I think I'm going to buy this dvd recorder; http://www.dvdrecorder.philips.com/ I can get it for around $750 , not the $999 price the website has.

But I'm not sure what medium I -have- to get to record from TV, transferring VHS tapes to DVD, etc..

Will only DVD+R/RW's work with this as a medium? Or can I buy the MUCH cheaper DVD-R/RW's? 5 dollars per DVD+RW is too much IMO and I can't find any better deals then that. With DVD+R's I'm afraid of a chance it might mess up and have the disk be ruined. CD-R's isn't as bad since they are alot cheaper.

The Philips will only use DVD+R/+RW media.

It has been my experience that standalone DVD recorders are more finicky when it comes to media. Some people may tell you that the bargain basement no-name discs that they bought for next to nothing each work great, but I would stay away from them. Stick to brand name discs - they cost more, but they're also more reliable.

The DVD+R format is more universal right so its not a real bad thing that the Philips wont record DVD-R right
please tell me I didnt just run out and buy a bad recorder

I would never purchase a recorder that didn't record DVD-R.

That's pretty much guaranteed to stay around.

The rest? Who knows?

That unit is a complete waste of time. You should check a thread that's already been started on this topic.

I tend to agree with getting -R.

But it is a format war and in the end one will win. Many argued that Beta was the better format for vcr. I am going to be waiting for a little longer.

Do some checking. I can find DVD-R, DVD+R for the same price at COMP USA and BEST BUY, currently $3.99 each when bought in packs of 15.

DVD+RW for about a dollar more. DVD-RAM are a bit higher.

There really is NO danger of buying the "wrong" recorder. DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R and DVD+RW will play in 99% of players made since 2000, especially from major companies. If in doubt, go SONY. Both of my SONY players will play ALL of these without an issue. I bought them in May 2000. DVD-RAM is the only real potential problem, but that may change if more manufacturers start to built DVD-RAM playback into their standard machines.

I have both a Philips DVD+R/DVD+RW unit and a Panasonic DVD-R/RAM unit and both are great. Philips is a bit better since it has a firwwire connection and the erasable discs you record in it can play in DVD players unlike DVD-RAMs.

Shop around and you'll find the media is all about the same price.

as long as you can still buy blank media for it what would be the worry???

I recently purchased a Samsung DVD R3000, which is very similar to the Panasonic E30, and pay $1.44 for blank DVD-R's(PrimeDisc) and $8.00 for DVD-RAMS. I have never experienced a failure using PrimeDisc and the results are excellent. I have converted well over 100 VHS, SVHS and Laserdisc to DVD-R. (It takes the player 4 minutes to finalize a DVD-R to DVD-Video.)

The finalized DVD-Video's play on my Pioneer, JVC, Samsung and Panasonic players, without exception. In most cases I have experienced better results if I turn off the progressive scan during playback. I believe the 3:2 pulldown can't find a cadence and the results in some aftificats in the picture.

One unique feature the Panasonic / Samsung players have is Flexible Recording (FR). FR works with the timer and records at the highest bit rate available for the programmed time period. Like all timer programs editing is not availabe so the feature does not lend itself to laserdisc titles spread over two discs. But for all other recordings, VHS, SVHS or DirecTV, over two hours long the FR feature is great.

www.shop4tech.com

Blank cases: 100 for $29.00
Blank DVD-R: 50 for $71.00
Blank RAM: 5 for $39.99

This is a repeated thread. I have posted a quick note for those looking at both the Panasonic & Philips recorders on the previous thread.

stay away from RAM. That means the panasonic and the samsung units. The Philips is good...so far ever DVD i have made whether its R or RW has played on every DVD player Ive tried it on