Wide World of Women

I AM LOOKING TO BUY A DVD/VHS COMBO PLAYER SO I CAN TRANSFER MY VHS TAPES INTO DVD'S. ANYONE HAVE ANY GOOD SUGGESTIONS OR REVIEWS ON THE BRANDS AND QUALITY OF PRODUCTS OUT THER IN THE STORES? CAN I RECORD TV SHOWS INTO DVD'S WITH THESE COMBO PLAYERS? THANX

I own a Panasonic DMR-E75V which works wonderfully. I can copy tapes to DVD which I have been doing alot of. Record to the VCR or record to the DVD. I had paid $349 for it. As James said in a earlier post beware what discs you use. I only use Panasonic discs to burn my DVDs. You can also use re-writable discs with this unit as well.

Here is a link describing the unit....

http://www.epinions.com/content_151452552836

Hi aztec....go here for honest reviews and info:

http://www.videohelp.com/dvdrecorders.p ... rch&list=1

I have owned 4 DVD recorders over the past 15 months , I tok 5 cyberhome units back...they are 100% CRAP as are cheap ILO units, a RCA was confusing to use and broke as well....I bought a panasonic E-50 a year ago (a RAM/-R disc unit) and its been flawless after 3-6 hours a day use...I also have a panasonic E-85 that has a 120GB hard disc and RAM/-R recorder....this IS my dream system...NO problems on it after hundreds of hours use.

my reccommendations? you DONT have to have a VHS/DVD combo...just hook your current VCR to your DVD recorder (via RCA jacks/composite cables) and start dubbing.

what brand?

1) panasonic
2) sony
3)samsung, toshiba, emerson

STAY AWAY from cyberhome,ILO, or Liteon recorders!...these are crap produced by overnight companys in china.

hope this helps...

James

THANX FOR THE ADVICE GUYS.

aztec, a few more points:

a RAM disc has tons of editing features you wont find on +/-RW and +/-R discs.....such as chasing playback and playlists. a playlist is where you can create your own shows from bits and pieces of previously recorded shows on the same disc...panasonic has lots of RAM disc recorders...NOTE however...PC's dont play ram discs too good.

Ive had very good luck with maxell -R discs in my panasonics ....do NOT buy memorex -R discs for it.....for RAM discs I use panasonic only..

I reccommend the $249 E-55 DVD recorder unit OR the $500-$600 E-85 120GB hard disc + DVD recorder unit (both panasonic)

i have had good luck with a toshiba
its burned/read any kind of disc i have put in it
the ram is really nice for daily recording

I have the Panasonic DMR-E80H. I have had it about 1 1/2 years. I run it around the clock everyday, either recording or watching. The quality of the picture is just as good today as when I first got it. They have less parts in them, so they say it's less that can go wrong with them like on a VCR

You got 4 or 5 recording modes on it, the best being XP. You can not tell if it is live or the recorded show that is playing on that setting. I run XP most of the time.

When you get one, MAKE SURE THAT YOU GET HDD ON IT, (hard disc drive) with that, you can store days worth of recording on the worse setting, with mine, I can put about 18hr 15mins on the XP mode. I'm sure with the newer ones, you can store more hrs on it now.

With the HDD, it makes it easy to edit and store without using a disc. Another thing I like is that you cannot record over something by mistake like on a VCR. These recorders makes VCRs look like crap with all you can do with them and the quality of the recordings. Make sure you format it from time to time. And don't record the Disc to the end, leave about 1 minute on the disc before you finalize it, if not, it can ruin the disc

One more thing, don't buy the disc in 3 or 5 packs, go with the 50 or 100, it will be a heck cheaper that way.