Not Just a Player

By Anita Hamilton

Your VCR records shows and plays them back as well. So why don't DVD players? The problem is price. You can buy a DVD player for less than $100, but until recently DVD recorders cost about $1,000. No wonder Americans bought more than 15 million DVD players last year and only 300,000 DVD recorders.

But now that prices on DVD recorders are finally falling, the tide is starting to turn. Research firm International Data Corp. expects annual DVD-recorder sales in the U.S. to reach 10 million by 2006. The latest offerings still aren't cheap; the least expensive brand-name model costs $500. And because Hollywood copy-protects its movies, you can't use these machines to duplicate the discs you rent from Blockbuster. (Computers with DVD burners are a different story, at least for now, thanks to a DVD-ripping program that has so far survived legal challenge.)

But if you're not a pirate and just want one box that can play movies and record your favorite TV shows, here are four models worth checking out:

--Panasonic DMR-E50 and DMR-E60 Priced at $500 and $600, respectively, these recorders offer the best deals for the money. Both record onto DVD-RAMs (which you can erase and rerecord but which can be played back only on DVD-RAM-compatible players) and DVD-Rs (which you can record onto only once but can play back on most DVD players). Thanks to the RAM format, you can start watching a program from the beginning, even if the recording isn't finished. You can also watch a previously recorded show while another recording is in progress. The E60 includes slots for SD (secure digital) and PC cards as well as a digital-video port, so you can view images onscreen from a still or video camera, burn them onto a DVD and edit them on the TV.

--Sharp DV-RW2U It's hard to justify the $800 list price on this bulky recorder. I liked the Exact Rec feature, which automatically adjusts the recording quality to make sure a new show will fit onto a partially used disc. And the digital-video input and rudimentary onscreen-editing features are handy. But since the RW2U supports only the DVD-RW (rewritable) and DVDR formats, it lacks some of the advanced playback features on the Panasonic DMRs. On the other hand, since the RW format is more popular than the RAM format, the discs tend to be cheaper (about $4 each vs. $5 or more for a DVD-RAM), easier to find and compatible with other players.

--Philips DVDR75 A confusing manual and cryptic onscreen menus made setting up and learning to use this device a bear. Once you get past those hurdles, the R75, which records onto DVD+RWs (rewritable) and DVD+R (single recording only) discs, works just fine. I especially liked the thumbnail previews of recorded shows, as opposed to the plain-text listings on other models. Still, the original $699 list price seemed about $100 too steep, which may be why Philips recently lowered it to $599.