Advantages: It's OK with an HDMI upscaling DVD Recorder
Disadvantages: Without one, you end up with *downscaled* images, not upscaled

...but with a slight compromise in resolution - but it's better than what you're stuck with with the LG. It appears the problem with the 37LC46 is that its 'native' resolution is 480i - meaning that a standard UK television picture is not getting UPSCALED by the on-board video processor, but DOWNSCALED - i.e. to a 'proto-NTSC' 525-line analogue equivalent picture (and at 60Hz too which makes movement look jerky). In fact, when I switch the Philips DVDR to 480i I get exactly the same picture on the 37LC46 that it gives on its built-in DVB-T tuner or directly from SCART inputs, and indeed it goes back to 480i if I ever power-cycle the DVDR because that's the 'resolution negotiation' that gets sent over the HDMI. I can't send it back because it's not 'faulty' as such, but if I'd known that I'd have to spend another £150 on another device to get it to show... Read review

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Advantages: everything about it
Disadvantages: nothing

...instructions, select your channel , then recording quality, HQ, SP, LP,EP and SLP and then simply press go. Burn to Hard Drive or Direct to Disc, you choose. There is also editing functions, enabling you to remove annoying adverts etc, this takes a bit of getting use to, so try it out, on things your not concerned about losing, until you get the hang of things. A full run down of its capabilities- Recording media: Hard Disk Drive ( Built-in 160GB ),DVD+R DL / DVD+R / DVD+RW disc, DVD-R / DVD-RW disc. Playable media: Hard Disk Drive ( Built-in 160GB ),DVD+R DL / DVD+R / DVD+RW disc, DVD-R / DVD-RW disc,CD-R / CD-RW disc, DVD-Video disc,SVCD / VCD disc, MPEG4 video disc ( support avi file ),DivX® video disc ( support avi/div/divx file ),Audio CD disc, MP3 / WMA / WAV music disc, and JPEG / BMP photo disc. Functionality: Easy Guider TM on... Read review

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Advantages: Great Sound, amazing Base, Good picture
Disadvantages: Only one input

...Bought this along with an LG package from a high street store. I wouldn't have bought this on its own, as i wasn't in need of one, but its great. The sound is amazingly pure, with the speakers being a lot higher than most, the sound really travels around the room nicely. The Subwoofer, well thats just great, with 150watts, its a lot more power than you would expect. Lets just say that i've had a few complaints from Neighboroughs using the exact words "it feels like i'm being machine gunned" :) meaning it is incrediby base-y. You will NOT be disapointed with the surround sound. 70W x 5 Centre & Satellite speakers, 150W Subwoofer . 500W (RMS) Total. The picture quality is only as good as your TV, but i am impressed with it too. No problems, clear, no jumps either. Only problem i have found is there is only one input for an outside... Read review

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Advantages: Very good brand
Disadvantages: none at the moment

...This DVD-/+R is absolutely amazing, it has never let me down! First, the This type of DVD is said to be Data/Video and it does what the description say. When i first burnt my home video on to this DVD-/+R and played it on my DVD player, i thought it wasn't going to recognize it, however it played it correctly without jumping tracks or anything!. I tried burning with my other DVD-/+R but all of them didn't recognized my home video, sadly! Personally, i would go for DVD+R for burning home videos. Burning it using data as a storage also delivers a high quality. There were no errors and each time, it recognized the disc because some 'crappy' DVD-/+R doesn't even load it on the computer, HOwever, TDK is top-notch. The burning speed for DVD is 1-4x so it's not that slow. To burn the whole Data of 4.7gb would take about 30 minutes so it... Read review

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Advantages: Cost only £180 and its a Philips
Disadvantages: None.

