I need help choosing a DVD Recorder

[Nflguy]

I'm planning to buy a DVD recorder and need some help.


I have a Plasma HDTV and Directv as my sattelite service.


I want a dvd recorder that will play my dvd-R discs and will "upscale" movies

I also want to be able to record nfl games recorded in HD to DVD-


Best Buy, Circuit city, Costco and Sams are the electronics retailers near me.


I can spend up to 350 bucks. I really don't need alot of bells and whistles.


I just need it to pay my dvd's well and record easy without a headache setting it up.


Any suggestions?? Thanks

[Nflguy]

I was thinking of getting this one:


Panasonic DMR ES25S

[funhouse69]

I'm also interested in purchasing a Home DVD Recorder. My sister bought a Phillips for about $100 and I have to say it works pretty well.

Couple of things to keep in mind - At this point you can NOT record HD on to a home DVD Recorder. The only way you could record HD is if you recorded it OTA on your PC and had some kind of HD Burner like Blueray or HD-DVD Burner in your system. Even then you might not be able to do it but that is as close as you'd get.

The best you can do is record 480p which many people on this site has said that the quality is really good but certainly not anywhere near HD.

The unit you mentioned seems to have some decent specs but doesn't seem to say specifically (that I've seen) that it will record 480p so you might want to check the manufacturers website before buying. Or you could buy it from a place like Buy.com that has a great return policy to try it out for a while.

[davring]

I just purchased the Toshiba D-R400. It will work with both -R and +R formats, S-video in, HDMI out with selectable upconversion. Also will record in 16x9. Does a very good job. At CC about $179.00 IIRC. I am very happy with it. I looked at a couple of Panny's, didn't care for their features. I get great results especially recording and HD program. I personally think the recordings are very close to store bought. It does NOT have an OTA tuner, which I wouldn't have used anyway. I use it alot to record concerts and rip the audio track to CD, perfect recordings. I have had a couple of recorders and this one is the easiest to use and complete features.

[machavez00]

patience, grasshopper. Once the format war has been decided the recorders will come out, too expensive at first of course, then the prices will drop. How long that will be is the real question.

[Nflguy]

Now I can't seem to get it to record the channel I'm watching. The dvd recorder can be set to one of three channels. INT1 INT2 OR DV


My directv sattelite is on "DBS". If I'm watching sattelite and click record on the dvd recorder it records nothing, just a blank screen.

[davring]

You need to set your recorder to whatever input you have your HR20 hooked to.

[Nflguy]

Update:

I can't set the dvd recorder to same input my HR20 is connected to becuase the HR20 is on "DBS" THROUGH hdmi AND NOT CONNECTED TO input1 or input 2 etc..

My HR20 is connected to my Panasonic plasma tv via HDMI.


I connected av cables (red,yellow,white) to the output on the HR20 and connected them to the input on the dvd recorder.


I played a show recored in HD (it fills my screen) on my DBS channel while the dvd-recorder was set on Input 1 and recording.


When it was done , I checked to see if the recording worked.


It worked sort of...For some reason the dvd recording of the show was pillarboxed while the show i was originally watching/recording was full screen hd.


What gives??