Community Newsletter: Q&A forum: Advice needed for an all-in-one DVR that can burn DVDs

Analog signals will still be "dual broadcast" along side of digital broadcasts for subscribers to cable and to satellite services. Only televisions stations broadcasting over-the-air will be converting to purely digital signal in february of 2009.

Therefore, analog recording equipment--like VCR's, DVR's and Series 2 TiVo's, etc.--will still be able to record standard definition analog signals atleast up until 2012; so long as providers (such as Comcast, etc.) continue to carry the "dual broadcasts" of analog and digital programming on their own systems.

If all you want is to record shows for viewing at a later time then get a DVR (Digital Video Recorder) From either your cable company or Dish Sattelite company, This is really a great , easy and cheap way to go. Or If you want to record shows and store them for use anytime anywhere then buy a DVD recorder.

I purchased an LG LRH-539 with a 250GB hard dive and have successfully recorded many VHS movies. Did a lot of research on models before deciding on this one. Here's someones review on the unit.
http://www.aurora-systems.com/robon/LG_LRH539.html
Also use a Sima GoDVD unit for patching in VHS & Beta machines and converting video. Here's a review and product description.
http://www.amazon.com/Sima-GoDVD-Video-Enhancer/dp/B000AEFVVE
I have 2 new in the box if you are interested in purchasing one for yourself.
Rtisticguy@gmail.com

The conversion to digital will have NO effect on cable and sattelite users who use a settop box as the digital conversion happens in the settop box as it does now for digital cable.

I do not understand why its so hard in the US. To buy a DVD recorder with or without a hard drive. Here in the UK the shops are full of them.and no subscription is required,they come with one or two tuners and both digital depends how much you want to pay,cost from 100-300.($200-$600). If you want cable or sky then you go to them for it,

Great discussion.

The best way to go is to buy a DVD recorder with tuner and hard drive. These were introduced about 3 years ago but, about a year ago, they disappeared from the market with only TIVO remaining. At the same time, these DVD recorders were available throughout the rest of the world.

Judging from a recent court case where TIVO went after EchoStar, it looks like TIVO has had a success in claiming patent rights over the technology. So much for the implementation of the new technology that was supposed to replace VCRs.

There are a few DVD recorders that have hard drives on the US market but none are particularly good. You can also find some on eBay at inflated prices.

I think that this is an issue that our congress should weigh in on.

I guess congress should provide TIVO to all citizens too huh? I work for a large corporation and get lots of benefits I wouldnt get if I worked at Joeys Lectronics Shop. Who do you think paves the roads and builds schools? Your little tax dollars? You prolly get EIC.

There lots of reasons why DVRs are hard to find. Piracy is a big one. Sony, Viacom, MPAA, others have a big voice in Congress and they don't like DVRs.

I have one of these DVD HD and I love it but I found that the TV guide only worked on cable and I do not have cable. The DVD recorder also would only work on cable. I had to take a few back to find one that worked the way I wanted it to work. I ended up with a LiteON.

I guess I don't really need the VCR capabilities, as I only have a few old tapes kicking around and could care less about transferring them to DVD.

Anyway, does anybody know of a product(s) that has ample HDD storage space (120GB or more), has great upconvering capabilities, allows you to record TV (preferably HDTV) and has a program guide built-in?

Actually, I could even do without the DVD drive; I'm basically looking for a device that allows me to record all kinds of TV programming to it's hard drive, all while watching a different channel on the TV. There are so many media extenders, network media players et al that I feel lost in a sea of products I'm not sure will do what I want it to. Any help/links/product names is greatly appreciated.

I was fortunate enough to get a Panasonic DMR-E55S when it was in production. If you guys think that you can still get a standalone dvd recorder with internal hard drive, I hate to disappoint you - NOBODY MAKES THEM ANYMORE. ZYSMITH is greatly mistaken, Panasonic doesn't have a line of DVR's in a long time. I just hope that mine lasts. I love it.
As for my recommendation, get a dvr from cable/satellite company, and try a standalone dvd-vhs combo machine. That's the best you can do these days.

Panasonic is coming out with a whole new line in just under 2 months. Can't wait to see what's included?

Boy do I agree with zysmith. I have had a Panasonic DMR 500 for 2.5
years and before that an earlier model with smaller HD. This machine is
fantastic and unless Jim demands an integral VCR is just what he
asked for. Mine has a 400 Gig HDD which I recommend as a minimum. At
Costco I buy DVD-R blanks at 40 cents each and record at XP (highest
quality) for 1 hour run time. Another great feature is being able to
dub any part of my finalized DVD back to the HDD for re-use in another
recording.

A great machine. Would appreciate knowing where you have located a new one for sale.

Peter

Awhile back, I -- another "Jim" -- had needs similar to the Jim who kicked off this thread. At the time, I thought that the Panasonic units were very attractive, but stopped short of getting one because I was worried that it only had one tuner and that tuner might not be able to handle my digital cable directly (I have Comcast). Since that time, I have come to rely less on the cable company's box, and so could probably get some good use out of the Panasonic DVR/DVD recorder. I'll certainly give it a second thought, in view of zysmith's glowing recommendation. Thanks!

I always thought that Panasonic was the the best and could rely on it's depenability until I got one. I have a DMR-EZ37V that I got for Christmas. It worked fine for a month and now stops and changes channels by itself, restarts from the beginning of the movie playing, and fast forwards without comand to do so. For $275 paid for this unit I expected it to last longer than 3 months without problems. I am disappointed with Panasonic. I previously had an LG that lasted for one year before it stopped reading the discs and only cost $99.