Pioneer DVR-420H
|
Write
CDR
CDRW
DVD-R
DVD-RW
DVD-R DL
DVD+R
DVD+RW
DVD+RDL
DVD-RAM
|
Read*
CDR
CDRW
DVD-R
DVD-RW
DVD-R DL?
DVD+R
DVD+RW
DVD+R DL
DVD-RAM?
|
|
*based on user reports. |
Desktop, 80GB HDD |
$600 |
7.1/10
9
votes
Read
10
comments
(17944 views)
Post comments |
DVD Player features:
Video formats:
JPG
Audio formats:
MP3
Other features:
Visit manufacturer's site
Region code free hack
|
DVD Media
comments for this DVD Recorder (click on the link to
read the comments):
None yet.
Post
your DVD Media comments here |
| 10 comments, Showing
1 to
10 comments |
-
|
|
 Retro64 from United Kingdom reported March 21, 2008: |
| Read features: |
Time used: |
Rating: |
CDR?
CDRW? |
DVD-R?
DVD-RW?
DVD-R DL? |
DVD+R
DVD+RW?
DVD+R DL? |
VCD?
XVCD?
XSVCD? |
SVCD?
SVCDSubs?
SVCDTracks?
|
MP3?
CVD? |
over 1 year |
No rating
|
| DVD-RAM? |
|
|
| Comments: |
Can anyone please tell me if there is a firmware update or similar to get this recorder to play dual layer media?
|
|
| RLR from United States reported March 05, 2007: |
| Read features: |
Time used: |
Rating: |
CDR?
CDRW? |
DVD-R
DVD-RW
DVD-R DL? |
DVD+R?
DVD+RW?
DVD+R DL |
VCD?
XVCD?
XSVCD? |
SVCD?
SVCDSubs?
SVCDTracks?
|
MP3?
CVD? |
over 1 year |
9 of 10
|
| DVD-RAM? |
|
|
| Comments: |
Update on my previous review:
Took my DVR-420H apart, found a plain old 3.5" Maxtor DiamondView 80G HDD inside (along with the IDE DVD-R burner).
Attached the Maxtor HDD to my PC via USB/IDE interface.
ImageForWindows recognizes a single 80G partition on the drive, identified as type xBSD, 01. Seems to be running some *nix variant.
I was able to back the partition up on 17 DVD-R blanks. I feel better about being able to recover from a HDD crash with a store bought drive.
|
|
| RLR from United States reported August 12, 2005: |
| Read features: |
Time used: |
Rating: |
CDR
CDRW |
DVD-R
DVD-RW
DVD-R DL? |
DVD+R
DVD+RW
DVD+R DL |
VCD?
XVCD?
XSVCD? |
SVCD?
SVCDSubs?
SVCDTracks?
|
MP3?
CVD? |
300 days |
8 of 10
|
DVD-RAM |
|
|
| Comments: |
Price involved Costco coupon, not direct street price.
Works great with Ritek DVD-R/RW. I've used Fuji and TDK with good results, although some TDK blanks had surface defects which caused problems with the burn.
I use this recorder constantly, to timeshift programs, archive material to DVD-R, transfer to PC via DVD-RW, and digitize VHS tapes. It has worked very well, although I ran into format problems (occasionally the box would want to reformat the HDD after power up). The format problems went away after I powered down for 20 minutes.
Regarding the HDD upgrade options, I plan to leave the case alone until my warranty expires. Then I want to pull an image off the existing HDD with something like Ghost. I'll try burning the image to another HDD and see if it will take the new drive.
I found a few net.references which indicated that simply installing a blank drive in the 420/520 DID NOT work. The box needs something written to the HDD at the factory.
|
|
| Ali from United Kingdom reported May 24, 2005: |
| Read features: |
Time used: |
Rating: |
CDR?
CDRW? |
DVD-R
DVD-RW
DVD-R DL? |
DVD+R?
DVD+RW?
DVD+R DL? |
VCD?
XVCD?
XSVCD? |
SVCD?
SVCDSubs?
SVCDTracks?
|
MP3?
