I have about £300 to spend on a dvd recorder
That sort of budget limits you to standalone DVD recorders (as opposed to HDD/DVDR machines). No problem with that but you'll find this will leave you with a choice: record onto media that will play in other DVD players but has no editting facilities (DVD-R or DVD-RW (Video Mode)) or record onto DVD-RAM or DVD-RW (VR Mode) where you get full editting features but the disks are largely incompatible with most DVD players. Of course you could always get a DVD burner for your PC at a later date which would enable you to convert from RAM or DVD-RW to DVD-R.
You clearly need a machine that has iLink in. Such machines (that are within your budget) are:
- JVC DMR10 (DVD-RAM, DVD-RW, DVD-R)
- LG DR4810 (DVD-RW, DVD-R)
- Panasonic E60 (DVD-RAM, DVD-R)
- Pioneer 3100 (DVD-RW, DVD-R)
- Philips DVDR75 (DVD+RW)
- Toshiba DR1 (DVD-RAM, DVD-RW, DVD-R)
All have their pros and cons but all bar the Philips DVDR75 will offer good editting facilities on their re-writeable media. DVD-R has near universal compatibility with existing DVD players.
The JVC DMR10 is the replacement for the DMR1 - this machine got good reviews and a few people here brought it. The trouble is a few people took it back because it was broken so there is a bit of a cloud over that at the moment. The model lacks RGB in which should be a consideration if you want to hook it up to Sky as you would need an RGB-to-S-Video converter.
The Panasonic E60 is a top machine IMHO. Records the RGB signal and has good features. It records to DVD-RAM which brings some automatic benefits such as Timeslip. Of course compatibility of DVD-RAM is very low so if you want to record onto rewriteable disks which you can then play upstairs then this is not for you.
The Pioneer 3100 is again a well featured machine that has a 2 way iLink connection (this is the only DVDR that has this) so, depending upon your camcorder, you can dub stuff back and forth. However the 3100, by all accounts, handles composite sources and material from it's own internal tuner quite badly. It also lacks RGB in. If you can live with these failings though the 3100 is a good machine for camcorder users.
Toshiba DR1 has had mixed reviews. There are some happy users of it on this forum but it has had lacklustre reviews from HCC. Do a search for the related threads. Again it lacks RGB in which would mean a RGB-to-S-Video converter is required.
The Philips DVDR75 uses the 'unofficial' DVD+ format. It will make recordings that will play in most other DVD players but lacks the features of the machines that write to DVD- disks.
There is only limited info on the LG model at the moment. It sounds good: RGB input, card slot, iLink etc but I haven't seen it so won't recommend it one way or the other yet.
I would strongly urge you to goto the
www.homecinemachoice.com website and read the reviews of each model. You'll find they all generally get good reviews but the models that have been in the HCC 'top 5' over the last couple of months are the JVC DMR1 and the Panasonic E60 - and I think they've got that about spot on.
