New LITE-ON at COSTCO

Thanks, jobedo! It appears to have all the right specs. Our cup runneth over with HD based decks this year. I have 2 LVW-5005's and have been pretty happy with them for the price paid. But now that Pioneer, Panasonic and others are in (or close) to this price range, they must compete on more than price. That said, if the build quality is there, they have a shot.

Looking forward to some hands on reviews!

The big thing I din't like in the specs. was Internal TV Tuner: NTSC-M which I'm guessing the "M" stands for Monaural.

If that's the case you can keep it & for $300 Lite-On could of at least included a "Stereo" tuner & it makes me wonder what other cheap parts are they using.

Liteon 740GX Specs: http://us.liteonit.com/us/index.php?...1&limitstart=1

Bill1313, if true, that would indeed be a deal breaker. But having made that mistake with the 5001/5005, I can't believe they'd be dumb enough to do it again. Elsewhere I saw "2-channel" dolby digital referenced, but I note the specs on their own site seem incomplete and, I think, incorrect on the inputs (for example). At least, they differ from everything else I've seen. So we'll have to wait and see. I'd bet it's stereo, though. Other later modesl from them have all been stereo.

I also noticed "Just fit" recording says "yes" on the specs, though little referenced elsewhere. It records DL +R, and plays (but does not record, alas!) DivX. I've also seen a 760GX model referenced elsewhere but don't see it listed.

I like my 5005's even with all their flaws, but my expectations are much higher now. They've got some tough competition this time around. If they don't deliver a good, quality unit, they're toast!

Specs says audio is DD 2.0 (digital stereo) so I would not worry about that.

Any buyers please report their comments. Thanks.

That may only be addressing audio as recorded via the analog audio inputs not necessarily the tuner - so, until proven otherwise, I WOULD worry about it.

I looked into this. It does *not* stand for "mono" - apparently NTSC_M is the precise way to reference the NTSC TV broadcast standard for the Americas (and some other countries) where M indicates the 525 scan line, 29.97 frame rate and some other parameters of the standard. See the table at this link for more detailed info:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broadca...evision_system

My bet remains that it *is* a stereo tuner. I'm no longer a CostCo member or I'd be tempted to pick one up and find out for sure.

My bet remains that it *is* a stereo tuner. I'm no longer a CostCo member or I'd be tempted to pick one up and find out for sure.

I'm a brand-newbie forum member and came across y'all while searching, searching, searching for a DVR that isn't impossibly cumbersome and complicated. I'd just about decided to try the Polaroid DRM-2001G DVR but then this thread came up. Let's see: an 80Gb model complete with recalls and complaints, or a LiteOn that at least sounds more tempting with twice the storage? (Dartman's drive-swap notwithstanding).

As it happens, I'm a Costco member -- I think I'll call my local store and see if they have the LiteOn.

Whichever I get, this would be my first DVR. (Frankly, a VCR and VCR+ is really all I need, but it's on the endangered list.)

NooB question: what are the options for a timed recording? I gather VCR+ is also on the way out.

All DVD Recorders that I'm aware of have the capability of programming Timer Recordings, just like a VCR before VCR+. That's all I ever do timed-recording-wise.

All previous Liteon models (that I'm aware of) have had a timer record setup that works exactly like that on a VCR. I assume this one will as well.

I'm back, and I bought the Lite-on 740GX. No local Costcos stocked it, so I had it shipped. Last night I integrated it into my home theater system.

That part was easy -- I substituted the DVR for the DVD player, using the same patch cords. I unplugged the cable TV input from the VCR and ran it into the DVR, and I was up and running. There's also an RF out (bypass) jack, so I ran another line back into the VCR. With my setup, this lets me watch & record on either or both the DVR and the VCR, as desired. (We have a lot of tapes.)

