>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.

Twitchy One