Posted by E. Barry Bruyea on 11/08/06 12:04

On Tue, 07 Nov 2006 15:14:42 GMT, spam@uce.gov (Citizen Bob) wrote:

>>Are these DVD recorders with the 80GB or 160GB Hard Drives reliable?
>>I've read a lot of complaints about DVD recorders ruining disks and not
>>working when trying to record TV shows.
>
>Consumer DVDRs are pretty much crap no matter what you pay. The best
>thing you can do is buy a unit that works at the least cost and get an
>extended warranty.
>
>I got the Polaroid DRM-2001G HDD DVDR from W-M for $220 plus tax and I
>got the 3-year extended warranty for $24 plus tax (shipping paid both
>ways). The factory warranty is 90 days, so I am covered for a total of
>39 months, which works out to $6.77 per month if I throw it away at
>the end of the extended warranty.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but your warranty is probably only
36 months as most extended warranties 'include' the factory warranty
period. It's a neat little con if you don't check. I have several
units that for which I purchased extended warranties; in two cases
they were 3 year warranties, but included the 1 year factory warranty.


>
>I got an Insignia NS-DVDR1 at Best Buy for $110 (on sale). It has a 1
>year warranty. I will not buy the extended warranty because it's too
>expensive ($50 for 4 years). If the unit craps out in a year, I toss
>it and it cost me $10 per month. If it makes it to 18 months, it will
>have cost me the same as the Polaroid per month.
>
>Both units play DivX/XviD which is a requirement for me.
>
>Philips makes a decent player with a USB port. Circuit City has them
>on sale for around $70. It too plays DivX/XviD. But for a few bucks
>more I wanted the second recorder to catch shows that are on at the
>same time and to have if I need to send the Polaroid in for warranty
>repair.
>
>The Insidnia is not suitable as a first set because it has some
>nuisances. The forward and reverse are atrocious, making it almost
>unusable as a DVD player. You have to shut the unit off to get the
>timer recording to work, which is asinine (that little "feature" is
>not even documented in the manual).
>
>Then there's the timer setup page where all TV channels appear, not
>just the ones you chose when you scanned for TV channels. And you must
>scroll the numbers for everything - you can't enter them from the
>keyboard.
>
>Otherwise it's a pretty good second set for $110 plus tax and shipping
>(it can be obtained only at Best Buy Online sales). It has an
>externally mounted fan which is ultra quiet. That's good because
>internal heat is what kills those GaAlAs laser diodes.
>
>
>
>--
>
>"First and last, it's a question of money. Those men who own the earth
>make the laws to protect what they have. They fix up a sort of fence or
>pen around what they have, and they fix the law so the fellow on the
>outside cannot get in. The laws are really organized for the protection of
>the men who rule the world. They were never organized or enforced to do
>justice. We have no system for doing justice, not the slightest in the world."
>--Clarence Darrow

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