...I bought this DVDR last week to replace my Philips DVD player. The set up is quick. The instructions are of course rubbish on horrible re-cycled paper. But Philips can be e-mailed and they respond quite quickly. The only problem is with the Monitor/TV/DVD buttons. You really have no idea where you are! Apart from that the picture quality is superb. The timer function is almost identical to my Philips VCR as is the layout of the remote. The fast forward is a bit iffy, as a quick press takes you forward a chapter (5 mins on auto chaptering) and you have to hold it down to engage 4X, 8 X and 32X. The other way round would have made more sense. I have daisey chained my Freeview to VCR to Satelite to DVDR to TV Ext2. It all works! The UHF goes into the Freeview then the DVDR and then to the TV. That works too! The DVDR audio o... Read review

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Advantages: cheap
Disadvantages: bugs in firmware, access time,menu

...Packaging: The dvd-r comes with all cables and manual.battry for remote control are included, Quick start-up guide included. Set-up: cabling is not intuitive but referring to the quick guide ,should not be a problem.The set up of the box is quite confusing , with very unclear menu sets.Basically all menu pop up on the left of the screen you have to select one entry and scroll a bar right , that will open a sub menu...navigating is quite slow, it takes a while for the pointer to move and to call menu up.Set up for clock is mandatory , if you don't set clock menu won't go away.Searching for tv channels is mandatory as well, and first time i tryed didn't find any channal, eventually on the third try...it did. Playing DVD: Place the disc in the tray, and press the up arrow or hold down the stop button again to close the tray. On top... Read review

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Advantages: cheap, reliable
Disadvantages: DVD- only

...First thing to note is that whilst this drive will read both DVD-R and DVD+R it will only record to DVD-R or DVD-RW. However, I don;t find this a problem. If you want to have multi-format capability then you will pay a lot more. If all you want is a decent cheap DVD writer then this will suit. Easy to install. Just stick in the spare drive slot and plug in IDE and power cables. Windows XP finds and configures no problem. My version came with Nero which is easy to use. Read CDs and DVDs great. Super performance. Can write to DVD-Rs at 4x. However, can be a bit picky on media. I found it likes the decent media like Ritek but is not so keen on Bulkpaq or cheaper disks. One great thing though is that it NEVER seems to make coasters. If it doesnt like the media it just burns at 1x speed rather than try to burn faster and failing... Read review

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Advantages: Brilliant and works with all disks i have used so far
Disadvantages: none really

...This LG GDR 8163B is the latest DVD-RW drive from LG and as per usual is Brillaint to use. This is dual layer drive....8.5GB potential Burns CDr's at 40x about 2 min 32 secs @600mb on an 80min/ 700meg cdr. Also does CDRW DVD-r are a breese and the drive is very fast and quite. DVD+r little slower but works fine with all mainstream disks. DVD-Ram too but the disks a bit expensive so farfor me to try. DVD-RW disks are a breese again using Nero newest version and back-up data is straight forward. Have used Datawrite Grey 8x DVD-R and INFINITI 16x Green DVD-R no probs. But would suggest spending a little moer on good disks. 8XDVD-r time is about 7 mins for 4gb data and 7min 50 secs for DVD files. Overall good machine and well worth the current cost of £35-£32.... Read review

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Advantages: Store a lot of data
Disadvantages: You need a DVD-R Drive to write to them

...I am sure you are really excited about the prospect of reading a review about blank DVD-R`s, but actually blank DVD-R`s are quite exciting because of their ability to hold vast amounts of data. Not so long ago, people were able to back up all of their important data on floppy disks, then came the advent of the CD-R, a medium on which up to 700 MB of data could be stored safely and quickly. But with the arrival of such blank media so the need to store more and more data arrived, the last time I backed up my important data it took four CD-R`s to complete the job. A time consuming task changing the CD-R`s and the rising costs involved prompted me to take the next step up and buy a DVD-R drive, and of course some blank DVD-R`s to use in it. While researching both the DVD-R drive and the blank media to use in it one name was constantly being... Read review

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Advantages: Lightweight, small, portable and has lightsribe technology.
Disadvantages: Quite expensive £70, not the fastest drive around

...Quite recently I decided I was going to start to upgrade my computer get a few extra components, a couple of toys etc. So I looked at my bank account decided what I had to spend and went shopping. At the top of my list was a new CD/DVD RW drive that I could use in both my pc and laptop and could carry about with me easily with my laptop. So I wanted a lightweight, small, USB external drive. I started looking and found just what I was looking for and as an added bonus it had one very cool extra feature. It was the Liteon SSM-85H5SX. The added extra was the Lightscribe technology meaning I can design an image and then burn it onto the top side of a specially made disk. SPECIFICATIONS This is just a list of read, write and rewrite speeds. The complicated way to explain this is to say that the first CD drive read a 150 Kbps (kilobits per... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful