My experiences with the new Pioneer DVDR-225 slimline DVD-Recorder (standalone component)
I was in the market for a DVD Recorder for the home entertainment system. The primary reason was to save some of the shows I have recorded off my TIVO SAT-60 hard drive recorder. The secondary reason was to make copies of my 2 year old's VHS so they can be viewed everywhere, i.e. portable DVD.
Currently only Best Buy has this model. I believe this model is the same as the DVDR-220. http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/pna/product/detail/0,,2076_4139_98124082,00.html.
The big brother to this model, the 320 adds a iLink connector. I don't think the 320 model is out yet. This is definitely a plus if you are interested in archiving video w/o a computer.
For the most part I am pretty satisfied with the unit. Here are things that I like about the recorder:
- It incorporates a 4x DVDR drive which allows initialization/finalization to occur in a few minutes.
- The editing features are very simple. You can add scenes, delete scenes, title and add menus with the remote.
- The quality of the video is very good with 8Mb being the data rate of the best recording mode. For the novice there are 4 presets (SP, LP etc...) which vary the bitrate to encode more video. Otherwise you can manually configure these settings to your liking. The 4 hour mode is ok for most purposes like cable movies. I would recommend the one hour mode for anything you need in high quality.
- Very easy to use! Select your record mode and go.
- The unit has a very slim profile.
- Great JPG view mode. However I wish it supported DVDs with JPGs. (I might try anyway to see if it works, but the manual only mentions CDs).
- Supports MP3s and WMA on CDs.
There are a few negatives but for the most part they are minor:
- The on screen display doesn't overlay using the coaxial output. I am not sure if this is due to my Tivo but this is a little annoyance.
- The on screen display seems to flicker. (I am sure this will go away when I get a TV that supports progressive scan).
- All of the recording modes (VR/Video Mode) do not produce a dvd which you can view on other players until you FINALIZE. This is not a big deal for the DVD-RW but it is just an exercise you need to remember when you are about to send the disk to a friend.
- DVD-R and DVD-RW recording support only. (Why aren't people getting on the +R/RW band wagon?)
Alex