Wide World of Women

One thing I've been thinking about for a while is buying a DVD recorder. It's been something I've been thinking more and more being that my main VCR is starting to bite the dust (I'm never using a wet-type VCR head cleaner ever again!) and I've also got tons of tapes of all kinds cluttering my room. I could also use a new fancy gizmo to play with.

I'm just curious to hear some suggestions and feedback from the board as to what brand you'd recommend... in the little research I've done, it seems like Panasonic has been more favorable amongst online reviewers. I've also heard about something called CPRM that some cable companies send out on occasion to interrupt digital recording that stops some brands from recording shows but not others. It also seems to me that these DVD recorders don't have a traditional coaxial cable input, and I'm just curious as to what kind of adapters I'd need to feed my cable lineup into the thing. Also, are they easy to create chapters and whatnot for your homemade DVDs? I have most every World Series on VHS since 1991, and it would be cool if I could divide each chapter by the half inning and whatnot. Then I could make a fortune selling copies of Joe Carter's series-winning homer in the '93 series... but I'm getting ahead of myself.

Comments, suggestions, brands to avoid... I'll hang up and listen to the answer.

I would avoid RCA recorders.I had a lot nothing but trouble them...recorder freezing up,not been able to read disc error,disc getting erased or disc stopping when recording.

What i have now is 2 Magnavox DVDrecorder/VCR combos.Haven't had any problems recording from a DVR or cable with them,or playback.I have had problems not being able to make a DVD from a VCR tape with them,the macrovision protection willn't let it record.

I haven't check them out personally but all the reviews i have seen for Panasonic DVDrecorders have been good.

Almost all the ones i have read about will let you create your own chapters.I know a couple of posters that would like to burn every copy of Joe Carter's WS winning homerun.

Avoid Sylvania DVD/VCR combo, also. About six months into the deal, the DVD recording laser peters out, The VCR side likes to eat tapes, as well.

First i had SONY RDR-G330 which lasted about 9 months.Then i got LG DR787T which lasted even less.Currently i have Toshiba D-R410KU.I only paid about $108 shipping & taxes included.The unit does not have a tuner so you can't receive OTA broadcast.The upside is that it records anything premium channel,pay-per view,etc.I prefer DVR's better.

Have you tried removing the cover of the VCR unit and cleaning the insides? I used to clean the head and the tape rollers manually and works way better than any wet or dry tape VCR cleaner.

The VCR in question is actually a TV/DVD/VCR combo, so I'm not about to risk electrocuting myself by nosing around in it's guts. It has no video out, so when I make vids, I use an old crummy VCR that squishes the volume of tape playback. This is why my videos have all that hiss in the background, because I have to crank the gain to make the audio decently measurable.

I'm not planning on copying commercial VHS tapes, so I'm not worried about copy protection. I suppose I could also not worry too much about it's line in components for now, as I could probably plug it's line out to the TV/DVD/VCR's auxiliary port, record off the main unit and playback on the DVD recorder.

The combo unit currently won't rewind or fast forward the tape (when it's stopped) most of the time; it'll hesitate and spit the tape out (it started doing this after a failed wet-type cleaning). Luckily, it also hasn't chewed up any valuable tapes as of yet.

Maybe it's a good thing I haven't used my stimulus check yet.

mines a GoVideo R6750 DVD recorder - bought it from QVC
no problems with it, other than the stupid thing doesn't want to cough up the disc every so often - since I set a hammer next to it, it has cooperated tho

records to virtually any format disc, which makes it handy to use DVD+RW to move stuff to the PC for capping/archiving and so on - but since I got a new pinnacle pro usb stick, I just come straight into the PC with S-Video from the cable box mostly, especially since Cablevision is busy pushing stuff into Digital, and standard cable feed no longer shows the 'digital' channels. This can be avoided if you get a recorder with ATSC capable(digital) reciever, probably all that's new in the market, as February 2009 kills everything else. It will be worth while to make sure you have S-Video or component or even HDMI as inputs/outputs - keeps the signal away from getting stepped on with the rf modulator/demodulator mambo found with standard cable setups.
my0.02 - YMMV

I have a Panasonic VCR/DVD recorder combo for 3 years and I haven't had any problems with it. It uses DVD-R discs. I've only had to upgrade the firmwear once to use with newer DVDs with 16x capability.

