Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Technical Questions DVD Burners & Recorders

OK,
I have not bought anything in the way of A/V Gear in a while, and am thinking of treating myself to a DVD Recorder / Burner.
Any opinions?
I am thinking right now that I would be better served with something that would act as a VCR recorder, in the A/V system, as oppossed to a computer based option, since I cannot imagine doing much of the internet downloading and burning of stuff out there.
Brands?
Features?
Speeds?
I do not have any sort of Tivo device, or like capabilities right now, as my cable company does not offer them with it's service, but it may in the future, so I would like to be able to keep my options open as far as being able to interface with that, and burn things that I want to keep on discs in the future.
Is that enough info to gather opinions?
Thanks in advance,
TjB

I assume you mean a HT compoent... I do all of that on my puter (where I would strongly suggest an NEC DVD Dual Layer Burner).

Yup,
HT is what I meant...

I'm like INANE. I do it all on my puter..........where PLEXTOR rules!

Well,
That would be the route that I would normally go, but a buddy of mine in the pooter biz says that in the next year the pooter burners are going to make gigantic leaps in speed and huge drops in price, and I would not have the ability to use it like an old time VCR.
TjB

I got myself a Panasonci DMR-ES10 DVD recorder for my bedroom. It is connected between my DishNetwork DVR and TV (just like a VCR would be). I did some research prior to buying one and found the Panasonic were highly recommended for DVD recorders. Mine records all known format: -R, +R, RW and Rom...

I have the same unit as thyname. I have spent the better part of the last three weeks converting all my VHS to disc. It has been time consuming because everything, obviously, has to be recorded in real time. I am almost done. I have found it to be a great recorder. It has been in not stop usuage and I have had no problems. This unit also has garnered some good reviews from users {CNET and AMAZON}

Skerdi,

How does the Panasonic fare with playing back DVDs, etc. I see that it is progressive, etc. I assume it has all the necessary digital audio outs - does it have either DVI or HDMI out?

And also, do you just plug the VCR outs into the input on the DVD to make a DVD of a VCR tape? If so, how is the quality (both audio and video?)

Adrien;

It has component video out and a digital audio out socket (PCM/bitstream), for use with an optical digital audio cable. I am not sure what the latter is, but I know it is not a DVI. It also has a S video out as well as the standard red white yellow A/V rca Out (which is the ones I use). I have it at my bedroom with my Sony vega tube TV and don't have HDTV in this one (my DLP Hdtv is at the living room). I don't own a vcr at all, so I can't tell you anything about it.

In short: a standart RCA A/V cable goes from my Dish network DVR out to DVD recorder IN, and then another RCA AV cable from DVD recorder Out to TV IN. Video quality looks perfect in my bedroom tV, though never tried in my DLP. For now I have only used it to transfer many shows from my already full DVR, as well as to record some live broadcasts just to try it.

One of the first hits on google returned....
Connectors

Inputs
RF Antenna - x1
Composite Video - RCA x3
Composite Audio L/R - RCA x3
S-Video - x3

Outputs
RF Antenna - x1
Composite Audio L/R - RCA x2
S-Video - x1
Component Video - RCA x1
Digital Audio Optical - x1

So I would say, "No, it does not have DVI or HDMI."

For $170, I would have been pretty surprised if it did.

In fact, I don't know if any of the Panasonic recorders to. I do have their S97 player and it is awesome, but not really helpful for this thread.