Help me find the right DVD Recorder for me!

Check out the Philips DVDR3576H/37 or the virtually identical Magnavox H2160MW9, both with 160GB HDD, SDTV NTSC/ATSC/QAM tuners, 36 program timer slotes, and HDMI 1080p upconversion. I'm using my 3575's (last year's model) with my 37" and 47" Vizio LCDs with PIP like you want to do.

Click #1 in my signature for lots of organized info.

Hmmm, $248 is 3X a century and a half?

Not to put too fine a point on it, but your true priority seems to be "cheap" above all other concerns. There isn't any solution that is "cheap" enough to satisfy you at present: most ANY dvd recorder with a digital ATSC tuner that is worth a damn currently retails at $180 and up. The Magnavox 2160 and Phillips 3576 are the best value-per-dollar at roughly $250.

There are many new bits of hardware that won't get released until the USA shuts down analog completely in 2009. Your "cheapest" course of action may be to wait until February, when sudden crushing demand for anything and everything ATSC should shake out new products in all price ranges. You might even find a simple ATSC tuner with HDMI for less than a century, who knows? No harm in waiting unless this is a "must have now" kinda thing.

Can we just permanently sticky a topic to tell all prospective users to just buy the Phillips model? It's pretty much the default recommendation these days, not so much for being a great product, but simply being the only thing you can readily find on a shelf these days?

Sounds like he may at least want QAM, too.

For others looking and can afford a century and seven-eighths, rgazzara found some factory refreshed Philips 3575s at redtag.com for $189 with $1.95 shipping, 30-day money-back guarantee, and Philips 90-day parts and labor warranty.

Don't know anything about redtag but they might be assoc. with ubid.com?

Yeah, that should work.

Before buying, search thru the AVS Forum and other user reviews: the Magnavox ZC352MW8 has a spotty reputation on QAM tuning. About half the people who bought these report that it forgets its channel memory frequently, tunes very slowly, and often powers on in "initial setup" mode which prevents any channels being tuned until you complete setup. I understand you think you can just grab the cheapest recorder with digital tuner you can find and use it as a PIP box, because all you want it for is the tuner, but that my friend is the rub: these recorder tuners, on the whole, still suck and are very problematical especially on QAM. The very cheap units tend to stink on ice: you get what you pay for, or less. A tuner for PIP that doesn't tune anything is useless to you, so my advice stands: if you are on a strict budget, wait for new products that will begin arriving in December. Its very likely an updated, refined accessory ATSC/QAM tuner box with component and/or HDMI will turn up at a price you can afford.

Yeah, that's true. I forgot it had a Funai tuner.

Maybe search around the net and see if you can still find one of those refurbished Samsung DVD-AR650's. They were often available for $130.00 or less, but most places I look say out of stock now (remember even seeing one for $99.00 awhile back).

I'm a Panasonic guy (E50, EH50, and ez28k, but I believe you'd be best served by the Philips 3575 or 3576. My recent addition of the ez28k was a swap with my daughter that alleviated my involvement with her recording needs - I bought her the Philips 3576 and took her ez28k. The 80 hours of SP recording on the Philips is priceless! The Panny's recording might be up to 10% better, but a hard drive offsets all . I will add the Philips 3576 to my collection before it goes out of production. My Panny EH50 has been carrying my recording load since 2004. Difference in price between the EZ28K and the 3576 is $50, but your DVD recording medium outlay will quickly match that cost without a hard drive. Good Luck!

I had the Phillips for a week back in January. But I returned it, didn't think it was worth $300 when I had an IO DVR stb. So i recorded the Super bowl and then returned it. I just picked up a Panasonic DMR-EA18 because it records to DL disc but, when I read the manual it says it only records widescreen 16:9 on RAM disc The link for redtag store says the Philips will record to DVD+DL.
Is that correct? Has anyone tried & confirmed this? Here is the link, thanks.
http://www.redtag.com/Philips_DVDR35...a11287582.html

The 3575 (as adv. by redtag) and the 3576 play +R DL but they don't record to them.

Sorry to latch onto the thread .. But i could use some advice as well..... I have A cable DVR that i would like to be able to record from to dvd..After reading around the site i think i have learned how.. I do not need a tuner in the dvd recorder..Would like it to play as many formats as reasonably possible and have an hdmi output...My question is which DVD recorder is recommended ? I assume that i would run a S-cable from DVR to DVD recorder and audio cables?? Then the HDMI from dvd recorder to available input on TV? Do i have to watch the program to record it ( i mean will it take having the program run like i was viewing it )?? Thanks for any help.

