PS - I did read a bunch of posts on the topic both from this forum and other forums on the internet.

I want to buy a DVD recorder with a hard disk. My original choice was Panasonic DMR-EH55S with 200 GB HDD, but now its not available anywhere - except for couple of very shoddy sites on the net with very bad return policy. Its out of stock everywhere else.

On further research, I have closed down on 2 models - RCA DRC 8030N & Polaroid DRM-2001G.

I read about both of these a LOT in the last 2 days. The reason I am tending towards Polaroid is DivX playing capability - I have a bunch of .avi movies in DVDs and I dont think RCA can play these - can someone confirm.

also, my local WalMart in WA carries the Polaroid for $220, but dont have the RCA - so the only way to get the RCA is by ordering thru the web (Walmart.com or *********) and return becomes a hassle if the unit does not work.

My major requirements:
1) ability to record to HDD
2) HDD to DVD burn
3) DivX/AVI files playback

I dont care much about the tuner, I am gonna use the Composite Video In from the dish receiver to the DVD recorder.

I have a SONY LCD HDTV, so HDMI o/p was also something I was looking for earlier - but I now I am gonna live without it and use the component o/p for a while.

The Polaroid seems to have 2 major problems:
a) bad remote
b) noise

PS - I really dont care about the video editing/commercial editing capabilities of both - I am sure I dont have time for this, i will just record to hdd and burn to dvd.

also, the fact that the HDD is swappable in Polaroid is something nice - I wont do it now, but can play with that later.

Currently, I have a LiteON DVD Recorder (without HDD) from Costco which I am thinking of returning - have faced some problems reading DVDs whcih were recorded with that. But it does play .avi files nicely, something which I want to do in the future also.

Am I making the right choice by going with the Polaroid? Anything more to consider?

Thanks a lot for your help.
-CrazyToes

Addtionally, on price point:

Price point is also important for me; if I am gonna spend upwards of $450 (like for the panasonic DMR EH55S), I would like most of the important capabilities like HDMI o/p, ability to play DivX/AVI, big HDD capacity etc.

But I am not getting all that, I would like to spend < $200 for a short term solution which I can use for 1-2 years. Thats why I am considering the RCA vs Polaroid (instead of thinking about Pioneer, Philips etc).

Price
(1) polaroid - walmart 220$, ebay 180-190$ (but returning in walmart is easier
(2) RCA - Walmart 190$ (online), eBay 160$ (again walmart return is less hassle)

I read that some got RCA for $100 in walmart in the RCA thread - thats an unbelieveable price :)

also, I am ruling out the Radioshack $99 one, I dont think it will work well (Also none of the radioshacks in my area has that)

Another question:

Playing a DVD while some other stuff is being recorded to the HDD is a very important function for me - do the RCA or Polaroid have a problem with this?

thanks.

No Divx playback on the RCA.
Polaroid remote can be fixed.
No noise issues on either my Polaroid or RCA. Ya takes yer chances.
HDD easily swappable on both machines.
Both are able to play DVDs while recording to HDD,but it can get a little confusing until you know what you are controlling.

masochrist - thanks a lot!

I have read about the "$2 Radioshack fix" for Polaroid remote - but I dont understand what the fix is - can you please point me to some data on this.

also can u please elaborate on "but it can get a little confusing until you know what you are controlling" - you mean if I click STOP on the remote, it can mean either STOP recording onto HDD or STOP DVD playback? So, is there a way to select one?

PS - I think I am going with the Polaroid.

You pry open the remote, remove the old LED and solder in a new one. I bought the LED last week but haven't done the surgery yet. ___ I get a little confused because I don't often play a DVD while recording. Once you do it for a while you'll be able to get the hang of controlling both DVD and HDD recording at the same time without messing anything up. Adding to my confusion is I have 3 DVRs in series and I can't tell you how many times I pick up the wrong remote. Today, I wasn't paying attention and ruined a transfer 1 hr into it.

I would like to record on the RCA DRC 8030N Hard drive and then transfer the drive to a PC so that I can use VideoReDo to edit out commercials but when I attach the RCA DRC 8030N Hard drive to the PC, the PC bios recognizes the drive is in the system but Win XP Home (OS) does not display the drive letter or drive contents.

I also tried to use Partition Commander to look at the drive and it sees the drive but shows the entire drive as free space with no partition.

Does any one know how the drive is partitioned and what OS are they using??

I did the remote LED fix many months ago and it worked wonders! The remote now works normally...like you would expect a remote to do. It's soo much better, I think they must have had a LED parts mix-up at the remote factory.

I don't remember the part #, but I think it was a high output infered LED, blue'ish?

Fleaman

I would like to record on the RCA DRC 8030N Hard drive and then transfer the drive to a PC so that I can use VideoReDo to edit out commercials but when I attach the RCA DRC 8030N Hard drive to the PC, the PC bios recognizes the drive is in the system but Win XP Home (OS) does not display the drive letter or drive contents.

I also tried to use Partition Commander to look at the drive and it sees the drive but shows the entire drive as free space with no partition.

Does any one know how the drive is partitioned and what OS are they using??



Many have tried this already. It's really not that hard to do a perfect editing job on the RCA. If you must do PC editing, you'll have to transfer to DVD first.