>Mike in Virginia wrote: >How is the LiteOn DVD recorder working out for you?
I've been using the hell out of it! :-) I bought it back in Nov. '04 & I've got a lot of premium cable channels so I record a lot of movies & series to DVD-R's. It can use DVD+/-R/RWs, so it has a lot of flexability on what media you use.
I actually had a problem with it back in June. Basically, it would record to a new DVD fine, but if I shut off the machine without finalizing the DVD, later when I turned it back on, it would say bad disc when trying to read it. You would normally not finalize a DVD disk right away. For example, if you were recording Entourage on a 4 hour EP setting. You want to wait til the DVD fills up & then finalize it since Entourage is only 30 minutes long.
There was actually nothing wrong with the disk either. I called their Tech Support & they gave me an RMA# so I sent it in & 4-5 weeks later they sent me another one.
One thing I had noticed in my original is that if you record to the end of the DVD, it would not allow you to finalize the DVD for other players. So you basically had to start over. However, with the new one they sent me, it must have a had a firmware upgrade because this is no longer a problem. I can let it go _past_ the end of the disk, it simply stops on its own & I can finalize without issue. So the replacement has turned out to be much more useful. I suspect all the new ones now out on the market must have this firmware update but you might want to run a test if you get one.
Their tech support was responsive too. You can generally get someone on the line & they'll work with you through a problem.
I must stress that the DVDs it makes will have problems or not play on older DVD players, such as my Apex DVD player. I have another stereo rig at my parent's which has a Pioneer 57-A Universal Player & the LiteOn DVDs play great with it. The picture & sound are pretty decent.
It has the ability to record to cd but I think it can only do it through the analog inputs. I own a TDK DA-5900 cd-recorder which is hooked to my PC by a Xitel & optical connection, so I haven't really had a use for the LiteOn to do this. Also, the manual cd record features on the Lite On are next to nil. With the TDK, I can prep a recording to wait for a signal, then play something on my computer. The TDK will then start recording when it hears a signal & stops automatically 3 seconds after the signal ends. I think the LiteOn is manual for start/stop of a recording, which would be a pain.