gonk

Overall Rating
 4 of 5

Value Rating
 4 of 5

Used product for
3 Months to 1 year

Price Paid:  $543.00 from ProFeel.com

Summary:
I purchased a DVD recorder primarily to archive two decades of VHs and S-VHS family videos before the tapes they were stored on deteriorated irretrievably. The E80's built-in 80GB hard drive made it possible to dump tapes to hard disc, edit and title them as desired, and burn two copies of each disc (one for me, one for my dad). It was a somewhat tedious but straightforward process, and while the E80 does not offer the flexibility of a professional editing station or PC video editing software, it is able to do a respectable job of preserving these old videos. It is also extremely handy for time-shifting TV shows, which has made it a hit with my wife. The manual is sometimes cumbersome and rarely as useful as I would like it to be, but once you spend some time with the E80 you can get around in it pretty readily. It is not a five-star product, but I don't believe any set-top DVD-R product has reached that point yet. It is a four-star product, reliably offering a good range of features for a fair price. For a detailed summary of my experience with the E80, check out my review at http://www.prillaman.net/dmr-e80_review.html

Strengths:
Flexibility Recording quality

Weaknesses:
Poor documentation Complex interface

Similar Products Used:
Panasonic & Toshiba DVD players VHS & S-VHS VCR's

Price Paid:  $622.00 from Sears

Summary:
Good recorder, love the hard-drive, the manual is terrible and the copy protection (CPRM) almost make me want to send it back to the store...actually, I bought it at Sears to try it out since its a local store. I will probably return it and buy online since I like the unit and can get it for ~500$ (saving 150 plus). If you want a DVD recorder now, this is a good choice. If you can wait, the next generation should be even better.

Strengths:
FR recording allows the recorder to maximize the quality of the recording in the available disk space. I use it to archive certain programs sans commercials. The hdrive is a big plus for this. DVD-Ram seems to be popular for transferring digital video from the recorder to a PC where the video can be manipulated and the authoring can be much more intricate. Some say the video quality is not equal to Sony recorders--I don't know, I haven't tried a Sony. I have a Dishnetwork PVR and transfer the analog signal from it via SVid or Composite to the DMR. Then cut commercials in the digital domain and transfer to DVD-r for permanent storage. In 2 hour mode, there is little difference between the original recording and the original satellite broadcast.

Weaknesses:
Cannot digitally transfer your OWN data from a DVD-R you created back to the harddrive. The finalized DVD-r menu system is very basic (personnaly, I don't mind this). Limited authoring capabilities (fade-ins/outs, etc.) Recordign quality goes down noticeably in the LP mode (4 hour mode)--same as with any digital recorder. Compatibility: haven't had a chance to try to play a DVD-r in anything but my PCs and my Samsung dvd-p (which doesn't play anything but DVD-V per Samsung).

Similar Products Used:
No DVD recorders, but, several hard drive PVR units.