New Recorders Offer High-Quality Video Bedford TX

Living-room DVD recorders from Pioneer and Panasonic top our chart this month.


1 . Local Companies

Bombay Company the
(817) 838-9922
2900 Meacham Blvd
Fort Worth, TX
Owens Computers & Supplies
(972) 644-5912
9319 Lyndon B Johnson Fwy
Dallas, TX
Staples
(432) 367-3344
5161 E 42nd St
Odessa, TX
Toner Lady
(512) 219-8380
11225 Barrington Way
Austin, TX
Texas Industrial Peripherals
(512) 837-0283
2621 Ridgepoint Dr
Austin, TX
Artcraft Computer Forms Corp
(214) 369-9377
8080 N Central Expy
Dallas, TX
Corporate Express
(409) 981-5601
205 N 11th St
Beaumont, TX
Cartridge Guys the
(806) 457-1840
4827 S Western St
Amarillo, TX
Nine Six Two Inc
(512) 401-9902
8701 W Parmer Ln
Austin, TX
Maxell Corporation of America
(972) 393-9032
Coppell, TX

2 . Introduction

Click here to view full-size image.Are the format wars finally over? Thankfully, almost. Compared with the hard-drive-equipped DVD recorders we reviewed a year ago, twice as many now support both the +R and -R formats. The only exception here is the Toshiba RD-XS55, the priciest model on the chart at $700.

All of the recorders delivered high-quality video. Every model regardless of its cost (the units we reviewed range from $340 to $700) earned a Very Good score for recording quality in our tests.

We recorded a variety of content in four quality modes, and found the results almost indistinguishable among the devices. And though we noticed some subtle differences in the artifacts that marred video recorded at the lower-quality modes, they weren't enough to affect our scores.

As for the recorders' features, however, they couldn't vary more--while some of the models offer a range of useful extras, others lag behind.

3 . Skip the Ads

If you don't like TV ads, select a recorder that can skip commercials. The Panasonic DMR-EH55S, Pioneer DVR-640H-S, and Toshiba RD-XS55 each offer a commercial-skip button on their remote controls for nixing jingles before they're stuck in your head.

Two recorders, the Lite-On and the Pioneer, have jukebox functions for playing music files and JPEGs. The Pioneer earned our Best Buy nod in part because it comes with a wonderful remote control and works well as a jukebox; it allows you to select multiple albums or a particular genre to play. The Lite-On, by contrast, doesn't let you play a selected folder or play by genre or artist. The unit doesn't even display the title of the currently playing song.

4 . Specialties

The pioneer is the only model here that can write to 8.5GB discs (both double-layer DVD+R and dual-layer DVD-R), and it's one of three units that write to DVD-RAM discs. The Toshiba RD-XS55 does not write to DVD+RW--and though it's the only device here with an ethernet port, you can't download video to its hard drive or display video on your TV over a network.

For scheduling recordings, the Panasonic and Toshiba (the two costliest models we tested) offer the TV Guide On Screen Interactive Program Guide, while the other models work with VCR+ codes.

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