A decent DVD recorder with QAM tuner

I have been looking for a DVD recorder with clear QAM digital cable tuner for some time. My first choice was the Philips 3505 but no where on the box, at the Philips
website, or in the online user’s manual does it mention clear Qam tuner, so I passed on it. Have always used Philips DVD players and like the DIVX capabilities. I have since found out that from reviews on Epinions that the Philips does have a QAM tuner.

When I came across the LG DVD recorder at Best Buy, my initial impression was that it looked junky and the style does not fit other components I have. After doing some
research, I decided this was the best product for the money on the market with the features I wanted, namely, digital tuner with QAM with a DVD recorder.

Set up was easy and started using the product within an hour. The second day I used it, the unit froze up while channel surfing. This is addressed in the manual on what to do if it freezes up. I ended up having to unplug the unit, and going through the set up process again. During the next week, the unit froze up 5 times, and on the final freeze up, the unit froze on START UP and would not get past this stage, even after leaving it unplugged
over night.

The next day, I took the unit back to Best Buy for a replacement and bought the 2 year replacement warranty I have had the replacement unit for 3 weeks now without any
problems. I rarely buy the extended warranty on anything, but I don’t have a feeling that this will hold up for 2 years.

WHAT I LIKE:

There are a lot of things I like about this DVD recorder. As mentioned, it has digital Qam tuner. It will pick up all unscrambled signals over your cable network. On Comcast, this includes 3 major HD networks, some ON DEMAND channels, some movie channels, and a handful of cable channels. The drawback on this is that there is no programming guide to the ON DEMAND or MOVIE channels, so one does not know when certain movies will be on and
on what channel. The internet online guide gives you an idea of when movies will be on, but the channels obviously don’t match with the channels on the unit, so if COMCAST.COM shows THE DIVINCI CODE will be on at 8:00 PM MONDAY, you would have to manually scan the QAM channels that show movies to try and find it, so you end up missing part of the movie and since it is never on the same QAM channel, there is no way to program the unit to record the movie. I have experimented and tested extensively, but the movies seem to shift to different channels. This is not a fault of the DVD recorder unit, it is just the
nature of not having a set top digital cable box. Maybe when analog goes away within the next couple of years, the channels will have a specific assignment.

The HD channels that are received, are not true HDTV, but look better than a DVD does, so the picture is pretty decent. The digital cable channels also are clear and are obviously of far better quality than analog.

The DVD recorder is easy to program and to use. In the 1 hour or 2 hour mode, the picture is near perfect. The lower modes have a lot of pixilation. The 11 hour mode is pretty useless unless you are using it on an old analog TV. The picture quality in the 11 hour mode is quite a bit worse than if you were using the 6 hour mode on a bad quality VHS tape. If you are familiar with DVD recorders, then all the recording is basically simple.

The audio on the unit is excellent whether playing DVD’s, CD’s or MP3’s. I found the sound quality superior to the Philips DVD player I have when playing CD’s.

The touch controls are convenient but are invisible until you touch the panel. I have found no other way to use the up-conversion mode with the remote control. It does have a USB input which is nice for viewing photos or listening to MP3 files.

The remote control is handy and also can control basic functions on my TV.

The unit has picture in picture so you can watch a DVD, and maybe watch a football game on TV at the same time. I have not found much use for it, but it is there.

Another feature that most might not find useful, I can use the HDMI hook up along with a regular composite hook up at the same time. In my house, I have a UHF broadcaster that
broadcasts the TV signal to my children’s analog televisions in their rooms, so I use this unit for that function.

WHAT I DON'T LIKE:

The main issue I have with this unit is the signal strength of the digital channels. I have a Fusion HDTV card on my computer. The same channel signals run anywhere from 75% to 95% on my computer, and on this unit, the signal strength runs 35% to 50% which means that some channels that are strong on my computer, are not being picked up by the LG or the cut in and out a lot. This bothers me a lot as the FUSION card is a simple and
inexpensive card and the tuner by far out performs the LG. Also, the FUSION card will exclude channels with no signals or scrambled channels where as the LG gives you endless blank channels after you scan. The best bet is to save your favorite channels. Also, changing channels is slow, but I think this is common with the digital tuners right now.

A second issue, although it has only happened twice, could be a problem. On 2 different occasions, when I turned the unit on, all digital channels indicated "no signal". Analog channels were ok. This was fixed by powering the unit off, then powering it back on. The reservation I have is if this happens when I have the timed recorder set for a show. It has not happened as of yet, but I have only recorded a dozen shows using the timer. And my experience with these kind of things is that if it happens once, it will happen again. And if it does happen again when I have set the recorder to record a show, I will most likely return the unit as I would require it to be reliable.

There have been other things mentioned previously about no S-video input, but I have not used the feature much in the past with other DVD players.

The clock seems to lose about a minute and a half per month. That is unusual for any electronic device to not have a reliable internal clock. To lose that much time, is almost unacceptable, but I have decided to live with that flaw.

I mentioned the remote is handy, but if you lose it or it stops working, the unit will have minimal functions. But that may be likely with most electronics with today's technology. The remote does not have a previous channel capability, which I have gotten used to on TV's.

HD channels that are broadcast in digital 5.1, are only broadcast in stereo on this unit. DVD’s are Dolby 5.1 so I wouldn’t think it would be that big of an issue to have the tuner be able to transmit the Dolby Digital 5.1 signal if the source was the same.

There have always seen conversations at any number of websites about up-conversion to 1080i. My opinion has always been that the picture can only be as good as the source so how can up-converting a signal improve it? So, I have never ran out and bought a DVD player because of that feature. So, to test it, I had the movie THE WICKERMAN and borrowed the same movie from a neighbor. I put one copy in my Philips 624 and the other in the up-converted LG. After synchronizing (The Philips DVD player allows you to adjust brightness and contrast, and since the LG displays a darker picture, adjustments were made
to match the LG), I switched back and forth between the two on my Philips HD television. Honestly, I could tell no difference in that particular movie as far as clarity, color or the “near HDTV” quality that is advertised on such DVD players. If I do the same thing on an HD
channel on the LG and a true HD channel from my Samsung HDTV receiver, one can notice the obvious differences in picture quality, and you can see that LG is not a true HD signal.

The bottom line on the LG—I am satisfied with it and will keep it. I would like to have tried to Philips version because of the DIVX capabilities. If you buy the LG 787, I would highly recommend getting the extended warranty.