I am looking for a DVD only recorder for my daughter.
She wants to record movies and TV series off of the TV.
I have been looking up reviews online and I am totally baffled !!!
What DVD recorder would make quality DVD's and is reliable ??
Please help !! Thank you !!!

You don't give an explanation as to why it has to be a "DVD ONLY" recorder. Whats the story? Tight budget? Then you're up a creek, because there aren't any "budget" dvd recorders worth buying. The days of wide choice in recorders at different price/feature points are long over, and the industry is now selling just two classes of machine: under $200 DVD/VHS that won't record anything, and over $200 DVD/VHS that won't record anything. If you're looking for a perfect idiot-proof $99 dvd-only recorder, them days is gone- forget it.

Does your daughter use cable or satellite with a decoder box? Then the cheapest you'll get away with thats any good is the Panasonic EA-18, a tunerless DVD-only recorder. Very reliable, very hard to find in stores. Easiest place to find it is online thru Vanns for $180. If she currently uses cable without a decoder box, tell her to get the damn box and pay the extra $4 a month rental fee. Connecting a recorder to "boxless" cable service has become a task for rocket scientists in recent months, because cable is in the middle of its own messy digital transition. If she doesn't have a box now, she's gonna be forced to take a "free" box within the year anyway. The "free" boxes are horrible, if she wants to hook up a recorder she may as well get ahead of the curve and rent the normal box now.

If she's using "free" off-the-air TV, she needs a recorder with an ATSC digital tuner. These, in a word, stink. Almost none record reliably- if it isn't a clock timer problem, they imagine free television shows are copy-protected and refuse to record randomly. This will drive your daughter nuts, and daughters being daughters she will blame you forever if you give her the wrong machine. The two most reliable recorders for off-air ATSC are the Panasonic EZ-28 DVD-only, and (you were expecting this, right?) the Magnavox H2160A DVD/HDD. Of these two, the Magnavox is the way to go. Its easy to order from Wal*Mart online or Target for $229-$279, it has the most reliable digital tuner-timer for off-air, and the hard drive is a killer feature that makes digital timeshifting fun instead of a complete utter pain in the a**. The Panasonic is nice, but at $249 (if you even find it in stock anywhere), its an atrocious deal compared to the Magnavox.

Not much else out there to recommend nowadays. The market has changed, recorders are no longer a popular consumer item, and digital broadcasting/digital cable have caused so many problems in the last few months its almost not worth buying any recorder. Save yourself a headache and buy one of the two Panasonics, or better yet the Magnavox.

The DVD recorder is for my daughter, who is a teenager.
She just wants to tape things off of TV.
We have DISH TV, and she has a box in her room.
I was just looking for a DVD only recorder because she doesn't have any VCR tapes to copy, so what would be the point ??
I have been reading all kinds of reviews online...
I was hoping that someone would give me some advice in picking a quality one.
Thanks !!

Does she just want to record to DVD to keep, or is she just looking for something to timeshift, that is, record it once, watch it later, and get rid of it forever?

If she wants to keep it, I'd recommend the Magnavox that Citibear suggested. The hard drive in it makes life a heck of a lot easier. She can record it to the hard drive, then burn it later. That way if something messes up (happens more often than you'd think), she still has it on the hard drive and can burn it again. Otherwise, you can go with one of the Panasonics and hope for the best.

If she's just looking to record, watch, and erase, I'd get one of Dish's DVRs. It's by far the easiest way, even if you have to rent it for extra dollars a month. Second best would still be the Magnavox, as the hard drive would make it fairly easy to record, watch, and delete, even if you never use the DVD burner. Next would be a Panasonic with a DVD-RAM disc, although without the hard drive you have to be on top of it.

As Citibear said, the market for this type of recording is slim pickings.

Very important question:

Which Dish tuner are you using, and is the feed to your daughter's room from the 2nd tuner of the only unit in the main room?

If so, you may not be able to record to that second room from it. I've tried it and only gotten a blank screen, and at least one other person here I tried to help with the issue had the same problem (I have the 322 dual-tuner model. I *think* the other person had the same model, but I don't remember for sure).

The signal is modulated to channel 60 (there is a channel range it can be tuned to, but that's not the point - doesn't matter which channel it's set to - I think 60 is the default, though), and I had the recorder set on that channel, so I don't think that's the problem. It's that you have to go into the menus on the tuner to "enable it to record to an external device" (otherwise you'll get a black screen), and I think that 'enabling' only works for the first tuner (I know it works for the first tuner - because I use mine that way - it just doesn't seem to work for the second tuner, when you try to set it up at the second TV. If I remember right, the menu options are even greyed out. I think you have to go through "VCR Setup" or something like that).

If you're using a dual-tuner's second feed, you could try it yourself, though, and see if it works for you. Might be different in your case, or depending on the tuner model you have (maybe the other guy and myself just don't know what we're doing - but that option is greyed out, so I doubt it).

If she has a separate tuner in her room, I'd imagine you should be able to 'enable' it (or, you may not have to even do that - it might just record out without any special menu setting). Might be worth it to pay the extra 6 bucks or whatever it is now for that separate tuner, if the other one won't work. Still a heck of a lot better than their DVR purchase and rental.

Another thing: My Panasonic EH75 and 55 can be set up to work with Dish, where you just set the programs or timers through the Dish tuner, and the recorder will turn on and off by itself (and even title the recordings). That's the way I use them. I remember some saying here that they were also using that feature on the HDD-less combo models that came out right after those, so it's possible that the feature may have still been carried over onto the newest models, and the EZ-28 in particular (you don't want the EZ-48 combo model, though - trust me. They'd arrest you for child abuse). I just can't be sure, but maybe you can ask in the main EZ-28 thread. If they still have that, it would be something to consider, because it's a killer feature that a lot of people don't know about and generally isn't advertised.

If that feature doesn't interest you (or isn't even available anymore), then, even though the picture quality from the Panny tuners is a bit better than the Maggie HDD model, the HDD always trumps, so I'd still recommend that (your daughter, I imagine, isn't a total stickler for picture quality like I am).

OP says she has her own box. I would get her the cheapest Magnavox from Walmart at around $100, the warranty is $6 and they will replace anytime during the 1st year. She can have fun with it and learn about recording. They are reliable and take the heavy workload that I give them. No window for a timer so she might want a litle kitchen timer. I records at 1,2,2.5 and 3 Hr speeds.