Price of DVD recorders

hawthorn

Is there actually anywhere in ireland you can buy DVD recorders reasonably? I got a quote of €729 from Harvey Norman for a Pioneer 630H, which you can find for around £300-350 in UK, which would be about €500 or so.

K

bbbbb

the 630H is 250GB, I think it might be the 530 or 433 you're looking at?

With delivery pixmania works at €659 so Harvey's aren't so bad.
http://www.pixmania.com/ie/uk/170025/art/pioneer/dvr-630h-s-dvd-player-rec.html

In Dublin, Dixons, argos, Phillips & others have models with 80GB drives for between €300 & €400
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2054869367

hawthorn

Well yes, I cant see myself using 250G to be honest. But at the prices I saw the 630H in England I thought I nearly could afford it! AND it has Guideplus! The problem is, I dont know wheher get Sky+ or not, I wouldnt need guideplus then!

In that case, does the 433 and 530 have more or less the same features as the 630? In particular editing; I want to archive old tapes (doesnt everone..!).

I read that you cant insert chapters on stuff you record to HD, on one of the Pioneers (530 i think) only when recording to disc. I presume youd need chapters so that you could mark points to edit out etc etc afterwards? Im a bit naive at this sort of thing and a lot to learn!

One other question; if I did go for SKY+ can you archive and edit the what you record to disc? Or would you have to record it to the DVDHD to edit/reassemble? Would you lose quality ?

And if I go for SKY+ anyone recommend a DVDHD good enough for archiving/editing old tapes? (in other words dont need one with Guideplus then)

And last question whih route is the best to go? SKY+ and good DVDHD, or just top-end DVDHD ?

The 433 is in Kilroys Tullamore for 499 (he said hed do it a bit better, about 480)

Wow, so many questions! Sorry folks, and thanks in anticipation for help!

K

Idleater

I just got the Pioneer 433 off richersounds' website for €412 inc postage. Very pleased with the service. Ordered Mon, was recording on Wed.

Pleased with the features thusfar. Says it is multiregion too, but I have no R1 discs to try yet...

I am not concerned about 80/160/250 gig as I am going to use it like a video and record programmes at full res and either delete them or burn them to disc. The next model up (530) has support for guide+ which I dont have anyway.

I went with richersounds rather than komplett (who have the nice samsung 725) because RS have an actual shop that I can go to in case of trouble.

L.

smashey

Jaysus. If you are not into brand names then Asda has been selling them for £79 in Strabane since November

RobertFoster

smashey wrote:

Jaysus. If you are not into brand names then Asda has been selling them for £79 in Strabane since November

They don't have HDDs though do they?

smashey

RobertFoster wrote:

They don't have HDDs though do they?

Just bog standard DVD recorders

aidan_dunne

I bought a Targa DVD HDD recorder from Lidl just before Christmas. Has a 160GB hard drive and, in addition to all the usual formats, it can also play DivX, XviD, MP3 and MP4. Cost me €300 and it's done everything I've asked of it so far without any problems. So, if you're not too worried about having to have a brand name recorder (or worried about looks; it's not exactly the prettiest thing in the world! ), why not look into getting one of these. Only problem is, it was one of Lidl's weekly specials and they usually only have maybe half a dozen in stock at the time, so you'll have to wait until Lidl are selling them again (probably within the next 6 months or so). Or maybe you might be able to find somewhere online who sell them all year round. Whether you'll get it for €300 like I did or not is another question but it shouldn't be too far off that, I reckon.

Check out Komplett as well for some of the LG recorders they have there. I was looking at getting the 80GB model for about €350, I think it was, before the Targa one came up for sale in Lidl. Apparantly the LG's are pretty decent machines as well.

Ryaller

aidan_dunne wrote:

I bought a Targa DVD HDD recorder from Lidl just before Christmas. Has a 160GB hard drive and, in addition to all the usual formats, it can also play DivX, XviD, MP3 and MP4. Cost me €300 and it's done everything I've asked of it so far without any problems. So, if you're not too worried about having to have a brand name recorder (or worried about looks; it's not exactly the prettiest thing in the world! ), why not look into getting one of these. Only problem is, it was one of Lidl's weekly specials and they usually only have maybe half a dozen in stock at the time, so you'll have to wait until Lidl are selling them again (probably within the next 6 months or so). Or maybe you might be able to find somewhere online who sell them all year round. Whether you'll get it for €300 like I did or not is another question but it shouldn't be too far off that, I reckon.

Aidan, you were one of the (six) lucky ones, as EVERYONE seemed to be going for these players. Every branch of Lidl got between four and six of these Targas, and if you weren't queueing from 7am that morning you didn't have a hope in hell. As for online retailers - I've been looking solidly since mid-december and NOWHERE, bar Lidl, sells Targa.
The unit you got from Lidl is a rebranded LiteOn LVW 5045GDL. Along with playing Divx/Xvid formats, it seems to have a kickass spec, and do anything you could possibly want from a DVD recorder. I think it also supports Dual layer discs? €300 is an incredible price for this machine and you were lucky to get one.
The new LiteOn models don't appear to be on the market yet - Prices appear to be around £250/€365, but nowhere has them in stock as yet.
I'm also a little wary of buying something without reading any reviews first.

aidan_dunne

Ryaller wrote:

Aidan, you were one of the (six) lucky ones, as EVERYONE seemed to be going for these players. Every branch of Lidl got between four and six of these Targas, and if you weren't queueing from 7am that morning you didn't have a hope in hell. As for online retailers - I've been looking solidly since mid-december and NOWHERE, bar Lidl, sells Targa.
The unit you got from Lidl is a rebranded LiteOn LVW 5045GDL. Along with playing Divx/Xvid formats, it seems to have a kickass spec, and do anything you could possibly want from a DVD recorder. I think it also supports Dual layer discs? €300 is an incredible price for this machine and you were lucky to get one.
The new LiteOn models don't appear to be on the market yet - Prices appear to be around £250/€365, but nowhere has them in stock as yet.
I'm also a little wary of buying something without reading any reviews first.