CVD? |
120 days |
6 of 10
|
| DVD-RAM? |
|
|
| Comments: |
Not a bad recorder, however going through the hard dive specs (Seagate U series 9, ST380012A, 80GB)I noticed that it has a service life of 5 years (not clear what that means) but thought of upgrading it to 160GB (seagate U series 9, ST3160022A, 160GB. Has anyone tried it before and can it be done as a straight swap? Any advice will be appreciated.
|
|
| mark taylor from United Kingdom reported January 31, 2005: |
| Read features: |
Time used: |
Rating: |
CDR?
CDRW? |
DVD-R?
DVD-RW
DVD-R DL? |
DVD+R?
DVD+RW?
DVD+R DL? |
VCD?
XVCD?
XSVCD? |
SVCD?
SVCDSubs?
SVCDTracks?
|
MP3?
CVD? |
1 days |
4 of 10
|
| DVD-RAM? |
|
|
| Comments: |
picture quality good.
this recorder is not fully compatible with widescreen: widescreen recordings on HDD at lower quality/bit-rate than SP *can not* be copied to DVD *at all*, not even with a "conversion" copy.
dvd-video compatibility poor - problems reading/playing on other machines with 2 out of 2 dvd-rw discs recorded in dvd-video mode.
|
|
| Richard Normess from United States reported January 05, 2005: |
| Read features: |
Time used: |
Rating: |
CDR?
CDRW? |
DVD-R
DVD-RW
DVD-R DL? |
DVD+R
DVD+RW
DVD+R DL? |
VCD
XVCD?
XSVCD? |
SVCD
SVCDSubs?
SVCDTracks?
|
MP3
CVD? |
90 days |
8 of 10
|
| DVD-RAM? |
|
|
| Comments: |
| got it at costco.com for $500 & a $100 coupon made it $400, lets you edit off the hard drive, remove commercials, chapters ect, label & name disc, fast copy from hard drive to DVD, about 20 minutes for a 4 hours of video, have not been able to record from disc to hard drive (not even home disc) haven't even tried a copy protected disc |
|
| zagortenej from Canada reported October 10, 2004: |
| Read features: |
Time used: |
Rating: |
CDR?
CDRW? |
DVD-R?
DVD-RW?
DVD-R DL? |
DVD+R?
DVD+RW?
DVD+R DL? |
VCD?
XVCD?
XSVCD? |
SVCD?
SVCDSubs?
SVCDTracks?
|
MP3?
CVD? |
N/A |
8 of 10
|
| DVD-RAM? |
|
|
| Comments: |
I have Pioneer DVR-210 but wanted to have the unit with hard drive so I went for DVR-420H. Other then updated desing and - of course - an internal 80GB HD, the unity apears to be identical to DVR-210 in terms of all major features. The 420H, howerver, lacks DV I/O connection.
Overall, 420H is performs fairly well but there are two things that I find a bit bothersome: 1. when editing material recorded on HD there is no 'Undo' option that would enable you to go back a step and reverse the change made to recordings. This is all the more strange since the 'Undo' function is available if the recording is made on DVD disc. Go figure!; 2. It apears that TV tuner in 420H is of lower quality that the one in 210: few channels with lower reception signal that were recognized by the 210 unit via auto-tuninig were skipped by 420H. Also, the overall picture quality on 420H via TV tuner appears to be more grainy and few channels that were clear with 210 now have diagonal white lines (this issue is mentioned somewhere on the forums) - not highly visible but bothersome enough, especially if it is a channel off which (as in my case) you record quite a bit of shows. I am not sure if this is a univesal issue, or am i just unlucky with the strength of my cable signal, but nonetheless the problem is there and is shows that the TV tuner in 420H is not all it could be. |
|
| RLR from United States reported August 04, 2004: |
| Read features: |
Time used: |
Rating: |
CDR?
CDRW? |
DVD-R?
DVD-RW?
DVD-R DL? |
DVD+R?
DVD+RW?
DVD+R DL? |
VCD?
XVCD?
XSVCD? |
SVCD?
SVCDSubs?
SVCDTracks?
|
MP3?
