The 2007-2012 Outlook for DVD Recorders in Greater China
The 2007-2012 Outlook for DVD Recorders in Greater China
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Toshiba DR160 DVD Recorder 
Amazon Price: ?108.88
Customer Review: Adequate basic recorder
I was looking for a second entry-level -R/RW recorder, having already got a Funai 2737 (which does the job fine). Decided to try the Toshiba as it had the benefit of Chase Play. In actual fact, this Toshiba seems to be the same underlying chassis as the Funai, with a different (somewhat more attractive) fascia. All rear ports and the user interface are all identical. The only difference is the addition of chase play. If you are drawn to this machine because of this feature then beware. Chase play can only be used when recording in quality setting of long play, or lower. This is tolerable on a small screen TV, but the quality when viewed on a large screen is barely acceptable, more or less making chase play a feature you will never use anyway. Apart from that, the unit looks and works fine, however, it might be worth considering the Funai and saving yourself ?25.
Customer Review: Not a bad machine, just too noisy
This machine has some very good points, but its too noisy to be used in a living room. Ours was RMAed. On the plus side: - Discs are initalised quickly, you can be recording on DVD-R within 20 secs. - The menu system is clear and easy to use - The DVD playing machanism is very quiet, you can’t hear the disc spinning at all - The DVD-R disc recorded played perfectly in Pioneer DVD (Dv464), Argos in Car DVD and PC. - It can play CDs of Jpegs. However the downsides out weight these good features: - Its very noisy, there is case fan at the back, that is always on when the recorder is. Watching Planet Earth with the DVD recording is, unconfortable, there is a constant whiring. Its 3 or 4 times noisyer than my AV reciever and I thought that was noisy! - remote control is “boxy” and square, hence unconfortable in the hand. - DVD-R take a LONG time to finalise, over 20 Mins. - It cannot play DVD-R discs of photo JPEGs burnt on my PC, that my Pioneer DVD player plays fine. Hence only 3 stars I’m afraid ….
Samsung DVD-HR733/XEU Multi-region Capable DVD Recorder With 80Gb Hard Drive and USB 2.0 Conn 
Customer Review: Misleading features
First the good news: quiet in operation; good quality reproduction at LP speed (4 hours can be saved to DVD-R); attractive; RGB output. Minor bad news: cannot splice two programmes together; editing commands slow to respond; difficult to load MP3 files onto HDD. However, it has a major fault: several features such as automatic chaptering, watching a programme currently recording, or watching one previously recorded programme while recording another — will not work during timer recordings. As most recordings are based on the timer, this is such a significant failing (not mentioned in the promotional information) that in essence these features are unavailable. I am returning it to Amazon.
Philips DVDR80 DVD Recorder
Digital picture and sound quality with Dolby Digital 5.1 playback
Customer Review: Very good overall
I’ve had my DVDR80 for a couple of months now and I’ve been very pleased with it, especially after reading the problems many people have had with the 70 and 75. I have to agree that the remote isn’t the best but I’m getting used to it. My two main difficulties are that you have to press and hold to be able to fast forward / rewind (I keep skipping chapters by mistake) and then that the letters aren’t written above the keypad numbers. I don’t think the letters are written in the manual either so I’m not sure if I’m missing any functionality. I just keep referring to my mobile - the same letters seem to be assigned to the same number keys. I especially like that my Sky box can start off the recorder. A handy hint for when entering title names - if you press ‘Select’ then the letter is changed to uppercase. So, if you’re used to texting on your mobile then it’s fairly easy to enter titles and then go back and change any letters to uppercase afterwards. All I’d like to see now is the ability to merge recordings as well as split. I’m doing that on my PC at the moment and it’s a little bit cumbersome to go between the two…
Customer Review: Philips DVDR80
I have had this player for only 24 hours and am very pleased. Picture quality is no problem, even at M6 for home recording/watching purposes. Very extensive instruction manual and, yes it is needed! Recorded DVDs will play on our Sony and Cyberhome DVD players. The GuidePlus system is very extensive and there is also the ability to use VideoPlus as well. I had no problems hooking up to a five year old Pace sky digibox and have not had any problems with the GuidePlus working, as others seem to have done. The remote control is not the best I’ve ever used, but otherwise the machine is well equipped and the red lights leave others in no doubt that the machine is recording! Box hooked up to ITV at 2pm, presumably to update the GuidePlus. This needs to be at night, but I’m sure Philips will help me on that one. Hooked up through an Ixos XHT 611 scart through the RGB output for a very fine picture indeed! I am also able to transfer all my DV camcorder footage of the kids, when they were just that!! Highly recommendable DVD Recorder, for anyone a little worried about stepping into a three format market.
Dazzle DVD Recorder (PC) 
DAZZLE DVD RECORDER
List Price: ?39.99
Amazon Price: ?35.99
Customer Review: Good but limited controls
I wsa very pleased with the results I got from this straight away. Plugged it in after installing the driver first (always the best thing to do with USB devices). Fired up the Instant DVD recorder, dropped my old VCR tapes onto disk with no problems. I burn via other software after edting so can’t comment on the stability or otherwise of the burning side of the software. The only thing that let’s it down for me, is the lack of ability to specify given formats, such as 352X576, 352×288 or 576×720. The “good, better, best” option isn’t very helpful and I find that a 3 hour tape needs to be split between 2 DVD’s. Used with DVD Shrink, I can fit the data, but I do lose quality of course. At full quality, I’m more than happy with the results and ease of use. Only that lack of decent control over capture quality stops me from giving it 5 stars.
Customer Review: Rubbish - wish I hadn’t bought it.
The hardware to get the video onto your computer works fine, no problems with that. The software, however, is a total load of rubbish. It constantly crashes and malfunctions - the resulting DVD won’t even play. To top it all, it crashed again and I lost the whole project that I’d spent a whole day working on. I am now using different software which works well. I would not recommend this product unless you already have some good video editing software.
