casio calculator. You could even claim to donate 99% of the money to charity.

There is one crucial point here though, you have to say you accept PAYPAL ONLY as then your victims, oops I mean customers, will have no chance whatsoever to get a refund.

This will work for any scam (I mean service) where you can supply something that is not tangible.

Not that I would really recommend you doing this unless you have as much conscience as www.dvdremotehack.com or their sister company (OnlineCoders.com) who also don't respond to emails.

Use them at your peril. Maybe if I had scoured the internet a bit more before parting with hard-earned cash they wouldn't have been able to rip me off too.

---

Whilst I'm talking about PayPal, please note that if you are in the UK and get a proof of posting only (when sending an item you have sold on Ebay), if the buyer claims to have never received the item, PayPal will automatically give the buyer a refund, no questions asked. So I see plenty more scams based around this. This is why my hundreds of listings each month no longer accept PayPal, I don't see why my customers should have to pay extra for insurance just so PayPal don't automatically refund, even when the seller can prove he sent an item.

For a company with so many flaws (I mean bizarre policies) I am amazed that Ebay wanted to get anywhere near them, let alone buy the business.

The more I experience and hear about PayPal, the more I can see why they are unable to take down the website PayPalSucks.com - I guess you can't argue with fact! LOL

If you funded the purchase with a credit card speak to your credit card company, you might get a refund. Thanks for the warning....

RogerPJ

George_Bray wrote:

I recently bought my second Liteon DVD recorder; on behalf of a relative. This one came from svp.co.uk (blank disc shop) and cost a remarkably low £79.99. My own model - Liteon 5005 still impresses me every time I use it.

The £79.99 model is badged "4KUS DVR-230 DVD Recorder" but is actually a Liteon, as can be confirmed from a label on the back. My 5005 remote works with it, and the screen displays/menus/instruction manual are all almost identical, as is the superb picture quality.

Quite simply, the playback picture and sound are at least as good as the original broadcast when using SP 2 hours (per DVD) recording mode. I sometimes think the playback picture looks even better than the original.

At £79.99, you simply can't go wrong with the highly-regarded Liteon brand.

I got my p&p for only £1.50 because they gave £3 off p&p last weekend (normally £4.50) if you're a member of their buyers club. All you need to do, is register and you'll hear of frequent deals like the £3 off p&p. On other occasions, p&p is totally free. When I phoned them from Devon, when I was down there in April 2005, they said collection was not allowed and they were mail order only, but perhaps they've changed the situation more recently.

Further details can be found here:
http://www.blankdiscshop.co.uk/acatalog/dvdrecord.html

One thing worth mentioning is that the 5005/5006 models work with both dvd+r and dvd-r blank discs, whereas the 4KUS model only works with dvd+r (and dvd+rw) blanks, etc, etc. But so what?

Regards
George

Update 20 Oct: I am very pleased to see that this item has been included in Martin's Money Tips e-mail. He said: "DVD recorder £85 all-in Nowt clever, just a great Chat Forum spot". I am also very grateful to 32 people out of over 12,744 (0.25%!) who have indicated, by clicking on "thanks" that they thought this post was worth the web space, starting with happyhammer. I'm much obliged and apologise to the other 12,712 (99.75%) for whom this post may be less than useful. The greater the positive feedback, the more encouraged I am to flag up similar findings in future.

Official Insert

Bag this DVD recorder for £85 including £4.50 for delivery. Alternatively if you live anywhere near Paignton, Devon you can go and pick up your order from their trade counter and save on the delivery!

Asda are selling Cyberhome DVD recorders for just over £83. I used a whole load of vouchers from Boots, Somerfield, Sainsburys and Tescos (some of which were out of date!) and got it for £28!!!!!!!!!!! I think that definitely qualifies as the cheapest DVD recorder available! It's also excellent quality and small enough to fit on top of my freeview box. It's got front inputs (including firewire/iLink) for recording straight from your camcorder and a full set of inputs on the back. Well worth the money!

dammit_jim

DivX is a popular codec for compressing video. It allows people to compress high quality video (DVD etc.) so that it takes up much less space. The more the video is compressed the lower the quality, but it is possible to fit a DVD movie (size >4GB) onto a CD (size ~700MB) using DivX and not lose too much quality. It is predominantly used by filesharers on the Internet, where downloading a DVD is unreasonable due to bandwidth constraints and so has some controversy surrounding it and its facilitation of piracy. It's only worth getting a DivX compatible DVD player if you regularly obtain highly compressed video files or backup your DVD collection using DivX compression. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divx)

A codec is a standard for en'co'ding and 'dec'oding a stream of information. DivX is a classic example. It allows the player/computer to work what data is the image, what is the sound, how they've been sampled and even whether there are any sub-titles etc. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Codec)

DVD recorders, just like regular DVD players, are mostly region encoded. This means that a DVD player cannot play DVDs bought from anywhere. The DVD regions include region 1 which encompasses US and Canada and region 2 which covers Europe, Middle East & Japan (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVD#Region_codes). Most people only have access to region 2 discs so won't ever experience a problem. However, if you buy DVDs on the Internet from the US or love Indian/Korean/Chinese original releases you'll need to make sure that the player/recorder is already cracked or can be easily. Hitting Google for how to uncrack your DVD player before you buy it is always a good idea, as sometimes it can only be done if you have a remote control from another model or a universal remote. Don't ever pay for a code to unlock your DVD as a number of people have reported being ripped off.

