http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage...CategoryId=pcmcat13900050019&id=1130987443557 Anyone bought this DVD recorder from Best Buy? It is on sale for $99. It records both plus and minus formats. How does it compare to the ILO brand and other Lite On brands?
I just bought one (today), so am trying it out. I already have an ILO DVDR05-MU unit (acually 2). One of the weaknesses of the ILO is you would sometimes have a little distortion (waviness) in the audio. (For me, ILO does not have this problem when recording directly from cable, but only when copying from another source, such as a VCR or DVD player). Right off, I notice the Lite On unit has a fan, which should help in its durability. The interface is really nice on it with the on-screen controls, and the remote control is a little bigger. Whenever you advance to the next chapter, it fades out and fades in the next chapter, which is a nice touch. The thumbnails are horizontally across the page, whereas ILO has vertical thumbnails. I tested it by copying a music video from a VHS tape, and there was no audio distortion....hooray! I noticed that you cannot record on DVD RW's that were formatted by the ILO unit, although you can play them. And you can't record with the ILO unit what was formatted in the Lite On. This is probably because of the conflicting thumbnails schemes....one being veritcal, the other horizontal. As long as it holds up, I am planning on keeping one of the ILO's attached to my cable box (which is also a DVR), while I am going to use the Lite On on another TV in the house to copy from old VHS tapes and to re-record DVD's produced by the first ILO (with my second ILO unit attached).
I have had a Liteon LVW-1107HC1 for about a month now. I had some gift cards to Bestbuy and my Phillips was dying and needed to have something until I could get warranty repair on it. The one thing up front I don't like is it will not let me change the thumbnails. I had some +RW's I was using on the Phillips to do IMUS for 3 hours in the morning. I don't get up that early sometimes. I was doing 3 hours on the disk with 1 not used. I used them on the liteon but used the 3 hour mode and when it gets to the area that had not been recorded on it does record but when I play it back it will skip and stop at that area. When I play it on my computer I can see the exact moment it hits that area and it plays but the motion is jerky. This was Sony RW DVD's. But if I use some Fuji minus RW's done on a Panasonic there is no problem. Who can figure all this out. I can do both + and - RW's on the Liteon and not have to finalize and plays great in another player. I think it is normal for plus but any Minus I do in the Panasonic has to be finalized to play in another Player. Anyway Circuit City in their wisdom said my Phillips was beyond economical repair and did not have any Phillips in stock so I took a Panasonic ES20. I have had a ES10 for about a year and has been great. The two are basically the same but the ES20 is not as deep and has a fan. I found out I could take a unfinalized R disk from the Liteon and put it in the ES20 and change the thumbnails. This somehow affects the menu display of the tracks but have to finish filling the disk to see how the finalizing comes out. Somewhere, somehow they will eventually get the DVD units like the old VCR's where you could add to a tape that was started in a different brand unit. Back to the original subject of the liteon, I am still learning with it. At least the Tuner is dolby stereo unlike other cheapies. At the 4 hour mode I do notice some Video and voice not exact but I have that on some cable channels. It plays regular DVD's beautifully. The 3 hour format is definitely better that the 4 hour. The Panasonic's are great in the 4 hour mode which I use to record my Son's favorite shows and mail them to him. I wore out several VCR's doing this and still have 2 Panasonic's that still work. With my gift cards and the Liteon on sale at BB and with a 2 year plan I paid $96. I will say I tried a high priced new Sony and it was a piece of crap. I can't believe they did this. It looks as if all that BB sold have come back. I counted 6 open box units which means someone like me was not satisfied and returned them and all BB does is make sure everything is there and the power comes on and put it back on the shelf as open box. They are still trying to get rid of them. Sony is going down hill. The last three numbers in the model is 315. Let me know if you have anymore questions as to how my Liteon is doing. Good Luck
I bought one yesterday and put it through the tests today. The unit records fine on both +R/RW and -R/RW. The recorded data plays fine on all three on my computers and on my two set top APEX players. I was also able to copy the VideoTS folder to my hard drive and burn it with Nero. Can't beat the price or the one year parts and labor warranty.
Liteon 1107HC1 is the best dvd recorder as far as i can tell. I have a ILO DVR05 that i am currently stuck with. It seemed to work fine the first two days so i decided to trash the box (the receipt was in there) two days later player only plays retail dvd movies and will not read any writeable media at all. It will however let you record a dvd however it will fail during it's finish making the media unreadable. I then cut my losses and bought a Sanyo dvd recorder (cant remember the name because i did have the receipt for that one). 5% of my media would play. none of the media would prep for writing (fails everytime). I then bought a daewoo DVD recorder and held it without opening it when i seen an add for a liteon dvd recorder. Liteon, by the way, is the burner i have in my computer. So i thought: who else would know about DVD recorders than the people who make DVD burners for the PC? Bought the Liteon 1107HC1 from best buy $119. It plays every thing i have even the media that is partly scratched and beatup. I then setup it up to record some of my favorite tv shows and it recorder like a charm. no sync problems ( i do notice a scan line issue on my tv during playback. but that may because i have a flat screen i am still not sure besides, it's hardly noticeable. I would recommend this one to anyone who wants a down and dirty player. it burns dvd- and +. I havent checked it's ability to write from vhs tapes that will be my next project. So far so good. and the thumbnail issue is not a problem for me.
I've had this unit for few weeks now. I love it. Nothing fancy but it plays and records anything. It also plays mpg, avi and wmv movies you burn to dvd from your PC. This thing will handle any media you throw at it. If you are only after a dvd recorder without a hard drive, this is the one you need. I bought it just to dub some of my old vhs home movies to dvd which works great. For the price there isn't a better recorder out there. Only thing some people may not like is there is no firmware hack to beat the macrovision protection built into commercial vhs tapes. So if you are wanting to copy these tapes to dvd, you will need to look somewhere else. Mike
I agree it is a nifty little unit. My Philips had started failing and I first tried a Sony and took it back the first week. I noticed BB had the Liteon on sale for $99 but none were on the shelf but and older model. I asked a sales person and they had them hidden trying to sell the old ones first. They got one down for me and it far exceeds the recording quality of the Sony. I have gobs of dvd's with AVI files and it plays most of them. I can look at them on the TV and not the Computer. What I really like is you do not have to finalized the + or - RW DVD to play them in other players. There is only one thing and I talked to Liteon about it and it is you can not change the thumbnails. But I did find if I put the DVD in a Panasonic ES20 I could change them. I have an hour left on the DVD and will see what happens when I finalize it. Cross my fingers. Anyway BB sold all they had and not one has come back. Most of the Sony's they sold did come back.
i'm looking to purchase my first dvd recorder and saw the Liteon on the Best Buy website for 99.99--looking at your guys's comments this seems like a pretty reliable unit. i was wanting something with a hard drive but don't want to plunk down $300-$600 for one but $100 you can't beat. so any problems or trouble w/ the Liteon for anybody? would it make a good first recorder for a newbie like myself? thanks, greg
I have been very satisfied with mine. No problems, no coasters so far. It will even read unfinalized disks from other recorders. I use it mostly with RW's to record an early morning talk show. No problems so far. Better than a Sony model I tried. Well worth the $99.
LITE-ON recorders are cra#. If you don't believe me I suggest that you read the reviews by people who have bought them. I bought their 5115GHC+ from Costco and downloaded the manual to read it before I opened it. Glad I did. Mono tuner and no S-Video in or out. Why even bother making this type of junk. Buy the Emerson EWR-10D5 recorder at Walmart for $129.95. Stereo tuner in and out,a mutitude of inputs and outputs and digital audio out and has commercial skip on thje remote It's made by FUNAI corp. Has great resolution, automatically formats a NEW disk without asking. Can be set to auto finalize discs after disc full or end timer record so you don't have to wait for it when you go to retrieve your disc to play it in another player. Records to -R and -RW discs. records in video mode or can be changed to VR Mode on -RW if you want to edit the commercials etc. Has a very good editor. Records to most -RW 4x,6X and 8x -R discs. Records up to 10 hrs on a 4.7gig DVD. The only negitive I have to say about this recorder is that I don't like the remote control. But hey I can live with it for the features that this recorder has. If you order this recorder from FUNAI you get the same recorder in a different box (black only) and a better remote.
I agree no s video but I never use them. I have one s video on my TV and never saw any difference in the picture quality. The Tuner is Dolby Digital in this model. This is not the only DVD recorder I have. I started out with a Cyberhone from Wal Mart which is now nothing more than a paper weight. I next got a Phillips which had a great stereo tuner but after about a year had to be on for an hour before it could read or record on a previously recorded DVD. During this time I bought a Panasonic ES10 which has been very good. Finally got the Phillips replaced through Circuit City with a Panasonic ES20 which is about the same as the ES10. The only thing I don't like about the Liteon is not being able to change the thumbnail picture. Why have one if you cannot change it. The absolute worst Recorder I tried other than the Cyberhome was a Sony. It was $300 but could not touch the $99 Liteon. I do understand earlier Liteon models did not have stereo tuners. As to the s video it does not matter to me. I do 99% of my recordings with the Tuner. The only time the S video may make a difference is when playing manufactered DVD's.
If you have a TV with progressive scan capability you don't need S video. Most VCR's don't have S video for dubbing tapes to DVD. I do understand that Combo units with the Tape and DVD recorder do well because the signal is kept within the unit eliminating noise. I have done some tape dubbing with my Panasonic and get excellent results but it is the time that it takes that slows me down. Some two hour tapes go about 5 minutes over and some DVD recorders are stuck with 2 hours. However the Liteon gives and extra 4 to 5 minutes to help with this. But the recording quality of the Liteon vs Panasonic is not equal. I found that using the 4 hour mode on the panasonic is just as good as most 2 hour formats on others.
Mine is still doing great. I record for 3 hours on +RW M-F the Imus show. I have been doing so about 2 months now. The picture and sound is great. I still not sure about the tuner being stereo yet. But still a good recorder for the price.
It records great and it plays the DVD+RW's fine, even on my PC. HOWEVER, I don't know why I get error messages when I try to copy the DVD+RW using my PC. I've tried Nero and a couple others. The disc simply contains stuff I recorded from TV, so I don't know why it'll play, but not allow duplicating. Anybody have similar experiences (or advice)?
I was having the same problem with NERO. I think I solved it by finalizing the disks in the LiteOn brfore copying.
