Current DVD HDD recorders

Posted by: Salmon Dave on 17 November 2010

I'm replacing an old Pioneer 80gb job which has been excellent but is now going elsewhere. I've recently bought a very nice Panasonic HD TV so ideally would like to match with a Panasonic DVD HDD recorder, but any other recommendations gratefully received.

Criteria:
- DVD upscaling & HDMI
- good sound
- preferably Coax digital out - but is optical OK for most of these players?
- preferably properly earthed - numerous AV products seem to give you a little shock
- not really bothered about Bluray as I haven't got any discs, and they seem to be prone to endless software updates...

I've noticed that the current range of Panasonic recorders don't have coax digital out, though the player-only units do!

Posted on: 18 November 2010 by Dungassin

Not quite sure exactly what you're after.

Do you want to be able to record in HD? If so you need one with a freeviewHD tuner. That really seems to limit you to Panasonic. The one with Freeview HD tuner also has bluray writer included. Not cheap, but readily available as multiregion modified from the like of e.g. RGBDirect. I suggest you go to their site (or competitor) and look at the specs to see if it fits your requirements. Personally, I wouldn't write off a DVD/HDD recorder just because it only has optical output.

Don't really understand your unwillingness to embrace bluray. Software/Firmware updates are not a problem - easily downloadable from Panasonic website - copy to USB stick etc etc.

Have not really found the software updates a problem with my Oppo83SE (not a recorder). The only thing I dislike about bluray is the relatively slow load times.