CVD? |
N/A |
8 of 10
|
| DVD-RAM? |
|
|
| Comments: |
Been using it for a couple weeks now. HDD editing capabilities are simple but very effective. It is trivial to remove commercials with single frame accuracy.
Encoding is good, and even passable with analog videotapes recorded at 6 hour speed.
The 420 is missing the 520's DV interface, but I got it on a cheap Costco deal which made it worthwhile. For me, the only resulting detriment is not being able to move >2 hour programs directly to PC. Not a big problem.
One annoying problem I've had is that video DVDs burnt by this recorder can not be scanned forward or reverse at greater than 2x speed on my Raite 715 player. Another is that the Auto Start Recording feature does not work with my JVC Dish Network receiver.
The remote programming codes are also very limited. I can't configure my Pioneer remote to control either my Magnavox TV or my satellite receiver. Nor can I configure my satellite receiver's remote to control the Pioneer recorder. This means I can't use the receiver's IR blaster for timer recording, and have to synchronize timers on both boxes.
All in all I'm happy with the 420.
|
|
| RLR from United States reported August 04, 2004: |
| Read features: |
Time used: |
Rating: |
CDR?
CDRW? |
DVD-R?
DVD-RW?
DVD-R DL? |
DVD+R?
DVD+RW?
DVD+R DL? |
VCD?
XVCD?
XSVCD? |
SVCD?
SVCDSubs?
SVCDTracks?
|
MP3?
CVD? |
N/A |
8 of 10
|
| DVD-RAM? |
|
|
| Comments: |
Been using it for a couple weeks now. HDD editing capabilities are simple but very effective. It is trivial to remove commercials with single frame accuracy.
Encoding is good, and even passable with analog videotapes recorded at 6 hour speed.
The 420 is missing the 520's DV interface, but I got it on a cheap Costco deal which made it worthwhile. For me, the only resulting detriment is not being able to move >2 hour programs directly to PC. Not a big problem.
One annoying problem I've had is that video DVDs burnt by this recorder can not be scanned forward or reverse at greater than 2x speed on my Raite 715 player. Another is that the Auto Start Recording feature does not work with my JVC Dish Network receiver.
The remote programming codes are also very limited. I can't configure my Pioneer remote to control either my Magnavox TV or my satellite receiver. Nor can I configure my satellite receiver's remote to control the Pioneer recorder. This means I can't use the receiver's IR blaster for timer recording, and have to synchronize timers on both boxes.
All in all I'm happy with the 420.
|
|
| Bill from United States reported July 31, 2004: |
| Read features: |
Time used: |
Rating: |
CDR?
CDRW? |
DVD-R?
DVD-RW?
DVD-R DL? |
DVD+R?
DVD+RW?
DVD+R DL? |
VCD?
XVCD?
XSVCD? |
SVCD?
SVCDSubs?
SVCDTracks?
|
MP3?
CVD? |
N/A |
5 of 10
|
| DVD-RAM? |
|
|
| Comments: |
| Just like the DVR-520h-s but no firewire input...oh well |
|
| 10 comments, Showing
1 to
10 comments |
-
|
|
| 1 DVD Recorder hits, Showing
1 to
1 DVD Recorders |
-
|
|
Column Explanation:
 Click on this for
more technical information.
New comments= New comments since your last visit.
New Recorder = New DVD Recorder since your last vist.
OEM
Original Equipment Manufacturer.
Chipset
The manufacturer of the main chipset the DVD writer/recorder is
based on.
Write
support / Read support
DVD-R = Works
DVD-R = Is not
supported
DVD-R? = Not tested
Connection
FireWire = Computer desktop DVD Writer with IEEE 1394/FireWire/i.Link connection (some standalone desktop dvd recorder supports this also but then it is usually to connect your DV camera to the recorder)
Rating
The first rating is based on a weighted rank (the
true
Bayesian), it requires at least 5 votes to get
a weighted rating.
The second rating between the ( ) is a normal average
rating.
We can Not gurantee that this list is 100%
correct and don't forget to read the User Comments
for more Info about each recorder. |
