Hi

I am considering purchasing a DVD-Recorder to replace a VCR.

The question I have is, if I record a TV program and someone wants to watch it, can they borrow the DVD and play it back in their DVD player.

What brands models should I look out for ??? I think I would want it to be multi format compatible. ie + and -.

PS, I current have a SD set top box while I'll most likely use to record from.

Cheers

They should be able to view it on a regular. Depending on the way it writes the DVD, you may have to use the finalise option before a regular player will recognise it.

Go for it - quality is vastly better on DVD than on VCR, even using s-VHS.

Don't worry about the format. None of the commercial players produce "finalised" DVDs that cannot be played anywhere.

I suggest you look at a DVD-R with a hard drive for 2 reasons -

1. You can edit out junk of a program before committing it to a DVD

2. You can use your hard drive for time shifting. If you have recorded something on the hard drive you want to save then simple - edit it & burn the DVD.

If you like the idea of 2, then go for a 160 gb unit. Movies eat up hard drive space very quickly. Otherwise 80 gb would be sufficient. I'm a very happy camper with the Pioneer 720H and unreservedly recommend it. There are already several hundred DVDs archived here - a simple and easy process. The timer function on the Pioneer is the best (quickest & simplest) I've encountered. This DVD-R has 3 external s-video inputs. It also has an internal analog TV tuner but I've never used it.

John

Any issues with playback (ie of DVD-R versus +R) are usually player dependant. Early on +R was somewhat less likely to be able to be played back on older set-top dvd players than -R, but that mantra is no longer necessarily the case with any recent DVD player.

If there's someone you particularly want to give dvds to, or you have a set-top player you particularly wish to use, it might be prudent to try both dvd+R and -R to confirm compatibility, or as suggested get a dual format recorder.

Remember that not all media are created equal. Ie some brands are crap, have a high rate of burn failure, get excessive errors in the last 10% of the burn, and/or have dubious life-spans.

Interested in this comment. Care to name the "crap" brands of DVDs? Hope Ritek is not in that list as I've just ordered a bundle.

John

Ritek? You've thrown your money away!



Just joking. In general Ritek gets a good rep as a reliable/economical option. I've personally had bad experience with Princo and Laser, backed up by other opinions on-line.

If you havea couple of weeks wade through this thread over at whirlpool (98 pages and going strong):

http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies.cfm?t=207260

Often media that I can play back on my PC doesn't play well with set-top players - less error tolerant. Usually these problems manifest at the end of the program. Somewhat frustrating finale!

LOL, you gave me a start when I first read that! I'm supposed to be the Devil around here

I started off using the relatively expensive TDk 8X, then some less expensive Shintaros with Ritek the next move.

No doubt they will go down further. My son in the USA does his burning via a computer & can buy the blanks for 10c each :ph34r: Our time will come.

John