Which DVD Recorder?

Bert_Anderson

We've had pretty awful results with reliability of DVD Recorders to be quite blunt. I think we've had 4 in total so far..

Right now we have the divx capable Tevion TDRDVD4001 from Aldis which has a few issues:

1. Renders good DVD+RW disks to coasters after several recordings
2. Has trouble picking up all the TV channels when tuning (All 4 of them in our area!!!).
3. Divx performance is sub-par

I've been out of the loop on these products for a while - are there any recommendations in the upto 100 quid section?

BexTech

Don't know about the <£100 ones, but we've never personally had any problems with Panasonic DVD recorders. Though no DivX playback on the UK spec of the models elsewhere in Europe that does offer playback.

Philips used to be ropey, but may have improved in the last 12 months, some offer DivX playback.

All the <£100 ones I've seen and been asked to look at don't last long and have issues.

Though have you tried different brand DVD+RWs? Decent media is required, there are a lot of crap discs out there. Buy some decent ones from SVP.

What are your issues with DivX? This is the drawback of standalone machines is it only has a few CODEC, whereas on the PC you simply download the required CODEC to play the file.

Just because a file is AVI doesn't mean it's DivX, could anything, standard MPEG4, xViD (most players don't like packed bitstream) or any of numerous formats.

Use a program called GSpot on your PC to check to make sure it is DivX, xVid or MPEG4 (DivX and xVid being !!!!!!!ised versions of MPEG4).

If your player doesn't like xViD's with packed bitstream use MPEG4Modifer program on your PC to remove packed bitstream.

U've_been_framed

Buy a hard disk recorder instead.

Bert_Anderson

BexTech wrote: »

Don't know about the <£100 ones, but we've never personally had any problems with Panasonic DVD recorders. Though no DivX playback on the UK spec of the models elsewhere in Europe that does offer playback.

Philips used to be ropey, but may have improved in the last 12 months, some offer DivX playback.

All the <£100 ones I've seen and been asked to look at don't last long and have issues.

Though have you tried different brand DVD+RWs? Decent media is required, there are a lot of crap discs out there. Buy some decent ones from SVP.

What are your issues with DivX? This is the drawback of standalone machines is it only has a few CODEC, whereas on the PC you simply download the required CODEC to play the file.

Just because a file is AVI doesn't mean it's DivX, could anything, standard MPEG4, xViD (most players don't like packed bitstream) or any of numerous formats.

Use a program called GSpot on your PC to check to make sure it is DivX, xVid or MPEG4 (DivX and xVid being !!!!!!!ised versions of MPEG4).

If your player doesn't like xViD's with packed bitstream use MPEG4Modifer program on your PC to remove packed bitstream.

I've had good experience with the Philips 642 DVD player in the USA for Divx playback but not tried any of their DVD recorders

The main issue with Divx playback on the Tevion is that it's not particularly smooth - it's very jumpy - almost like it just doesn't have enough horsepower to do the job. I normally only use the Divx function for playback of TV shows but I could use G-spot etc to verify what they actually are. I'm pretty sure it won't play home brewed nero recode files with the .mp4 file extension but if you rename to .avi it works.

The DVD+RW disks are Office Depot (store branded) ones that I bought in the US - they've been excellent and totally reliable for PC applications but the Tevion seems to kill them for some reason. I've got a pile of 8 here that my Nero 6 can "re-format" and then burn files to but they are not recognised by the PC afterwards..?

These DVD recorders have probably been the most disappointing products I've bought in many years.

Bert_Anderson

U've_been_framed wrote: »

Buy a hard disk recorder instead.

Yeah I was wondering if this might actually be a better alternative at the end of the day as well...

BexTech

Bert_Anderson wrote: »

Yeah I was wondering if this might actually be a better alternative at the end of the day as well...

Yeah, HDD recorders are pretty good.

I have a Targa HDD/DVD recorder with DivX playback a couple years old now, handles xVid with packed bitstream. Although we had the Panasonic, it was at the time a bargain not to be missed, though that doesn't have a Freeview tuner, but have connected a satellite box and cable box to it, and Freeview on the TV.

Though upgrading to a V+ next week. Have a Targa DivX player also, which plays more or less anything I throw at it, so I can move the HDD/DVD recorder elsewhere.

Have you tested the AVIs to see if it's ones with packed bitstream that are the problem.

The Tevion probably only looks for .avi files on the disc, hence not playing the file with .mp4 extension, will will play when renamed .avi.

thor

The humax 9200 is supposed to be very good. I can't remember where I read about it but even at around £160/£170 it is regarded as excellent value for money(it even has twin tuners)

Neil_Taylor

May be wrong, but I don't think the Humax records to DVDs

isofa

The Humax is a PVR (i.e it records to hard disc only), with no DVD recorder. But gets great reviews, and has twin tuners so you can record two channels at once, I don't think there are any DVD-HDD combis which have twin digital tuners at the moment...

If I was buying a DVD/HDD recorder at the moment, I'd go for a Sony or Panasonic. If I was looking for just a HDD/PVR I'd go for the Humax.

Great discussions on these at www.avforums.com

donnajunkie

my only experience of a dvd recorder is one by sony and it is rubbish. very quickly it started to not recognise random recordable dvd discs. in recent months it has started to not recognise dvds that already have the films on them(like what you buy from a shop) and it is only 2 years old. so i would be a bit cautious regarding ever buying a sony dvd recorder.

isofa

Personally, I've never had a problem with Sony DVD equipment. And have used their equipment for years. It sounds like you have a fault and you should talk to Sony or the store which supplied it, in case anything can be done.

Both the Sony DVD-HDD recorders and Panasonic's regularly top the recommended tables in the comparative reviews in the "home cinema" press, and are well received by the users on the avforums, hence my suggestions above, along with the Humax.