DVD recorders as players?

Some DVD player/recorders are better than others at DVD playback. So yes, a player may have an advantage over a player/recorder. The British magazine, What Hi Fi, will do these DVD recorder shoot-outs from time to time and they pay close attention to DVD playback quality. Based on one shoot-out about a year ago, where they claimed that SONY trumped Panasonic and Toshiba due to playback quality, I went with a SONY RDR GX315 ($300 list, now available for $150 in most places). It does DVD recording; DVD playback; and CD playback all very well.

Regards, Rich

The SONY records to -/+ RW and not RAM. The Panansonics tend to record to RAM.

The quality of the recordings is very good, but is dependent on the recording speed chosen (not unlike VHS recording). Convenience of recording is average ... not the most intuitive, but straightforward enough. You can view the User's Manual here .

Regards, Rich

I had read somewhere that +RW and +R were the way to go in both terms of performance and compatibility with more DVD players ... don't remember why though.

Regards, Rich