I've never used a DVR before, so as is my custom with a new tech toy I picked up the remote and set the manual aside to see how far I could get. It's fairly intuitive -- there's an "Easy Guider" button that walks you through all the menu functions. I could readily record to HDD from the TV using the menu, via one-touch recording (OTR) or timer. It has VCR+, but that won't work properly until you set up the unit's clock. (The remote has buttons for OTR and VCR+.) And, of course, I can watch a DVD.

I dunno if this is standard, but unlike the VCR I bought years ago, this unit doesn't auto-scan the channels to find a time signal when it's first powered on; that needs to be initiated via the menu. The unit requires a minute to scan each channel, so I left that for later and set the date/time manually. I set it up to tape -- sorry, record -- two randomly selected shows overnight (a 'Simpsons' rerun and 'Blade: the Series'), using both the manual timer and VCR+.

This morning I had a little trouble discovering how to play back what was recorded on the HDD. The 90-page manual's "Playback" section tells me everything about viewing video files, music files, DVDs, VCDs, XYZs -- but nothing about watching HDD files. The "Easy Guider" menu has a selection for "Play last recorded", which showed me Blade, but what happened to the Simpsons?

Turns out the remote has a "Contents" button which displays the HDD's contents. Problem solved. It's in the manual, but under a section called "Easier Application and Access". Since this is new to me, I don't know how this compares to other DVRs.

That's as far as I got. The manual is pretty good -- there's a lot of stuff about which formats are supported. The unit has a lot of capabilities that I'm looking forward to exploring.

Bottom line: so far, no complaints. It's not impossibly cumbersome and complicated. Then again, I've just scratched the surface, and it's only a day old.

The URL for the unit's specs are in a post above. (I can't yet post URLs here.) The English user manual (dated 06/12/06) and the firmware manual (dated 06/02/06) are available, but you need to click the 'Download' link on the sidenav and do a search.

What's with Lite-On and S-video?

It appears that none of the current non-HDD models have any sort of S-video connections at all and the HDD-models only have a single input at the front. (Older versions had both S-video inputs and outputs.) Although these appear to be nicely-featured units in other respects, it's strange that they make no concessions for optimum signal quality when used with set-top boxes.

Tony

arciervo, That's the Bean Counters cutting all the corners they can to get the unit out the door at the lowest possible price.

What bothers me about things like this is if they did that on things that you can see what have they done with the parts on the inside to keep the price down.

The 740GX HDD unit has S-video input/output jacks in the rear, and an input in the front. The rear panel also has component and digital (coax and optical) out.

Newegg has a listing (no stock) for the HD-A760GX at $300. It appears to be the same as the 740 except it has a 250GB HD.

Search using "A760GX".

Which means you can probably somehow put a 250gb drive in the A740GX, and make it work like a A760GX. Plus I'd rather also have the added Costco warranty, over just the standard 90 day Lite-On warranty that you would get from newegg.

( newbie warning )

I am new to this forum but not the content, I was wondering ( as well as looking around ) - can you record on the hard drive AND watch a DVD movie at the same time, or are you limited to one activity or the other ??

( I understand that there is only one tuner - which would be in use for recording - is it needed as well to pump out a signal for the dvd )

I haven't found any mention on doing the two activities concurrently - you would think that this would be a no brainer - but I am trying to offload equipment and would like to get down to this unit, and a VCR (for dubbing old stuff).

thanks for your time, and any replies !

One or the other. I just ran into this last night: I was watching a DVD and the timer shut down the DVD a full minute before the timed event while displaying an on-screen warning. (You can press STOP to cancel the timer, if desired.) Note: this is one of the many things that's not mentioned in the manual.


Yeah, it looks that way.


I've just picked up a stack of DVDs. I want to hook up my camcorder to the front AV jacks and record a tape to the HDD before copying it to a DVD.

Overall I'm pleased with this DVR. It's easy to use, and you can split/merge HDD recordings, add titles and chapter marks, etc. But there are some quirks.

The manual for the HD-A740 (and presumably the 760) is incomplete in areas that I'm still discovering. For example, as noted above, I found out the hard way that you can't watch a DVD while recording to the HDD. The manual doesn't mention this.

