Hello all,

Please forgive me if this has been covered, I just registered today and my searches brought up tons of non-relevant stuff.

I am wanting to buy a good quality dvd recorder / vhs combo. I am partial to Sony, but for all I know there are much better units out there. I am definitely open to suggestions.

Can someone point me in the right direction? My ideal unit should be able to record dvd's from the tv and/or the vhs, obviously play dvd's, maybe some mp3 support. Also some sort of 5.1 surround audio support. I found a Panasonic model that had pretty much all of this, except the remote had no eject button for either the dvd or vhs!!

Thanks in advance for your help!

- Joe C.

Hello all,

Please forgive me if this has been covered, I just registered today and my searches brought up tons of non-relevant stuff.

I am wanting to buy a good quality dvd recorder / vhs combo. I am partial to Sony, but for all I know there are much better units out there. I am definitely open to suggestions.

Can someone point me in the right direction? My ideal unit should be able to record dvd's from the tv and/or the vhs, obviously play dvd's, maybe some mp3 support. Also some sort of 5.1 surround audio support. I found a Panasonic model that had pretty much all of this, except the remote had no eject button for either the dvd or vhs!!

Thanks in advance for your help!

- Joe C.

Don't know, but there is a DVD recorder forum:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/forumdisplay.php?s=&daysprune=&f=106

-Bill

Thanks, Bill!

See, I really AM new!! :)

Thanks...

I found a Panasonic model that had pretty much all of this, except the remote had no eject button for either the dvd or vhs!!



I've always wondered what the need was for the eject button on the remote. I mean, to change a disc or cassette, you have to be by the unit's media slot anyway, so why not just use the button on the unit itself?

(The only thing I can think of is if the eject button on the unit broke.)

To the OP, you should consider a Panasonic DMR EH75s that includes an 80 GB HDD as well as the DVD burner and VHS player. It also has a pretty good electronic program guide to find and record programs - and it upscales output over HDMI to 1080i. Panasonic has ceased production on DVD recorders with HDDs and no new models are in the pipeline but you can still find the EH75 at some Circuit City stores; it is even discounted if you price it on-line.

I will second the vote for the Panasonic ....from my experiences with installing them for customers, they seem to be easy enough to use for most levels of competency and also have great features.

Alternatively I would also suggest this, just get a DVD recorder and keep the VCR separate - you can plug the VCR into the DVD recorder and transfer all you VHS tapes over to DVD (a long unavoidable process). from then on, use the DVD to record your shows. The Panasonic models seem to use a menu system that most people find easy to work out. plus DVD discs are far cheaper than VHS tapes plus the quality of the tapes won't get worse with age.
I suggest this alternative idea because my personal experience has been that the DVD/VCR combo units can be much more expensive to repair when outside their warranty period, if they break.

I suggest this alternative idea because my personal experience has been that the DVD/VCR combo units can be much more expensive to repair when outside their warranty period, if they break.

Yeah, I've always wanted separate components for this reason. Plus, separates seem to perform better.