Page 1 of New DVD recorders revealed!

A whole host of new DVD recorders have been announced to coincide with the CES show currently running in Las Vegas, including new models from Philips, Sony, Pioneer and Sharp.

Sony`s new -R/+R recorder, except it doesn`t support +R!
http://news.sel.sony.com/pressrelease/3072

Philips` two new machines..
http://www.cdrinfo.com/Sections/News/Details.asp?RelatedID=3308

Pioneer`s two new models...
http://www.cdrinfo.com/Sections/News/Details.asp?RelatedID=3302

Sharp`s entry into DVD recording...
http://www.cdrinfo.com/Sections/News/Details.asp?RelatedID=3314

Thomson/RCA`s offering...
http://www.rca.com/content/viewdetail/1,2811,EI700424-CI258,00.html

Mico,Daewoo, Tae Young Telstar, Mustek and MET machines...
http://www.press.ce.philips.com/press/20030109_374.html

More cheap machines on the way...
http://www.cdrinfo.com/Sections/News/Details.asp?RelatedID=3305

An explosion of new DVD recorders on the horizon, but I'm disappointed to say that I can't see one that stands as an ideal machine.

PHILIPS

DVD+R may theoretically be the better format, but from first-hand experience I know just how buggy and problematic the Philips recorders are, amid endless tales of woe on http://www.dvdplusrw.org Perhaps these new, inexpensive machines will resolve these problems but you won't know for certain until they've been in use for a good few months, and Philips still don't offer a machine with a hard drive.

PANASONIC

Both the Panasonic recorders seem pretty good machines. The E50 seems pretty cheap, but while the HS2 comes with a hard-drive it's highly expensive at £880. Crucially, however, neither machine supports a rewritable DVDR format.

PIONEER

The DVR-001 is quite a cheap machine, while the DVR-002H supports both DVD-R and DVD-RW, and also features an internal hard-drive. However, with Pioneer likely to use the same firmware that's on their 105 DVD drives there`s a chance they won't write to cheap, unbranded media.
http://www.dvd-recordable.net/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=161

SONY

The first machine to supposedly support both +R and -R. However, it now transpires it will only write to DVD-RW, DVD-R and DVD+RW disks, not DVD+R. The machine won't arrive until June, is a costly £500, and there's no model incorporating a hard drive.

SHARP

Rather too expensive at £500, and there's no hard-drive option.

THOMSON

Not a bad price at £370, but it remains to be seen if it has the same problems as the existing Philips models, and there`s no hard drive option.

MICO, DAEQOO, TAE YOUNG TELSTAR, MUSTEK, MET, ETC…

No details on price or release schedules, and none appear likely to provide an internal hard-drive.

IN CONCLUSION...

The only machine on the horizon that supports both a write-once and rewritable DVDR format and features a hard drive is the Pioneer DVR-002H. However, it remains to be seen if its firmware will allow it to write to cheap media.

It also seems that the cheaper manufacturers are adopting DVD+R as their format of choice, and although I`d like to think DVD-R is firmly established, at least for computer use, I`m now more wary about going down that route.

Desk

This item was edited on Sunday, 12th January 2003, 15:59

Very interesting stuff, there, Desk, and encouraging that the Far Eastern budget manufacturers are at last jumping on-board.

This realistically means we should start seeing some meaningful price reductions (although, admittedly the current £400 price tag for Philips recorders is a welcome one).

What chance a £200 recorder by the end of the year ?