You're right, I was very lucky to get one because, as you say, they only had 6 (3 silver, 3 black. I got a silver one) in Lidl in Portlaoise the day they were on sale. I presume they probably only had similar amounts in the other Lidl stores around the country. Funnily enough, though, I went to queue at about 7.20 that morning thinking I'd better get there good and early as there was going to be a huge queue of people looking to snap these up but I was the first one there! And nobody else showed up until about 7.45.

Yes, by the way, it does record dual-layer DVD+R's. And you're also right about it being a rebranded LiteOn (read that somewhere else alright) so if the original poster does a search on the net I'm sure he'd be able to find somewhere selling these in the LiteOn branding if not the Targa branding.

€300 for a top-spec 160GB DVD/HDD recorder that does just about anything you could ask of it........ you're damn right I'm lucky!

hawthorn

Can I ask does it (the Targa) record from Sky box (if you have one)? And do you have to set autoview on sky or does it awitch channels for you?

hawthorn

Just a little update and info for anyone interested; was in Limerick today. Dixons had nothing new. Actually its quite boring going into Dixons and Currys in Limerick, Dublin, Galway anywhere.....exactly the same machines, exactly the same prices!!

Anyway i went to Savins and in fairness they had a good selection of DVDHD recorders. The Pioneer 530H was €649. The Pioneer 433 was €499 or €449 if you didnt want multi-region.

In fairness the guy was very helpful and knowledgeable. He sort of advised me to hold on till March when a new range would probably be in. And possible cheaper, with better features. He mentioned a Toshiba HD recorder, with Guideplus (or something like it) for around €300.

And he also hinted at discounts on the current stock! Have to say I liked his honesty and would return to the shop when finally taking the plunge.

K

aidan_dunne

hawthorn wrote:

Can I ask does it (the Targa) record from Sky box (if you have one)? And do you have to set autoview on sky or does it awitch channels for you?

Sorry, don't have Sky so I can't help you there. I'm on Chorus analogue cable (I know, I know! :rolleyes: )

If you want more info, though, check out the thread here

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2054856999

about the Targa when it went on sale and people's opinions of it after they bought it (including my own little problem with Channel 4 which I managed to work out a roundabout fix for! )

snaps

I've been thinking of getting one of those cheap ones from Asda as a second one for the bedroom. Are they any good? What format discs do they use? I'm going to UK next week so was going to bring one back.

emul

I recently purchased a Kiss DP-588 www.kiss.com, this is a great unit. It's a DVD player with a 200GB hdd to record too. Best of all with an ethernet connection you can access the online EPG, Webradio, weather. I've also downloaded DIVX & DVD's to the unit (using the built in FTP server!!). I got the unit for €469. There are good web forums, hacked firmware floating around - all great for a techie!!

aaf

emul wrote:

I recently purchased a Kiss DP-588 www.kiss.com, this is a great unit. It's a DVD player with a 200GB hdd to record too. Best of all with an ethernet connection you can access the online EPG, Webradio, weather. I've also downloaded DIVX & DVD's to the unit (using the built in FTP server!!). I got the unit for €469. There are good web forums, hacked firmware floating around - all great for a techie!!

Eh, I think you should check out that website you just linked to, lol

emul

Ooops ... should have been http://www.kiss-technology.com/

Gavin1

Emul,
Where did you get the 200Gb unit for €469?

Is it any good and have you connected it to the web?

Thanks

branners69

I am also interested where you got the KISS DP558 for €469?? Its €549 + delivery on komplett!!

You can find the lite-on 5045 for £224 approx €330 here, delivery would probs be another €40..

They also have the a 5045G and the new 5055 which comes with a 250gb,they'll have it in stock this week!! Spoke to one of the lads this morning as I am buying a JVC 32DS6 from them!!

emul

I bought it here www.alternate.de (a german colleague helped with translation). Take care that some retailers still may have an 80GB version of this.

I had checked with Kiss prior to purchase and they only make one version of the product so no tuner issues etc.

I have it connected to the web, I connect to their EPG service, weather, stocks and online games (very basic).

One of the coolest things is the ability to logon remotely and set recordings. Via a Kiss website I can logon (desktop or mobile mode) to my EPG guide and choose the programs I want to record - great when travelling and a lot easier then teaching herself how to program recording. DP-588 checks this site every 15 mins and downloads any new schedule.

With PClink software I can stream video/audio and photos.

There are some good forums on the product one at http://www.mpcclub.com which I read before purchasing the unit. This is one for gadget lovers who are prepared to put up with little issues and are prepared to do firmware upgrades etc.