Lite-On LVW-5045GDL Multi-region capable Multiformat DVD Recorder with 160GB HDD and DIVX - Silver Best Buy

General impressions of the LiteOn LVW5045GDL - 22 Mar 2006

0 out of 0 found this review helpful.

So I bought this unit from Amazon at the beginning of January '06 and had it by the end of that month.

Before this I had a dual Tape and DVD player which has been consigned to use somewhere else.

Since buying it I have never yet burnt a DVD either directly or from programmes saved initially to the 160GB hard disk so I can't comment on how good or bad it is at either recording to media or whether these can be played on laptops or portable DVD players.

But...

Plus points

- It looks better than any other LiteOn I've seen to date.
- The user interface isn't too bad. It's hardly brilliant but it's quite useable from the remote control.
- The difference (on my TV at least) is imperceptible between the highest quality and second highest quality settings.
- It's transformed our ability to keep up with programmes which we would simply miss otherwise.
- The picture(in our case recorded from Sky Digital) is no different to the original broadcast.

Negatives

The only negative I can think of isn't really LiteOn's problem. As we have it just now, our Sky box plugs into the LiteOn. In order to record a programme we have to set it as a choice in the Sky programme planner and ensure it's set to autoview. We then have to repeat the exercise with the LiteOn. So everything everytime has to be done twice if used to record from Sky.

BTW - if there's a smarter way please let me know.

Anyway, for anyone who is looking for advice on this device, I'd say it's been (so far) an excellent buy. It's made the theory of time-shifting programmes into a reality and it's not particularly hard to master. It's certainly night and day compared to ye olde VHS.

Whether we'll actually find a use for the DVD recording -- who knows. All we've done so far is play DVDs which is absolutely fine. It'd be nice to be able to record them to the hard disk though and then view at our leisure...

Hope that's useful.

Cheers

R Averbuch

A year of good service - 20 Feb 2006

40 out of 40 found this review helpful.

I bought this machine in January 2005 after having an LVW5005. The menus are a bit long-winded to use, especially when it comes to editing out the ads to fit a program onto a DVD but I haven't upgraded the firmware so there might be some improvements which I've missed. Otherwise this machine works very nicely. I have only had one or two failed recordings initially because I left the machine on (it has to be "off" to record). The 160Gig HD is ample even for a fortnight away at full resolution but I find SP to be perfectly adequate. It plays all the formats and the time shift function is invaluable, it allows you to pause a TV program whilst you make dinner and then continue watching it when ready. All in all I'm glad I bought it when I did.

New improved model in production - 05 Jan 2006

88 out of 92 found this review helpful.

The manufacturers are aware of initial problems with this and a new production run is underway - It is an excellent buy for the money. I have been using the earlier GDL5026 model with an 80Gb hard drive and have had no problems at all using the latest firmware. One great advantage of these models is that you can update the firmware versions as they are released from the Liteon website. Just burn the upgrade file onto a CD and the update is recognised when you switch the recorder on with the CD in the drawer. There is also a well publicised region-free key sequence using the remote.