Written by James Fohl

Recently, major department stores, as well as assorted electronics stores have been displaying DVD recorders on sale for less than a hundred and fifty dollars. Many consumers are seeing these devices and purchasing them purely by impulse decisions, without doing any research on the units themselves.

Unfortunately the low price of these units are the only good things about these cheap DVD recorders. Most of these DVD recorders are being manufactured by unknown brand names, which are all pretty much manufactured by the Funai Corporation in China.

Funai produces some really cheap DVD players, DVD recorders, and flat screen television sets. The only problem with these units are that they are of low quality, and have relatively high failure rates.


Buggy Software In These Units Cause Distortion, Blank Images, And Ultimately Unit Failure

Besides the problem of being manufactured by a company who is plagued with assorted problems, the process of recording a television show with a DVD recorder is a somewhat sophisticated process. Unlike VCRs, which record the television programs directly onto the VHS video tape, DVD recorders must first encode the television show into the MPEG-2 format, and burn the encoded information onto the disc. Because this is done using internal software, there is a high chance of the DVD-R failing to successfully record a television program for a variety of reasons.

The number one reason for failing to successfully record a television program is due to the fact that the firmware (software) of these cheap DVD recorders is buggy, and tends to crash during the encoding process. Whenever the firmware crashes, portions of your recorded video will be pixilated, distorted, or simply not there. In worse case scenarios (that appear to occur way too frequently) the entire DVD recorder unit will freeze and not give a response of any kind, to any command whatsoever. You will have to unplug the power cable, and leave it unplugged a few seconds before plugging it back in and turning the system on in order to "unfreeze" the unit.

Besides the buggy firmware (software) that plagues these cheap DVD recorder units, other problems exist that can ultimately end up ruining the supposed ease of use that these units are supposed to provide. The first and foremost is the fact that these units are built with cheap parts, that breakdown relatively quicker than more expensive units on the market.

The Cheap Price Of These Units Should Give You A Clue Of The Cheap Quality

Because of these assorted problems, it is no wonder why these DVD recorders are priced around a hundred and fifty dollars. DVD recorders are a relatively new technology, and it will take some time before a unit priced at a hundred and fifty dollars will actually be usable, and not a pile of garbage that you will most likely return or throw away into an empty closet.

If you are really looking to purchase a DVD recorder, then the best advice anybody can give to you is to simply stay away from any units priced fewer than two hundred and fifty dollars. Two hundred fifty dollars seems to be the sweet spot for high quality DVD recorders that are manufactured under house hold brand names, such as Sony and Panasonic.

A Final Tip For Buying Any Kind Of Electronic Product

Keep in mind, that impulse buying any kind of electronics is a definite no no. If you find yourself holding something from an unknown company that is considerably cheaper than other brands, than chances are the product is not worth even half of its price. Always search the internet for reviews of electronic products before you purchase them to be sure you are getting quality products for your hard earned money.