Questions about DVD players/recorders

In My Humble Opinion
1

I’ve decided to move out from under the thumb of my tyrannical brother who in his mid-20s has yet to grasp that other people REALLY like different things than him. I’m going to buy my own DVD player. Is there any good reason not to just buy the cheapest brand-name unit? I know I want component video and coax digital, and progressive scan, but that’s about it.

Also, it occurs to me that he has a Tivo and when we go our ways I might want to record some TV. I don’t need to record THAT much and I don’t like the Tivo’s artifacts and slow flipping, so maybe I should get a DVD-recorder. Is there anything I know or a good reason to spend more than $150?

2

If you get a combo unit you won’t need to record in DVD RAM. Its a feature that cost’s about $30 more. The re-recordable disks are expensive and the VCR does the same thing for much less money. Don’t buy blank DVD’s with cases. Buy a zippered case that holds 150 disks. Easier and cheaper to store them that way and you can take your collection with you. To label them buy a marker used for writing on pictures such as ZIG. They are permanent and dry super fast.

If you buy a combo unit find one that’s nice to VCR tapes. From my experience, any unit that slams tapes on rewind will eventually bend up it’s drive train and start creasing tapes.

3

Most DVD recorders will only record in a format compatible with themselves, which means no backing up on PC, and if your recorder fails, you need to find that model again or your DVD collection is useless.

4

Getting a high-quality region-free player might be worth it, depending on how frequently you watch imports.

5

I’ve heard some can be unlocked with a code. Can most? How much more would it cost?

6

That’s not really necessary anymore. You can buy a player or even a recorder that’s region free out of the box, but be sure to buy one with a built-in PAL>NTSC converter. That way you can watch Region 2 & 4 discs.

You can get the players for less than $100 and recorders in the $220 range (from the company I bought my player from).

7

I’ve found that about a third of players are easily unlockable, but the price difference is small enough now that it’s generally better to buy a region-player unless you’ve really got your heart set on one that happens to be unlockable with some button-pushing.

8

I’m going to revive this thread because I have one more question. Has anybody tried the Cyberhome players or recorders?

At Circuit City they said all the players would record in the standard format if you set them to.