LG DR275 DVD recorder
-
Panasonic DMR-ES10EB-S DVD RAM Disc Recorder 
Used Price: ?74.00
Customer Review: Broke twice, and slow!
I’m on the my second player, and about to return it to get another!!! Yes, it’s broken again. The first one died after about 2-3 months, as it didn’t want to read any dvd. It didn’t matter if it was a dvd-rw, dvd-r or a brand new dvd. I got it swapped in the shop I bought it from. This one has been fine for many months, but now it’s doing the same. It is saying that dvd’s are unformatted, when they are not. I format them again, and it comes with the same message. It’s also starting to get picky over what it wants to play, and this includes purchased films. It’s also slow. From off to record takes over a minute. From off to play is about the same time. It’s very slow. Also, if you are watching a film, and you turn the player off, then it goes back to the very start. Not like most players which stop half way. I would recommend getting a dvd recorder with a hard disk, as you don’t have the issues of dvd’s getting scratched, and the player only wanting to use bits of the dvd. I had been putting up with it being slow, but now it’s just annoying. I wish I had spent my money on something else, and I’m very disappointed as it’s such a good make. Don’t buy this one. You also can’t edit dvd’s before you finalise them (dvd-r), so you can’t add chapters. And it does a check at about 3am if you put it on quickstart mode, which is very noisy, and has woken me up before I turned this function off!!
Customer Review: Good but…….
I was very pleased with this at first, the picture quality on long-play is very good except for Football and boxing. Any fast sports and the picture pixillates. Sports should be recorded on short-play which gives 2 hours and long enough for most football except where there’s extra time(World Cup!). If something good comes on and I want to tape it, I can’t just bung in a cd, it has to be formatted and this is annoying! To be honest vcr tapes had a lot of bonuses in terms of being user friendly, bung it in, press record, don’t like that? bit-wipe it! I will eventually buy a hard drive recorder.
Panasonic DMR-EZ27 - Multi Format DVD Recorder - With 1080P Up-Conversion & Freeview - Black 
Multi format record and playback of all DVD formats.
Amazon Price: ?149.99
Customer Review: DMR-EZ27
This DVD player does exactly and more than we had hoped for. It is easy to use and the picture quality when linked by HDMI to our TV is exceptional. What else is there to say?
Customer Review: Decidely average and many restrictions.
Nice looking item, easily installed and very promising with lots of connection possibilities. I purchased this to record my old VHS/MiniDV collection on to DVD, sadly it’s not easy. The DV input keeps flashing a grey screen on the recording every few, random moments. That’s OK I’ll go for the Svhs connection then. Nope, that’s no good either, it flashes up random “copy protected” messages concerning my home made video snaps, and stops recording! So finally I have the RCA inputs, ok so it’s only VHS so the quality shouldnt matter that much. That works but you cannot put your own chapters in, for some obscure reason you can only do that on RAM discs!! So now all I have is a DVD recorder where all I can do is record a 3 hr tape in one hit and keeping my fingers crossed tightly!! Horrible. Finally the recorded DVDs seem to only come out in 4.3 which is a nuisance. I had a cheap Lite-On before and that was much easier and far less hassle. I contacted Panasonic about the problems and they basically said sorry, that’s the way it works. The Freeview section and guide are excellent, making future timer recordings very easy indeed. Well impressed with that side of it. You can even switched the machine off and it remembers it’s timer settings days later. I thought I’d go for a quality item this time as Lite-On are going down the pan, and I have been bitten. In future I’ll just buy cheap and it wont hurt so much. Very disappointed with this purchase from DABS but unfortunately the returns procedure is so long winded it means I am stuck with it. It wasnt available from Amazon at the time or I would have bought it from them, as their returns service is a healthy 10/10.
Samsung DVD-SR150M/XEU Multi Format Freeview HDMI DVD Recorder 
Multi Format Freeview DVD Recorder
Amazon Price: ?132.15
Samsung Super Multi Format DVD Recorder With HDMI DVD-R155/XEU
Samsung DVD Recorder
Amazon Price: ?103.99
Used Price: ?99.99
Customer Review: Great machine
Initially I bought a HDD dvd recorder (not Samsung) to replace my old Samsung model. After endless trouble trying to set up I shipped it back and bought this, the updated version of my old dvd. No set up problems with this. Easy to use and much quicker to load and process the discs. It’s quieter as well. If you don’t need a dvd with a hard drive, and on reflection, I don’t think I did! Then this piece of hardware comes highly recommended, and with a great price tag!
Customer Review: Decent budget DVD recorder
I bought this DVD recorder primarily for its HDMI connection and it’s upscaling capabilities. (I have a Liteon 5006 DVD recorder which still works fine but has no HDMI - for my Sony HD ready TV). Firstly my gripes; I’m struggling to notice any difference between normal and upscaled pictures. On some upscaled DVD’s i’ve also noticed some digital lines at the edge of the picture. Whilst 1 and 2 hour recordings are spot on - the 4hr long play has proven unwatchable in most cases - with images starting blocky with fast moving action - and then sharpening up when the action dies down. (The Liteon 3hr recordings - whilst grainy - are always watchable) Shame Samsung didn’t include a 3hr recording option which usually fits most British TV series on and longer films. It has a flexible recording mode - but all this appears to do is change to different recording modes depending on space left on dvd. ie. don’t expect 2hr 15mins recordings to be near 2hr quality - they are recorded in 4hr Long Play The Samsung does support dual layer disks - i’ve used Datawrites +R discs - but these are write once only - and are twice the price of +/-RW disks. (I struggled to see if this can be made Multi region through the remote - bought mine elsewhere where it was chipped.) Now the good; The operation of the player is relatively quiet and a massive improvement on my noisy Liteon It is inexpensive With it being super format - most PC’s will be able to read the disks making copying, editing and the like easier (My Liteon recorded +RW disks will not play on my PC - but the Samsung +RW ones play perfectly) The Samsung has a number of editing functions - which differ depending on disk type - but with +RW you can insert chapters manually and then hide them during playback (so it skips adverts etc) All in all this is a decent recorder for the price - which attempts a lot of things - and does them OK. Look elsewhere - and perhaps upping your budget for better HD upscaling