PJM361-The Panny will record WS to any disc, it only sets the WS bit on RAM discs. This means if you take the WS recording that was done on a R or RW disc and play that disc back on a 4x3 TV the image will look vertically stretched. If you play the disc on a 16x9 screen it will look fine and be in full frame.
mikeren1-Yes the copying will be realtime, you can choose to watch it or not, but I'd think while you were offloading your DVR to DVD you probably wouldn't be able to be watching something different on your DVR to your TV. In your case I'd suggest the EA-18 and it sounds like you have the correct understanding of how to hook it up.
Personally I prefer the Panny PQ over some of the $100 models especially in speeds over 2hrs/disc.

Thx jjeff !!

Thanks wajo, I had a feeling that ad was too good to be true. So many ads on the internet have mistakes. I wonder if they do it on purpose? Has anyone tried a DL recording on the new Magnavox 2160? I saw the other post that you had, I know the hard drives are different brands but, what about the dvd burners, are they identical? I went to their website and the 2160 is not even listed

Thanks jjeff, how do you edit out commercials on the EA18? Do you record the whole movie or game and then use "divide recording" and then delete chapters? Or must you watch the show and start & stop the recording as it plays?
I might go back to the Philips for it's easy editing. And it's only $30 more at redtag than what I paid for the EA18 at Target. I could always spilt a recording on the 3575 using 2 dvd+RWs and then combined them onto a single dvd+DL using Toast on my Mac. How does the 3575 compare to the EA18 on up conversion? They're both 1080p.
Thanks again to both of you for all your help.

If you want to do editing like removing commercials, combining titles etc. you'd be better off with the 3575, theirs nothing like a HDD for editing. The EA-18 is best for just straight recording, which it should do a fine job at. I had the tuner EZ-28 model and it made great recordings. You're best option for editing out commercials on either would be to pause the recorder (EA-18) during the commercials and then you can scan past the commercials on the player, then unpause the EA-18 when you want to resume recording. Not ideal, basically like a VCR, but it is doable.
Note with either Panny you could use RAM discs and edit like a HDD. The downside to RAM discs is they are rather hard to find B&M, cost a fair amount more than other discs, only hold 4.7gb per ss disc and aren't nearly as compatible in other players. If you want to involve your computer you'd have more options, but I only use standalone recorders and aren't to familiar with PC based DVD programs.

Thanks jjeff, you're right, I checked with Panasonic and the "Divide Recording" is for RAM disc only. I guess I'll stick with the Panasonic because neither it nor the 3575 will let me get long movies or games onto DL disc in one step without commercials. Plus the remote will work with my Panasonic TV. Time to get a couple of RAM disc.

PJM361,
If you are willing to involve a computer in the process you will be way ahead. For my demands, I have found that the only way to satisfactorily author sports games onto DVD-R is by transferring to PC for editing, authoring and burning. It also allows me to get the very best quality possible. More so than trying to do the whole thing on a DVDR, hard disk or not.

Thx again for the answer jjeff... If u happen to be around and see this,,,, When i hook up the DVR to the dvdr via the s-cable, will the cable box (dvr) still be outputting via the hdmi cable i have running to my onkyo and then to the tv?at the same time?? Also since my tv stays on internal mute because of everything being hooked up thru the receiver , do i just run audio cables to one of my availabe inputs on the onkyo ( all 3 hdmi spots taken) and then just use the hdmi from dvdr to tv for my video? And that of course after running audio cables from dvd to dvdr....thx again.....mike

On your first question I would think your STB would output HDMI and S-video at the same time, for most people with STBs the problem seems to be that the S-video output is letterboxed and not full frame, at least the people with Motorola STBs. Seems only the HDMI and component outputs have the full frame output. It's really box dependent.

In your case I'd leave everything as it is now and you will need to get a S-video cable and L&R audio cable to go from your STB to your DVDR. You should be able to watch TV as you do now. To watch your DVDR you'll want to take the best output of your DVDR and hook that up either to your TV or receiver. When copying I personally like to watch the signal through the recording device, that way I see exactly what is being copied, even if it's downconverted 480i which may then be upconverted by your DVDR.

Thx again jjeff....You've helped a lot.

Thanks Kelson, I just figured out that Toast can convert from a dvd to a bunch of different video codecs so I can edit it later and also import into iMovie. Still wish the 3575 could burn DVD+/-DL that would save a lot of time.

In another thread they were talking about buying in Canada, so I did some searching of Philips websites. The Canadian model was the same but, the Irish and I assume the rest of European models can burn DL disc. Why would they get a better burner with the same model #? Here is the link: http://www.consumer.philips.com/cons...r+DVDR3575H-05 Is there anyway I could use this in the US region 1?
I saw a Philips 3455H which is region free for only $196 here: http://www.overstock.com/Electronics...3/product.html but I don't think it does DL either. Damn all my troubles deciding would be over if our version of the 3575 could use DL disc for only $189