russell hayward

Any recommendations please ?

djuk

Theres a fair few on the market at the moment and they all have pros and cons. The only ones im aware of which are to be avoided are phillips as they seem to get terrible reliability reviews.

Top ones to look at are probably Panasonic DMR-E85, Panasonic DMR-E95, Toshiba XS32, all seem to get very good reviews.

Check out www.avforums.com and you'll see some real views from owners etc

David

mmuuzzzzyy

Just buy a 16x DVD writer for your pc. £40

Lot easier and cheaper

Or if you dont have a pc you can buy a very good spec one at 1/2 the price the likes of PCWORLD charge.


Check this Place out
Cheapest place around
http://www.cclonline.com/

djuk

To be honest, I've tried both a home made PC recording solution and a 'proper' domestic DVD video recorder and theres no contest as far as ease of use goes, the DVD recorder wins hands down.

Sure you can get the same results with a bit of effort, but most people don't want to have to go to the trouble of messing around on the pc, editing clips, burning to disc etc just to record eastenders

David

corradoboy

Was in my local Sevenoaks yesterday discussing this same thing, and the sales guy (known him years) recommended a Freeview box with twin tuners and built in HDD over a DVD/HDD combi. Said he's tried both (as he's in a position to FOC) and the DVD/HDD combi proved awkward in many situations. The Freeview let him set recordings using the digital TV guide and with twin tuners you can watch/record separate programmes. Add a reasonable DVD-R (without HDD) for archiving, and you could even record 2 separate progs at once. All sounded logical to me, and is the route I will be pursuing.

djuk

I think that's going to become more of an option now for people as freeview coverage grows and devices come onto the market. Something like this:

http://www.panasonic.co.uk/set-top-b...h100/index.htm

Chip

Pioneer DVR420HS. Excellent reviews and very good price at the mo at Currys
£359.

Chip

Iain Young

I've got the Toshiba XS32 (multi-region), and can't fault it. Built in 80Gb hard disc means up to 100 odd hours of recording (depending on quality settings etc), or can record straight to dvd. Will do timeslip record so you can pause live tv, can edit recordings for burning to dvd, good programming / timer options, and it will even control the sky box (via a remote control emulator thingy).

Very happy with it

djuk

That was the thing I thought was very cool about the Toshiba, the IR device which can change channel on a sky box. This is useful because the sky personal planner is awful at actually changing channels at the correct times.

Iain Young

Yep, and it works very well as well

Schumacher

Always go for Pioneer or Sony. Toshiba and Panasonic are complete rubbish.


-Schumacher

Iain Young

Thanks for that highly informed opinion Schumacher

The Toshiba machine I have has won numerous awards, comes highly recommended by numerous user forums etc, and has come out ahead of Sony in several head to head tests.

If you have evidence to show that it is complete rubbish then I would be very interested to hear it. All I can say is that mine works flawlessly, has a great picture, great features, very good reliability etc etc.... If you look at the av-foums board, you'll see that many people have the same opinion.

djuk

Damn those hi-fi and home cinema magazines, you've rumbled them! You must be right!

Just to add to that, Sony are notorious for selling rebadged rubbish believe it or not. Their "expensive" plasmas for example are rebadged budget Samsung technology with a lump stuck on the price for the Sony badge

corradoboy

Agree with you on Pioneer, but Sony have made some big marketing errors in the last few years (ignoring MP3 and plasma) which has affected their market share and led to much cost cutting in their products and reliability issues. Tosh & Pana make some excellent products.

braaaptish

yo DJ - does 'JBoost' mean anything to you?