There's a Time Shift feature. You press the Time Shift button to start it, but I don't find any way to stop it after a certain time. If you press the button again, it simply stops. It would be nice if it worked like the One-Touch Record. I guess you're supposed to either just keep watching until you 'catch up' to real-time, or else record the rest of the show for later viewing.

There's an option to scan your available channels, which doesn't take long, and with it an option to disable certain channels -- say, channel 1. But when you use the timer function, and even though channel 1 is disabled, the on-screen menu defaults to channel 1 -- and static screams out of the speakers. I've found no way to fix that.

The remote: it's okay, but I'd like to avoid the handful o' remotes problem by programming one of my universal remotes to run the Lite-on. The manual doesn't have anything on its setup codes, so I emailed tech support via the Lite-on website. Their answer: "we don't provide remote code for this model."

Any Lite-on users have any ideas what the code might be? Specifically, I'd like to program the univ remote for my Kenwood VR-716 home theater system.

Any specific questions y'all want answered, just let me know. I want to put it through its paces.

You may want to check your firmware on the A740GX, because it looks like they released a new one on 6/2/06. They also posted the user manual on 6/12/06, but I don't know if it's any different from the manual that shipped with them in the box or not.

http://us.liteonit.com/us/index.php?...1&limitstart=2

If the HD-A740 cannot play a DVD while recording on the HDD, then this would be a first I've heard of this limitation with HDD DVD recorders. AFAIK all Panasonic, Pioneer, and Toshiba HDD DVD recorders allow recording to the HDD while playing a DVD. That really sucks if true.

This is exactly the reason I returned the one I bought from Costco, I believe the model was LVW-5115GHC+

It's in stock now, just ordered mine for the same $$ as the Costco model, but I save the tax (& a little on shipping)!

Will post my experiences upon arrival & testing. I'm really interested to see if it's indeed impossible to watch a DVD whilst recording to HDD in the background; there shouldn't be any technical reason for that to be the case.

Not being able to watch a DVD while recording to the HD is a deal breaker for me.

I seem to recall a review of another unit where the reviewer mentioned something similar. The unit would interrupt the DVD playback to inform you that it was about
to begin recording. You could then resume DVD playback.

Maybe the 740/760 do the same???

That seems to be the case for this unit. If you're watching a DVD when the timer goes off, DVD playback stops and a warning is superimposed on the screen.

Once the unit is recording to HDD and you press 'play' to watch a DVD, you instead invoke the Time Shift feature to watch the HDD session from the beginning.

I've also found that once you start recording to the HDD, you can't watch a different channel. I don't regard this as a fatal flaw since I can use the home theater system receiver to switch to another input, but even old VCRs can switch between the VCR tuner and TV tuner. Or is that because this DVR only has one tuner?

The manual appears to be the same; the only obvious difference is the location of the ObCaution pages. This suggests that the firmware doesn't add any new features or fix the annoyances found so far.

Then again, I'm new, so let me ask: generally speaking, what is the purpose/benefit of upgrading the firmware? I haven't encountered any of the lockups or kinds of 'quirks' that I've read about from other DVR manufacturers.

Well, you also get a 250Gb HDD instead of 160Gb...


I'll be interested in comparing notes. Maybe I'm just missing something, but this ain't rocket science!

Yeah but he better hope that he does not want to return it either, because newegg charges a 15% fee for all non-defective returns for a refund.
Also he only gets the standard Lite-On 90 day warranty vs the Costco warranty/return policy, which is more or less the same thing as a life time warranty.

Yes, all DVD recorders with a single tuner do the same. The RF output (if you use it) acts as a "pass through" signal splitter, so if you have it connected, it will pass the RF signal through and you can watch that signal on a TV.

Except that some "pass-through" are better than others. My signal is marginal - putting the signal through my 5005 causes the TV to lose all digital channels and the analog ones look much worse.