LRH-539 pros and cons
-I tried the Sony RDRHX900 $1000 160 GB recorder, and returned it because the TV-Guide would not work (recording without the TV-Guide is a nightmare), and the recording quality with a Starchoice DSR-500, through the component inputs absolutely SUCKS, lots of noise and artifacts at Highest Quality setting.
--I bought the LG at $650.00 after negotiating with the store clerk (the unit is listed at 699.00)
Cons:
-Lacks the S-Video in the back.
-Like the Panasonic recorders I have seen, it should be turned off, for the timer recordings to work. (I thought the VCRs were over) (I do not understand why the engineers could not follow the Series 1 Tivo approach, which has only one tuner and can do timer recordings while is turned on)
-Memory cards can transfer JPGs and Audio files to hard drive, but not AVIs (AVI and DivX will be read from a DVD ISO 9660)
-BIG, BIG Con: The AVIs and DivX do not have Fast Forward (or I have not figured it out). If you press FF it jumps to the next movie in the library. (The TV recordings and your DVDs dubbed to the hard drive do have it)
-Does not encode Divx (it plays them though)
-The manual warns you. Backup your important recordings (they mean the good porn) to dvd in case of hard drive failure. (I never had one but hard drive crashes freak me out)
-No Windows Media Video 9 or 10.
And No Internet Surfing!
Pros:
-This is the WindowsXP Media Centre that Microsoft keeps promising. (Sort Of) Without the crashes!
-Dual layer DVD recording. (are the dual layer DVD-RW, and RW+ out yet?)
-Recording Quality:
I am watching the unit in a Samsung 43 inches DLP, and any artifacts would be highly noticeable (like they were with the RDRHX900). The SQ (standard quality) setting is noise free. DSR500 feeds S-Video input in the front of the unit.
It has also a HQ setting, which I find unnecessary for a Standard Definition signal input. The image is a tiny bit soft with the DSR-500 feed, on a large screen TV but not much. Colors are right on.
The SQ setting gives you (sort of) the equivalent of a CCIR-601 720X480 Standard recording from an analog feed (I am comparing it with Ulead Video Studio files recorded from the DSR-500 through my computer s-video input, Ulead creates a pretty good quality CCIR-601 with slightly deeper blacks)
-The unit design does not have a cheap feel like some other LG products.
-The GUI is easy to use for any videophile.
-Accepts Divx 5 and 6 files, and also Divx Helium (!!!this is a new version of the codec and it is very good) on its High Definition profile. The Divx HD profile is not really 1280x720HD, but 720x480, and encoding is very slow (converts about 9 fps) but it outputs better quality files than Divx Standard Profile and Nero Digital Standard Quality (Nero Digital encoding is very fast). Do your encoding jobs overnight.
-Quality of commercial DVDs played through the Component Video does not compare with DVI upscaling of DV7832NXC, but it matches the component output of any respectable dvd player (I am not talking Denon here)
-Can create libraries of MP3 at 320kbps and WMA at 192kbps.
-Aparently accepts XVID and MP43 AVIs (maybe they mean MP4.3), but I have not figured them out yet (I find too technical the Global Motion Compensation 1-point and Interleaved stuff). Aparently it plays also 720X576 DivX (PAL)
-It can dub to hard drive Not Protected (not commercial) DVDs. If your dvd material is DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R, DVD+RW (rip with no menus), will recode the footage while copying to hard drive. (Not the best thing).
-It dubs (no video recoding) to hard drive any DVD-VR, or DVD+VR, which means no loss in quality.
-It dubs from hard drive to DVD without recoding (no loss of quality)
-I cannot comment on the firewire input. I do not own a camcorder. Manual says it does not accept a D-VHS firewire, firewire satellite (where is it?), or firewire computer connection.
-My Divx movies (High Definition profile) are about 900 MB each, with 250GB can store about 280 1.5/2 hrs movies. So you can have a little movie library
I think the unit, despite of my ugly S-Video cable in the front, and the "turn your VCR off" issue for time recordings, is a SOLID unit.
Recording quality is outstanding. LG engineers might have been scared of adding a component input, and getting copyright complaints from the film industry.
After returning the Sony RDRHX900 because of its bad recording quality, I am very happy with the LG LRH-539, and if you are a computer guy, you will like it. (If you want a perfect unit, you might want to order the KiSS DP-558 at around $670.00 USD plus shipping)
The manual is not available in PDF but go to LG South Africa web site and look for the RH7624W user's manual pdf. Same as the LRH-539 printed manual except for the Pal Secam stuff.
The link is:
http://za.lge.com/md/product/prodca...00000205&categoryLevel=4&productId=1100000399
Happy DivXing!
pd:
I decided to edit out the following part, and replace it:
-Cannot play Nero Digital files (I have tried MP4UI , the stripped Nero Digital video stream plays perfectly, but if I add any sound to the video stream -MP3, PCM, or uncompressed- the files will not play)
After a few tries I figured it out, but this kind of belongs in another forum, so I will be short:
-It can play the Nero Digital video stream . Strip it with MP4UI, strip the AC3 sound stream from the Original dvd material, and Interleave the sound with the video stream in Nandub -watch out for sync issues- The resulting AVI will play perfectly in the unit (you can download the 30 days trial, Nandub and MP4UI are free, but not for beginers).