HSF, I have had a Panasonic goind on 4 years this Sep. or Oct. I run it just about 24/7 and it works just as good today as it did on the 2st day.

The bad thing is, if you want 1 with a hard did drive thay don't make them anymore. I was going to buy a new one that can record & play all types of formats. When I went to thier site, they didn't have the HDD. I e-mailed them and they said that they don't make the recorders anymore with the HDD do to most people are getting the DVR recorders.

As I looked it to it more and I also heard it on Foxnews is, when all the channels have to go to HD TVs, you are going to have to have thier recorders do to other makes will not work. Like I have DirecTV, I have thier DVR with the HDD which is nice. I can put alot of programs on it then send those to my DVD recorder to edit.

Without the DVD recorder that does not have the HDD, it is the same as a VCR when it comes to recording time. The only bright side is, when you go to edit whith a DVD recorder without the HDD, you have to do it with a DVD-Ram (on Panasonics, I don't knoe about the other makes) Which is not to bad if you have a DVR with the HDD. But it still makes editing harder as far as you can only put so much on a DVD recorder without the HDD.

In the long run the way it looks now, you will need to buy a DVR or Tivo depending on what your provider uses. It looks like the Tivo will not work with DircTV come next year and to top that off is, channels will be able to block you from recording or they can have it so that you can only view it 1 time. I saw where the sci-fi channel already is going to block out recording thier shows do to CopyRights. And if you do find away around it so you can record thier shows, they will come after you.

As far as which make, I would say Panasonic do to that I do run it 24/7 and never had a bit of trouble with it as long if you format it from time to time. When it comes to putting VCR tapes on a DVD, all you need to do is run your VCR to you DVD recorder. I don't know about the combos, so I'll stay mum on that

If I were you, I would e-mail or call your provider and ask them on what will and will not work in the future as far as recording goes. You could have the best of the best recorder out there, but if it will not work with the providers channels, what good will it be ?

I've had an RCA with HD upconvert and it has been trouble free except that it makes coaster toasters once in a while. I also have a CyberHome recorder since late 2005 but it no longer records on rewritable discs.

I have a Philips DVDR75 unit that still works. Only problem is the manufacturer stopped with the firmware upgrades so it can't burn on newer 16x discs. I don't care because I record on my old rewriteable discs then transfer to PC right after. The feature I find is most useful is that you can pause while recording.

The first set-top DVD recorder I owned was a Phillips, bought it about 5 years ago (don't remember the model number). It developed problems about 6 months after the purchase and stopped reading or writing discs when it was about a year and a half old.

The one I currently have is a Sony RDR-GX315 that was purchased early in 2006. It was always picky about what discs it would format and record to, but now it is almost unusable for formatting and recording new discs. If I really need to record something, I have to record it to a handful of RW discs first, then copy that disc image on my computer, and finally burn that image to a writable disc.

I have 3 magnavox recorders, all with tuners. One is DVD/vcr. Other than formating certain disks I have had no problem.I use recordable disks only. Bought all 3 of them from wal-mart.

I don't like a lot of DVD recorders because I worry about a bad burn. Personally, I use my capture card and vdub or Dscaler to capture video. Then I can edit it and burn a DVD of just the good parts :D

I have thought about using my USB capture device, but if there's a lot of motion on the screen (such as news tickers), blocky artifacts start to pop up on the right side of the screen. I figure it might be easier to transfer to a DVD recorder first and let it do the DVD burning for me, then rip the VOBs if I want to make a video. It might seem backwards to some, but as I also said, I also could use a new VCR, too.

Seems to me like most people agree with my early research that Panasonic is a dependable brand. Now it's just a matter of getting off my duff to actually go out and get one.