Burn TV on DVD
The latest DVD recorders have hard drives, program guides, and lower prices. If you love TV, one of these ten models may be right for you.Richard Baguley
Photograph by Chip Simons
The newest DVD recorders far outshine last year's relatively primitive models--making this a great time to jump in. They're cheaper, too: A year ago, such recorders were priced for the television elite--up to $1000 for one with a 160GB hard drive--but today various models are within reach of ordinary TV watchers. A basic recorder (like CyberHome's DVR1600) sells for less than $100; a model with an 80GB hard drive (for example, the Lite-On LVW-5045) costs less than $300; and a deluxe 250GB model (such as the Toshiba RD-XS54) runs about $700.
The three models mentioned above are among the ten DVD recorders I evaluated in this roundup. Half of them had a builtin hard drive; the other half were either bare-bones recorders or combination units that coupled a DVD recorder with a VCR or second DVD player. (For full reviews and ratings of all ten recorders, see the features comparison charts for hard-drive-equipped and non-hard-drive-equipped models.)
Direct to DVD: Samsung's DVD-TR520 (top) and DVD-VR325, and Phillips's DVDR3355 (bottom) lack a hard drive, but have other assets.
Among hard-drive-enabled models, the full-featured, network-connected Toshiba receives our Best Buy. Samsung's DVD-VR325, which pairs a DVD recorder with a VCR, wins our Best Buy for non-hard-drive recorders.
All of the recorders in this roundup include component video outputs, but only the Samsung DVD-VR325 and the Toshiba provide digital connections for use with an HDTV. Both the Samsung and the Toshiba convert analog video into digital signals at resolutions of 720p or 1080i (two common HDTV formats) for output via an HDMI port. Such up-conversion can make a difference: TV recorded to DVD from a cable signal or other analog source looked much better on an HDTV. DVD video piped to our test TV via an HDMI connection looked sharper than the same video transmitted via component cables, probably because it underwent fewer analog-to-digital conversions.
Every recorder we tested supports playing MP3 audio files and displaying JPEG photo files burned to disc. But the Philips DVDR3355 is the only one that plays back MPEG-4 and DivX video files, too. The Toshiba RD-XS54 can be programmed via the Internet, without requiring an extra-cost add-on.
Speedy Copying
Capacious storage: Our three highest-ranking DVD recorders with hard drives--Pioneer's third-place DVR-633H-S (top), Panasonic's number two DMR-EH50S, and Toshiba's first-place RD-XS54--feature roomy drives.
The ability to copy and archive video is the running theme among the DVD recorders assembled here.
All but the CyberHome and the $250 Philips DVDR3355 have features to make copying video easier. Samsung's $400 DVD-VR325 and Sony's $310 RDR-VX515 combine a DVD recorder with a VHS video deck, so transferring your VHS home movies to DVD is a snap, and the $450 Samsung DVD-TR520 can copy from DVD to DVD. Four other models (the Lite-On, the $350 Panasonic DMR-EH50S, the $500 Pioneer DVR-633H-S, and the Toshiba) can record to a DVD or to a hard drive; a fifth, the $390 Humax DRT-400, requires you record video to its hard drive before burning it to DVD.
Given how pervasive VHS tapes have been for the past two decades, the Samsung and Sony models with DVD and VHS decks represent a convenient bridge between past and present. These combo models digitize and copy video from tape to DVD in real time--a great feature if you want to create digital copies of old TV shows or family films. Both models have a button to sync the start of VHS cassette playback with the DVD recording--a much simpler approach than stringing cables between a VCR and a DVD recorder, and juggling two remotes.
DVD recorders equipped with a hard drive are great for recording lots of TV, capturing long programs (like the Super Bowl or the Winter Olympics) at the highest quality speed, or recording several episodes of a show while you are away for a few weeks. Depending on the hard drive's capacity and the video quality setting you choose, you can store many hours of video: The Humax is rated at a maximum of 40 hours; the Panasonic, 100 hours; the Lite-On and the Pioneer, 160 hours; and the Toshiba, 250 hours. After recording a program on a hard drive, you can transfer it to DVD in a single step; the recorder will split the video among discs as needed. Hard drive models transfer video to DVD fairly quickly: When the PC World Test Center copied a 1-hour TV show from the four hard-disk models to DVD-R using the highest quality mode (at which a disc holds 1 hour of video), most completed the job in around 6 minutes (not including the 2 minutes or so required to finalize the disc, to ensure that it will play without a hitch on other DVD players).
The fastest unit, the Pioneer, transferred the video in 5 minutes and 54 seconds, and finalized the disc in 55 seconds for a total of just under 7 minutes. The two outliers in our tests were the Humax (which took about 15 minutes) and the Lite-On LVW-5045 (18 minutes); both vendors said the slower performance was likely due to the speed of the integrated DVD burner (rated at 4X, compared with 8X for the other models).
