Lite-On LVW-5055GDL Multi-region capable Multiformat DVD Recorder with 250GB HDD and DIVX - Silver Best Buy

Lite-On LVW-5055GDL, 21st March, 2006 - 21 Mar 2006

0 out of 0 found this review helpful.

I bought this recorder as a cheaper alternative to other more famous DVD recorders (costing £550) and to get rid of an old video recorder.
I have had this machine for 3 weeks now and I cannot fault it. I have copied DVD's (not copyrighted) to the machine and also copied from the HDD to DVD successfully.
You can take out adverts (a bit tricky and time consuming).
The picture and sound quality seem very good to me (comparable with a Sony NS330). I have not bothered recording on the highest quality yet, 2nd level is fine for me.
I have loaded digital photo DVD's (created with U-Lead software) to the HDD, these play back very good.
I bought this machine to load & play MP3's through the sound system. It works, but the navigation is slow, also, when playing the MP3 the TV screen is blank and prone to screenburn (but you need the screen to select your music). Navigation, generally is slow, you get thumbnails, 6 to a page, (you could store hundreds of programmes on the HDD). It would be more helpful if you could create folders.
Beware on this and other machines the quoted recording times you can store on the HDD, you can get 330 hours on low quality but only 55 on the highest quality (still more than enough for me). I chose the 250 gb over the 160 gb because it was only £30 more.
I have updated the firmware with no problems.
Overall I think it is a great machine (I am better at talking about the negatives and I think other recorders would suffer the same problems as this one) and I am also considering buying another DVD recorder - a Lite-on again!

Lite-On LVW-5055GDL - 09 Feb 2006

36 out of 36 found this review helpful.

A good, all round recorder. Built in HDD saves you having to amass blank DVD's and cluttering up the place. Initial Setup was pretty straight forward - straight out of the box, plugged in and away I went.

I would only refer to the manual if needed or you may find yourself scratching your head and running round in circles! In other words, it's not the clearest user manual I've ever come across.

Recording & playback cannot be faulted, either from DVD's or the HDD and i've not encountered any issues using the various types available.

Also tried a few divx and xvid files which also played without fault.

(note: you will need to check the audio format on these as the unit only supports MP3, AC3 and LCPM, so if the file is encoded used the ogg audio format, your Divx file won't play!!)

Picture Quality:
Fairly Good as the unit is connected to an LCD.

The unit does support 576p but what it doesn't tell you is what connections to use to enable it!!
I'll help you all out here - Use the Component Video Out (green/blue/red) to enable this setting.
I have found the picture quality far superior in this mode, but then again, it may just be me.

Cheap but good recorder - makes a great multimedia jukebox. - 30 Jan 2006

57 out of 57 found this review helpful.

Purchased this recorder to replace a faulty Philips DVR80. Main resons for choosing is that it can record to all DVD formats I use (Dont like DVD-RAM, to expensive and HDD's have made it redundant).

DivX support is good (Supports XviD and DivX v3.11 upto v6), supports up to 3 bitpacked B-Frames and MP3, AC3 or WAV audio encoding in the AVI's. Does NOT support Qpal and GMC though.

Allows you to copy DivX, MP3, JPG's and any home burnt DVD's on to and off of the internal HDD for playback later without the disc (So you can build a massive media library and put the discs away). If you copy a DVD backup to the internal HDD it plays exactly the same as if the disc was in when you select it.

Supports burning to all DVD+- Media directly or from files stored on the HDD, also supports burning video direct to CD's BUT you cannot copy video off of the HDD onto CD's (HDD to DVD works fine). You basically cannot record onto the HDD in VCD or SVCD modes but you can directly to CD-RW and CD-R discs.

The unit DOES NOT support re-encoding of anything you record so you need to make sure you set the proper format to record in depending on the length. The unit does support a "Just Fit" feature when doing timer recordings so that they fit on a disc, this feature works even if you record to the HDD first (makes the HDD recording the same size as a DVD for later transfer).

I had a faulty unit delivered that would not read CD's but at present I am putting it down to rough handling in transit. Amazon have been very good & are shipping a new unit asap while I await for the free collection of the faulty one.