Which One?

[Mogwhy]

I have recently switched from Sky+ to Virgin Media and have lost the recording facility hence this post. A have looked through the forum and reviewed the pro's and cons of most of the recent models and I am still undecided on which to purchase. I do like my gadgets and have tended to purchase pioneer / panasonic in the past. My last purchase was my TV and I went for the Pioneer PDP-428XD. I have never really bothered with Sony.

Now comes the million dollar question which one? I have been looking at the Pioneer DVR-60D
Pioneer DVR-550HX
Panasonic DMR-EX87EB

Can anyone help and best advise?

Look foward to your comments / help

 

[matt73]

Whats a Pioneer DVR-60D? I've looked for that and I can't find anything about it.

I've had a similar dilemma recently and it was either going to be a Pioneer 550hxs, lx60, a Panasonic or a Sony. Unfortunately the Panasonics don't have DIVX playback and the Sonys have restrictions on what media they use so i'm going to go for a Pioneer.

I used my father's Pioneer 440 for about a week and whilst I found it a little too much at first I rapidly got used to all the features. In the end I thought the amount of available features were impressive. It recorded to and played all available media I had and the picture looked ok but then again I don't have any other recorders to compare it to. There is a way you can connect to external boxes but I didn't use it.

The 550 model has all the features of the 440 I used and includes more space, auto chapter, HDMI etc. I will be getting one online tonight.

 

[ROYOLD]

The Pioneer 550 converts the tuner signal to S-video internally :

http://www.avforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=518817

 

[Mogwhy]

I have recently switched from Sky+ to Virgin Media and have lost the recording facility hence this post. A have looked through the forum and reviewed the pro's and cons of most of the recent models and I am still undecided on which to purchase. I do like my gadgets and have tended to purchase pioneer / panasonic in the past. My last purchase was my TV and I went for the Pioneer PDP-428XD. I have never really bothered with Sony.

Now comes the million dollar question which one? I have been looking at the Pioneer DVR-LX 60D
Pioneer DVR-550HX
Panasonic DMR-EX87EB

Can anyone help and best advise?

Look foward to your comments / help

Sorry I meant to say DVR -LX 60D

 

[matt73]

The Pioneer 550 converts the tuner signal to S-video internally :

http://www.avforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=518817

I also read this when it was first posted and was a little disappointed. I don't mind though because my primary reason for purchasing this is for the "one box solution" mentioned in the above post. I mainly want recording freeview, divx and mp3 playback (this model can store mp3 to HDD) and of course DVD/DVD-R playback.

On the S-video issue. I have a Pioneer plasma with internal freeview episode guide. When I borrowed my father's 440 model I noticed when I was up close the digital guide wasn't as clearly defined as the one inside the TV even though it was connected via component. It was also the same for the tuner's picture quality. But since I am over 2M away from the set the difference was hardly noticable and acceptable (for me). When playing films it was better than my present DVD player.