Lite-On AllWrite LVW-5005 DVD/CD Recorder
Does the basics pretty well
My requirements for were basic and the 5005 fits that bill pretty well.<br /><br />I need to transfer a Digital-8 home movies to dvd and record my kids' favorite TV shows from our Tivo for traveling. For this I only needed to burn DVD-R's even though the 5005 will burn all dvd media types which may come in handy in the future.<br /><br />I've used it to burn about 6 dvd's from both the Tivo and my camcorder and it has worked fine. The unit is easy to hook up and the recording interface is simple. If you've not used a cd-burner you'll have to get used to the notion of 'finalizing' discs. Additionally nice is that the front-panel display provides useful information; input source, time recorded so far, and percentage finalized.<br /><br />Various reviewers have called Liteon's quality into question.  I've not installed any firmware updates, used only it in the most basic modes, and had no problems. I've no plans to use this for time shifting TV shows as I already have a Tivo. I did choose to buy this from a local retailer for their great return policy, \\"just in case\\".<br /><br />The recorder is really basic. Start your video source playing and start the Liteon recording. You stop the Liteon when your source stops playing. All manual; nothing automatic. I wish I could set it to record from my video source for a set period of time and then stop.  Most VCR's didn't really offer this functionality either.<br /><br />The digital video hookup is equally basic and not quite as smart as hooking the camera up to my computer.  You still have to hit play on the camera although a blank section in the video tape does appear to pause the dvd recorder so that you don't have gaps in your dvd.<br /><br />The 5005 offers no editing or chapter titling what-so-ever.  You can set it to create a chapter mark every X minutes but the dvd's it creates don't offer any kind of 'scene selection' like the dvd's that you buy.  I wish it had the ability to at least title the individual 'chapters' that you see from the dvd menu but I can live without that.<br /><br />All in all I'm happy.  I wanted a basic recorder soley for the purpose of transferring various video to DVD and I got that for a really inexpensive price.al 'chapters' that you see from the dvd menu but I can live without that. <br /> <br />All in all I'm happy.  I wanted a basic recorder soley for the purpose of transferring various video to DVD and I got that for a really inexpensive price.