It maybe worth mentioning that blank DVDs come in a number of formats. When the DVD format was first agreed there was a number of competing groups all pushing their preferred format (the same thing is happening now with the second generation DVD systems). A DVD recorder may only support one or two of these formats. It matters less and less these days which format DVD a recorder can write as the blank media tends to cost about the same, but make sure you know which format it supports and only purchase those disks or you could end up with a lot of toasters. Common formats are DVD-R, DVD+R. They can only be written once, though, so you can end up with a lot of DVDs.

Rewritable DVD formats include DVD-RAM, DVD-RW and DVD+RW. Rewritable discs cost a lot more than single write discs (£2.50 rather than 20p) but can be used over and over.

There are also Dual Layer DVDs which store roughly twice as much information as standard DVD formats do. They are supported more and more by DVD Recorders. Although offering a lot of capacity they are not cheap and write once dual layer blank media can cost as much as rewritable single layer media. Always handy for future proofing but not a necessity for most people.

Finally, it's worth mentioning that the next generation of DVD formats (Blu-Ray and HD DVD are the current leaders) are already getting ready for release. Unfortunately, as with this generation of DVDs there are format wars and it looks a lot less likely that the formats will be sufficiently compatible that one drive could support both. However, it does mean that the cost of current generation DVD recorders and media will continue to fall.

<phew> Sorry. That went on a little longer than it meant to. Think it was the comment about dumb blonds that pushed me too far

Bubba_Shaboo

George_Bray wrote:

I'm much obliged and apologise to the other 12,712 (99.75%) for whom this post may be less than useful. The greater the positive feedback, the more encouraged I am to flag up similar findings in future.

George,

A fine post for people wanting to buy a bargain DVD recorder.

I agree that the quality of these recorders is superior to VHS, I myself have a Mico one and am delighted with it.

Because of this fact I have no need to buy one, so your post was informative and the thread was a good read, like most of the threads on here and I read pretty much all of them.

But yes, it wasn't useful in my circumstances so I feel no compunction to press the 'Thanks' button or I would feel obliged to do so for all of them which pretty much devalues it's use.

So no need for an apology from you and hope this will act as positive feedback.

Cheers,

Bubba©

bobdauilda

RogerPJ wrote:

Asda are selling Cyberhome DVD recorders for just over £83. I used a whole load of vouchers from Boots, Somerfield, Sainsburys and Tescos (some of which were out of date!) and got it for £28!!!!!!!!!!! I think that definitely qualifies as the cheapest DVD recorder available! It's also excellent quality and small enough to fit on top of my freeview box. It's got front inputs (including firewire/iLink) for recording straight from your camcorder and a full set of inputs on the back. Well worth the money!

How can you use other shops vouchers when buying at ASDA??!!!

loveabargin

george

I am looking to buy a dvd recorder but also would like to be able to transfer film that I have taken on my digital camcorder on to dvd. So could I plug my camcorder straight into this dvd recorder and copy to dvd.
Thanks

George_Bray

loveabargin

Yes, the Liteon DVD recorders have DV (firewire) and phono inputs on the front panel. So, whether you have a modern DV digital camcorder or older Video8, VHS or whatever, it should be straight forward.

Capture to DVD for long term storage, without delay, before either or both of two things could happen, particularly with older camcorders and tapes:
(a) the tapes deteriorate, and/or
(b) the camcorder packs up, so you have no easy means of playing your treasured tapes again, unless you can borrow another similar camcorder.

Use of these inputs is explained in the Liteon user guide.

Regards
George

stuart_a_2

Please excuse me if this is a really stupid question (or has been covered before), but with a simple DVD recorder (no hard drive) is it possible to edit the recording in any way, eg to get rid of adverts?

George_Bray

Stuart

I don't think so - at least not after the event. I just use pause, as you would with a VHS recorder. But, there again, I sometimes forget to resume, when the adverts are finished!

My own view on the hard disk recorders is that it adds to the complexity as well as the initial outlay. With a deck like the £79.99 one, you're forced to get it right first time. Simple. But if you start 'stacking up' progs on a hard disk, when will you find the time to go back and edit or somehow 'manage' them? Are these progs so important
that they justify any further work? I'm happy just recording straight to 20p DVDs, or to DVD+RWs, which can be re-used.

Regards
George