DVD Recorders Buying Guide

So you want to make your own DVDs. The first thing to decide is whether to invest in a component, standalone DVD recorder or a computer DVD drive. For home theater and audio-video recording, a dedicated home DVD player-recorder makes the most sense. Sure, you can edit digital video on a computer using special software. But the latest component DVD recorders have everything needed to record and edit digital and analog camcorder footage, and they make excellent playback machines. Consider the following when you're shopping for a component DVD recorder.
DVD Formats

There are many recordable DVD formats, chiefly: DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R, DVD+RW, and DVD-RAM. DVD+R (write-once) and DVD+RW (rewriteable) discs are the formats most compatible with standard DVD-Video players, while DVD-R/DVD-RW are primarily data formats for computer use, though newer recorders and newer DVD players will accommodate DVD-Rs.

Most current DVD media operate through sequential disc access, which is great for video and for file storage. DVD-RAM media, however, offers superior quality control, twice the storage capacity, and fast, random access to data--which comes in handy for video editing. DVD-RAM discs are generally incompatible with DVD-Video players (unless otherwise specified), making them ideal for use in the machine that made them, but no so perfect for sending to friends and family.

Universal disc drives remain a thing of the future, so the primary considerations today boil down to: 1) what type of machine you want your media to play back on, and 2) the cost of the media (DVD-RAM media tends to be the most expensive).

DVD-RAM and DVD-R media are available in either standard single-sided 4.7 GB capacity or double-sided 9.4 GB capacity. One side holds about two hours of high-quality video and audio, and many DVD recorders let you scale the quality to achieve longer disc durations.

Features

The newest-generation DVD player-recorders offer the ultimate in digital-recording convenience by combining DVD recording with hard-disk recording (like a ReplayTV or TiVo device), making it easy to pause, rewind, and record live television programming right from a cable feed. You can even burn TV shows to DVD, but only after recording them to the units' hard drives.

Another cool feature common to several DVD-hard-disk recorders is time slip, which takes advantage of the hard disk's ability to record and play back simultaneously, letting you watch a program from the beginning before it's been completely recorded. (The TV can be turned on 10 minutes into the program, for instance, and you can watch from the beginning, without having to wait until the show has been recorded, as you would with a VCR.) Many recorders also offer photo storage and slide-show viewing.

You'll also be getting a full-featured, home-theater-ready DVD player in the bargain, something that isn't available with a computer drive. Most component DVD recorders offer progressive-scan video outputs for pristine, flicker-free images from high-definition and HD-ready televisions, as well as Dolby Digital and DTS 5.1-channel digital surround sound outputs for use with a surround receiver.

Also, most recorders encode audio as compressed Dolby Digital 2 (stereo) signals, similar in quality to MP3 music files, which frees memory for video signals. At least one newer model does store audio in higher-quality linear PCM audio--but keep in mind that this consumes a lot more available storage space.

Other features include Panasonic's Direct Navigator function (which helps differentiate recorded files by showing a snippet of a file's content in the background when you highlight the file in a list), Philips's i-Link camcorder input, and, on Toshibas, the ability to create virtual titles for discs, including menus and chapters with thumbnail images.

Connections

Here's where you have to pay close attention. Component DVD recorders are great about giving a choice of analog video connections, offering multiple composite-video and S-video inputs and outputs, often with progressive-scan component-video outputs as well. This makes them super devices for archiving and editing raw footage from VHS tapes, Hi-8 cassettes, and other tape formats.

Where they typically fall down is in failing to offer any digital-video inputs (such as IEEE-1394/FireWire, now standard on both digital camcorders and many new computers). This means that if you're shooting with a MiniDV camcorder, you'll have to feed the camcorder's composite-video or S-video output into the corresponding input on the DVD recorder, a needless digital decode-encode process that slightly degrades the quality of the finished product.
For most people, however, the fact that you'll still have master footage and the attraction of being able to send homemade DVD-Rs to family and friends will probably outweigh this inconvenience. Otherwise, be sure to confirm the presence of an IEEE-1394/FireWire/I-Link port--or a PC card slot, if that's a priority--before you buy.