Hi All - I am looking to buy a Home DVD-Recorder, but do not know very much about them and which would be a good one to purchase...I have gone to places like Circuit City, Best Buy, Sears to look and see what they have available....I saw they had some LG, Panasonic, Sony, Toshiba's, Phillips, MAgnavox. The guys that work at CC and BB told me the best recorders would be either the Panasonic or the Sony (They are able to record on DVD-R(W) and also DVD+R(W)).....Most other recorders record in either one format or the other, but not all 4 formats...

So, my question is, what would you guys recommend to buy - I want to be able to play as many different formats in it as possible. These recorders seemed to range in price from $150 - $350.

Also, do you guys know that if I record DVD's using the Recorder, am I able to play it on my Computer?? Your input is appreciated!

trekkin2k5

Yo-

EVERYTHING Panasonic DVD that I have gotten has been excellent - my latest purchase is the Panasonic DVD - S77 HD upconverter and it by far is the best DVD player I have ever seen-

Mike

Go look over at http://www.videohelp.com/ and search for the Pioneer 220, posts by lordsmurf. He has done extensive testing and he is very critical. I have had good luck with my Panasonic in all ways but customer support. They refuse to upgrade firmware and they also refused to provide me with a list of media incorporated in the current firmware. If I had it to over, based on many comments, I would go with Pioneer.

Chas, http://www.avsforum.com/ had a link to Panasonic firmwares for their DVD recorders in one of the threads. I managed to download the one for my e80h and it did work and actually helped a few functions. I don't know if the links posted there are still active but might be worth a search if you have a Panny settop of some sort around. Pioneer doesn't want to release the firmware for their machines either and wants you to take in the machine or ship it to a service center to basicly do a update cd on it I have a 563a also and it needs a update to handle newer high res audio disks that have come out since it was built. I haven't found a link yet for update ISO's for my Pioneer and I doubt I will uness some tech forgets to take out his update disk. I'm very happy so far with my 80 and if you can afford it always get a HD as part of the package, archive stuff, edit it later, and burn the keepers to disks.

Thanks very much for the link. I found the Panasonic link and am downloading the file. I am very glad to be proven wrong, people here know everything.

I do what I can, glad to help and spread the info around. It shouldn't be this hard to upgrade name brand products that are capable, my chinese junk players get all kinds of upgrades and hacks.
The newest Panny recorders have a improved LP mode that is sposed to be full res and almost as good as SP/XP and they do plus and minus now.