I want to get this Ilo DVD Recorder with hard drive at Walmart. I've been reading up on the forums here and other places on the net about this recorder. It seems to be a bit buggy. Let me give u my setup and what I want to do with it and let me know if this is the right recorder for me. I want to add this recorder to my setup of Tivo DVR Direct TV receiver, Surround Sound System, 6 Disc DVD Changer, and VCR... I want to be able to record my saved shows/movies from my Tivo Box on blank DVD discs using this recorder. How do u transfer the Tivo saved progams to the recorder? I also want to plug in the camcorder and burn video onto blank discs... I wont be using this for making copies of DVD's since I have DVD burner in my CPU... suggestions, comments welcome... thanks!
Roy, Since the latest firmware update for the HD04, it has been fairly stable. I have 2 of them and have stuck it out since firmware version 1185 and I'm glad I did. They are very stable now. Still a couple of bugs but no show stoppers. The recorder has even been hacked to include Macrovision bypass and an LP 3-hour mode. As far as recording from a Tivo, it will depend on the quality of the Tivo recording. Since the video is already compressed, once it gets to the HD04, it can start looking kinda crappy since it is compressed twice. If your Tivo is sending a good clean signal, then it should be fine. If your video camera has a firewire output, the combination is great. I transfer from my JVC DV camera to the ILO and get a great recording. If it doesn't have firewire, then you would hook it up just like any other source through the line or s-video inputs. It has 2 A/V inputs and an s-video input. All us ILO users have come to realize that the front A/V inputs are noisy, so we don't use them. I have a $20.00 4-way A/V switch I got from Radio Shack hooked to one of my HD04's with a digital cable box, vcr and laserdisc player connected to it. I can then just use AV2 input(back of ILO) and switch between what I want to record from. It works great. I hope this helps in your decision on whether to buy this recorder or not. I don't think you will be disappointed. You can't find a better value pricewise. Good luck and let me know what you do. If you do get the HD04, you can get the latest firmware, both normal and hacked, at my ILO Firmware Download Page.
Thanks Gtrman!! I'm leaning towards purchasing this recorder. I will probably even use it upstairs as additional tivo recorder and record that way since i have a standard directv box there... I get a very decent signal when recording using tivo so i dont think the quality will bad at all while recording from tivo recorded programs... Thanks for your response and your website... I will keep u posted on my purchase and I'll be floating around these forums from now on....
