resinrats

Circuit City's Digital Max DMD-R0501 or Walmart's Cyberhome DVR 1200?

I know they are not the top of the line. Anyone have any of these and how are they? I couldn't find reviews online.

X

Wouldn't "bottom of the line" be the best way to describe them?

I wouldn't expect much.

renaldow

The CH 1200 is too new to find much online for it. CH's website doesn't even have anything for it.

Spiky

I'd call them "below bottom of the line". Cyberhome isn't even on my radar. And what on earth is a "digital max"? There's a reason standard electronics cost what they do. Trying to undercut that normal price generally gives you a POS. I'm not talking about esoteric, high-priced models, here.

The Panasonic ES10 is $180 at Costco. This records with better or equal quality than most DVDRs ever made, and most of them have been over $500. For example, comparable non-HDD models in early 2004 were generally $600. So prices have already dropped by around 70% in the last 15 months. I don't think you can go much below that this year and still maintain any reasonable quality level.

BobDole42

I haven't used either of them, but I can't imagine that they would be anything other than awful.

I am always amazed that people buy this crap. No offense to the OP, but why on earth would anyone buy a bottom of the line DVD recorder, portable DVD player, etc. when a decent one is only a bit more expensive? I guess I just don't get it - it's probably the same reason people have 200+ dvds and a POS tv - priorities...

renaldow

What do you know? Another thread crap by BobDole42 in the gear forum.



We can't all be like you BobDole42, and it really doesn't matter if you can understand it or not.

BobDole42

ack! I didn't mean it as a threadcrap. I just hate seeing people drop even $100 on something that is just junk. Spiky made an excellent point that you can get a MUCH MUCH better unit for another 80 bucks or so. I was merely trying to echo it.

I'm not sure what you mean by "another threadcrap by Bobdole42" - I didn't know that I had offended people with my other posts. I try to offer honest and objective answers to people's questions. I did get into a rather heated discussion in the receiver thread, but that had nothing to do with my opinion of anyone's gear

Spiky

See what you get for agreeing with an elitist pig? Or elitist bastard, I can never decide which I prefer.

BobDole42

Damn. I should have said that wasting $100 on a POS is a good idea. Maybe then people would like me.

I make no secret of the fact that I am an HT snob. I'm just not sure how giving someone my honest opinion (that is apparently shared by almost everyone who replied to this thread) that the DVDr is a piece of junk constitutes a threadcrap.

Oh, well.

renaldow

It's not what you're saying BobDole42, it's how you're saying it. Like in the receiver thread, etc.

BobDole42

Well, most of my frustration in the receiver thread had nothing to do with my 'elitism' but more to do with what I perceived as Scott's hard-headedness.

I'm sorry you find my tone upsetting. I'm not sure what to say, other than I always try to give my honest opinion and answer any questions I can. If you think that I am being a jerk because I call crappy gear junk, then I guess there is nothing I can do.

I'm curious if other people feel the same way as renaldow (is that a Simpson's reference BTW?). If so, I'd like to know so I don't step on anyone's toes.

Sdallnct

So that is the one to get? I have been looking, but haven't bought one yet, so now might as well get it from "Santa".

At this point, I really only want it as overflow for my DVR and to make a DVD out of those movies on our DVR that my wife wants to keep. Yea, I know, it would probably just be cheaper to go buy the movies, but my wife wants it. And I find it a good idea to agree with my wife when she finally comes around to wanting electronics.

Would it also be easy on this it record from DVR for multiple items to a single disc? For example, my wife had several weekly shows recorded on the DVR, would it be easy to transer them all to a single disc? I don't care about editing or nice breaks between the shows.

(oh and I assume it is not an issue to talk about recording from TV since DVR's/DVD recorders are regularly available from your dish/cable company).

Spiky

Yes, recording from TV is ok to talk about around here. Assuming you aren't selling copies or something.

For doing what you want, a model with HDD would be best. You can do it with a cheap model, but storing everything to HDD and then setting it up how you want is going to be much easier. These are more expensive, though.

With the ES10 and a DVR, you can mimic that to a point. You would just record each show one at a time. It sets up a new Title for each recording session. There is a $200 Pioneer model that is fairly equivalent that would also be a good buy. These don't have good chapter creation or menu creation, you'd have to get an HDD model to get better setups for that. Or just use a computer, which would give you lots more abilities.

I got mine basically to replace VHS, similar reasons to yours. Record a movie every now and then for the wife or kids.

Goldblum

It may not be as bad as all that. My parents bought a Cyberhome DVD player years ago and still works perfectly fine to this day.

nodeerforamonth

How do you hook it up (or should I start another thread?) to a HD TV with a HD DVR? I can't seem to hook mine up right to archive stuff stored on my DVR.

I got a Sony Wega 42" HDTV. Sharp VCR/DVD recorder combo. Time Warner DVR.

I have the DVR hooked up to the HDTV, then outputs from the DVR going into the inputs of the VCR/DVD and the outputs of the VCR/DVD go into another input on the TV. Not working. I can play fine, but can't record (either on VCR or DVDR).

Spiky

You may need to set the DVR to output both SD and HD at the same time. Or maybe set it to output via both connections at the same time. Or it may not be able to do this.

My parents' Motorola 6408 (Comcast DVR) can output both at the same time, so they have the same setup that you describe, but it works: DVR via component to TV, DVR via Svideo to DVDR/VCR.

My HD Tivo does not do this. So when I want to record off it, I have to change it to 480i output (it is usually on 720p), then the Svideo output comes to life and I can record.

Assuming your cables are installed correctly (which is always the first thing to check) and the DVDR/VCR is set to the right input, you'll need to figure out which DVR you have and see if someone knows how it works.

ATX

... these cheapos are ok for stocking stuffers

that 'Digital Max' brand was a Lite-On recorder

X

I have two that I bought a year ago and they still work for the most part.

I tried to buy a new one recently but gave up after having 2 bad out of the box and the 3rd going bad after two weeks.

Sdallnct

Thanks for the info. I assume these just record in "real" time? She hits play on the DVR and record on the DVD recorder and it does it in real time like a VCR would?

Heck it might be easier to just replace our Dishnetwork DVR with a true Tivo with a built in DVD recorder! Course that would mean a whole new system, but....

Spiky

Yep, real time. The HDD models can do high speed dubbing from HDD to DVD. Recording in 2 hour mode from an HD source gives incredible quality, matches some manufactured DVDs for picture. And beats the SD broadcasts of the same show. (I have the Panny ES10)

You will lose pic quality if you dump the Dish DVR. The Tivo is a better DVR, and standalone models have lots of extra features like Tivo-to-go and HMO networking, but it would have to receive signal via Svideo from a Dish receiver. The PQ drop will most likely be noticeable. I don't know much about the Tivo/DVD models, not even if they have those 2 features I mentioned. There is a forum specifically for them over at the Tivo Community, though.