Sounds like you've got a pretty interesting upgrade project on your hands, Lena. Since I've been scoping out the recordable DVD market a bit as of late, I may be able to offer some info there. You're about twenty steps ahead of me on the current state of HD displays, so I'll just stay out of the way on that one.

There are still only a handful of companies in the DVD recorder market, and there are a ton of different formats still flitting around. DVD-R (probably the best for compatibility with standard DVD players), DVD-RW, and DVD-RAM are licensed by DVD Forum as "official" recordable DVD formats, while DVD+R and DVD+RW are not. DVD-R media is the cheapest (available for as low as $1/disc if you buy spindles of 50 or 100 discs). DVD-RAM is the most expensive, with everybody else scattered around in between. There was an article back in June that reported that DVD-RAM based recorders claimed 70% of the US consumer DVD recorder market in the first quarter of 2003. Philips and Panasonic are the most visible manufacturers; Philips uses the DVD+R/DVD+RW formats, while Panasonic uses DVD-R and DVD-RAM. Some of the Panasonic players show up re-badged as Samsung, apparently. Toshiba (DVD-R, DVD-RAM), Pioneer (DVD-R, DVD-RW), and Sony (DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+RW) are started to join in now, as well, and both Toshiba and Pioneer have or will soon have players with built-in hard drives. Most of the recorders seem to also include progressive scan capability, but I don't know that many of them are particularly good at it. The DMR-HS2 was included in the last Secrets shootout and proved to be pretty disappointing -- apparently the new one-chip decoder/deinterlacer that Panasonic's started using is a real step back from the days of your RP91 and the RP82.

I am planning to probably get a Panasonic DMR-E80 in the next month or so (want to archive the 20 or so years of home videos that dad has shot on VHS and S-VHS before the tapes become unplayable). The plan is to transfer from my S-VHS deck to the hard drive, edit as needed, and then burn a copy or two to DVD-R to replace the old tapes. Since I'll be relying on my existing 27" display for a few more years and I have a decent DVD player already, progressive scan and chroma bug problems aren't deal-breakers for me.

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gonk -- Saloon Links | Pre/Pro Comparison Chart | 950 Review

[This message has been edited by gonk (edited July 09, 2003).]