The more things change ... recording to disc may give a clearer picture, but are DVD recorders easy to use?(TEST: DVD recorders)(Product/Service Evaluation)

Publication: Choice (Chippendale, Australia)

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COPYRIGHT 2005 Australian Consumers' Association

The humble VCR remains with us, but if yours is getting tired, or you're looking to upgrade, the swap to a DVD recorder is looking more affordable. DVDs take up a lot less space than VHS cassettes and some DVD recorders have features like timeslip and almost instant bookmark searching (see What to look for, right) that a VCR will never manage. DVD discs are also more robust than tapes, so they're easier to store and look after. If you're into video you can use a DVD recorder to store your precious tapes on disc or make copies for your friends and family. Look for one that has a DV camera input in the table on page 38.

The image quality for all the recorders in this test was excellent or very good, when set to one or two hours of recording per disc. They start to get closer to what we're used to with a VCR at the longer recording times, but even at six hours they're still delivering an OK picture.

FORMAT FOLLIES

The types of DVD format supported by your DVD recorder for copy and playback are important if you intend to play your recorded DVDs on friends' DVD players. The most common formats are DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R, DVD+RW. There's also a Panasonic-format DVD RAM, but it's physically different from the others and not always supported by non-Panasonic products.

We've listed the formats the products in this test use to record in the table on page 38. However, they tend to be more forgiving when it comes to playing back a recorded disc. All can play both DVD +/-R and +/-RW except the SAMSUNG, which can only play-R/RW and RAM. The PANASONIC'S instructions say it'll only play-R or RAM, but we found it could also play-RW and +R/RW as well as the sound-only format, DVD Audio.

Profiles

Models in the What to buy list are profiled below in alphabetical order (left to right) within rating categories. Prices are recommended retail, as supplied by manufacturers in May 2005.

PIONEER DVR-320-S

Price: $525

GOOD POINTS

* Best overall and for ease of use.

* Consumes an extremely small amount of energy on standby.

* Progressive scan (see Features, right).

* Timeslip (see What to look for, page 37).

* G-code.

* The recorder can be set to decide the recording quality (see...

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