What about this technology?
From The New York Times.................
Another Entry in the 'DVCR' Race
In last week's State of the Art column, I reviewed Panasonic's new DMR-E20, a video recorder that uses DVD's instead of tape. I wrote that the discs last longer than tape, never require rewinding and never open you to the risk of recording over something by accident.
Well, the landscape has changed already.
First, as soon as the machine hit the streets, its published price of $1,500 seemed to mean little. Several people wrote to me that they've spotted it for $900 in Manhattan stores.
Second, Pioneer sent me details about its own "DVCR," called the DVR-7000. (The suggested price is $2,000, but I'm not going to fall for that one again.)
The Pioneer unit lacks one feature that makes the Panasonic recorder so special: the ability to play and record simultaneously. On the Panasonic, you can "chase record" -- watch the beginning of a show you're still recording -- and you can also "tape" one show while playing back another.
The Pioneer offers a couple of goodies of its own, however. Like the Panasonic (which actually contains Pioneer's DVD-burning technology), it can burn two kinds of discs. One is DVD-R, discs that can play back in almost any DVD player but can't be re-recorded. The other disc format, in Pioneer's case, is DVD-RW. These discs play in about 70 percent of consumer DVD players, according to the company.
Pioneer's recorder also has a FireWire input, to which you can connect a DV camcorder. That's a significant perk: It means that you can pour your home movies directly onto a DVD. (And if you pour it onto a DVD-RW disc, you can then edit it on the recorder.) Even if you've edited your movie on your Mac or PC (using a program like iMovie, for example), you can still enshrine it on DVD, for distribution or archiving, using this player.
So Panasonic offers a much lower price and simultaneous recording and playing; Pioneer offers a FireWire jack and DVD-RW recording. The nice thing is that you have a choice.
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