The slick, twin-tray design of the Samsung DVD-TR520 pairs a DVD-R/RW and DVD-RAM recorder with a DVD player, so you can dub from disc to disc (but only if the original source disc has no copy protection; you can't use the recorder to make copies of commercial DVD movies).
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PC-Free Editing
All ten recorders let you edit video on the disc itself if you record to a rewritable DVD format. Every model supports one or more form of RW disc, and the Samsungs, the Panasonic, and the Toshiba support the less interchangeable RAM format as well. With a rewritable disc, you can edit and remove advertisements or other content directly from your recorded video disc, without having to transfer it to your PC's hard drive, perform the editing there, and then re-render and burn the video to disc.
Still, the process was easier on certain models than on others. The CyberHome, Panasonic, two Samsungs, and Sony let you remove sections of video from rewritable DVD discs by selecting start and end points anywhere in the video (a technique known as A-B editing). The other recorders require you to define ads and other unwanted sections as chapters before you can delete them--a less elegant process.
With the three hard-drive-equipped players, you can edit video on the hard drive before committing it to disc (the best bets are low-cost write-once DVD-R or +R discs).
Sadly, the Humax does not support any editing. Instead, you have to burn the whole recording, and if it exceeds your media's capacity at all, you must use two discs.
Video Quality
Slick design: Humax's DRT-400 uses TiVo's guide and interface.
Video quality is critical to a DVD recorder. Fortunately, I found few examples of egregious recording quality when I tested these recorders at their highest image-quality mode, which can pack a full hour of video on a single-layer disc, or twice that amount on a double- or dual-layer disc (the Pioneer is the only model here that supports dual-layer media, however).
I was particularly impressed with the quality of both Samsungs, the Panasonic, and the Toshiba, all of which produced accurate recordings of the video sources that I used to test these models. Top marks went to the Samsung DVD-VR325, especially when we played back its video on a calibrated high-definition TV using the HDMI output: The colors were extremely accurate, and the blacks looked intensely dark while at the same time maintaining shadow detail. Similarly, the Toshiba and Panasonic recorders produced great-looking, balanced video with accurate colors.
The CyberHome and the Lite-On produced the least-impressive image quality. Though the low-cost CyberHome's video was acceptable, it looked more like the output from an old VHS recorder than from a spanking new DVD recorder: The colors were unappealing and I saw noticeable noise in areas of flat color, such as in some cartoons. The Lite-On's videos were better, but they suffered from poor contrast: Blacks looked gray, and colors appeared dull and muted.
A Perfect Recorder
It's difficult to choose a single winner in this diverse group. The good news is that no matter what your budget or criteria for a living room DVD recorder, you should be able to find a model to suit your needs and wallet.
The HDMI-equipped Samsung DVD-VR325, one of our Best Buys, does an excellent job of bridging the chasm between old technology (the VCR) and new (HDTV and DVD recording). Among the hard-drive recorders we tested, the pricey Toshiba RD-XS54 wins a Best Buy as well: It holds the most video, produces terrific-looking recordings, and is jam-packed with features.
Program Guides: A Tale of Two On-Screen Program Guides
A snazzy living-room DVD recorder won't be of much use if you can't find the programs you want to record or play back. Many recorders integrate TV listing services to simplify finding and recording shows, but some do it better than others.
The most common electronic program guide is Gemstar's TV Guide On Screen. This free service doesn't require Internet access; instead, listings are transmitted within the TV signal, decoded by the recorder, and paid for by ads (which I found maddeningly distracting) that line the left third of the screen. The service doesn't work with satellite boxes.
The Toshiba, Panasonic, and Pioneer models I reviewed support TV Guide On Screen. The service's main competitor, TiVo ($13 per month, or $299 for the lifetime of the unit), comes with the Humax recorder. (A new subscription-based guide from Microsoft should be available in some recorders by the time you read this.)
TiVo's clutter-free menus include a recorded program list.
In my tests, I much preferred TiVo to TV Guide On Screen: The TiVo interface is a lot slicker, and the program grid feels less cluttered, even though it displays more programs.
TV Guide On Screen has a busy, ad-supported program grid.
Though TV Guide On Screen lets you initiate or schedule a recording from within its program guide, TiVo's advanced features (such as its ability to automatically record only new episodes of a series, or to record all programs starring a particular actor) make getting the shows you want much easier. TiVo also allows you to schedule recordings online, a feat that only the expensive Toshiba RD-XS54 could match (when connected to a home network via ethernet). Unlike TV Guide On Screen, TiVo also supports satellite TV connections.