Hello,

I am brand new to the DVD recorder arena. I've had plenty of experience with a PC dvd burner, but now I would like to try my hands on DVD recording via a stand alone machine. I would just like some suggestions on my first purchase which has the following qualifications.

1) I need to be able to play the recorded DVDs on other players

2) I need to be able to record from VHS and hi-8mm format

I don't really care about all the bells and whistles. I would like to be able to just back up some old media and then make copies for posterity which I can put into a fire proof safe for safe keeping. I don't want to do the whole PC thing. I just want to put in a disc, hit record, come back in 2 hours and do it all over again.

Bells and whistles are of course welcome, but I don't want to spend more than say 150 or so, give or take. If I can get one that is decent for under 100 great, but I know I get what I pay for. I am not willing to go over 200 however. If there are other questions that I am not answering before you make a suggestion, please ask because as I said, I am new to this and seek advice. I have tried looking over posts and reviews, but there are just so many and the ones I read are at times highly conflicting.

Also, I would like to be able to use my PC to make duplicates of my recorded DVDs, but I am sure that most of them can create discs capable of that. I use DVD Decryptor most often. Any suggestions for that are also welcome

TIA

Morgs

PS I would prefer to get one at a store so I can easily exchange/refund in case it doesn't work well. I have Best Buy, Circuit City, CompUSA, Staples, OfficeMax, Sears, Wal-Mart, Kmart, Target near me. That's not entirely necessary, but it does make life a little easier.

Welcome aboard to CD Freaks

For a start, I would recommend having a look at a store's DVD recorder selection to see the styles (if where you plan installing it is of limited size), features and inputs. To make it easier to tape from your camcorder, make sure that it has front inputs. Once you see a couple of brands/models that look interesting, then it is time to do a little research on these and eliminate ones where you mainly find bad reviews/issues about.

The most basic DVD recorders generally support at least one rewritable disc type and a write-once disc type, such as DVD+R & DVD+RW. If you go for a model that supports DVD-R/RW, but not DVD+R, have a look to see if it features DVD-Video or DVD+VR recording support, since if the recorder only records using the DVD-VR format, only certain compatible DVD players will be able to play this media back. Many DVD recorders that support DVD-R give a choice of DVD-R and DVD-Video as the recording format.

The vast majority, if not all DVD recorders will let you do several hours of unattended recording. However, just be warned that most of the basic models will not let you edit out content, such as excess recording at the start/end, ad-breaks and so on.

If you are interested in editing out unwanted footage in your recordings, I would seriously recommend going for a HDD+DVD recorder, however make sure it supports both track merging and splitting or at least chapter hiding. This way you can make you recording, edit out the unwanted parts and even make more than one copy of your recording without a PC either.

Well I think I have narrowed it down. This seems promising, but I can't seem to narrow down the input specs on it. S -video or even firewire input would be nice, as eventually I'd like to get a digital cam corder, but it might do for now.

Magnavox Progresive Scan DVD Recorder, MWR10D6
$98.87

Going by the product manual, this model does not have any DV inputs on it. Generally if there is a DV input, the manufacturer would want to make sure this is clearly advertised. If a particularly input/output is not mentioned in the list of specs for a player, assume it does not have it

Its inputs consists of two composite video inputs (front & rear), two S-Video inputs (front & rear) and two sets of R+L audio inputs (front & rear). Its outputs consist of S-Video, composite, component, R+L audio and digital audio.

Its editing features (besides with the basics) include chapter editing/hiding and thumbnail & title editing and on DVD-RW/+RW discs, title deviding.

Unfortunately, I don't see many reviews about this DVD recorder, however going by anything I have across so far, the users reported to be very happy with it.